EP 675: Sleep Better, Breathe Easier, and Look Your Best with Dr. Stierman, ENT Specialist & Founder of Blur Med Spa

 In this episode, Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee are joined by Dr. Karen Stierman, a surgeon and otolaryngologist with ENT & Allergy Center of Austin. ENTs treat diseases of the head and neck, specializing in those of the ear, nose, and throat. Today, Dr. Stierman shares some of the most common conditions she sees, from deviated septum and sleep apnea to allergies and hearing loss. In addition to her ENT practice, Dr. Stierman is an affiliate faculty member at Dell Medical School and a consultant in the field of biomedical technology development. She is also the co-founder of Blur Med Spa, where she uses her expertise in facial anatomy and surgical techniques to offer patients a truly holistic, wellness-focused approach to aesthetics and skin care. If you or someone you love struggles with symptoms of post-nasal drainage, sinus pain, and/or difficulty sleeping, hearing, or breathing, call ENT & Allergy Center of Austin at (512) 328-7722 or go online to schedule your consultation today! For more information on Dr. Stierman's approach to aesthetics and wellness, visit Blur Med Spa online or call (512) 522-5769. 

Voted top Men's Health Podcast, Sex Therapy Podcast, and Prostate Cancer Podcast by FeedSpot

Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist and has been treating patients in the Austin and Greater Williamson County area since he started his private practice in 2007.

We enjoy hearing from you! Email us at armormenshealth@gmail.com and we’ll answer your question in an upcoming episode.

Phone: (512) 238-0762

Email: Armormenshealth@gmail.com

Website: Armormenshealth.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

<silence>

Speaker 2: 0:07

Welcome to the Armor Men's Health Show with Dr. Mystery and Donna Lee.

Speaker 3: 0:15

Hello and welcome to the Armor Men's Health Show. I'm Dr. Mystery , your host joined as always by my co-host, Donnel Lee .

Speaker 4: 0:22

Hey, everybody, welcome to the show, and thank you for sharing it with all of your friends.

Speaker 3: 0:25

This show is brought to you by NAU Urology Specialist. That's the group that I started in 2007, and we have really grown Mm ,

Speaker 4: 0:33

Personally and professionally we're

Speaker 3: 0:35

Growers and show.

Speaker 4: 0:38

I was wondering what was coming next, but yes,

Speaker 5: 0:40

<laugh> .

Speaker 3: 0:40

Yes, we are . We have , we , we are bursting at the seams, but we have lots of availability to see you as a patient. We would love to see you as a patient. In fact, we have six urologists, one interventional radiologist. We have , uh, multiple PAs that can see you for , uh, for all your urologic needs. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and Donna, where are our offices and how do people get ahold of us?

Speaker 4: 0:59

You can find us in Round Rock, north Austin, south Austin, and Dripping Springs, Texas. You can reach out to us at 5 1 2 2 3 8 0 7 6 2, and you can visit our amazing little website. It's armor men's health.com where people can listen to the segments, the previous segments, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We're podcast able Dr . Mystery ,

Speaker 3: 1:16

We are podcast able Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . You know, I love to operate. I

Speaker 4: 1:19

I know

Speaker 3: 1:20

This. You know, I love surgeons. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And, you know, I love guests.

Speaker 4: 1:23

Yes. We , and

Speaker 3: 1:24

This is one on my face . You know what, you know, when you , when you combine them, you get a guest who's a surgeon? <laugh> <laugh> . Dr. Karen Steerman . Thank you so much for joining us again today.

Speaker 5: 1:32

Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 1:32

Now you're back to us. You are a board certified oto laryngologist. First thing , first

Speaker 4: 1:38

Practiced for an hour, please

Speaker 3: 1:39

Spell Oto laryngology

Speaker 5: 1:41

<laugh>.

Speaker 4: 1:43

Don't put her on the spot.

Speaker 5: 1:44

Oh my goodness. She

Speaker 3: 1:44

Doesn't know how to spell it either. No , absolutely . It is . Like when we had Dr. Smith spell ophthalmology, he couldn't do it Either . Can do it . She can do it .

Speaker 5: 1:50

I can do it . You wanna do it ?

Speaker 3: 1:50

So tell me, tell me what is an ENT Doctor? Convince our listeners that you really are a surgeon and tell us why you went into it.

Speaker 5: 1:59

So, ENT is , uh, just an amazing field. And I think the reason I went into it is because , um, there's so many ways that we can help people with an ENT . I like to fix problems. And , uh, in ENT , we can , um, address people's , um, problems both with medical treatment as well as with surgical treatment.

Speaker 3: 2:18

There's such an overlap in the type of person that would go into ENT versus urology because we, we like to do things in the office and we like to operate. That's right. Now we are much funnier <laugh> . So I think that that's, that's ultimately what decides. But there's another thing that decides too. Uh oh . So, and , and you can tell our listeners that are secret. They put all of us surgeons in a room and then they give us four fluids.

Speaker 4: 2:41

Buckets, isn't it

Speaker 3: 2:42

Blood, sputum, urine and poop. Uhhuh . And you've gotta put your hand in one of them without a glove on which one . And you decided to put your hand in sputum.

Speaker 5: 2:51

Absolutely. Yeah . Absolutely. She

Speaker 4: 2:52

Was like, no poop for me.

Speaker 5: 2:54

Yeah , no, I mean, poop . Oh my God. That's, that's , that's not fun at all. <laugh> poop .

Speaker 3: 2:57

And you're , and you're out. But, but some reason you jumped into the sputum. And so , uh, what does your training look like? You go to medical school and you have a , an electrical engineering degree from , uh, the University of Texas? No, from a and m.

Speaker 5: 3:10

Yes. Don't get that wrong. Wow .

Speaker 4: 3:11

I'm sorry. Don't get that wrong . Get Sorry .

Speaker 3: 3:13

Listen, it wasn't the Illinois Institute of Technology, so it's all the same to me. <laugh> . So I, I have a chemical engineering background and then you went to medical school where

Speaker 5: 3:21

I went to med school at UTMB in Galveston. And

Speaker 3: 3:23

Where did your residency?

Speaker 5: 3:25

UTMB in Galveston.

Speaker 3: 3:25

How long did it

Speaker 5: 3:26

Take? Nine years for med school and residency. So

Speaker 3: 3:29

Your residency was five years long? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . And an otolaryngologist is a head and neck surgeon. And so you're gonna operate , that's a lot of stuff up there.

Speaker 5: 3:37

It's a lot. It's a lot, lot.

Speaker 3: 3:38

It's , I mean, there's a lot of stuff in there.

Speaker 5: 3:39

Yeah. That was another reason I went into it because I decided that I really like to be challenged and I thought, you know, what's gonna keep me really , uh, excited and have the opportunity to learn new things. And ENT was just fit the bill in that regard too. During

Speaker 3: 3:54

The third part of anatomy, you have to carry around a skull for head and neck anatomy. And I did poorly on that though. Like , I like Oh , no . Like , you know what I'm saying? Yeah . Like if it , if it wasn't the penis, then I was like, I don't

Speaker 4: 4:04

Walking around penis . Dunno what this thing is .

Speaker 5: 4:05

And the pelvis is probably a little bit more, you know , uh, straightforward. That's

Speaker 3: 4:09

Right.

Speaker 4: 4:09

I need to interject that. My husband, I sent my husband to see Dr. Steerman, I don't know, 10 years ago. And to this day, he tells people that you diagnosed him with an extra large uvula . <laugh> . Yes. And he'll tell everybody his uvula is giant.

Speaker 3: 4:23

He keeps showing it to me too. Yes . It's gross.

Speaker 4: 4:24

Not his penis so much. It's gross . But his vela is really big, his massive

Speaker 3: 4:27

Inverse. They're inversely proportional. He's

Speaker 4: 4:29

Very proud. He wanted me to bring that up today with you, so thank you.

Speaker 3: 4:32

So there's a lot packed in . My pleasure in , there's a lot packed into this, this one structure of our body. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> That's, that interacts a lot with the air. Yes. A lot with food. Yes. A lot with external allergens. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , uh, most of our senses are right there, so it's very important to us to , to deal with it. Now. Um, in urology, we diagnose a lot of patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Yes . And I believe that a lot of urologic and inflammatory conditions are in fact allergic. And so what I find, and this is not like things that are generally conventional wisdom in our field, but those people that have inflammatory conditions such as bad allergies or rashes, oftentimes suffer from infertility and poor sperm motility. And I think that it's a common, a common theme. So when we diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, we use, you know , tools to help kind of overcome it, but there are things that you guys do to fix it. Right.

Speaker 5: 5:25

Right. Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 5:26

Why don't you talk to me a little bit about nasal stuffiness and kind of just kind of sinus congestion and, and what you guys do to evaluate it, what symptoms it causes and how you treat it.

Speaker 5: 5:36

Absolutely. So, you know, with , uh, with patients who come in, first of all, just to speak to the piece about sleep apnea, we always start with the nose , um, because that's the beginning of your airway. And so when we're thinking about what's obstructing you, we're, we're looking at the nasal passageway first. So in that regard, we'll usually do a regular exam of the nasal passageway. And oftentimes we do something called the nasal endoscopy, which is a way that we can look with , um, an endoscope, which is kind of like, almost like a handheld microscope. And , um, you can go deeper into the nasal cavity and you can see things like a deviation of the septum. You

Speaker 3: 6:07

Do it right there in the office. Right

Speaker 5: 6:08

There in the office. Okay. Absolutely. And it's very enlightening. You can see deviations of the septum. You can see turbinates, which are the filters of the nose that get stuffy when you have a cold being enlarged. You can see polyps which are , um, uh, inflammatory kind of , uh, gross in your nose that come from allergy. Um, and you can see , uh, blockages of the sinus. And so, you know, we are able to see with a 10 minute scope , um, really a lot of things that get missed , um, when you just go in and get a regular exam. And so I'll diagnose 70-year-old people with a deviated septum, fix it, and they'll come back to us and say, why didn't anyone ever tell me that I had this? And my answer is because I didn't see it. And so

Speaker 3: 6:49

What kind of, so I've heard this term deviated septum quite a bit. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , uh, what does that mean anatomically and what symptoms does it cause?

Speaker 5: 6:56

So deviated septum basically is , um, I like to think of it as the centerpiece in your nose. Almost like the fence that divides your left nasal passageway from your right. And a deviated septum is when the septum is not sitting straight in there. And so it's cheating over to one side or the other, or oftentimes both sides because the shape of the deviations usually take like the shape of an s. Um, and so you can actually have inability to breathe on both sides of your nose as a result of a deviated septum. Will

Speaker 3: 7:23

It cause snoring or just like poor oxygenation or what, what , what , what can you experience? Both.

Speaker 5: 7:28

Um, so basically if your nose is blocked, then you're going to , uh, mouth breathe more. And when you mouth breathe more , and you have a large uvula, like Donna's husband, <laugh> <laugh> , you , you will start , he's gonna be so excited, you'll shout out to him <laugh> . Um , you'll start snoring oftentimes because of , uh, uh, uvula and soft palette vibrating because you're just putting so much pressure breathing in through your mouth.

Speaker 3: 7:51

So when somebody is going to have surgery for their septum mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , you, you open up the nose and then you like put an artificial septum in there. What do you

Speaker 5: 8:00

Do? <laugh>? No, we don't do that. What we do is we , um, make a small incision , uh, internally in the nostril and through a direct visualization, through a light that, that we can shine in the nose and an endoscope, we're able to evaluate the inside of the septum , um, which is cartilage and bone. And we're able to actually remove the deviated portions of the cartilage in the bone, leaving the structural supports intact. So what that means at the end of the day is that your nose looks the same on the outside, but on the inside you can breathe remarkably better.

Speaker 3: 8:33

And then when it comes to just , uh, overall just kind of nasal passage things, do you have surgeries to unblock or to open up these channels

Speaker 5: 8:42

In terms of things other than the septum? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We have a procedure called a turbinate reduction that we can do in the office, by the way, the , in

Speaker 3: 8:49

The office .

Speaker 5: 8:50

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Um, most septoplasty are done in the outpatient surgery center . So it's an outpatient day surgery procedure that takes about an hour. But some people, let's say you have a straight septum, but it's your turbinates that are blocking you. And these, again, are the filters of the nose that sit kind of on the sides of the nose. And it's what makes you really stuffy when you have a cold. So we can take that turbinate and we can make it smaller in the office through something called a turbin reduction.

Speaker 3: 9:12

Really. Like you actually cut it, cut it down.

Speaker 5: 9:14

There's actually a little , um, device that we use that delivers radio frequency energy. Oh wow. That shrinks it. Well,

Speaker 3: 9:21

That's neat. Wow . Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> What about sticking balloons in there? Who's, who's supposed to get a balloon stuck up in there?

Speaker 5: 9:26

I like balloons. Um, not for the septum, not for the turbinates . Um, I think they work best in the sinus , uh, openings , um, uh, to dilate the , um, the opening to the sinus , um, uh, in a very minimally invasive way. So the balloon technology allows you to dilate both the bony opening by creating micro fractures in the bone of the sinus opening and the lining at the same time without cutting. So this is an amazing , um, uh, technological advancement in ENT and really allowed us to start doing more things in the office so we can do balloon sinuplasty also in the office.

Speaker 3: 10:01

Well, that's amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah . Uh , Dr. Steerman , uh, how do people get ahold of you and make an appointment with you?

Speaker 5: 10:07

Um, well they can , uh, just give us a call at the office. Um, our number is 5 1 2 3 2 8 7 7 2 2 . And

Speaker 3: 10:14

What is your website?

Speaker 5: 10:15

Our website is ENT and Allergy. And you can just Google my last name, Dr. Karen Stearman. And we should pop up,

Speaker 3: 10:21

Donna, how do they get a hold of us? You

Speaker 4: 10:22

Can call us at (512) 238-0762 or visit our website, armor men's health.com and check out our podcast wherever you listen to free podcasts.

Speaker 3: 10:30

Hello and welcome to the Armor Men's Health Show. This is Dr. Mystery , your host joined as always by my co-host, the infinitely brilliant and beautiful Donnel Lee . Oh,

Speaker 4: 10:40

Sometimes I don't know where you're going. I know you used to insult me every single time .

Speaker 3: 10:44

I

Speaker 4: 10:45

Nice . And I

Speaker 3: 10:45

Don't know what to do with that . I stopped it. Okay . You really are an amazing part of this practice on this show. You're sweet. So thank you so much. The listeners actually like you a lot better. They do. It's probably the jealousy that's coming out, if anything. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>

Speaker 4: 10:56

Very

Speaker 3: 10:56

Much. Uh , I started NAU urology specialist in 2007. We deliver a higher level of care, urologic care for you. We are the second biggest urology group in town, which means that we

Speaker 4: 11:06

Look a little sexier on the weekends. We

Speaker 3: 11:07

Just work a little harder for your attention at the bar <laugh> . You know what I mean? We're

Speaker 4: 11:10

The pushup

Speaker 3: 11:11

Bra , you know what I'm saying? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . That's right. That's , and Donna, how do people get ahold of us and become our patient?

Speaker 4: 11:15

You can call us at (512) 238-0762 and visit our website, armor men's health.com, where you can listen to all of our amazing podcasts, all the previous ones, and you can also check out our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. We're in Round Rock, north Austin, south Austin, and Dripping Springs, Texas, Dr. Mystery .

Speaker 3: 11:32

And we're once again joined by a wonderful friend of our practice , uh, Dr. Karen Steerman. Thank you so much for joining us again, Dr. Steerman. My

Speaker 5: 11:40

Pleasure. You

Speaker 3: 11:40

Are an ENT doctor, a head and neck surgeon, an otolaryngologist. They don't have that many names for us. <laugh>. No. You

Speaker 4: 11:47

Just

Speaker 3: 11:47

Doctor . I got urologist and Dick doc . That's all I got. That's it. But they have a lot of fancy names for you people. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . So I remember, remember when I was studying anatomy, the skull has a bunch of holes in it. That's right. That are sinuses. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> God packed so much into this little space above our shoulders. And most of it is air. That's right. Explain to me the purpose and the anatomy and the , like, the function of the sinuses. What, what is that? Why do we have that?

Speaker 5: 12:10

Well, the sinuses and the nasal passageway help us to , um, filter and humidify our air

Speaker 3: 12:16

Because our nose is just taken up whatever's out there. Right, right. Like whatever's out there is coming in this.

Speaker 5: 12:20

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. It's, it's the beginning of our airway. Um, and so it allows us to get oxygen , um, in through our nasal passageway. And, you know, there's a lot of benefits , um, in terms of optimizing nasal breathing. I think yogis have known this for a number of years. And so this is just , uh, uh, at the beginning of the airway,

Speaker 3: 12:39

What's the purpose of the sinuses? Because they're, they're mm-Hmm . They're boning holes. Yes. And they're lined by a lining. Yes. And then all it does is causes trouble. Right. I've never heard anybody say that. My sinuses are great.

Speaker 5: 12:51

Some , some , right. Exactly. Exactly. Um, yes. That's , this has actually been a subject of debate as to what is the actual function of the sinuses. Right .

Speaker 3: 12:59

Yeah . Why'd you

Speaker 5: 12:59

Put 'em in there? Exactly. Exactly. Well, I didn't put them in there. Okay . Okay . Before me . Don't blame.

Speaker 3: 13:04

I'm blaming her .

Speaker 5: 13:04

I just optimize their function. <laugh> . Right. Nobody says I love my allergies. Do I

Speaker 3: 13:09

<laugh> <laugh> when these structures kind of don't function properly? Yes . What kind of symptoms do people have?

Speaker 5: 13:15

So they have , uh, similar symptoms to kidney stones of what you deal with. Okay. Um , and so when you have a blockage in your sinus , um, or really a blockage, really anywhere that's important in your body tend to , because the

Speaker 3: 13:25

Holes are big to hurt, but the openings are small. Correct.

Speaker 5: 13:28

Okay . That's correct. The spaces are large and the openings are small. And so if it gets blocked, then you can accumulate mucus in there. The mucus can get secondarily infected, and you can start putting pressure on the surrounding structures, the eye, the brain. And so

Speaker 3: 13:41

You can get headaches, you can get ,

Speaker 5: 13:42

Get headaches Yeah .

Speaker 3: 13:43

Difficulty breathing. Correct. Uh , and, and , and a lot of discomfort. And you can have draining sinuses so you can feel like you're having like, just dripping coming out of yourself.

Speaker 5: 13:51

Yeah. Yeah. So usually we say you're either overly draining with your sinuses or in nasal passageway or you're too blocked. And some people have both. But , um, usually those are the two things that can go awry. That's what we do in terms of fixing it. We, we, we address the problem on both a medical and a surgical front.

Speaker 3: 14:07

How , how are sinus problems different than runny nose problems?

Speaker 5: 14:10

So I like to think of the sinuses, and we call them the paranasal, meaning around the nose. So they're the perinasal sinuses. So the sinuses , um, are not necessarily what you sense that you breathe through, whereas the nose is , so the nose is , um, where you're sensing your breathing coming from , uh, through the nostrils going to the back of the nose, ultimately into your throat. Whereas the sinuses sit on the sides of the nose and they, again, help us to like ventilate and humidify the air and , and, and filter it.

Speaker 3: 14:39

So when somebody , you know, we're in Austin and , uh, allergies , uh, seem to be quite abundant. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . And a lot of people are gonna be complaining of nasal discomfort. Uh , I don't have allergies, so I don't really know what you guys suffer. Uh , I don't show weakness. You're lucky .

Speaker 4: 14:52

I don't really , you're lucky don't , you don't show weakness and no allergies for you. That's

Speaker 3: 14:55

Right. <laugh> . And so , uh, she

Speaker 5: 14:56

Probably has a small

Speaker 3: 14:57

<laugh> . Hey , <laugh> .

Speaker 5: 15:01

Excellent.

Speaker 3: 15:02

Excellent. Okay. So , uh, but, but when you're here , uh, I mean allergic rhinitis , uh, you're gonna be having a runny nose in , in response to what's out there biologically. Why, why would our bodies develop allergies? Like why, like is there a function for that?

Speaker 5: 15:19

Right. So that is a also subject of debate that , um, you know, perhaps that we've done such a good job of , uh, stamping out bacterial infections with, you know, vaccinations, antibiotics, things like that. Um, that our , our immune systems really had nothing better to do than , than to overreact to allergies. And what we know is that allergies can , um, run from a genetic standpoint. Like they can run in families. So people who have allergies , um, their children may be more likely to have allergies.

Speaker 3: 15:46

And there's a lot of immune system in our nose. Correct. We have all these antibodies. Yeah. We have all these things right in our nasal patch that's ready to like attack something that's right there. It's

Speaker 5: 15:55

Exactly right.

Speaker 3: 15:56

And , and close up. So we don't get too much of that allergy. Do you think that may be , that may be what's going on? Yeah.

Speaker 5: 16:00

And um, and so when you react to an allergen in an adverse way, what happens is the allergen comes in your nose and um, it reacts with , um, some of the antibodies in the nose. And this is releasing some chemicals , um, that draw in histamine and then you swell and you have other inflammatory , um, uh, molecules that develop secondary to the histamine release. And that's why people usually know about antihistamines, like Zyrtec, Claritin, Allegra as, as one of the things that helps with , uh, with allergies.

Speaker 3: 16:30

I mean, some of our listeners may not know that an ENT specialist is also someone you can go to for your allergies, right?

Speaker 5: 16:36

That's right. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:37

And, and you do the full like spectrum of testing and treatment as well?

Speaker 5: 16:41

Yes. Yes. We do a lot of allergy sublingual drops now versus allergy shots to desensitize someone to the allergen. So if you think about giving someone a very, very , uh, microdose amount of the allergen that they're allergic to, then your body can develop , um, the reverse of the allergic reaction and they can sense it as a normal substance and you don't suffer from the allergy symptoms. Once you get desensitized to those allergens, it's called immunotherapy.

Speaker 3: 17:06

So now you have allergic rhinitis. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> or a , a allergy induced runny nose. Uh , what about non-allergic rhinitis? What is that? What causes it and what treatments do you have for? So

Speaker 5: 17:16

Non-allergic rhinitis basically is rhinitis. That's not driven by allergies. Most patients with non-allergic rhinitis will have , uh, symptoms of a runny nose postnasal drip being the most prevalent. That's year round . They'll describe , um, having to go throughout their life, carrying tissues in their pocket constantly , um, coughing up , um, mucus clearing their throat or blowing it out their nose. The treatments we have for it , um, center around , uh, something called an anticholinergic , um, medication, which then , um, tells , uh, the body not to make so much mucus. So that's the medical treatment for it. There's also ,

Speaker 3: 17:52

We use anticholinergics for the bladder. See there's another connection between

Speaker 5: 17:55

Us. See, there you go. Exactly. Exactly. But there's also this , uh, really great procedure that we do in the office to ablate , um, some of the nerve fibers that make the drainage right in the side of the nose. Wow. And so that's an in-office procedure that can make a dramatic impact in , uh, shutting down the , the mucus production.

Speaker 3: 18:13

So you do it in the office? Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . And it can reduce the , the mucus production by kind of denervating these , these mucus glands. Correct . Yeah. And this can help somebody that's been having to wipe their nose for their entire life, not have to do that anymore.

Speaker 5: 18:25

Absolutely. Yeah. It can make a significant impact in their quality of life.

Speaker 3: 18:29

You mentioned that term postnasal drip. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . I've heard it a lot. Yeah. What , what is that and why does it affect people when they sleep?

Speaker 5: 18:35

Postnasal drip just means that instead of the mucus coming out the front of the nose, when you're blowing your nose like through your nostrils, it's going down the backside, so it's going into your throat. Um , and so it can cause people , uh, discomfort when they're sleeping because they're pooling mucus in their throat. Um, some people will get frequent , uh, lung and bronchial infections Oh no. When they a postnasal drip because it's going into their airway. And so this is , uh, this, this can be a big problem in some postnasal drip patients. Well , it'll actually kind of mix a little bit with the acid coming up from the esophagus and , and that can cause problems as well.

Speaker 3: 19:06

Well, that's fascinating. I mean, when it comes to mucus and sinuses, I'm glad that there's doctors that handle these things.

Speaker 5: 19:11

Unlike Yeah . Not you though, <laugh> .

Speaker 3: 19:13

Now when it comes to the head and neck , uh, it's not all just function. There's also some beauty involved. That's

Speaker 5: 19:18

Right. So

Speaker 3: 19:19

If, if we were looking segue if , if , if we were looking <laugh> , if we were looking to look good on the outside as well as on the inside, you have now , now started yourself a your own med spa. Tell us about

Speaker 5: 19:30

It. That's right. Yes . It's called a Blur Med Spa. The reason , um, that we started it is as , as an expert in head and neck anatomy, I felt like we could be doing a good service to , uh, our patient population.

Speaker 3: 19:41

Which is funny because the gas station down down the street also has a med spa. <laugh>

Speaker 5: 19:46

<laugh> . Everybody's got one

Speaker 2: 19:48

Now . Everybody's

Speaker 5: 19:48

Got one . Everybody has one. It

Speaker 3: 19:50

Works well . So , so I personally also would agree that a physician led med spa is probably where you want to go if you want somebody that knows what they're doing.

Speaker 5: 19:58

Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 19:59

Absolutely. And so you're gonna do fillers and Botox? Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> and then , and then some other rejuvenation type procedures for the head and neck.

Speaker 5: 20:05

That's correct. Yeah. We're starting with fillers, Botox, and then we're also doing skincare with , um, skincare, facials, peels. And then we have a , a skincare line that we're , um, promoting as well.

Speaker 3: 20:16

Well, best of luck to you. What is the, the , the , the website of your new med spa?

Speaker 5: 20:20

It's blur med spa.com.

Speaker 3: 20:22

And then how do people get ahold of you? If they wanna see you as an oto laryngologist,

Speaker 5: 20:26

They can just call the office at (512) 328-7722 . And uh, we also have a website if you , um, just look up under my name, Dr. Karen Steerman , uh, S-T-I-E-R-M-A-N. And , uh, you can book through that as

Speaker 3: 20:39

Well. Thank you so much for joining us today, Karen . You're a pleasure. Thank

Speaker 5: 20:42

You for having me.

Speaker 2: 20:43

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