Mommy Makeover/Tummy Tuck

I had an extended tummy tuck with contouring liposuction (included in the price) in 2014. It was the best thing ever!

I saw 7 different surgeons before I picked one. Make sure you talk to a bunch of them. They all seemed to have slightly different ideas on how to fix my problem areas. Take good notes. It's too much information & too important to try to rely on your memory. I went in with a long list of questions that I asked each doctor. Most of them were free consults, but not all. It was worth it to pay. They all spent a great deal of time with me. My tummy was not the only thing I wanted to talk about, it just ended up being my priority once I saw how much everything would cost.

Look at their before & after pictures online. Read their reviews. Ask about their revision policy & rate. See where they put their incisions. Do they have experience working with weight loss patients? Our skin is generally not great. Look at pictures of women with your body type--surgery will not change your basic structure, so have realistic expectations.

My recovery took a long time but it was mostly just sitting around, not languishing in pain. The pain from tummy tuck itself was not that bad after the first week. I stopped taking the pain pills & switched to tylenol. I have a huge fear of getting addicted to pain pills. I developed a seroma which was a nuisance. I had to sit around all the time & go in to get it drained by needle every week. My doctor said that WLS patients are prone to them. I do seem to get them--I got another after I had a hernia repair last year. The lipo was very painful with movement after I had been still--like when I first got up in the morning--for many weeks . And it itched like crazy & I had to wear a compression garment for about 2 months. Oh, I also had to have my belly button revised because once I started healing, my body just decided that I didn't need a belly button any more & grew skin right over the top of it. That was done outpatient, under local, very quick & painless.

So, it all sounds worse than it really was. It was definitely worth it & I would absolutely do it all over. My doctor did a great job. I had a horrible skin apron that I could grab & pull out from my body a good bit. It was down to the top of my bits--not attractive. I had quite a bit of upper abdominal skin laxity as well. When I bent over, the skin would hang down & it was awful. My tummy is now flat. The scar runs from mid-hip to mid-hip. He put it really low--so from my hip, down into the crease of my leg, over my pubic bone, into the other leg crease, & on to the other hip. It's very thin & is fading now to a silvery scar (like my stretch marks) so it's not very noticeable at all. Some of my abdominal stretch marks were removed, my c-section scar is gone. I do still have some upper abdominal skin laxity. I could have had a fleur de lis tummy tuck (with a vertical incision) or a reverse tummy tuck (where they pull the skin up & put the scar under your breasts) which would have solved that problem. Neither of those options were appealing to me. The skin that hangs now when I bend over is much better than it was & I can live with it.

I love how I look now. It made all the difference for me. Losing the weight just didn't do it. I was still unhappy. Everyone can say that I should have been happy to be healthier, but I wasn't. Now I am. If I had the money, I'd do my arms & neck as well .