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(press photo 2005, © EM) click any photo for a larger image

Who I Am... My name is Marianne Guarena, and I am the CEO of Enhancement Media, an Internet-based cosmetic surgery information and support network.  Our primary goal is to assist patients in their quest for information on plastic surgery and to help them with every aspect of their aesthetic journey. I presently live back and forth between Las Vegas, NV and Beverly Hills, California.  Fortunately my interests bring me all over the world so I often have the opportunity to obtain many views--as well as change my own.  I always remain open-minded as life and technology continually evolve.  I believe that adaptation is the secret of success and happiness. I am the type of person who loves to learn just about anything that I can.  No matter how much one knows or thinks they know, there is ALWAYS more to learn about everything.  You will never hear me say that I am an expert in anything.  I believe one can be well-versed in subjects but defining oneself as an expert, in my opinion, is incredibly ostentatious.

I am one of those people that pipe up with "Did you know..." a lot.  My interests are, obviously plastic surgery, but also psychology, anatomy, biology and virology.  I am practically obsessed with the dynamics of the human body.  The human body is an extraordinary machine.  I am in absolute awe by its most primal mechanics and complex thought processes.  Everything about the human body amazes me--from birth to death.  The many stages that our chemical structure goes through are boundless, especially the mind.  Personality and general psychological composition astounds me.  What one person sees as a strength or pleasure may truly be another's greatest fear and I am fascinated by this.  The mind is so limitless that I sincerely believe we will never, ever  fully learn its capability or recreate its true functionality.

My Personality
I have pretty typical Gemini traits. Constantly evolving, adventurous, inquisitive and tenacious.  I live life as though I could die tomorrow and have no regret other than that I couldn't live longer.  Sometimes, I cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the complexities of life and the possibility of missing out on anything I was meant to do.  I am always willing to learn new things and am very open to trying just about anything that I find interesting.  I just want to be able to experience everything that I can before I check out.

I am the type of person who finds true contentment and a true sense of worth in helping others.  I do go out of my way to do things for those who need assistance, whether they admit it or not.  I do hold doors for strangers, help find lost dogs (and cats!), stop for those who may need help, and let those who have less items go in front of me at the grocery store.  I am a firm believer in adopting animals, I do help my neighbors, I respect people who deserve it, I am hugely patriotic, and I am fiercely loyal.  I believe in politeness and courtesy and believe that if you wouldn't do something in front of your loved ones, you wouldn't do it if they were not present.   However, I don't take any grief from anyone.  Not anymore.  I tend to take up for the little guy even when I am the smallest person in the room.  And that little fact can get me into trouble sometimes.  Life is too short.

As far as my beliefs and what I am firmly involved in...I make regular donations and/or volunteer my time to such organizations as Save The Children, SafeNest (which assists victims of domestic violence), The Child Cancer Foundation, The Children's Miracle Network, The National Breast Cancer Foundation and the National Marrow Donor Program.  I am a huge advocate of bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation and am currently on the bone marrow donor registry.  I also donate my platelets every month if I am able.  I urge everyone to do what they can to help leukemia and lymphoma patients win their battles.  We are blessed with the gift of health, let's help others with a gift of life.  I like to think of it as plastic surgery patients giving back.  Please visit my Bone Marrow Donor Support Network for more information.

My Most Fulfilling Accomplishment 
I had the opportunity to build an elementary school (grades 1 - 7) in Asia for 140 children who needed a proper place to pursue an education.  A lot of the children who do attend school in many under-developed countries must share a single classroom with other children who are in separate grades.  The children usually sit on a dirt, or wooden, floor with straw mats, and have very little one-on-one teacher time.  Plus, not all areas are fortunate to have even this little by way of education.  Clearly, most do not have the opportunities which many of us take for granted. 

In June of 2006 I met a very generous, and modest man who personally raises money for and builds schools.  He completely oversees the buying of the materials and the locals, mostly the families of school-aged children, build the structures themselves.  This way all of the proceeds go directly into the building of each school and none is pocketed nor trickles into unrelated 'projects'.  My school took about 3-4 months to build and was completed in early 2007--the inauguration was spectacular!  I have never been so humbled in my life, it was the most amazing experience I have ever been graced with.

I plan on building another one as soon as I can, hopefully in one of the villages in Northern Thailand.  I am very dedicated to doing my part so that children can have a headstart in life and be destined for greatness.  If I could, I would build schools full-time but it takes a lot of money, and with that I have to work for it.  All children deserve an education and I will do my part to change even just a few lives if I can.

If you care: Enneagram Type 8;  MBTI (Jung-Myers Briggs Type): INFJ 

How I Got Into This Career...

After a few short years I realized that I was one person who wouldn't 'make a difference' in law enforcement.  I also realized that there was a lot of politics involved in my area as well as that particular career in general and found that being in law enforcement was not something I was interested in anymore.  Long story short, I resigned.  I later attempted to get on dispatch in another, bigger city and didn't get the job.  NO hard feelings, I took it as an omen.  The end of law enforcement for me.  You live, you learn.  I don't regret it one bit.  I wouldn't be here today had I a wonderful experience.

Discovering Plastic Surgery
Several years later while wandering through various careers and states trying to find out where my puzzle piece "fit", I wound up in California.  About nine months later (1998), I decided to have breast augmentation surgery, rhinoplasty (1998) and eventually lip augmentation (1999).  I had begun amassing a good amount of information and research materials during my preliminary days before surgery.  During my healing times and off-time, I taught myself to handcode HTML and other languages.  I began to document my stories for an online journal and well, a little AOL hometown web page (the black and pink days!) became numerous websites of patient education material.  I began spending even more hours online, researching and chatting with other plastic surgery patients, supporting them through their own recoveries, trying to find answers to their questions and so forth.  I woke up one day and realized I had better start making a living with it because it was taking up 12 to 15 hours a day of my time and a lot of my savings.  I started getting invited to appear on talk shows and magazine articles, so flying back from New York after the John Stossel show, my ex-partner and I discussed the situation and Enhancement Media was born.  

You may have noticed the frank nature of Yes They're Fake website.  This is because we, as patients, need a place to unite and discuss the reality of aesthetic options and their risks and myths.  Our visitors are real people, looking for real answers from real patients who will tell them like it is, one way or the other.  Yes, I do take plastic surgery very seriously, but I just don't find the need for the site to be snobby and without personality.  That's just not me.  I become friends with a lot of people I meet through my websites and I like it that way.  Everyone who comes here to learn is very important to me and their happiness is imperative.  If I can do anything to help educate or just point the way, I will do my best. 

If you want your info candy-coated or biased, good luck!  Because you're going to need it.  I am not some "overly-opinionated know it all" (I have been called that on several occasions), but I am a realist.  If you find that you do not like it the YTF! attitude, the Internet's a big place and I am sure you will find your niche.  I do wish you well in your surgical endeavors.

Hobbies & Interests
My hobbies include skydiving (as much as I possibly can fit in every weekend), scuba diving, motorcycles (sport bikes), snowboarding, snowblading, sailing, horseback riding, fencing, road trips, hiking, fishing, camping, traveling, golf, piano, and painting.  

I enjoy attending the ballet, Broadway musicals, the opera, the orchestra, and general performing arts.  I also thoroughly enjoy art galleries and museums.  I lived in Las Vegas for 2 1/2 years and fortunately many masterpieces were loaned to the galleries at the Las Vegas Bellagio and Venetian during my residence.  For this, I am very thankful to have been able to view such masterpieces as a few works in Monet's Rouen Cathedral series and Water Lily Pool, Jordaens' The Banquet of Cleopatra (twice in two different exhibitions), Grützner's Visit to Monks and my favorite, Monet's Prairie ŕ Giverny which is amazing up close.  If you like fine art and ever get a chance to visit Las Vegas, check to see if any exhibits are touring at the galleries and definitely get the audio tour option so you can learn about the period and the details of the artists' lives.  The Getty in Los Angeles is also a wonderful museum--and free!  My favorite, of course, being the Louvre in Paris.  I cannot wait to go back!  There is an unbelievable amount of artwork at the Louvre.  In fact, it would take you approximately 96 years if you saw one painting per day, every day, and that is only what is on exhibit--not counting the artwork in the vaults below!

I am also interested in and collect Asian antiques.  When I began, I was particularly interested in Japanese Meiji period porcelain and once had an insatiable, uncontrollable, absolutely compulsive fondness for Meiji and Taisho period celadon.  The result is a collection of about 30 seafoam green teapots, vases, jars and plates that I don't know what to do with.  Now I pretty much only collect Qing, Minyao ware and small Ming pieces.   

The Coolest Job I've Ever Had...
My old best friend, Alicia Deagano, and I once got a job at Sharkey's Reef in New Orleans as their resident mermaids.  The club was owned by my friend and former attorney, Jack Dunn.  The focal point of the restaurant/bar was a huge Gulf of Mexico aquarium with an old shark cage on one end, an oil rig platform on the other and faux reefs in-between.  We would wear these custom tailored, functional mermaid tails (mine was green; hers was blue) and bikini tops and scuba tanks were weighted down on the bottom where which we could grab breaths every once in a while, or take one from the surface.  We would undulate through the water like dolphins and interact with the crowds through the aquarium glass.  Sometimes we would just straight scuba dive in our gear.  All the while getting paid for doing what we loved.

There were 9 sharks in that tank: Mamoo, a 9 1/2 foot nurse shark, 5 other smaller nurse sharks and 3 very mean and sketchy lemon sharks.  As well as a lot of tropical fish that sometimes met their untimely deaths due to a snacking lemon shark (better them than me).  There was also a huge grouper fish that was such a character.  He was very funny and curiously followed you around.  Unfortunately, if he was hungry and feeling ornery, and if you got close enough to him he would take a huge gulp of water and sometimes it would suck your mask off your face and safety glass and silicone (mask strap, not implants!) would fly in pieces out of his gills!  They do this to eat spiny lobster in the Gulf of Mexico.  I have seen it myself when they've fed him. 

The sharks were always fed after we went in the tank as you don't want to swim around in leftover fish oil and blood.  I only had a run in with one of the sharks once and that was all I needed, but it was my fault.  I felt that one of the lemons were getting a bit too close and I kicked my fin (when I was in just scuba gear) and he grabbed it very briefly and took off leaving me with just a few minor holes and gashes in the very tip of my fin.  It was a good story thereafter at the dive shop though and many conversations arose upon many a dive boat.  You see, I never got a new pair of fins for a long time after that since they were still in great condition and I thought it looked cool at the time.  After all, it was just a few neat cuts.  That is basically about it, just lots of good dives and fun times.

First, My Before Photos
People are always interested in what I looked like before I had any surgery at all.  I honestly think that my nose made a huge difference but another big difference is in the way I do my make up and hair now.  I do not feel that I had drastic surgical changes, other than my breasts (which I have temporarily explanted until September) and nose.  I have reversed a few procedures such as my breasts and lips, as well as will be getting my threads removed.

• Before Any Procedures or Surgery 1 (Bikini, May 1993 - 20 years old)

• Before Any Procedures or Surgery 2 (Bikini top, May 25, 1996 - 24 years old)

• Before Any Procedures or Surgery 3 (April 1998 - 25 years old)

• Before Any Procedures or Surgery 4 (April 1998 - 25 years old)

• Before Any Procedures or Surgery 5 (April 1998 - 25 years old)

• Before Any Facial Procedures 1 (October 1998 - 26 years old)

• Before Any Facial Procedures 2 (October 1998 - 26 years old)

Surgical Procedures I've had:

• Breast Augmentation - June 16, 1998 (First procedure)

• Rhinoplasty - November 4, 1998

• Lip Augmentation with 3.5mm Gore-Tex tubes - February 19, 1999

• Revision Lip Augmentation due to infection, changed to 3mm Gore-Tex tubes - July 27, 1999

• Breast Implant Exchange with Benelli Breast Lift/Areola Reduction - May 5, 2004

• Liposuction to flanks, hips, inner and outer thighs and abdomen - May 5, 2004

• Modified Brow Lift to arch middle & outer brows - May 5, 2004

• Fat Grafting to Cheeks - May 5, 2004

• Finesse Liposuction (mild touch up to inner thighs and fat grafting to outer thigh contour irregularity from first lipo procedure), Breast Lift Scar Revision -  February 22, 2005

• Breast Implant Removal (will re-implant with smaller implants in September), with peri-areolar breast lift; Gore-Tex lip implant removal - April 12, 2007  

Mini Procedures I've had:

• Botox to Glabella

• Botox to Crow's Feet and Outer Brows

• Collagen

• Cosmetic Dental: Throughout 1999-2001, some additional bleaching and filing in 2003 (ongoing) and I plan on getting veneers.

• Laser Tattoo Removal: began August 11, 1999.  I shall resume treatment soon.

• Microdermabrasion: (1999) I find that a homemade microdermabrasion cream or .1% tretinoin (Retin A) does the same thing for way cheaper, and Retin A is more effective.

• Obagi NuDerm Skincare & Rejuvenation - with Retin-A Micro: March 29, 2001-November 2, 2001. It made a big difference in my skin

• Perlane & Perlane 2  (temporary filler, although I had a lump in one lip from it that lasted several months)

• Perlane AND collagen overlay for a special event (temporary)

• Thermage (Thermacool Radio-frequency treatment) Also called Thermalift to brows, temples and under eyes. Don't recommend.

• Collagen Philtral & Cupid's Bow Sculpting (temporary, but loved it!)

• Feather Lift to Cheek (APTOS Threads) - January 26, 2004 (Contour Lift is better, but wait for resorbable barbed sutures)

• Radiance (Radiesse) to Lips - May 5, 2004 (I had severe lumping though. I don't recommend at all for the lips)

• Micropigmentation to brows and upper and lower eyelash enhancement June 2004 (I recommend using a stencil or transfer sheet to draw on before tattooing.  DO NOT DO FREEHAND cosmetic tattooing for eyebrows.  Mine are asymmetrical because of it.  That whole nonsense about 'they should be sisters, not twins' is for technicians who screw up and need an excuse.

• Sculptra to under eyes (and Radiance lump removal from lip) - November 11, 2004

• Sculptra to under eyes, nasolabials and cheeks - February 9, 2005

• Radiance lump removal 'completion' - February 22, 2005

• Restylane under eyes - August 30, 2006

• ScanLite (full-face), 1 cc Restylane to lips and a touch to nasolabials, Botox - December 12, 2006 (OUCH, and no results)

Personal Photos