Your experience with medial thigh lift

Hi Amy, thanks for your reply. I agree completely that we need a surgeon very experienced with WLS patients. At first I did not realize that our bodies were different than "normal" people. Someone mentioned it on this board and it got me curious so I researched it. Wow, after reading some of the study abstracts about plastic surgery after massive weight loss, it was pretty sobering to read the clinicians ever to our bodies as deformed. Ouch.

I was unaware that our bodies were such a challenge to fix. Sure, some surgeons take the approach of improvement is the goal, that anything is almost better than what we have to begin with. But if I am spending all this money I want nice legs!!! I have a plastic surgeon who is in my opinion and experience the best. He has done many of these procedures, and I believe has done more medial thigh lofts than anyone in the world. I am meeting with him next month to discuss staging my next series of procedures.

please excuse typos as I am using an iPad and the site is not that perfectly mobile optimized.

can you tell me what is was that you hated about your thigh lift originally? Based on comments I am reading here, I guess I will prepare myself for the possibility of a second procedure. Do the surgeons charge for that? I am guessing they do. Perhaps I should begin playing the lottery.

Thank you.

I had a thigh lift.  I always carried most of my weight in my stomach and thighs.  Even though I lost over 100 pounds and work my legs pretty good on both cardio and weight machines, there was still a good amount of fat and excess skin on my inner thighs.  I knew that was the one surgery that I wanted.  The PS kept telling me about how long the scar would be to make sure that I was aware of what the end result would be.  But the texture and amount of excess skin that I had on my inner thigh was just unacceptable to me.  My feeling was that the scar would be easier to live with that the fat/skin.  And I knew that the scar would fade some over time.  So I went ahead and did the surgery.  I love my new legs.  Don't get me wrong, I will never be a magazine model but given where I was, these thighs are wonderful.  I didn't have many of the issues of excessive tightness during recovery that caused things to open up.  I did have a revision to remove a little more excess fat.  He would only pull out so much on the first surgery as it would not have been safe to take it all in one shot.  That gave me an opportunity to determine where I wanted tweeks in the procedure the second time around.  I used to have to buy larger sized pants because my thighs were so big and some styles I just couldn't buy because of the thin legs on them.  I've actually been able to drop a size and the pants fit me loosely around the hip and thigh now.  I do not regret having this surgery at all.  In some spots the scar is a little wider than others but for most of the scar, it is just a long thin line that is slowly fading.  I had the thigh lift all by itself.  Since I didn't have the tightness, recovery wasn't that bad.  All of the pain was from the lipo, none really from the incision.  I used bromelain and arnica montana right before and after the surgery.  These helped to reduce the swelling and bruising.  I had to wear my compression garment for about 6 weeks full time and then dropped down to 12 hours per day for the next 2 weeks.  Then it was spanx like garments for 12 hours per day for the next 2 weeks.  Then I only wore them when I wanted to.  In continued to wear them for workouts for the next few weeks just because it made me feel more secure.  Swelling wasn't all that bad.  I never had to limit what I was wearing because of swelling.  The meds and the garment kept that under control.

This is all really good to know jeterway. Thank you. I have a lot of cellulite in the front of my legs. I am not sure that can be fixed. One surgeon told me not to let anyone lipo it. I forget his rational, but I think he said it would make the skin cave???

How noticeable is your scar? How far out are you from the surgery? 

Please help me to understand why it would not have been safe to remove al at once?

Do your thighs touch? I sometimes get a rash from mine rubbing together. And of course there is the dreaded front wedgie to deal with. Nothing sparks feminine like pulling a wedgie out from between your inner thighs!

Thanks very much for sharing your experience. I am really glad you are happy - make that love - your results!!

My initial surgery was August of 2012. I had lots of cellulite as well.  It is my understanding that each PS has limits on the amount that they will lipo an area at one time.  I believe the theory is that removing too much fat at one time can cause more difficult recovery.  I will say that I have had several surgeries over the past several years and this one took the longest for me to bounce back from.  Its not that I felt bad, it just took me a few days to feel like myself again.  I was tired and lacked any appetite for a couple of days right after the surgery - that was unusual for me. 

I had a revision of my left leg a couple of weeks after the initial surgery due to a complication that I had.  Then a revision of the right leg in February of this year.  I wanted to remove a little more skin and fat from the right leg.  I am planning on having my arms done shortly and there is some minor tweeking that will be done on each leg for just a little more fat.

 

One thing that I am very pleased with is that I was totally focused on the inner thigh as I have always had so much rubbing going on.  I constantly was faced with pulling my shorts down between my legs as they would always ride up.  The minor tweeking that we are going to do will remove the one tiny area of my thighs touching that remains.  Even now, there is such a little bit of rubbing but I want to get rid of it all.  But the PS also did a great job of pulling the fat from my outer thighs and hips.  I no longer have the saddle bags that I once had.  All I think about is how that wasn't even a concern because I was so focused on the inner thigh.  And now that is the thing that I am the most happy about.  He did a wonderful job because thank god he was looking at the big picture.  I now have a nice contour in my outer thighs.  I can actually see my muscles now not only when I exercise but also when I just walk. 

 

I have just recently started wearing shorts.  The lower parts of my scars were not involved in the revisions so they are the lightest parts and are fading nicely.  You can only see them when I cross my legs.  No one has made any comments regarding the scars and I am feeling more and more comfortable with them being there.  As I have said, I am gladly trading the old fat which was very unsightly for the thin scar that I have.  I never dreamed that my legs could look this good.

Thanks for the additional info, Jeterway. I am so glad to hear how happy you are with your results. Would you mind telling me who your surgeon was and how much it cost for the initial surgery and the revisions? Please feel free to PM me if you prefer. However, I won't be able to reply to your PM - just letting you know I am having some issues with it.

when I see my surgeon next month I am asking him to look at the big picture. I have a list of things I would like to fix, and I am going to ask him if he sees anything else. Then I am going to ask him to put together a plan for achieving it all. 

I think he did an amazing job with my TT but I see some areas that I want to tweak. Since my inner thighs are such a mess, I would not be surprised if they will need a revision after the initial procedure. 

My outer thighs and hips are perfectly fine. But the front of my thighs are blech with cellulite. So I am concerned that he would not be able to fix everything in front with just a medial thigh lift. It seems to me that he would have to pull from both the inner and outer thigh. But that is just a guess.

thanks again for your replies!!!

My surgeon was Stephen Kovach - he is with the hospital of the university of Pennsylvania. I don't remember my exact costs but I think the first surgery was a little over 5,000 and the revision was a little over 3,000. Before I even got the estimates I was thinking it would be 10-12,000 total, so this was good for me.

I believe some tweaking is usually required with us given the amount of work they are doing on us for each of these procedures. Even with that in mind, the improvements that we see after that first procedure can be amazing.

I love the university of Pennsylvania. I never thought to look at them for plastic surgery. Thank you. That sounds like a pretty good price to me.

They have a great surgical facility at the Perelman center that they use for same day surgery that is cheaper than using the hospital. So you get the skilled surgeons and a more reasonable facility fee. If you are serious about looking at them, I would strongly recommend the surgeon that I used. He is very good at what he does and has a great bedside manner.

I really would like Dr. Capella to do my work because I had a great experience with him and his practice on my TT/mons lift. However, it may come down to price being an issue as I want a lot of work done on my body. So, I may contact your surgeon. Thank you for the good recommendation. The Perelman Center is great.

Hello ladies, thank you for the timely posts. I had an LBL done in Feb 2012 and am now considering a thigh lift. I am planning on using the same surgeon i used for my LBL..he is a true artist and I trust him implicitly. I lost 130 lbs and everyone always tells me my legs "aren't that bad" but it is so frustrating to be as active as I am (I am now 21 percent body fat) but my damn inner thighs are wrinkly and I have cellulite on the back of my legs. I have worked hard for this body and I want to wear 2" inseam booty shorts! Ha ha

Is anyone comfortable sharing before/after pics? It is always helpful to see your starting point and end result, fully knowing that each person has a different outcome and healing process. My pictures are in my profile.

Thanks,
Jen