Day 0 of the Vegas Cosmetic Surgery and Aesthetic Dermatology Conference 2013
Date: June 25, 2013
Located at the Bellagio Resort Hotel, Las Vegas. This is the 9th annual conference. The 10th annual conference has already been set for June 18th-22nd, 2014.
Vegas Cosmetic Surgery at the Bellagio Hotel Picture by Dr. Calvin Lee.
My adventures on the day before the Vegas Cosmetic Surgery conference begins
Dr. Tammy Wu and I saw a very full day of office patients and ended at 5:15pm in our office, we were think that we would catch the 8:10pm flight out of a neighboring city: Stockton, and take the Allegiant Air flight to Las Vegas. But it was delayed. But because it was delayed. I got some administrative paperwork done at the office. I read some of the mail and paid some bills. Dr. Tammy Wu got to inventory some of the Obagi that came to the office. It was a massive order – I think it was about $16,000 worth of Obagi products that came in and we had to unpack these large Obagi Skin Care products and put them on our shelves. Some of these were ordered specifically for patients.
Allegiant Air
- Delayed 4 hours
- Got my $2 water at the airport.
- It was a packed waiting room at the Stockton, CA Airport.
- The Allegiant Air plane didn’t take off till around 12:30pm.
- Seating was quite uncomfortable for me – my neck just didn’t seem to fit the seats.
- We arrived around 2:00am in Las Vegas
- But good things: Dr. Tammy Wu and I got to sit next to each other and Dr. Tammy Wu slept through most of that flight. I was just too uncomfortable to sleep through the entire flight. But it was a relatively short flight.
Strange Taxi Guy
- Took us to an entrance of the Bellagio which was pretty far from the reception desk. There was an entrance that was right by the reception desk, but I guess it would have taken the taxi driver longer to get out of that round about, etc. We had to walk pretty far with our luggage. At 2am, it just seems a little bit more confusing, and the Bellagio in Las Vegas is a pretty big hotel.
- The trip from the Las Vegas Airport to the Bellagio hotel took about 10 minutes.
- And the trip with tip was about $26.00 for us. In retrospect, I wasn’t so sure the Taxi driver deserved any tip for dumping us off at a far entrance.
First thing we did in Las Vegas was check out the Bellagio Gym
We really came here for the conference. Just a few months ago we were in Vegas already, so we weren’t all that motivated to check out all the sights of Vegas again. But working out and and taking care of ourselves and preparing for our next half marathon (perhaps Santa Rosa Half Marathon?). Dr. Tammy Wu hasn’t run in a long time, so she gave it a try today again at the treadmill. I ran about 1 mile on the treadmill, and she ran about 2 miles. One great thing about the gym was a cable weight machine where I was able to adjust the rotation and angle of the arm, and thus I was really able to stretch out my right shoulder which has been bothering me from some chronic over use with injecting, operating, inserting acupuncture needles, and worst of all, using a computer mouse to write blogs (ie. this one) / do social media, etc.
We ate at Noodles Restaurant in the Bellagio
We had to tell them about our Vegan and Gluten Free preferences. They were very happy to accommodate. I’m not Gluten sensitive, but Dr. Tammy Wu is. So the dishes we got were: Agadashi, Endamamme, steamed vegetables, soy flavored rice noodles stir fried with vegetables, and rice. This was quite a good meal and we escaped with a $71 price tag.
Considered getting tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show.
O is showing at the Bellagio. However we couldn’t decide quite yet. The tickets ranged from $120 to $220 – I think. Instead we looked at the sculpture gallery associated with the Cirque Du Soleil. The sculptures were so artistic – they looked so anatomical – sort of like cosmetic surgery to us. The artist was Richard Macdonald, and the sculptures were for sale. They price tags for little sculptures were about $10,000 and the larger ones were around $150,000. There were two sales associates which gave us info on the sculptures, but the price tag were a bit too expensive for me anyway. One of them asked me about any other art pieces which I own. I said that the closest thing I have to these things are my teddy bear “collection.” They didn’t seem to understand. Regarding the possibility of seeing a show, we wanted to see the schedule of the Vegas Cosmetic Surgery and Aesthetic Dermatology conference, but the registration desk for that event hasn’t been open yet.
Walked around the Vegas Strip and then went to Walgreens
It was a pretty hot day already today. But I read in the weather forecast that it will be even hotter in the next few days, perhaps as high as 117 degrees F? We shall see. Good thing the air conditioners work well in the hotels. At Walgreens, I got a quart of orange juice and a gallon of water to lug back to the Bellagio. I considered taking the tram that connects the Aria hotel with the Bellagio, but we just walked around till the heat got too much.
Back to the Gym to stretch my shoulder.
By this time it was around 7:30pm. The gym at the Bellagio is open from 6am to 8pm. So it’s about to close. I went back to the gym to use the Cybex Cable weight machine. It wasn’t to lift weights, but I discovered that this was one of the best ways to stretch my shoulder joint. So I was able to spend another 15 minutes with this type of stretching to help rehab my shoulder which is already getting much better with my own stretching.
Went to Jasmine Restaurant in Bellagio
The most fun thing about going on vacation for me is eating out. So we tried the Jasmine Restaurant which was within the hotel grounds. We’ve been sticking to restaurants which have an Asian flare because it seems easier for us to find gluten free vegan choices. And they were happy to provide solutions for us. We had two dishes the eggplant dish and the monkey mushroom dish – both were made gluten free and vegan. We had two extra bowls of rice. The price tag with tip came out to about $75. Which we charged to our Bellagio room.
Early Registration at the Vegas Cosmetic Surgery and Aesthetic Dermatology conference
We finally got to pick up our materials and name tag. We met Karen Miller who said she’d help us with our Vegan/Gluten free preferences – how nice! The conference is 5 days long, and super packed with great cosmetic surgery information. I am most interested in the cosmetic injectable portion of the course and there’s plenty of that information including demonstrations on the Botox and filler injections.
We spent the next hour picking out how we would spend our time at the Vegas Cosmetic Surgery and Aesthetic Dermatology Conference
It is somewhat complex with about 3 different activities going on at the same time. There are also evening program going until 9:30pm. I made sure to pack in as much Botox and Cosmetic Injectable info as I could get. There is a whole bunch of stuff regarding social media, but I’m not sure I can get all that in.
Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s about 12:10am now.
We’ll see how it goes! Can’t wait to bring all this great information and education back to our plastic surgery practice in Modesto, California.
