Meet Juliana, Plastic Surgery Medical Assistant

Announcer (00:10):
Welcome to another episode of The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast with your host, Monique Ramsey.

Monique Ramsey (00:18):
Welcome everyone to The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast. I'm your hostess, Monique Ramsey. Today in the studio I have Juliana. She's one of our MAs in the plastic surgery clinic. Welcome, Juliana.

Juliana (00:29):
Thank you. Happy to be here. I'm really excited.

Monique Ramsey (00:32):
Happy to have you. So maybe people don't know what a medical assistant does in the clinic, so if you could tell patients a little bit about where they might find you in the process and how you help.

Juliana (00:45):
Yeah, so you'll find me at first consultation. I get to know you, sort of go over your health history, any important information we should know about you, what brought you to La Jolla Cosmetics. And then once we go over that bit of information, I shadow the doctors, I come in with them to the postoperative treatments, the consultations, and then I help out with any type of postoperative care like stitch removals, steri strips, basically anything that the surgeons may need help with along the way to get you to full recovery once again.

Monique Ramsey (01:22):
So you probably see people, you see them ahead of surgery, but then you see them right after.

Juliana (01:28):
Yes, it's so full circle. I think that's my most favorite part of the job is meeting somebody at the consultation and going over sort of what their goal is, what do they want out of plastic surgery, what's something they want to change, and then them just kind of saying, this is something I've felt for a long time. And then finally seeing that come true for them postoperatively, it's so rewarding and it's definitely my favorite part of the job.

Monique Ramsey (01:53):
Yeah, it's fun to kind of, like you say, have that be a part of the whole patient journey, not just part of it where you're like, I never saw them again. If you're in the recovery room, you would see the patient right after surgery, but then you wouldn't see them again most likely. So that's kind of cool. So tell me how long you've worked for the surgery center and what brought you to La Jolla Cosmetics.

Juliana (02:17):
Yeah, so I'm going on three months at the surgery center. What brought me to La Jolla Cosmetics was I have a passion for plastic surgery. I love all things plastic surgery. I just think it's a part of medicine that you can truly change what you want to change about yourself, and I think that you have the ability of you don't like a certain thing or if something has bothered you for a while or you're struggling with something, it could just be a fresh start for you to be able to bring a new change to your life. And then what brought me to La Jolla Cosmetics and San Diego. I'm actually not from San Diego, but I recently moved down here and when I came down I knew that I wanted to work at a plastic surgery clinic and it just worked out. When I came in for the interview, I walked through the lobby and it smelled like coffee, and then the lobby of our office smelled like coffee as well, and I love coffee and I'm like, this is the place for me. And the whole office was just decorated so pretty, and everyone greeted me so well. Everyone was so nice and it just felt like a right fit for me.

Monique Ramsey (03:22):
Oh, that's nice. So now where did you move down to San Diego from?

Juliana (03:26):
I'm originally from the High Desert, which is up the 15 freeway. I explain it as on your way to Vegas in a way. Small town. It's the desert. Definitely very different from San Diego, but I went to Cal State San Marcos for college. I got my bachelor's in biology there. So that kind of brought me to San Diego a couple years ago. And then when I graduated, I went home for a year and then my fiance got a job here in San Diego, so we made the move again.

Monique Ramsey (03:54):
Oh, perfect. Perfect.

Juliana (03:55):
So now I'm here to stay.

Monique Ramsey (03:57):
Oh, good. So I know three months isn't a huge amount of time, but what's been the highlight of working at La Jolla Cosmetics so far?

Juliana (04:04):
Patient care is first here at La Jolla Cosmetics that I think that's been the highlight of my experience is that a lot of the staff has been here for a lot of years that I think that shows that it's a good place to be at because everybody wants to stay. Everyone's been really warm and welcoming that I think it's made my experience the best experience so far.

Monique Ramsey (04:25):
So tell me, Juliana, what do you enjoy about being a medical assistant?

Juliana (04:29):
Yeah, I think my favorite part about being a medical assistant here at La Jolla Cosmetics is just when patients have questions or it's their first time getting plastic surgery, I think sometimes they could be nervous and I think just easing their mind on postoperative questions or what to expect or healing questions. I think it's been a good part of my journey here, just to be able to ease their mind and make them comfortable and know what to expect next in their healing phases.

Monique Ramsey (04:58):
Yeah, I think especially if it's a patient who's never gone through a surgery before, maybe even any kind of surgery, the fear of the unknown. If you dunno what to expect, it's more scary. But if you have somebody just like, okay, but yeah, here, boom, boop boop, this is normal. Here's what to look for. It's like, oh, okay, I can relax, I can go through this. And I think you get to see patients all day, every day, and you get to kind of gauge what's normal, what isn't, and able to help them feel like, okay, yeah, we see this all the time and you're going to be in good hands. I think that's nice. So as a medical assistant, have you worked in any other kind of medical specialties or just plastic surgery?

Juliana (05:45):
When I first graduated from the medical assisting program, I worked in urgent care, so it was a little bit of everything and it was fun. I really enjoyed it. I think outside of plastic surgery, urgent care would be my next favorite specialty. You see a lot of everything, people come in with gashes or people come in that we probably should send to the ER. So I think it's an adrenaline thing to work at the urgent care, especially the one that I worked at. I really enjoyed that. So I did urgent care and then when I was in college, I did family practice, but it tied in with pediatrics, OB GYN, and family practice on different days. That really gave me a lot of experience, seen a lot of everything every day from kids to pregnant women to geriatrics, the whole range of ages, and that was fun. I really enjoyed that. It just wasn't my jam. I enjoy plastics and I enjoyed cosmetics and I grew up with sisters and we're all around the beauty, and so I think plastic surgery is what fits best for my personality, I think.

Monique Ramsey (06:57):
Well, I think it's good to have a passion and if you can work in an area you're passionate about, it's just like they say, you'll never work a day in your life if you're doing something you love. And it really is true, and I think you're speaking to the longevity of our team members at La Jolla Cosmetic. We've been around a long time and a lot of our team has also, which is so nice. We have fun, we have fun together.

Juliana (07:26):
Everybody has fun. But they're also, everybody has so much knowledge to share that I think it makes it that good balance of we have fun, but we also, patients are our first and we always want to be on the side of caution. So it's that good balance.

Monique Ramsey (07:42):
Yeah. Okay. So growing up, so you were kind of in the high desert.

Juliana (07:47):
Yes.

Monique Ramsey (07:48):
What kinds of things did you do for fun then, and what kinds of things are you doing for fun now that you're in San Diego?

Juliana (07:55):
Right. So in the high desert growing up, it's the desert. I lived on a dirt road, so no sidewalks to play with kids outside besides your backyard. So it was always cold growing up. So we would go skiing, snowboarding up at Mount High is the closest ski resort to us. So we did that or we'd ride the motorcycles. I had a lot of animals growing up, so we'd go outside and play with the animals. My mom still has animals to this day. Now that us children left, now she has all these little animals to help her, I feel like fill the nest. So we did that and our town is very small. So what I enjoy about San Diego now is, outside of plastic surgery, I love coffee, so there's a coffee shop in every corner here. So I think that I enjoy going around different coffee shops and I like window shopping. There's a lot of little cute boutiques here. So that's what I do here. I go to the beach a lot, and then I like to read romance books a lot. So outside of being at work, you'll find me maybe at a coffee shop or reading a book or shopping.

Monique Ramsey (09:00):
Okay. Give me a good romance novel that if I was going to be, can you think of one?

Juliana (09:05):
Probably. I really like the Elle Kennedy series. It's like a hockey series, and they're college kids who are in hockey, and they're actually going to make it a Netflix series soon, or Amazon series soon, sorry.

Monique Ramsey (09:17):
Oh cool.

Juliana (09:18):
It's like the off-campus series, but there's five different books to it. So those have been my favorite. In college, my roommates and I would buy one, and then we'd finish it that night and the next we have to get the next one.

Monique Ramsey (09:30):
Oh my gosh. So you're a speed reader.

Juliana (09:32):
Yes. Well, it's because romance books are binging a TV series. It's more pleasure than it is educational, so I think you could get through it much faster.

Monique Ramsey (09:43):
Yeah. Oh, that's fun. Okay, so in San Diego, yes, we do have coffee shops everywhere, and I love coffee too. So help give me and our audience a few tips on maybe some favorite coffee spots you've found.

Juliana (09:58):
Okay. So my current one, I actually found after I did my photos at the photo center, Java Earth. You probably, everyone's probably familiar with that one there.

Monique Ramsey (10:08):
Yes.

Juliana (10:08):
That one, I got the brown sugar latte, half sweet with an add shot. It was delicious. So I like that. I've only tried that one latte there. I've been obsessed with it and I haven't done anything else since. I like Moniker Coffee and Point Loma, that one's really good too. And it's cute. They have a little shopping section and they have a little bar with it, so it's a little vibe there. I like it. The coffee's good too. Then Claremont Coffee is a hidden gem. It's not like these typical coffee shops are very about the vibes. It's more like, it feels more homey in there, like there's kid's art on the walls and stuff. But their coffee is really good. And from there I recommend the Lumberjack Latte is my favorite.

Monique Ramsey (10:55):
Okay. We're going to have to tag all these businesses. The Java Earth Coffee, I've been, because I live close to there and so delicious. And their food is really good too. They have great food.

Juliana (11:06):
Their salsa is surprisingly spicy. Yes. I got the breakfast tacos with the red salsa on the side, and I put a big amount on and I took a bite and I was like, oh my gosh, spicy. I didn't expect it to be spicy, but it was really good.

Monique Ramsey (11:23):
Yeah, fun. Okay, so what advice would you give to somebody who's coming to La Jolla Cosmetic for the first time?

Juliana (11:32):
I think that for the first time that you come to a plastic surgery clinic, you may have a million questions. And I think that this staff is here to give you knowledge. And I think that an advice I would give them is to not be afraid to ask questions, whether it be postoperatively, preoperatively, what to, I think that with asking a lot of questions, it'll give you a lot of information on what exactly you're doing, whether it be breast aug or a facelift. I think that a lot of people could leave the office wondering like, oh, what about this? Or what about that? And I think if you ask, then you leave confident and you're ready for surgery because you've asked all of the what if questions. I think my biggest advice is to, during your consult, ask all the questions you have on your list.

Monique Ramsey (12:21):
Yeah, I think that consultation visit, some people come and they've got all their questions written down or they have it on their phone and other people don't, and they just kind of go with the flow. But if you get home and you're like, oh my gosh, I forgot to ask A and B and C, that's where your patient care coordinator comes in, because she'll be our best friend to help you answer those questions and or set up a second consultation. Because sometimes maybe you're, you want to bring a friend or a partner or spouse, then you can always do that. That's something that if you need it, we're happy to have you do it. So, because I think you're right, education is the biggest thing.

Juliana (13:08):
I think it gives confidence on what you're doing. And a lot of people, I think they get nervous, so something may slip your mind, but we have people call back and we always urge people. I always tell people before they leave, give us a call if you have any other questions. I know I'm kind of an overthinker and I know that if I were a patient when I would get home, I'd be like, oh my gosh, I forgot to ask that. So I always tell people, if you have any questions, just give us a call. We're always a call or a text away to answer any questions.

Monique Ramsey (13:36):
And so before we wrap it up, I was thinking I should ask you now, I don't know if you've only been here for three months and your skin is glowing. Have you tried any of the Alastin products? And if so, which ones do you like?

Juliana (13:48):
Yes. So for Staff Appreciation day, we actually got a little goodie bag with the vitamin C, the serum and the mineral sunscreen. So it's like tinted sunscreen. And those have been my favorites. I put the, maybe that's why I'm glowy. I put the vitamin C, the serum, so I'll wash my face and then toner, and then I'll put a little pump of it all over my face and moisturize. I've been loving it. It's been good. I have very sensitive skin and it's been really good for my skin tone. I don't get a reaction how I do when I try different serums.

Monique Ramsey (14:24):
Yeah, it's a really good one. And so the reason I ask that question is for listeners of our podcast, if you subscribe and just come into our office and show us that you're a subscriber, we will give you 25 off of any product of 50 or more. So they could try that tinted

Juliana (14:43):
The sunscreen?

Monique Ramsey (14:43):
The Alastin, tinted SPF with Triex technology or the vitamin C. There's so many good products that Alastin makes, and their offices are right up in Carlsbad, so it's like they're nearby, they're in our own backyard. But yeah, we've been loving this skincare and I'm glad you've gotten to try some of it.

Juliana (15:03):
It was really exciting. It was a really nice gift that you guys all gave us.

Monique Ramsey (15:08):
Oh, thanks. Thanks. Well, thank you, Juliana, for joining us and kind of giving your behind the scenes take as to what a medical assistant does and just what you do at La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Center. So thanks.

Juliana (15:24):
Thank you. Thank you for having me. It was really fun.

Monique Ramsey (15:27):
Okay, good. And then your job is now to go tag a team member and have them come up and join me for

Juliana (15:33):
Pick your next victim.

Monique Ramsey (15:35):
Exactly. Exactly. Alright, well thanks everybody for listening and we'll see you on the next one. Bye.

Announcer (15:44):
Take a screenshot of this podcast episode with your phone and show it at your consultation or appointment or mention the promo code PODCAST to receive $25 off any service or product of $50 or more at La Jolla Cosmetic. La Jolla Cosmetic is located just off the I-5 San Diego Freeway in the Ximed Building on the Scripps Memorial Hospital campus. To learn more, go to ljcsc.com or follow the team on Instagram @ljcsc. The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.