Plastics in Mexico - questions for those who have gone

[Sweet Pee 349]

Why do I post more about my plastic surgery and not about my weight loss experience? Very fair question:-)

My surgery for weight loss was a very personal thing for me. This was my SECOND time losing more than a 120 lbs.

I gained weigh the second time after having two more beautiful children. (I have 4 kids in all) The last two pregnancies put 120lbs on me. Heck, I had to lose weight all over again!

When it was time to lose the weight, I knew I could do it. Gaining it back was the problem. I never wanted to gain weight ever again!

This is the reason I had weight lose surgery.

I just remember the first time - it was extremely hard to lose, but I did it in a year.

The second time I lost weigh was with the sleeve, it was still just as hard.

When losing weight, I used this site for motivation mostly, not for posting.

I never felt I had any questions or comments about weight loss, so I only posted maybe one time about it. I always read on this site about exercising and running. Plus, I eat vegan/vegetarian and so I had to use other sources of information other than this site.

I also stayed in the gym and went to many boot camps. After getting up at 4am every morning, I was too tired to do anything during weight loss :-)

When it was time for plastic surgery, it was extremely difficult finding a plastic surgeon that would meet my needs. It took me a year to locate my plastic surgeon. Since I have been on this site for a while now, I have seen many pictures of after plastic surgery results that have made me cry, the results were so bad. I mean awful!

I felt no woman should have to suffer like that! It was not fair! We have worked so hard to achieve our weight loss goals, then a butcher of a plastic surgeon get his dirty hands on a beautiful woman and completely messes up her body. It still make me sad, mad, and upset to see someone who has plastic surgery and their results are hedious. No one should have to experience that. No one! I am still very passionate about it, as you can see.

My results were very, very good! I felt people should know about my plastic surgeon, so I started to post. Why keep something like this a secret I told myself. Posting is not a easy thing for me. I am a quite person. I do it so people can know their are options. I receive no benefits from posting. I am just a person who loves and cares about people and want the best for them. I never want to see anyone hurt and deformed because of plastic surgery.

I hope you understand :-)

[JamieLogical 8,708]

When it was time to lose the weight, I knew I could do it. Gaining it back was the problem. I never wanted to gain weight ever again!

That's exactly how I felt when I got my sleeve. I had lost 90+ pounds before that "on my own" and regained after my plastics. I tried to re-lose the weight a few times again "on my own" losing 40+ pounds again, but again regained. When I was facing yet another attempt to lose the weight this past summer, I realized that I needed WLS to keep the weight off once I lost it again. For me, it's more like weight MAINTENANCE surgery than weight LOSS surgery. But I knew I should get it while at my high BMI, since surgeons don't usually want to do WLS on a patient with a healthy BMI.

[Bluesea71 698]

Thank you for your response, sweet pea. Completely makes sense. I appreciate your response and I'm glad you took my question in the way it was meant and didn't feel under attack. My Husband thinks I'm nuts to even entertain the idea of plastics in Mexico, so it's going to take a lot of research and convincing on my part to get him to buy into the process. Anytime I mention good reviews online he wants to know if I've actually "talked" to those people. I think I've watched too many episodes of "Catfish" on MTV with my teenager and her friends with people pretending to be people they are not on the Internet! I have to say though, Medical Tourism is big. If these Surgeons are smart, they will have full-time employees whose job is to market and recruit clients on different Internet forums.

Sweet pea - now that I have your attention - can you explain how your surgeon closes his wounds? Something about internal stitching? I also noticed on your Tummy Tuck one side goes straight across and the other side goes up like you would be wearing high cut panties. Typically the incision just goes straight across. Why is that?

[Sweet Pee 349]

@@Bluesea71

Thank you for understanding. You are very nice.

My husband was the same way. Husband are protectors. They just want us to be safe.

I was one of those special cases. I inherited my mom's thin Irish skin, plus I stretched it several times from the weight gain and pregnancies. My skin is so super paper thin. There were several things he could not do to me and had to use alternative methods. For example, he could not pull my skin super tight, otherwise my skin would have ripped apart. I went back a year later and was pulled tighter durning my thigh lift surgery just as he promised.

For me he explained in great detail this was the best way specifically for me. I can not recall all the exact reasons. My body is not straight, so he had to do things a bit differently on me so that I could get the best results possible. Like I said, I was one of those special cases. (I got a little light headed durning my markup, so I do not remember everything.)

I am glad I had someone who cared enough about all those little things, which added up perfectly in my favor. I healed healthy and happy, without complications.

I grew up sewing with my mom. (Smile) I hemmed a lot of clothes by hand. If you are familiar with the 'blind stitch,' then you will have some general idea how he does it. Hard to explain, but all layers of sutures are internal.

[Bluesea71 698]

Your results turned out amazing sweet pee. The idea of getting breast implants freaks me out the same way the idea of a lap did did. I am having trouble with the idea of having something foreign in my body that I know won't last forever. Your pictures gave me hope that I may have enough breast tissue left to just do a lift. We shall see. I am familiar with the stitch you described. Would you be willing to provide an up close picture of your Tummy Tuck scar? I guess I could also attempt to view your pics on an actual computer monitor vs. my tiny phone. Haha

[Sweet Pee 349]

I understood that breast implants do not have a lifetime warranty. Surgery is required again after so many years of use, therefore I chose not to get implants. My push-up bra works wonders when I want my girls to sit under my chin. Otherwise, I love them. They may not work for everybody, but they are just right for me.

I was not striving for perfection. That is not what plastic surgery means. For me, it meant improvement, satisfaction and a measure of happiness which is fulfilled from a self-esteem boost looking at the reflection of a better looking body. The rest must come from continuos work on the inside of myself, because the outside changes will only provide temporary satisfaction and happiness.

My breast are important to me. I breast fed four children. It was my turn to enjoy them, right? I wanted them to be beautiful. I try to keep them beautiful too.

I wear a tight sports bra, because of my thin skin and I do not want these girls dropping to the floor again, so I use plenty support. They are just right for me.

Do not get me wrong, sometimes I do wish I had implants, and the way they could change the way I look, but then I think about what is going to happen when I am 65 years old and living off my pension$

My scars for the most part has blended in even more with my skin tone. My camera is on the brink, but I will see what I can do.

[JamieLogical 8,708]

@@Bluesea71 I'll see if I can get my husband to take some photos of my TT scar tonight. It's funny to me NOW that people are so concerned about the scars, but I remember back when I was researching plastic surgery, how worried I was about the scars as well. Now I am so used to them and feel they are so worth the trade-off, that it seems silly to me that people who haven't gone through PS worry about them so much. My scar is a VERY small price to pay for my flat, tight stomach!

As for implants, it's the same way. Like you, I was all freaked out about having a foreign object inside of me, but now they are truly a part of me and I was miss them DESPERATELY if I had to have them taken out. In fact, I need a revision due to the malpositioning of my left implant after my weight re-gain and re-loss. One of the surgeons I got a consultation from wanted to remove my implants entirely and wait at least 6 weeks before replacing them. The idea of just going 6 weeks without my implants had me in a complete panic!

[Bluesea71 698]

Any pics you could provide would be great sweet pea and Jamie! I've spent hours looking at people's results on realself.com and can say there are some real hack jobs out there! I think I've become an expert if you will, at spotting a Tummy Tuck by analyzing a person's "new" belly button. Some just look weird! Other things I've noticed are what I think they refer to as "dog ears" where it puckers out on the sides and also some surgeons make a slight 1/2 - 1" vertical cut up the center of the incision near the belly button. Still confused what the purpose of that is? I am lucky that I don't have any excess skin except in my abdomen. I would need some time to save up for plastics and decided to wait a full year to consider having any work done anyway. The skin on my tummy has already retracted some. My Husband thinks it will continue to do so. I remind him how much my stomach stretched out when I was pregnant. It's never going to be flat again. Not without surgical intervention!

Edited April 29, 2015 by Bluesea71

[JamieLogical 8,708]

@@Bluesea71 Well you can see my belly button at least in some of my gallery pics. from far away, it looks pretty much like a normal belly button to me? Up really close, you can see a little scarring inside where the old belly button "tube" was stitched to the new belly button hole.

[Bluesea71 698]

Ha Ha Jamie. I wouldn't have mentioned the weird belly button if I thought you and sweet pea had weird ones Looks good to me ????

[Sweet Pee 349]

Speaking of weird belly buttons. . .

[AZDee 138]

I like how you mentioned the belly button. It was the belly button that caused me not to go to one particular surgeon that so many women have used...I searched and searched for just the right person to do my LBL and still keep my belly button looking the same. Mine looks exactly the same as it did before surgery. I would swear it was only I had a mole about 4 inches above my belly button before surgery and now it's right next to it. I do not know how to post a picture but there is one on my profile page...

[snacky 6]

I appreciate everyone's replies to this! I have been doing so much research and been so obsessed lately with finding the right surgeon. I have narrowed it down to three doctors. Ones prices are almost the same as here (Dr.sauceda) and I don't think its worth it to travel so far and pay the same amount of money! Does anyone have a hotel they rocmend staying at while there?

[AZDee 138]

Not sure what city you area referring to, but if it's Tijuana, I would say the best hotel there is Hotel Lucerna Tijuana, I've stayed at the Marriott and I believe the Lucerna is much nicer....

[Bluesea71 698]

I was thinking in the shower today (I tend to do a lot of my deep thinking there lol).... What does a Tummy Tuck feel like long term? I will frequently try to hold my stomach in but after awhile the tension becomes too much and poof, back out she goes! Once you recover from surgery, does it feel any different?