FatboySkin

May I ask who your surgeon is?

Sounds like it. Dr. Sauceda is my current front runner. I'm still considering other surgeons, but I keep coming back to Dr. Sauceda for a few reasons. Were you happy with your results and your experience?

The surgeon I'm looking at is Dr. Francisco Sauceda in Monterrey Mexico. He has a Facebook page you can join to read posts from other patients and post questions. There's also a massive archive of posts on ObesityHelp from his patients. From everything I've read he has a stellar reputation, but I have no personal experience with him OTHER than email correspondences. My impression from those exchanges are that he's incredibly responsive and very straight forward. He seems to be known for under promising and overdelivering on results, which I really respect. I'm strongly leaning toward scheduling surgery with him, but I'm not having surgery until I'm vaccinated for COVID, so I'll use that time to keep researching...

That's an interesting idea, but the surgeon I'm thinking about, told me that if I were to split things up he'd wait four months between surgeries. I do know if you do any facial work he'll do that as a separate surgery a few day after your body surgery. Another surgeon I'm looking at requires six months between procedures. I haven't done a consult yet, but with her I'd expect three surgeries. If I had the subsequent surgeries at exactly six month intervals, it'd probably be 15 months before I'm completely done and healed after the first surgery. I haven't made any decisions yet, but it's really hard to justify stretching things out that long unless I'm convinced the results or safety is a dramatic enough difference to justify it. My current impression is that it would be SLIGHTLY safer and the results would be SLIGHTLY better to spread it out, but I **think** both are small differences. Everyone I'm looking at has a great reputation and legions of adoring patients, so I'm fairly optimistic that things will work out pretty well no matter what I do.

@sillykitty your thought process is similar to my own. I've been corresponding with the surgeon I'll go with if I go down the road of a MASSIVE surgery and he's very honest that the absolute best results would be having a surgery for each procedure. If I got "the works" he doubts I'd even recognize where the compromises were, but he said he'd know and they'd be noticeable to HIM. So I think there IS a difference, but don't think it's a radical difference. If I were to spread things out then I think I'd probably wind up doing three surgeries over the course of a year and, in theory, that would provide the best results, but that is SO MUCH time when I can't exercise and I worry about losing progress that I've made and I worry about regain with that much down time. Let's be honest, I'd also like to get this behind me so I can get on with my life. That would probably wind up being 18 months of time that I spend doing some combination of preparing for surgery and recovering from surgery. I'm not convinced that the risks involved in the massive surgery are much, if any greater than spreading things out once you do the math of comparing a lesser risk three times versus a greater risk one time. I crunched some numbers based on some figures I was given by a couple of surgeons and it looked like a wash to me (I have to take it on faith the numbers I was given are accurate). I'm really torn, but I'm certainly leaning toward the massive surgery. The whole thing is a bit terrifying and I'll eventually have to make a decision and take a leap of faith. On the positive side, I think the surgeons I'm looking at are pretty terrific based on everything I've read. I'm hoping if I stick with one of them that there isn't a "wrong" decision.

This touches on one of my concerns. I'd stay locally for an extended period of time after the surgery and I'd have some nursing assistance, so I wouldn't be completely on my own. I think I can handle the extra misery, but I am concerned that I'm more likely to rip stitches or cause some other complication because of my inability to compensate with my legs or arms. I have thought about splitting the difference and having two surgeries. I've looked at this every which way and I think you're exactly right about compromises. Decisions, decisions... Thanks for your input!

If that's not the works, it's pretty darn close. The surgeon I'm looking at for "the works" does marathon surgeries on a regular basis, but he uses an epidural and twilight anesthesia as opposed to general anesthesia. It's my understanding that allows for a much longer surgery without the risks you'd face if you were under general anesthesia.

I expect the recovery to be brutal, but I think I can handle one brutal recovery over three "normal" recoveries, but I may be fooling myself... Two surgeries would probably be fine, but I really dislike the idea of spreading out everything over three surgeries.

I'm still in the research phase, but I have a few surgeons I'm very interested in. One of the surgeons often does a lower body lift, a thigh lift, chest work and an arm lift in one procedure. This is equal parts exciting and scary. He has an excellent reputation for results and safety, but that is a LOT of trauma. I think the other surgeons I'm looking at would likely require three surgeries for the that amount of work. If each surgery is two or three months before you're back to normal, that's an ADDITIONAL four to six months of recovery time versus having everything done at once. The idea of getting past the stage of my life in one surgery is VERY appealing. At the moment I'm leaning toward getting "the works" done and doing absolutely everything in my power to ensure that the recovery is a smooth as possible, but I'd love to hear feedback from folks who have gone down this road. Did anyone here have "the works" done and, if so, are you glad you did it? Thanks!

Thank you so much for the information. I knew thigh lifts were problematic, but I had no idea the complication rate is THAT high. Yikes. Do you recall how expensive the personal care nurses were? I'll eventually do consults with a few surgeons, some of which have after care built into their prices, so I feel like I need to tack that onto whatever quote I get from Dr. Michaels. I won't compromise my safety, but I'd be lying if I said price isn't a factor, even though it's behind safety and results.

Dr. Michaels is probably the US surgeon I'm most interested in at the moment. I plan on doing a few consults, so all this is subject to change, but right now Dr. Cardenas, Dr. Sauceda and Dr. Michaels are my top three surgeons. I assume you had surgery with Dr. Michaels, do you mind sharing how many procedures you had done? I'm curious how many procedures he's willing to do in one surgery. I plan on going alone and the lack of aftercare in the United States is a pretty big concern for me. What was your after care experience? In short, I'm VERY interested in anything you can share about Dr. Michaels. Thanks!

I hope I'm not fooling myself, but I keep telling myself that pain and misery I can handle. Complications, however, scare me quite a bit. No matter where I go I'll be flying, so at some point I'll return home and I want to do everything in my power to make sure I have no complications, particularly once I've returned home. If I can get results similar to some of the results I've seen, it looks like a game changer. It's a bit like bariatric surgery all over again. It's a little terrifying, but even more exciting. Bariatric surgery was absolutely a game changer and I have high hopes for plastics. Thanks for weighing in!

That's good that Dr. Cardenas would do the lower body lift and the breast lift in the same day. There's other work I'd like done, but lower body lift and chest are easily my top two items. Thanks again for sharing and best of luck if you move forward with your surgery!

I appreciate any information I can get, so thanks for chiming in. I've read that the epidural and twilight anesthesia that seems to be more popular in Mexico allows for longer surgeries. I've yet to read a big downside to that approach, so I don't really understand why it's not more popular in the United States. I assume you live near Chicago? I'm also in the midwest, but not anywhere near a surgeon I'd trust with this kind of surgery. If I have to get on a plane, I don't care if I'm flying to LA, DC, Tijuana or Monterrey as long as I'm in good hands when I get there. If I had a great local option, I'd probably go with that. Thanks again!

If you don't mind me asking, are you thinking about anything other than a lower body lift ("royal" if Cardenas, I assume)? If you're getting a few procedures done, how many separate surgeries is each surgeon recommending? I get the impression that she's much more conservative than Dr. Sauceda in terms of the number of procedures she'll do in one surgery. I've seen Dr. Sauceda patients get a lower body lift, arm lift, thigh lift and breast lift all in one LONG surgery and then a neck lift a few days later. That sounds like A LOT, but I gather he has an excellent safety track record. I really like the idea of Dr. Cardenas' recovery house, but I also like the idea of getting EVERYTHING done in one shot. Getting that much work done at once is a little scary, but it seems like Dr. Sauceda does these type of massive marathon surgeries on a regular basis. As you can see, I'm pretty torn :). I am certain I'm going to do consults with both these doctors, so I'm very interested in your experience. I'm also considering consults with some US surgeons, but the lack of aftercare is almost a deal breaker for me. I likely won't have surgery till next year, so I'm probably going to hold off on consults for at least a few more months. Between Cardenas and Sauceda I have no idea who'd give the better result. The sample size of male before and afters is pretty small for almost all surgeons, so it's really difficult to get a feel for how things might turn out. I try to tell myself that they're both great and I'll be happy no matter what, but it's hard to believe the results would be identical.... Thanks for all the info!!