For those who have had plastics....

Would you mind sharing some costs with us?  I'm specifically interested in arms and tummy.... thanks in advance!

Costs can vary wildly with what procedures you have, How much skin needs to be removed, whether or not you need any muscle repair etc.  To get a more complete idea, you will need to schedule consults with several surgeons in your area.  Also, be certain to look for surgeons skilled in post bariatric patients who meet your profile for gender, amount of weight lost, etc.

If you are considering trying to get insurance to cover any of the cost, ask for both a cosmetic quote and an insurance quote.  The numbers can be quite different and you could be responsible for anything insurance does not pay out of your own pocket.  Very few facilities will let you only pay the cosmetic rates for anything insurance doesn't cover.  You could wind up paying more out of pocket for an incomplete insurnace coverage than just paying cosmetic out of pocket.

The cost is typically broken down into three categories:

1.  Surgeons Fees

2.  Hospital/Surgery Center Fees

3.  Anesthesia Fees

 

I had a lower body lift last october with thighs and buttocks.  For the abdominoplasty portion, I had an anchor cut abdominoplasty with muscle repair.  I was in surgery for close to 11 hours and had an overnight hospital stay.  The total for that was close to $30K.  I prepaid most of that, but after the surgery I got a bill from the hospital for the additional OR time and the overnight stay in the hospital.  The original quote was for 8 hours of surgery time, I had to pay for the additional time.

I recently had my brachioplasty and mastopexy.  The total for this one is just short of 20k.  

For both procedures, I paid a flat fee of around 3K for Anesthesia.  The hospital charges for the surgery were between $3 and 10k.  My surgeons fees were less than 10K for each surgery and include all post op follow ups and any needed revisions (which I haven't needed any of yet, knock on wood).  As far as complications, all I had was a small seroma on my left thigh that took some effort to finally drain out.

I took one week off of work for each procedure.  IF you don't have sick leave or vacation time to cover it, take lost wages into account.

I hope what you are taking from this is that the cost of these procedures can be complicated and there are many factors you need to take into account.  Be thorough, ask as many questions as you can, get as many details as you can.  In my experience a lot of surgeons focused on the cosmetics and the fluff and not so much on the details of either the payment process or the clinical aspect of the surgery.  The surgeon I chose finally was very detailed and was a doctor before being a cosmetician.

You might also want to cross post your question on the plastic surgery forum.

thanks for all the info!

Sorry to hijack OP.

Rob, you only took one week off for your two surgeries?  Or one week off for LBL, one week for thighs, etc?  Did you work from home, or back to driving et al after one week?  Thanks.

  

I had two surgeries - The LBL+Thighs+Butt in one surgery, and the Chest+back+arms in the second surgery.

I only took 1 week off total for each surgery.  

I am a consultant so I do work from home when I am not traveling.  I did not have to travel for a couple of weeks after each surgery.  Next week will be my first trip after my last surgery.

 

I actually started driving within that week.  I only do the pain meds for about 3 days after surgery.  With the abdominoplasty I had a pain ball that was empty 2 or three days after surgery.

Dude, you are a WARRIOR! 

Haha, no kidding, huh???  I picture Carol Burnett beating on her chest doing the tarzan yell!!

Dallas prices - includes surgeon, anesthesia and surgical suite for one night

LBL - $13,500 (I think tummy tuck alone was around $8,000)

thighs - $8,500

arms and breast lift - about $6,000 each.  Don't quote me on that one!

The LBL is the only one I've had done so far.  Thighs are scheduled for February.  If it had just been skin removal, the recovery would have been fairly easy.  The abdominal muscle repair is a killer!  No way I was functioning at a week.  I was 3 weeks totally off work, one week teleworking.  And I was still walking hunched over when I came back to work.

I had LBL/breast lift in Houston at a cost of about 23k...no implants and that was for hospital and anesthesia as well. A year later I had thighs and arms done for about 11k total. Hope this helps.

Laura

I think I am going to Mexico for Dr. Sauceda.  Arms, breasts, Lower Body lift, thighs will be only about 18k total.  He reimburses for some of the airfare, too.  Plus, this covers 12 days there and daily visits from him and nurses.  It is total care. I had a consult with him in Orlando.  He is excellent.