Plastic Surgery

I am just comming from my first consult for plastic surgery... very informative and all went well... wanted to let you know the costs I was quoted for those of you looking into will have an idea. **these are the surgeons fees only - do not include hospital!** Surgery 1 Extended Abdominoplasty $10000 (includes buttock auto-augmentation) Brachioplasty (arms) - $3000 Sugery 2 Mastopexy (breast lift - no implants) - $5000 Thighplasty Medial (inner thigh lift) - $5000 Good lawd thats a lot of money!

YIKES!!! And it would probably be more here in CA. I keep reading about people going to Mexico to have it done with good results. There is a place that has a clinic on the CA side of the border but you go into Mexico for the actual surgery. Will your insurance pay any part of it? Maybe some of the ab stuff? Michelle

I really dont meet medical necessity.... my belly does hang low but I do not have rashes/infections or any other issue. Ive seen some photos of pannis and I am interested in "all or nothing" so Id rather have a full TT or nothing.

Isn't it outrageous?? Now that I have had my tummy and boobs done, my thighs and arms are hideous! I don't want more surgery due to expensive, down time, and PAIN. On the other hand, the results are too good to be true and if I didn't do more I would look like I was half done. LOL Can't win... Thanks for the info! Robin

I was just thinking about that... if I had to pick, which I am sure I will, the arms and stomach are the most important... my breasts really arnt all that bad so my main concern would be the inner thigh looking horrible because the resk of the thigh looks good. We will see!

Holy, I say we all need to win a lottery. HOw much of this are you thinking of going through with? Yikes, hospital costs are over and above I decided to go back to my WLS surgeon for a panni. He will do an anchor cut panni and keep my belly button. I read on the PS board about people having pannis done to only the lower half and that they lost their navel. That didn't sound so appealing to me. I am still attached to my belly button and want to keep it (no pun intended). Having a general surgeon do the surgery might not be as asthetically pleasing as a plastic surgeon, but I am not going to show off my belly to anyone outside of my docs and my immediate family, so who cares. I will also go from two side by side pubic to sternum scars to just one, so it will still be an improvement. I do wish I could see pictures of his surgeries though. I forgot (was too shy maybe) to ask about what happens to the mons/ pubic area with his version of the surgery. The wait for plastic surgery for me would otherwise be 4 years. My WLS surgeon has me booked in for August 9th, and it will be covered by my provincial health plan, if the doc words the approval request right. I simply can't afford a self-pay tummy tuck. Lori

Ya, I figure all my reconstructive work will be around $15,000 in our area. Sounds about right to me. Is it too soon for us to be getting plastic surgery consults? I thought we had to wait 2 years before getting it done? I'm dying to get my body lift done. I'll take out whatever loan I have to to get rid of my excess skin and raise my boobs.

In this area most PS just want you at or near goal and at the same weight for 3 months to do the PS. I am currently at 174... PS said I needed to be at 145-155 range anything under was too small... over my operative risks were increased - my surgeon set my goal at 150-160 so its right on point. Some surgeons I called wouldnt schedule a consult unless you were at goal and maintained for 3 months, others would see you prior as long as you didnt have much to go.

Cool - I made an appointment to see a local surgeon next month. I'm looking at a tummy tuck, boob lift, removing the skin from my arms, and removing skin from my thighs. I'd rather get it all done at once instead of having to go in over and over for different surgeries. I've been around 128-130 for the past few months. If I manage to drop another 10 pounds, I don't think it's going to affect my surgery results. I'll have to post how it goes! My initial appointment is June 13th.

Be wary of a surgeon who will perform of all that in one shot... every surgeon here will not do all those together... most will not do arms and legs at the same time because how will you move around if all your limbs are healing? What I found is they will do the TT and arms together and the thighs at a later time... as for the breasts its been 50/50... some will do with the stomach/arms some want to wait to do with the thighs... pretty much every surgeon here aims for surgery to be around 6 hours... they dont schedule much over that. My surgeon (as well as another I saw) personally felt doing the inner thighs at the same time as the extended TT did not give the best result... he said you really needed to get the front, back, sides of the legs done first... then in a few months look at what needs to be done with the inner. He also said when you break into 2 surgeries if you need touch ups done (which is very common on the arms) you can just "squeeze" it in with your 2nd surgery instead of paying more to have just a few little things fixed... made sense for the most part. Ill be interested to see how your PS appt goes!