My Bariatric Life Breast Augmentation and Revision with Dr. Joseph F. Capella - Excited to Complete My Total Body Transformation

Hindsight is twenty-twenty, or so the saying goes.

In 2014, I began to get ill after my trip to NJ. It was the worst trip ever and if there is one thing that I could undo in my life then this trip might be the thing. Because my health continued to decline despite living a super healthy lifestyle and trying EVERYTHING to heal. In 2017 I stopped working and went to Belize and Mexico to heal (long story and not relevant to this post). Then in 2018 I moved to the pristine mountains of Pennsylvania to heal. Well, I almost died.

It turns out that I have a cluster of environmental and autoimmune illnesses which do not have a clear treatment path. So I am very glad that my breast augmentation never came to fruition because the breast implants would have made things far worse. It was a bizarre series of events that led up to my surgery being canceled... now I believe that I am better off that it was.

Check out The Doctors on Facebook and their short video segment about breast implant illness. It highlights very healthy women who became ill then recovered after they explanted. Be sure to read the comments from many more women who became ill with breast implants.

I believe in the power of the now; the past is over and done, never to be repeated so it need not shape the present. To quote the Landmark Forum, “People keep taking the past and putting it in the present thereby ruining their future.” Our futures have yet to be created and as we don’t have the power to un-create the past, let it go. Our power of creation lies in our awareness in the present. We have the power to not only create our futures, but also to create acceptance of our pasts.

Therefore, I thought it best to let sleeping dogs lie. However, the Universe is sending messages that I need to clear my karma (cause and effect is the basis of everything) with Scott regarding my post above. It’s taken a while to known what to write that would result in more good than harm to anyone, myself included. Love keeps no record of wrong, yet digging up these memories is painful.

I genuinely cared for Scott. He always had been there for me, providing patience and very detailed answers. I found him to be a wealth of knowledge. In fact, I told patients that I wished he could have been my PCP. Scott may have once even saved my life. I relied on Scott and I respected him. There are very few people I can say that about. I write these words in past tense but they remain true in the present, of course (otherwise if I did not care then I wouldn’t be writing this post now). And all of this is why this drama hurt so much.

Something went very awry on our call that day. We each got on the phone out of concern for the other. This was in the midst of my protracted arm lift complication, the period when the z-plasty had opened for the 4th time, and I was very scared something was seriously wrong (and in the end it turned out I was right). But the reason I'd called Scott was because I’d sensed he’d misunderstood the tonality of an email I’d sent to him earlier and I wanted to make sure he was OK. He’d taken my call because he thought I wanted to talk about the complication and he wanted to make sure I was OK. Instead we had a big misunderstanding. I never questioned his credentials. I had no reason to do so, because as I wrote above, I respected his abilities. As well, I’ve known about Scott’s education and career for years because he and I had discussed it in mid 2013.

A few weeks ago I was in NJ visiting an amazing person in SICU who was sedated into unconsciousness and intubated. During that visit the respiratory therapist caring for this person and I struck up a conversation. And it came to light that this man held a B.S., a higher degree than the majority of respiratory therapists hold. I told him that I knew a respiratory therapist who also had held a B.S. and went back to school to Johns Hopkins to earn an advanced degree (because his friends told him he was too smart to be a respiratory therapist — although to tell that part would have been rude to this man; I am only telling you). I went on to say that my friend became a P.A. and has operated in plastic surgery for very many years, and at the time I had met him, he was operating as my plastic surgeon’s right hand and had performed my surgeries. The respiratory therapist then asked if by chance the PA is Scott Woehrle. It turns out that Scott worked at this hospital when I lived in the area many years ago.

Scott is hard working and high achieving -- a self-made man. He's been with Dr. Capella for 8-yrs, I believe, and worked with at least one other plastic surgeon before that. I am pretty sure that Scott put himself through med school. It would not surprise me if he graduated at or near the top of his class. He’s a Capricorn; that’s who they are (my mom and daughter are Cappys and achieved the extraordinary).

Both Scott and I are very nice people with big hearts. But we each did something that was harsh; we made a mistake in the heat of a moment and it changed everything. I don’t blame either one of us for being human. Its very sad that we both got so deeply hurt, along with Dr. C who was caught in the middle, because we had had a nice relationship, one which was very important to me. If you know a little about astrology it will come as no surprise that I’m a Pisces, the most compassionate sign in the zodiac. Actually, I’m Pisces-Aries cusp -- Aires are the initiators.

I have learned and grown a lot through this experience, and I know that it had to happen. Understand that we are the total summation of every single experience we have had. Its what we do with it afterwards that makes the vital difference: Was a lesson learned or do we have to repeat the learning by going through another difficult life situation? Hiding from our difficulties is the most dangerous thing we can do. Anything we hold in that is stress, anxiety, etc is hell on earth. These experiences help to shape us into the people we are today. Train yourself not to judge past events as good or bad, but as opportunities. My life has changed in profound ways. As transformative as the physical body was because of the surgeries so too have mind and spirit transformed, and for that I am grateful.

Words spoken or written can heal or they can harm, lift people up or tear them down. Words give life to to everything (it is symbolized in every religion that G-d spoke creation into existence), to love and compassion. The Law of Love must underlie all relationships and service to the world. Our entrenched negative habitual thought patterns and way of being (ego) in the past can only be overcome when spiritual will accompanies love’s warm embrace (soul). You may be surprised at how people respond to this. I was.

What have you learned from the past that will help enrich your future? Focusing on the past and letting it dictate the direction of your future is taking your power away from yourself. Your are the creator. You hold the power. Reflect on the lessons of the past and use your current power to create your bright future.

May I act as a shining beacon in any difficult life situation that directs words toward that situation which produce miraculous healing. I wish Scott well. I wish him love. I wish him miracles.

And so it is.

Dr. Capella's PA Scott who has been with me for all of my surgeries now refuses to assist in my last surgery. I am appalled and deeply hurt.

Scott became very offended by my inquiry about his credentials on a recent phone call. He spoke to me in an emotional and unprofessional manner. And although I tried to calm him down, Scott remained angry. What is worse, Scott now refuses to assist Dr. Capella in my breast augmentation and revision surgery, putting both my safety and my results at risk.

I even went so far as to attempt to reconcile with Scott face to face when I was in NJ, using Dr. Capella as a conduit, but Scott did not respond to me. This speaks volumes to Scott's integrity and patient care and safety.

And this is not the first time I have been treated poorly. If you have been following my journey then you know I was treated very badly by the former surgical coordinator at Capella Plastic Surgery.

So much for my wish that this last surgery would be the nice experience that all my surgeries should have been but were not. Now a senior plastic surgery resident whom I do not know, and whom has never operated with Dr. Capella, will be operating on me.