Ramsen Azizi, MD

You are still going to be tight, sore, and uncomfortable a week after your tummy tuck. A quick 1-2 hour flight is going to be a million times easier on you than a long car ride (you should have someone help you with your luggage, you won't be solo yet). I am ok with having my patients take a plane ride a week after surgery and usually recommned getting an aisle seat (business class if you can), and getting up every hour or so to walk to the bathroom in order to keep blood flowing. Every day you extend in Florida after a week will exponentially help you have an easier trip back (day 7 vs. day 8 vs. day 9 makes a difference). I personally do not have my patients buy the compression machine for the legs. I would run all this by your surgeon to see their input but this is generally how I would advise my patients. Best of luck on your journey!

You might be able to find a plastic surgeon who will collaborate with the general surgeon to do this at the same time but it isn't ideal. You will have to find a plastic surgeon you really like, who is good, AND has privileges at the same facility that the general surgeon does to operate, AND they will need to both have same openings and coordinate their schedule. There is also the fact that the plastic surgeon will probably be waiting for a couple hours while the general surgeon is operating and would you end up getting charged for that? Not to mention the gas from stretching the belly during the gallbladder operation, or the fact that they have to go through the belly button that will be worked on by the plastic surgeon complicates things. Gallbladder surgery is generally easy to recover from so it is much better to do two stages and focus on your plastic surgery recovery. Many many reasons to do 2 stages but not many reasons to do it in one stage. Best of luck to you on your journey!

A couple things I see here to keep in mind. In the photo where you are sitting or standing, we see a bit of extra skin hanging out. This usually means that you can get a nice benefit by removing a bit more skin at the bottom (like a mini TT). After a long period of time, a good tummy tuck can still age and stretch because the person is still human and aging. Also, we do see that fat cells can't come back but you can still gain weight after surgery because you are human, and the weight has to go somewhere. It is HARDER for it to come back to an area that was liposuctioned or removed but it does not mean it CAN'T come back. You can always work on trying to lose weight because that will help....but getting a surgical consult to see if you can have a bit more skin removed at that apron at the bottom will be a good solution. Best of luck to you on your journey!

I don't doubt that you have the loose skin that needs excision and you would benefit from tummy tuck, arm lift and butt lift. However, if you are on immunosuppresent medications because of the transplant (which just about everyone has to be on), these get in the way of healing wounds/tissues and increase the chance of infection. This is why most plastic surgeons will generally not take on a case in a post-transplant patient because of the increased risk of complications. It is unfortunate and I understand where you are coming from, but I think you will have a hard time finding a plastic surgeon to do the case. Best of luck to you on your journey.

It is hard to evaluate your lower belly because the photos cut off just there. You do have a good amount of fat around your midsection so a high volume lipo 360 would be helpful....but the question is do you need a tummy tuck and muscle repair as well? You did not mention if you had history of pregnancies but I'm guessing you may have and if you had multiple children, then more likely would need a tummy tuck. What I do see though is the lower part of your belly seems to have some sagging to it and I worry that liposuction alone would cause it to sag more. That is the bigger reason to do the tummy tuck. You probably do have some muscle stretching that would benefit from repair during the tummy tuck. But mostly from what I see your lower abdomen skin doing right now, it looks like you would probably need a tummy tuck to make it better. Best of luck on your journey!

This can be common after surgery for a few reasons: 1) Intra-abdominal fat - If you had a good amount of visceral or intra-abdominal fat prior to surgery, then this can remain and be a bit bigger and weight loss helps 2) Upper abdomen fat - you have to be more careful with the upper abdomen fat and cannot lipo as much in this area during the tummy tuck or you risk wound issues. You can get more lipo to bring this down at this point 3) Stretching of the muscle repair - this happens as well, you may need to have re-repair of the muscle if it stretched out after surgery again For all of these things, I would consult your surgeon and see what they think is contributing to this situation and what the best fix would be. Best of luck to you.

These do vary from surgeon to surgeon and depending on how much liposuction was done. When patients have a lot of fat, we do much more liposuction to create a bigger difference, and they put out more fluid....which makes the drains take longer to come out. However, it is usually drain 1 comes out at week 1 and drain 2 at week 2. I find patients need a minimum of 2 weeks off to get back to a desk job, and 3 weeks is better (or working from home). This is because the muscle repair really makes things more stiff and sore, combined with the decreased energy from lots of liposuction. I would ask each surgeon you consult with this question because it will vary depending on surgeon and your body exam. Best of luck on your journey!

You have a textbook belly for a tummy tuck. This is mostly because of the skin sagging you have there. If you did liposuction alone, you would not see much of a difference but the sagging would look worse (and so would the overall belly). The tummy tuck skin excision would make the biggest difference for you, followed by the diastasis muscle repair, along with some liposuction to help thin you out. You do not have a ton of fat to make a big difference with lipo so I would very much recommend the tummy tuck with some liposuction. You can get a very nice result and difference. Best of luck on your journey!

In my experience of training with 40-50 surgeons, I found that almost all use a combination of permanent and dissolving depending on their preferences. I personally use a good strong permanent one as the main layer with a handful of long term dissolving ones on top as a "second parachute" if you cough or throw up after surgery so the main one does not break. The problem I personally see with using all dissolving is that after 3 months, they start to lose their tension and if you start working out and flexing too much, you can get more stretching than using a permanent, in my opinion. Make sure to look at a lot of the surgeon's postop photos to see looks that you like. If he/she can deliver that look you like with their technique, then that's more important than which technique they are using. Best of luck on your journey!

I think you are going to get some split opinions here. I personally can see why some people would recommend a fleur de lis....but I think you could get a very nice result still from doing a traditional tummy tuck and pulling the skin downward. I don't like to do a fleur de lis unless the patient truly has a lot of midline skin because you are trading it off for a visible scar. I do think you would need an extended tummy tuck for sure because of the skin sagging that goes around the side. You might also benefit from a back lift or gluteal lift for that back skin depending on what your goals and in-person exam is. I would personally first do the extended tummy tuck and then see what further goals you have (if any) for your body. Great job on losing weight and best of luck on your journey!