Risks Of Abdominoplasty

Question:

This surgeon told me that I'm to fat to have an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) done. His advice, lose weight and come back to see him.

My tummy gets in the way so much that I can't breathe when I bend over to tie my shoes, I can hardly keep up with my 4 year old, I have diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol which all could be helped by the surgery. I know the risks and benefits and am willing to risk it.

My insurance company said, if a doctor recommends it, chances are that they will at least help pay for it.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Answer:

I can tell you first hand about a tummy tuck. No it's not just liposuction. The surgeon cuts, pulls, and repairs the rectus muscles, plus lipos your back to even everything out. I had it done last year and LOVE my results. He's not wrong about losing weight. You need to optimize your results for plastic surgery. Not that anybody cares, but in my case, I went from a size 6 to a 1. Granted I stay away from the carbs and do hundreds of sit-ups, but that's just what I feel I need to do to maintain the surgery. As far as the recovery, in a FULL abdominoplasty, well, a few weeks is very optimistic. Yes, you'll feel better, but you won't be able to do much else, bending, lifting, even shaving your legs, nearly impossible for around 8 weeks, the pain factor is pretty high as well, although percosets and valium are given liberally for pain relief. I wore the torso support belt for nearly 6 months, on the advice of my doctor. I had twins and had nearly a 3 inch repair to the muscles.

My friend (age 50) had this surgery last fall mainly because of the reasons you listed (health risks) she did have to lose weight first though too...She is about 5'4 and lost down to 180...I am guessing she lost about 25-30 pounds doing Atkins....The pain of the surgery was tremendous, and she realized when she got home that she was reacting to the pain meds, so had to suffer in pain until her dr. could get her a different rx... and her Dh could go get it, etc....it was only a couple of hours, but she was really in hell....throwing up while dealing with the pain of the surgery.

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