Please complete the sentence "What I wished I would have known before having...

I have my surgery scheduled for 9/4 I will be having an arm lift and a abdominoplasty. I have read and read but I dont believe you can ever been too informed. Could you please tell me what you wish you would have known before having the surgery? 

I dont want to set my expectations too high and be dissapointed. I am 140's and have lost 140ish as well as giving birth to twins 6 months ago.... My stomach is a mess.

I don't care about where my scar was.  My surgeon made it very low but that left fat and skin under my breast area.  I think if the scar was made higher up more fat could have been removed from the area that really concerned me.  I guess it depends what your body type is and where your problem area is.  Good luck to you :)

I wish that I knew how far I was going to go with plastics so that I could have combined several things together.  For each step forward we did touch-ups/revisions on things done in the past - so I don't necessarily think I would have saved any great amount of money - I just would have seen my results faster.  Doc was wonderful with his charges along the way as well.  The other thing that I wish I knew was how long it would take for my scars to fade.  I guess I am one of those people who just have to wait it out.  I have scars from 3 years ago that while now flat, I still can see the red lines.  I know that this is just me and I would much rather have this than the fat filled skin or the sagging skin.  I have one final procedure scheduled - although that is what I thought the last time too - where we are doing some final touch-ups.  Good luck with your journey.

That I don't care about the scars at all.  They will fade, and even if they didn't, I'll take my flat, taut tummy and perky boobs over the mess that I had before.  Honestly, my results were even better than I could have hoped for.  I never thought I'd look the best naked, but I do.  Even with the scars.  Hubby can't keep his hands off of me.  It's really a wonderful feeling actually loving your body.

That your patience will be exercised much more than your body ever will.  The healing takes longer than you expect.  About 80% of it happens pretty quickly - but the last 20% takes it's own sweet time.  And you'll want to strangle your doc when he tells you, "well, you're only a month out - it'll take time - have PATIENCE!"....and that he's right.

That the phases they tell you you'll go through really will happen - dopey, happy, hypercritical, depressed - in no particular order; and that they'll come and go for several weeks/months.

All that said, the results are totally worth it and the process is pretty quickly forgotten.  Something like childbirth. 

That my stomach was not going to be tight and taught..........

I just had a tummy tuck last week so I'm 7 days post op. I think taking pictures before, during, and once you have recovered is a great thing to do. Currently I look at my before pic along with the pictures I took today after taking the binder off. It really puts things in perspective, especially when you feel like your body is a disaster.

I wish that I had known how chilly I would become when I got back from the hospital. 

Thank you for all the responses! I'm trying to keep my expectations within reason and it sounds like everyone has good advice and things for me to think about. 

I will be seeing the surgeon again tomorrow so I will address him with my concerns of any loose skin or fat being left near the breast area.. That would bother me. Although I will eventually have a breast lift as well which could potentially cure that issue. 

I wish I had known how much harder then recovery would be.  I never had complications with any previous surgeries and barely took any time off work.  The tummy tuck and arm lift have continued to make my life a roller coaster ride from hell.  I didn't have much pain, but I have had every complication known to man.  I had my lower drains in for almost four weeks which was awful and then I still developed three post-op fevers requiring more antibiotics and even a bounce back fungal infection as a result of the continued antibiotics.  Last week, I had to have follow up surgery because I had developed fluid build up in my abdomen.  What makes that extra fun is that my surgeon saw the incisions on Wed and my primary care saw them on Friday when I had fever of 102.6 and they both said the incisions were healing beautifully.  This was great until...the tummy tuck incision burst open on Sunday and several cups of fluid came GUSHING out when I raised the binder to use the bathroom Sunday morning.  It was something straight out of the Alien movie.  My husband is still repulsed by the fountain of fluid along with assorted floating objects.  This is NOTHING like my other recovery periods.  BEWARE!  The surgeon by the way, is board certified and well respected.  Every time I go for a follow up he states that I am doing well.  Yikes!