Meet Jason: Skinny Shot Clinical Lead & Operating Room Nurse

Monique Ramsey (00:02):
Welcome everyone to The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast. I'm your hostess, Monique Ramsey, and today I have a special guest who's on our team and he's, you might find him in the operating area, in the recovery room. You might find him when you're signing up for the Skinny Shot, and his name is Jason. So we're going to get to know him a little bit today and about his role with this Signature Skinny Shot and where else you might find him if you happen to be having after surgery and having a little recovery. So welcome Jason.

Jason (00:35):
Welcome. Thanks.

Monique Ramsey (00:36):
So tell us, Jason, how do you help patients in our practice?

Jason (00:40):
Oh, I help patients lots of ways in this practice. I kind of am a jack of all trades, I feel like. On the pacu, I'm working in your recovery when you come out or when you're waking up from your surgery to kind of get you wake it up and pain your control and nausea under control and get you out the door back home so you can rest in your own bed. I may start with you before your surgery in the pre-op area way before your surgery starts and going over what you expect in your surgery and how we're preparing for your surgery. I may see you right before you go into the OR to do your little pre-op area where we're doing vital signs on you and get your dressed and ready. What else? I'll see you in the Skinny Shot program if you sign up for that. What else?

Monique Ramsey (01:20):
You're all over the place.

Jason (01:20):
Yeah, I feel like I'm everywhere.

Monique Ramsey (01:22):
You are. And then even on Instagram, I saw you with this very cool little workout video because I think I love it. It was like, here's some things you can do to get yourself as you're losing weight, to get yourself losing weight safely. Right?

Jason (01:38):
The Skinny Shot, I want it to be a well-rounded program, not just give you some medicines, let you figure it out yourself. So I spent a lot of times talking to patients on the phone and talking about their diet and exercise, and one of the things I kept coming up is talking to the women, especially as they're like, I'm losing a lot of weight in my arms and I just had this flay area there. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, we need to give them some workout routine so they can build muscle there. And part of the whole well-rounded program to make sure we're getting you to where you want to be.

Monique Ramsey (02:06):
Right. So I know you bring a lot of experience to the table, which it shows with all the little letters after your name there. So tell us about your educational path and training and then maybe what made you want to be a nurse?

Jason (02:20):
Okay. I've always wanted to work in the medical field. So I started off as a firefighter EMT in high school, and then I did it in college while I went to undergrad. I ended up getting my paramedics. I did both of those at the same time. My undergrad degree is in public health promotion, so wellness, health, education, all those things that go along with that. So I did that. I ran a college wellness education office for a while doing programming for college education student or for college, a students educating animal alcohol use and fitness and diet and the freshman 15 and all those things that go along with that sexual education, responsible sexual education. And then eventually I was like, okay, I think I wanted to be a nurse and do something a little different and make a little bit more money really. So I went and got my nursing degree and then I started working in the ER originally, and then I got cross-trained in ICU and then I started travel nursing. So I traveled nurse before Covid and during Covid, and then I landed here in San Diego. I'm like, okay, I don't want to move anymore. This is beautiful here. It's not hot, it's not humid. I have a friend network here. I think I'm just going to stay. So then I started doing some PACU stuff and then I just kind of stumbled upon La Jolla Cosmetic doing PACU contract worker. And then, I don't know, I just, I've become part of the family now and now I'm doing everything.

Monique Ramsey (03:46):
We pulled you in. We pulled you in.

Jason (03:48):
You did.

Monique Ramsey (03:49):
Yeah. Yeah. And so tell me where that accent is from?

Jason (03:52):
I'm originally from South Carolina, so yeah, I've lived most of my life in the southeast around South Carolina. I went to college of Coastal Carolina in Myrtle Beach, lived in the Hilton Head, Savannah, Beaufort area, the upstate around Clemson. I lived in the capital, Columbia.

Monique Ramsey (04:08):
Yeah. Wow. So tell us, so pacu, for anybody who doesn't know is the recovery room area. And so how did you jump from or who helped you make that also move to be the clinical lead for the Skinny Shot? And we're so lucky for that decision.

Jason (04:28):
Yeah, I guess I was just kind of working in the pacu and the previous clinical lead wanted to take a step back and do something different. So, I was like, oh, well, this might be a sight and opportunity that I can use my health education background, health promotion background, do some patient education and do a whole well-rounded thing rather than I'm just being nurse at a bedside. So it's been an interesting change, I guess working in the ER and ICU, you just see so much bad stuff all the time. It's just like people are not happy. They're grumpy, they're piss on the floor and throwing stuff at you cuz they didn't get a sandwich. So working in pacu and here at the center and now doing the skinny shot, it's like, oh, people were happy, they're excited, they're like, oh, I just got some new girls, or I got my tummy done. I look so great. I'm so happy. So it's just a different side of nursing and healthcare that I have wanted to see for so long and I have it. So it's like, oh, this is such a relief, to be honest with you. I enjoy coming to work and doing what I'm doing. So

Monique Ramsey (05:30):
It is nice when it's people doing something for themselves to make themselves feel good or feel more confident. And same with the Skinny Shot. It's like you're doing something for you to take care of yourself, to be a better you as you age. And yeah, it's a really positive experience for patients. It's a really positive experience for our team because you get to work with people who are making positive changes and you're right, it's a very happy sort of environment.

Jason (06:02):
It definitely is.

Monique Ramsey (06:03):
So what led you kind of into wellness and the aesthetic side I guess, or the plastic surgery side?

Jason (06:10):
It kind of just fell into my lap. I ended up getting certified to do Botox and stuff like that. So I do that on the side as well. Once I got into it and figured out like, oh, these are different areas of nursing that I could be doing and people are happy and people want to come see you and are enjoying their cosmetic outcomes, it just kind of stuck where I want to be now.

Monique Ramsey (06:33):
That's neat. I love it. So how does your background help you as the leader of this Skinny Shot program? What kind of key moments from your career can you bring?

Jason (06:46):
I guess from my health education background, program development and planning programs and developing how things should be ran and how to evaluate programs to see, okay, this isn't work, this process isn't working, how can we improve it? As well as the education part that I have that you do some education as a nurse, but this allows me to do a lot more education and make it well-rounded for accomplishing what people want to do. And I explain to people the medicines are going to do just so much for you. There's a diet and exercise portion of this program as well. Let's talk about what you're eating and how much you're eating and are your portions smaller. What kind of exercise are we doing? Because you can't just sit on the couch and take the meds and the pounds are going to fall off and you're going to be happy with the results. And that's how that kind of video came about with the arms because people were like, I'm not doing any exercise, but I'm getting these flabby arms. I'm like, well, you're losing muscle mass as well. You have to be able to do exercises. And it doesn't have to be a gym routine. It could be something simple as what the video I made just to kind of build those muscles so that you are toned and you are happy with your cosmetic results after you're doing the skinny shot.

Monique Ramsey (07:59):
And do you find that out of the, let's say, of the active patients right now on the Skinny Shot, do you find that some of them are doing it to get ready for a surgery that they're thinking about, let's say somebody's thinking about a mommy makeover, but they still maybe are 25 pounds overweight, 30 pounds overweight. Are you finding that there's that group of people or is it more just kind of anybody?

Jason (08:24):
It's more anybody. I mean, I have patients that may want some cosmetic procedure later on and are trying to lose some of that weight and then they can get the mommy makeover and everything's tight and firm and everything. And then I have some that are just like, I have these stubborn pounds that don't want to come off and I just want to get 'em off and tone up a little bit. And I already have a routine in the gym that I do, and it's just with the medicine I think, and my routine in the gym, it would really help me. So we have a little bit of everybody in the program. It's men, it's women, it's young adults, it's people in their seventies or eighties. So it's just not a subsection of a population, I guess.

Monique Ramsey (09:02):
So let's say I'm signing up for the Skinny Shot. Where and when I guess in the process do I encounter you and how do you help me get to my goal?

Jason (09:14):
Okay, so you normally see me at your first visit typically, and we'll go over what about the program, what the expectations are, how it's going to work, how we do your shot. I teach you how to inject yourself, and we go over that hands-on experience. You'll also hear from me multiple times a month, normally a couple times via text just to check in with you. I always do a short-term goal for everybody every month when we do their monthly call in. And that could be most of 'em are like, Hey, I want to increase my protein intake. Can you kind of give me some ideas to remind me, Hey, are we still working on making sure we're getting that protein intake like we talked about? Or I want to work on my arms or I want to do more exercise. So just like a little encouragement, just a little check-in. And then you'll hear from me again once a month we discuss how you're doing the program, your diet, your alcohol use, like a whole well-rounded picture of you. And then we talk about dosing for the next month. Do we go up on dose? Do we go down? How are you feeling? How are we doing on the medicine? What are we accomplishing our goals? Are we almost to our goal? All those things just to give me a picture of how things are doing with you and how we can monitor your medicine appropriately.

Monique Ramsey (10:26):
Yeah, I think that's so important that people know that our Skinny Shot program is that you're getting that same La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Center handholding and support. It's not just, here's a syringe,

Jason (10:42):
Figure it out.

Monique Ramsey (10:42):
Yeah. Go for it. You figure it out. There's a lot of telehealth stuff and they ship it to you, but you really need that support. And I think especially if you're having some side effects, then let's problem solve that. You're not getting the protein, you might be losing weight, but are you losing muscle mass? All the things that you were talking about. It's so important. And to have somebody in your corner I think is wonderful that they can go to you. You have the technical background and proficiency, the medical side, but also just sort of the human side that you're there to help them get to help to get them to that goal.

Jason (11:18):
And they know they can always get me, I give them my cell phone number, my business card, so it's not my cell phone number, but it rings directly to my cell phone. So they can call or text and say, Hey Jason, I'm having this issue, or I'm not losing weight, I'm kind of stagnant. And we're monitoring their weights every week. They're weighing in once a week and the admin staff is putting those in and saying, Hey Jason, I'm noticed they haven't lost any weight. So they're giving me the feedback so I can look 'em up and then call back. I mean, we have over a hundred patients. I mean it's a lot of managing patients and what they're doing and what dosing they're on, and we are doing different medications that are approved by the FDA. So monitoring what medicines they're on and the doses. I mean, it takes a lot of time, but it's exciting for me. Yeah.

Monique Ramsey (12:02):
Right. Yeah. I think as somebody, I've gone through a weight loss journey in the last couple of years and it is sometimes you're like, okay, well I'm losing, so it must be fine. But I think one of the things you guys give them is the scale. So they don't have to come into the office every week, but they have to send in their weight. So the scale is connected.

Jason (12:22):
Yeah, they don't have to send it in. All they have to do is be friends with us on the app and the app does everything for us. So all they have to do is open their phone, get on the scale, and then it automatically sends to us. We do send 'em a weekly text reminder that says, Hey, make sure you jump on the scale this week. And it's automated every week. Just a reminder to them, Hey, just make sure you get on so we can monitor you. That's important for us to know. If you're not losing weight, then if we're not doing into our next monthly, then I missed three weeks of you not knowing what your weight is and it's not coming off. So we need to figure out how we can adjust that.

Monique Ramsey (12:58):
So as we wrap up, tell me just some things about you. So you said South Carolina is where you grew up. Tell us about South Carolina versus here. We've got the accent. You probably think we all have an accent.

Jason (13:12):
I don't think so. No, no. South Carolina is hot. It's humid, there's bugs. We don't have those here, it's very nice. The weather's year round. I always tell people it's like 70 degrees plus or minus four or five year round here. We don't have cold winters. It's just beautiful weather, beautiful places to go. It's centrally located. We have a big airport you can fly to anywhere you want to go, really. I love it cuz like you can cross into Tijuana and fly domestically to anywhere in Mexico for very cheap.

Monique Ramsey (13:41):
Yeah.

Jason (13:42):
So it's just a great location. Me and my partner are here now, so we have a outside of work life that we do, we travel a lot. I just got back from five Mediterranean countries from doing a cruise.

Monique Ramsey (13:56):
Oh wow.

Jason (13:57):
Yeah.

Monique Ramsey (13:58):
What was your favorite part? Which country did you enjoy the most? Can you pick?

Jason (14:02):
I loved Malta. I thought it was just so cool to look at. The Greek islands were beautiful as well, like Mykonos, and then I spent a weekend Barcelona, so yeah, I was working remotely there, managing patients.

Monique Ramsey (14:14):
Oh my God.

Jason (14:14):
Six o'clock at night. I'm trying to call 'em all at like 8:00 AM here, 11 o'clock at night, Laura's texting me, I was like, okay, yeah, I can figure it out. Let me look. Let me get back to my room.

Monique Ramsey (14:26):
That's too funny. I've got to take time for you. Okay?

Jason (14:29):
I do, but I still want to make sure everybody, the program's successful and I'm very OCD I guess. So I don't want to let somebody else figure it out and that I have to come back and deal with a mess when I come back. Not that it would be a mess, but not probably the way I do things.

Monique Ramsey (14:43):
Yeah. So what do you enjoy doing outside of the office?

Jason (14:47):
Well, I love traveling. Like I said, I just got back from that trip, so I'm always trying to find someplace to go. I think last year I went to 22 countries in the year.

Monique Ramsey (14:57):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. How fun.

Jason (15:01):
Yes, I'm always on the go somewhere. I also play on a competitive kickball league, so that's my Sunday afternoon. And then of course work and travel and doing things with my partner's family who lives up in the LA area. So we're always on the road going up there to do something with them. So yeah, it's always go having fun going to the beach. I love the weather here, so it's always trying to get that. And I have two dogs, so spending time with them.

Monique Ramsey (15:24):
What kind of dogs?

Jason (15:24):
They're both golden doodles. One's a full size like 75 pounder, and the other one is a mini golden noodle, and he is 10 pounds.

Monique Ramsey (15:31):
Oh my gosh. And what are their names? Give us the deets.

Jason (15:33):
Rutledge and Bondi.

Monique Ramsey (15:36):
Oh, I like it. They're very interesting names.

Jason (15:38):
So Bondi from me and my partner met in Australia, so that's one of the famous beaches there. So that's where his name is. And then Rutledge is a good southern name. So that's where he just got that from.

Monique Ramsey (15:48):
I love that. I love that. So let me ask you this interesting question. If you could teach a class on any one thing, what would it be?

Jason (15:57):
It would probably be patient education and how to talk to patients and give them, especially in the ER, you come into the ER if you're having a stroke or heart attack, you're scared, you're afraid. It's like rush, rush, rush to get everything done, your test back because time is brain or time is heart. So I think just taking that extra second to explain to the patient as you're rushing them to CT scan when they come in for a possible stroke, Hey, we're going to the CT scanner. There's lots of things going on at the same time where it's fast, it's fast paced, don't be afraid, I'm going to be here with you, I'm your nurse. Just giving that extra little time to explain things to patient and educate them and not just let them figure it out their self when spend that extra time when you're discharging the patient to go over the JP drain and how to do that properly and what to expect and explain to them, hey, they have may have a little blood on their bed and hey, hydrogen peroxide gets blood out very easily. Just those little things that teachers are going to remember that you took that extra time to hold their hand, explain something to 'em. And I think a lot of nursing students in the nursing profession, we learn all this other stuff and we forget that compassionate part of nursing. And I think that's a very important thing that needs to be taught.

Monique Ramsey (17:09):
I agree. And I think a lot of patients are in that mindset of I have no idea what's happening. And if you don't know what's happening, that creates a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress that you don't need to have, whether you're going for an elective procedure or you're in the ER, all that, there's already so much happening, but if you have somebody who calmly is explaining why are we having a CT scan? What will that do? Here's what information are we going to get, or let's talk about the drains you're going to go home with and why are they important to be there? They're a pain in the neck, but you need them and here's why. And I think then people can feel more comfortable and feel that their stress level drops. And so I think that's a wonderful idea that really giving nurses not just the clinical tools, the compassion tools or the human tools. So last question, last one. What would you want our podcast listeners to know about you or to take away from this episode?

Jason (18:11):
I think I want 'em to know that the Skinny Shot is a well-rounded program. We're here to make your weight loss journey successful on whatever you want. We want it to be customized to you. That's why every month I'm talking about, talking to them when we do their monthly checkin, what kind of short-term goal do we want to work on? And a lot of 'em, when we first started doing it, we're like, short-term goal, I want to lose 20 pounds. I'm like, no, no, no. Let's talk about something that we can work on to accomplish your long-term goal of whatever weight loss you want that could be customized to you. We talked about earlier, you're not getting enough protein in, so how can we get that protein in and what can I do to help you achieve that goal so that your weight loss goal and journey is successful? So I think that I want 'em to know that this program is built around a well-rounded thing to make sure everybody's happy, to make sure we're there for you, and giving you that La Jolla Cosmetic experience that you would just like you were if you were having surgery. So I think that's what I want 'em to know and understand the drugs we're using are all FDA approved. They're successful. They work.

Monique Ramsey (19:17):
They do.

Jason (19:17):
Very well.

Monique Ramsey (19:17):
Which is really amazing because for some people really struggle with this, and as we get older, we struggle more and menopause and all the things that happen with our bodies and changes over time. And so for everybody out there, if you're thinking about the skinny shot, it doesn't cost anything to talk to us. So we'd love to come with that.

Jason (19:40):
Talk to us and yeah, we're doing all the lab work and making sure Dr. Haas is monitoring you. Even though I'm doing most of the legwork, if there's any problems, I'm like a text away from him and he's very quick about responding. We had one person with some issue not long ago and he's like, well stop. We need stop it immediately until she follows up with her doctor. So it's those things because we're having that interaction all the time with patients that I'm able to, and he's able to monitor and do these things really quickly. So it's really good. Rather than you're trying to call your primary doctor and talking to their nurse and it takes three or four weeks to get into an appointment with 'em. So with this, they have a person that's right there, they could call if they have any issues, and we're Johnny on the spot with making sure it gets fixed.

Monique Ramsey (20:24):
So yeah, it's really kind of like a concierge medicine sort of program in that way. Right? If you try to get in touch with your primary care to get seen, it's not going to be quick. Alright, well thank you Jason.

Jason (20:40):
Thank you, Monique. It was great talking to you.

Monique Ramsey (20:41):
This really good to get to know you more and have our audience get to know you more. And thank you everybody for listening and we'll have everything in the show notes and then we'll see you on the next one. Thank you.

Announcer (20:51):
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.