Hello my lovely BP community. I'm nearing my 1 year WLS anniversary date this month. At 5'7", I was 241 pounds at my all time high and 226 the day of surgery. I weighed 150.5 this morning. My surgeon's goal for me was 160 and my personal goal was between 140-150 pounds. I would be okay staying where I am but am shooing for 145 at this point and building more muscle mass.

So here are my questions - and please, can I kindly request that this post be focused on the questions I ask. I know posts about procedures in Mexico can sometime generate a heated discussion on Mexico vs. USA. The purpose of this post is to EDUCATE myself so I can make an informed decision.

I have decided to wait until next summer 2016 to have any plastic surgery done. I will need the time to save up the money, but more importantly, I want to see how much my skin will adjust on its own. Luckily I have very little loose skin except on my abdomen and am considering a tummy tuck.

I have read reviews from people on this site who have had surgery in Mexico and have had a wonderful experience. Many of these people I have grown to "know" over the past year on this site and value their options and know they have done their research. I'm hoping you can share what you know with me.

Why did you choose the doctor you did?

At this point, the cost is the only reason I would consider having surgery in Mexico. I simply am not in a financial place to pay for it right now otherwise. That factor alone is enough for husband's eyes to bug out. He's convinced I will get butchered. When I argue that there are top surgeon's in Mexico, he questions why they would chose to stay in a country and get paid very little when they could get paid 10 times as much in the states. I argue that it's very egocentric to assume that everyone wants to live and work in the United States... But then again we travel to Mexico frequently and the quality of life isn't exactly a cup of tea there. Regardless, I have a license to practice in the state I live in and know what a pain it would be if I even moved to a different state. It's even more complicated for professionals to practice in other countries. A medical license in Mexico wouldn't be honored here and visa versa.

I am open to the idea of having surgery in Mexico. We travel there a lot on vacation but I have to admit I hear the word Tijuana and I get a tad freaked out. I went to college in Southern California and crossing the border on foot to party was common practice. I'm still haunted my the 3-4 year olds wandering the streets at 3am selling "chicklets" gum for money. the area was filled with bars and strip clubs. The area was not nice by any means. Now granted this was back in the early 90's. There could have been a lot of development by now and since this was right by the border, not the "best" part of town. Could you describe where these clinics are? I travel abroad a lot, consider myself street smart and love different cultures. I've never had something so vulnerable as surgery done before in another country. Anything you could share about your surgeon and experience would be helpful. I'm also anal about surgery scars looking nice. Anyone willing to post a pic of their TT scar?

Thanks in advance!

Edited April 8, 201511 yr by Bluesea71

When it was time to lose the weight, I knew I could do it. Gaining it back was the problem. I never wanted to gain weight ever again!

That's exactly how I felt when I got my sleeve. I had lost 90+ pounds before that "on my own" and regained after my plastics. I tried to re-lose the weight a few times again "on my own" losing 40+ pounds again, but again regained. When I was facing yet another attempt to lose the weight this past summer, I realized that I needed WLS to keep the weight off once I lost it again. For me, it's more like weight MAINTENANCE surgery than weight LOSS surgery. But I knew I should get it while at my high BMI, since surgeons don't usually want to do WLS on a patient with a healthy BMI.

Thank you for your response, sweet pea. Completely makes sense. I appreciate your response and I'm glad you took my question in the way it was meant and didn't feel under attack. My Husband thinks I'm nuts to even entertain the idea of plastics in Mexico, so it's going to take a lot of research and convincing on my part to get him to buy into the process. Anytime I mention good reviews online he wants to know if I've actually "talked" to those people. I think I've watched too many episodes of "Catfish" on MTV with my teenager and her friends with people pretending to be people they are not on the Internet! I have to say though, Medical tourism is big. If these Surgeons are smart, they will have full-time employees whose job is to market and recruit clients on different Internet forums.

Sweet pea - now that I have your attention - can you explain how your surgeon closes his wounds? Something about internal stitching? I also noticed on your tummy tuck one side goes straight across and the other side goes up like you would be wearing high cut panties. Typically the incision just goes straight across. Why is that?

@@Bluesea71

Thank you for understanding. You are very nice.

My husband was the same way. Husband are protectors. They just want us to be safe.

I was one of those special cases. I inherited my mom's thin Irish skin, plus I stretched it several times from the weight gain and pregnancies. My skin is so super paper thin. There were several things he could not do to me and had to use alternative methods. For example, he could not pull my skin super tight, otherwise my skin would have ripped apart. I went back a year later and was pulled tighter durning my thigh lift surgery just as he promised.

For me he explained in great detail this was the best way specifically for me. I can not recall all the exact reasons. My body is not straight, so he had to do things a bit differently on me so that I could get the best results possible. Like I said, I was one of those special cases. (I got a little light headed durning my markup, so I do not remember everything.)

I am glad I had someone who cared enough about all those little things, which added up perfectly in my favor. I healed healthy and happy, without complications.

I grew up sewing with my mom. (Smile) I hemmed a lot of clothes by hand. If you are familiar with the 'blind stitch,' then you will have some general idea how he does it. Hard to explain, but all layers of sutures are internal.

Your results turned out amazing sweet pee. The idea of getting breast implants freaks me out the same way the idea of a lap did did. I am having trouble with the idea of having something foreign in my body that I know won't last forever. Your pictures gave me hope that I may have enough breast tissue left to just do a lift. We shall see. I am familiar with the stitch you described. Would you be willing to provide an up close picture of your tummy tuck scar? I guess I could also attempt to view your pics on an actual computer monitor vs. my tiny phone. Haha

I understood that breast implants do not have a lifetime warranty. Surgery is required again after so many years of use, therefore I chose not to get implants. My push-up bra works wonders when I want my girls to sit under my chin. Otherwise, I love them. They may not work for everybody, but they are just right for me.

I was not striving for perfection. That is not what plastic surgery means. For me, it meant improvement, satisfaction and a measure of happiness which is fulfilled from a self-esteem boost looking at the reflection of a better looking body. The rest must come from continuos work on the inside of myself, because the outside changes will only provide temporary satisfaction and happiness.

My breast are important to me. I breast fed four children. It was my turn to enjoy them, right? I wanted them to be beautiful. I try to keep them beautiful too.

I wear a tight sports bra, because of my thin skin and I do not want these girls dropping to the floor again, so I use plenty support. They are just right for me.

Do not get me wrong, sometimes I do wish I had implants, and the way they could change the way I look, but then I think about what is going to happen when I am 65 years old and living off my pension$

My scars for the most part has blended in even more with my skin tone. My camera is on the brink, but I will see what I can do.

@@Bluesea71 I'll see if I can get my husband to take some photos of my TT scar tonight. It's funny to me NOW that people are so concerned about the scars, but I remember back when I was researching plastic surgery, how worried I was about the scars as well. Now I am so used to them and feel they are so worth the trade-off, that it seems silly to me that people who haven't gone through PS worry about them so much. My scar is a VERY small price to pay for my flat, tight stomach!

As for implants, it's the same way. Like you, I was all freaked out about having a foreign object inside of me, but now they are truly a part of me and I was miss them DESPERATELY if I had to have them taken out. In fact, I need a revision due to the malpositioning of my left implant after my weight re-gain and re-loss. One of the surgeons I got a consultation from wanted to remove my implants entirely and wait at least 6 weeks before replacing them. The idea of just going 6 weeks without my implants had me in a complete panic!

Any pics you could provide would be great sweet pea and Jamie! I've spent hours looking at people's results on realself.com and can say there are some real hack jobs out there! I think I've become an expert if you will, at spotting a tummy tuck by analyzing a person's "new" belly button. Some just look weird! Other things I've noticed are what I think they refer to as "dog ears" where it puckers out on the sides and also some surgeons make a slight 1/2 - 1" vertical cut up the center of the incision near the belly button. Still confused what the purpose of that is? I am lucky that I don't have any excess skin except in my abdomen. I would need some time to save up for plastics and decided to wait a full year to consider having any work done anyway. The skin on my tummy has already retracted some. My Husband thinks it will continue to do so. I remind him how much my stomach stretched out when I was pregnant. It's never going to be flat again. Not without surgical intervention!

Edited April 29, 201511 yr by Bluesea71

@@Bluesea71 Well you can see my belly button at least in some of my gallery pics. from far away, it looks pretty much like a normal belly button to me? Up really close, you can see a little scarring inside where the old belly button "tube" was stitched to the new belly button hole.

Ha Ha Jamie. I wouldn't have mentioned the weird belly button if I thought you and sweet pea had weird ones Looks good to me ????

Speaking of weird belly buttons. . .

I like how you mentioned the belly button. It was the belly button that caused me not to go to one particular surgeon that so many women have used...I searched and searched for just the right person to do my LBL and still keep my belly button looking the same. Mine looks exactly the same as it did before surgery. I would swear it was only I had a mole about 4 inches above my belly button before surgery and now it's right next to it. I do not know how to post a picture but there is one on my profile page...

I appreciate everyone's replies to this! I have been doing so much research and been so obsessed lately with finding the right surgeon. I have narrowed it down to three doctors. Ones prices are almost the same as here (Dr.sauceda) and I don't think its worth it to travel so far and pay the same amount of money! Does anyone have a hotel they rocmend staying at while there?

Not sure what city you area referring to, but if it's Tijuana, I would say the best hotel there is Hotel Lucerna Tijuana, I've stayed at the Marriott and I believe the Lucerna is much nicer....

I was thinking in the shower today (I tend to do a lot of my deep thinking there lol).... What does a tummy tuck feel like long term? I will frequently try to hold my stomach in but after awhile the tension becomes too much and poof, back out she goes! Once you recover from surgery, does it feel any different?

I was thinking in the shower today (I tend to do a lot of my deep thinking there lol).... What does a tummy tuck feel like long term? I will frequently try to hold my stomach in but after awhile the tension becomes too much and poof, back out she goes! Once you recover from surgery, does it feel any different?

It doesn't feel like you are "sucking in" all the time. It doesn't hurt or anything. It just feels normal and awesome! I will say that even almost 4 years out, I still have some areas of numbness or reduced sensitivity. For the first full year or more you will get phantom itching, which will drive you INSANE. Just like an amputee who has lost a limb. That is much reduced now that all the nerves have repaired and rerouted themselves.