Thigh Lift - Scars along inner thigh - worth it or not??

I carry a lot of excess fat on the front of my upper thighs.  No matter how much and how many different exercises I do, this stubborn fat will not leave.  My plastic surgeon recommended 2 stage procedure. 1st liposuction of fat.... healing time.....2nd tightening/removal of skin. The thing that has me questioning the 2nd procedure is that the scar would run from the knee up to the groin area.  From the information I have obtained the outcome of this surgery has a lot to do with the skill of the surgeon.  Of the 4 surgeons I've consulted, they have all said Thigh lifts are the most complicated.

With all that said, does anyone have experience they wish to share and possible photos of healed incisions? Most of what I have seen on line is thigh lifts done with incisions in groin area. Unfortunately, this is not an option for me.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

I had a long thigh lift in early december. The scar goes from my groin to just beyond my knee. I had super wrinkly thighs. And I live in Miami and I'm a swimmer  (year round short dresses and swimsuits). For me it's worth it. The scar is still red, but eventually (soon, I hope) it'll fade to white. No one (I don't think) is looking at my inner thighs, so I'm not self conscious about them. When I cross my legs, I pull the skirt down to cover the scar. I'm happier without the wrinkles, but will be happiest when the scar fades.

I am currently recovering from a thigh lift. My surgeon warned me about how long he would have to make the scar. My response was that my alternative was to continue to live with these legs which I was not happy with. I have lost over 100 pounds and no matter how hard I worked, I could not get rid of this remaining thigh fat. So this was my only option. The scars are pretty noticeable as I am not that far out from surgery but I can already see that in some places they are going to almost completely disappear. And in the others where they will just fade, I am happy with that result. But that is a decision that is one you will have to decide for yourself. Was an easy one for me as I am extremely happy with how they look not to mention what being rid of them has done for my mental body image.

Jeterway,

Thanks for your response. Question did you have lipo of your thighs prior to the lift surgery?  If so, how long did you wait between the surgeries?

Mine was all done at the same time. He removed a large amount of fat from inner and outer thighs. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well my outer thighs looked, my saddlebags are gone. We also did a revision a couple of months out to provide more symmetry and fine tune some spots.

Interesting. It boggles my mind how I get a scientific/medical answer as to why a surgeon should never do lipo and then skin tightening at the same time, yet it is done. It really frustrates me as a person *****ally likes to be fully informed and make wise decisions.  I'm so glad things are turning out well for you.  My desire is to just be able to buy a  pair of pants that fits and is flattering. It is becoming more and more common for designers to make straight cuts, curvey cuts, fitted thigh, relaxed thigh pants. I think they finally came to realize we all don't look like a stick model and curves are awesome and admired !!!!  Looking forward to having a more balanced shaped body..... that's all.

Splitting it up into multiple surgeries wasn't even a topic of discussion in my consult.  I hadn't thought to ask.  I assume he does it as one procedure because it is one recovery.  Perhaps given the amount of work that he had to do on me, it made sense to do most of it in one procedure knowing that we could fine tune it with a small revision.  I am extremely happy with the results.  I get frustrated with this process as well since there are so many different ways to do things based on how you are shaped and the skills of the surgeon.  I also had the issue with pants sizing.  I had to get a larger size just because of my thighs and saddlebags.  Was very frustrating.  There were some styles of pants that I would never be able to get up over my thighs.  But all of that is gone.  I have had quite a few procedures in my life but this one has had just such a large impact on my life it is amazing - never thought that would be the case.  Would do it again in a heartbeat.  Many folks also talk about the skin being stretched so tight that they can't sit down and find it difficult to move around.  I didn't experience that tightness - and I don't have any loose skin now.  While I was careful moving around immediately after surgery, it wasn't due to tightness.  I had one small area perhaps 2 inches long that the scar opened slightly and took a little longer to heal - but really doesn't look bad.  I wish you well with your procedure.  Glad to answer any more questions you may have.

Jeterway,

How restricted were you with regards to just walking after the surgery?

I was told to walk as much as possible - start out slow and progress as tolerated.  Not cleared for any gym wor****il my followup appointment at about a month out.  I live in a three story home but had no restrictions on stair climbing - just to be careful the first couple of times.  It really all was based on how I felt.  Of course he did caution me heavily on how quickly to progress to stress to me that I didn't want to do something stupid and experience a setback.  But having the surgery and being under anesthesia, I didn't want to move to quickly the first 2 days anyway.  On day 3 I took my first shower, on day 4, my husband took me to the store so that I could walk around; on day 5 we went out to dinner, on day 6, I was driving myself around for errands.

Hi Jeterway - who was your surgeon, and where were they located?  Thanks,