I've been researching plastic surgeons for several weeks and I have a few that I'm very interested in, but I'm constantly on the lookout for additional surgeons to consider. I've repeatedly seen Florida mentioned as a spot with top doctors at affordable prices. I've also seen folks referencing recovery centers in Florida that are more similar to the aftercare many Mexican surgeons offer, which is very appealing. I'm looking a surgeon with great reviews who has done A LOT of body lift surgeries and I'm simply not finding many who fit that billing. Every time I see a Florida surgeon recommended I look them up and I either can't find body lift review or I only find a couple.

If anyone can provide names of surgeons with extensive experience doing body lifts, I'd really appreciate it. It doesn't actually have to be Florida, but I constantly see Florida referenced and none of the surgeons I'm considering are in Florida. The surgeons I'm primarily considering are Dr. Cardenas, Dr. Sauceda, Dr. Joseph Michaels, Dr. Katzen & Dr. Capella. From my research these seem to be some of the top surgeons in the field of reconstruction after massive weight loss, but if anyone has any additional names that have the level of experience and expertise as these folks, I'd love to know so that I can check them out.

Thanks!

the ones you mentioned are all internationally known and specialize in plastic surgery for massive weight loss patients - they're very well-known in the bariatric community. Any of those choices would be great. I went to Lawrence Zachary in Chicago who also specializes in plastic surgery for massive weight loss patients. He used to be quite well-known in the bariatric community as well, but you don't hear his name much anymore - probably because there are more specialists in that subfield now (also, he's pretty pricey - he'd be more expensive than Cardenas, Sauceda, and Capella for sure - not sure about the other two). Peter Fisher in San Antonio used to always be on many people's short list, but I'm pretty sure he's retired now.

some of those plastic surgeons (maybe all?) do virtual consultations - and Dr. Sauceda does email ones (I did a consult with him), so get a few - maybe 3-5. You'll find different surgeons will have different ideas on how they'd approach it. I found my consultations very informative.

P.S. I'm not aware of any plastic surgeons in Florida who are in this category (internationally-known and specialize in bariatric plastic surgery), but supposedly the prices are more affordable there, and I'm sure there are some very good plastic surgeons there (I know some people on here have gone to them and been very happy with the results). You'll find affordable prices in Mexico, too. Sauceda and Cardenas are both extremely well-known.

Edited July 22, 20206 yr by catwoman7

I'm having surgery in Miami, and the doctor does the look that I want. However, I look at the Florida surgeons (including my own), like a Ford assembly line specializing in Mommy Makeovers. Boobs (check), Tummy Tuck (check), BBL (check), etc. They get great results b/c they do the same surgery over and over and over again. I have zero hesitation going to Miami as a woman.

However, as a man, I would say the surgeons you have mentioned are the ones you want to go to. They all specialize in massive weight loss, and operate on both men and women.

Just my 2 cents!!! Good luck!!!

11 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

the ones you mentioned are all internationally known and specialize in plastic surgery for massive weight loss patients - they're very well-known in the bariatric community. Any of those choices would be great. I went to Lawrence Zachary in Chicago who also specializes in plastic surgery for massive weight loss patients. He used to be quite well-known in the bariatric community as well, but you don't hear his name much anymore - probably because there are more specialists in that subfield now (also, he's pretty pricey - he'd be more expensive than Cardenas, Sauceda, and Capella for sure - not sure about the other two). Peter Fisher in San Antonio used to always be on many people's short list, but I'm pretty sure he's retired now.

some of those plastic surgeons (maybe all?) do virtual consultations - and Dr. Sauceda does email ones (I did a consult with him), so get a few - maybe 3-5. You'll find different surgeons will have different ideas on how they'd approach it. I found my consultations very informative.

P.S. I'm not aware of any plastic surgeons in Florida who are in this category (internationally-known and specialize in bariatric plastic surgery), but supposedly the prices are more affordable there, and I'm sure there are some very good plastic surgeons there (I know some people on here have gone to them and been very happy with the results). You'll find affordable prices in Mexico, too. Sauceda and Cardenas are both extremely well-known.

Thank you very much for your response. I'm most likely going to wait till next year for surgery, so I'll probably delay the consults until I'm a little closer to determining a good time for me to put my life on hold for a month. I think the consults will be a big part of my decision making process.

I've seen Dr. Zachary mentioned a few times, but he has almost no reviews on RealSelf, so I wasn't sure what to make of that. I do wonder if a lot of the more well known surgeons are known not just for their surgical skills, but also because of their marketing ability. Some surgeons seem to make no effort to self promote and others do it A LOT. I have no problem with the marketing, I just hope I don't overlook a great surgeon simply because he/she doesn't have a website or social media presence. I feel like I'd be in good hands with any of the surgeons I'm considering, so all the time I'm spending trying to make the "perfect" decision is probably a complete waste, but I just can't help myself.

9 hours ago, ChubRub said:

I'm having surgery in Miami, and the doctor does the look that I want. However, I look at the Florida surgeons (including my own), like a Ford assembly line specializing in Mommy Makeovers. Boobs (check), Tummy Tuck (check), BBL (check), etc. They get great results b/c they do the same surgery over and over and over again. I have zero hesitation going to Miami as a woman.

However, as a man, I would say the surgeons you have mentioned are the ones you want to go to. They all specialize in massive weight loss, and operate on both men and women.

Just my 2 cents!!! Good luck!!!

I'm so glad you chimed in. Your observations align exactly with mine. That's part of the reason why I made this post, just to make sure I'm not missing something. I've looked at numerous surgeons in Florida and I see some amazing work, but I'm not seeing the results and track record I'm looking for as a man seeking post weight loss reconstruction. Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

Best of luck to you with your upcoming surgery!

58 minutes ago, FatboySkin said:

Thank you very much for your response. I'm most likely going to wait till next year for surgery, so I'll probably delay the consults until I'm a little closer to determining a good time for me to put my life on hold for a month. I think the consults will be a big part of my decision making process.

I've seen Dr. Zachary mentioned a few times, but he has almost no reviews on RealSelf, so I wasn't sure what to make of that. I do wonder if a lot of the more well known surgeons are known not just for their surgical skills, but also because of their marketing ability. Some surgeons seem to make no effort to self promote and others do it A LOT. I have no problem with the marketing, I just hope I don't overlook a great surgeon simply because he/she doesn't have a website or social media presence. I feel like I'd be in good hands with any of the surgeons I'm considering, so all the time I'm spending trying to make the "perfect" decision is probably a complete waste, but I just can't help myself.

yea - some don't have much - if anything - on realself. Part of it with Dr. Zachary might be that he was a big name in that subfield a few years ago - might have been before realself was started - but I'm not sure. I thought he was great, though. The thing I really liked about him was that he's on the faculty of the University of Chicago (the med school faculty, of course), so he's salaried. He gets the same salary regardless of how many surgeries he does and which procedures he does - so I felt he was really honest with me. As in no upselling. I also liked the fact that he'll only do surgeries in a hospital and he makes you stay in the hospital for observation overnight. The other surgeons I talked to (other than Dr. Sauceda) use those outpatient surgical centers - and one sends his patients home after the surgery. Yikes. I wasn't comfortable with that. The other one who used an outpatient surgical center does have you spend the night at the center - with a nurse on duty - which was acceptable. Not the same as a hospital, but acceptable.

btw - in case you ever look at Dr. Zachary further, he does his self-pay surgeries at Weiss Hospital (and insurance-covered ones at the Univ of Chicago hospital). It's because the facility fees are lower at Weiss, so it's cheaper for the patient (which is a good thing, because he's kind of expensive. Although part of it is probably due to the fact that he does the surgery in a hospital and has you stay overnight there, so those two things add to the cost)

Dr. Ritu Chopra did a fantastic job on my fluer de lis tummy tuck and brachioplasty

My surgeon is Dr. Dana Goldberg in Jupiter, Florida. I believe her to be outstanding, articulate and professional. Her skills in removing ample skin with fluer de lis tummy tuck and breast lift were commendable especially, given my petite frame. The results have been phenomenal! She will be doing my brachioplasty this September. I recommend her wholeheartedly. I actually preferred working with a generalist and not necessarily a bariatric patient plastic surgeon. She possessed nuances I liked in moving away from that fat persona toward a slim and fit woman. Her on site surgery center and staff were excellent. I had no qualms, and now given the COVID environment + risk - She can enlist tighter control and protocol than in a hospital setting. I felt safer and more comfortable at home recovering the day of surgery. However, highly ranked Jupiter Medical Center is close by should an emergency arise. She performs wonderful work on men and woman with varied needs. Dr. Goldberg is a nice balance of experience yet with a younger cutting edge (no pun intended) expertise. I interviewed five regional surgeons. I cannot speak to their fee structures here in contrast to other states or regions. Do keep us posted and many best wishes on your research and final decision! No doubt, you will be so pleased to shed the weighty extra skin. I'm so excited for you!

Edited July 23, 20206 yr by Sophie7713
misspelled word

I am looking at surgeons as well....I live in Florida but want a surgeon who specializes I body lifts for weight loss surgery patients. For that reason, I am zeroed in on Dr Cardenas and Dr Sauceda.

On Saturday, I had a Zoom consult with Dr Cardenas. She is extremely impressive. I feel like she focuses on safety and feminine outcomes. Big emphasis on pre and post op nutrition. All of which are important to me.

Dr Sauceda is a bit more direct. Send your photos, get a recommendation and cost. He does good work.

Both doctors recommended the same procedures for me - makes it easy to compare cost. The costs were significantly different, but I am leaning toward Dr Cardenas because her results are just beautiful.

Will be sure to post results if I go forward with surgery in December.

Hope to see your results as well!

20 hours ago, FatboySkin said:

I'm so glad you chimed in. Your observations align exactly with mine. That's part of the reason why I made this post, just to make sure I'm not missing something. I've looked at numerous surgeons in Florida and I see some amazing work, but I'm not seeing the results and track record I'm looking for as a man seeking post weight loss reconstruction. Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

Best of luck to you with your upcoming surgery!

Thanks so much!! Best of luck to you as well. Can't wait to see before/after pics!!

3 hours ago, HoosierGirl said:

I am looking at surgeons as well....I live in Florida but want a surgeon who specializes I body lifts for weight loss surgery patients. For that reason, I am zeroed in on Dr Cardenas and Dr Sauceda.< br />
On Saturday, I had a Zoom consult with Dr Cardenas. She is extremely impressive. I feel like she focuses on safety and feminine outcomes. Big emphasis on pre and post op nutrition. All of which are important to me.

Dr Sauceda is a bit more direct. Send your photos, get a recommendation and cost. He does good work.

Both doctors recommended the same procedures for me - makes it easy to compare cost. The costs were significantly different, but I am leaning toward Dr Cardenas because her results are just beautiful.

Will be sure to post results if I go forward with surgery in December.

Hope to see your results as well!

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!!

20 minutes ago, FatboySkin said:

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!!

I know you didn't direct this question at me, but some surgeons have a limit as to how many hours they'll spend on a surgery. I know Dr. Zachary doesn't like to operate for more than about six hours - and some surgeons are good for more or less than that. So I had my procedures done in two separate surgeries. I was OK with that as I didn't want some tired guy with a knife cutting on me. But yes - some surgeons are willing to operate for several hours. Someone on this or another bariatric site said she was under the knife for eleven hours with Dr. Sauceda. But you're right - his safety record is good, so he's evidently good to go for that long.

btw: Dr. Sauceda was the only one of my consults who said he'd do everything in one day. Dr. Zachary and Dr. Shifrin both said they'd do my LBL in one surgery, and my breast lift and arm lift in a second surgery. I had one other consult in Chicago - the surgeon's name escapes me at the moment, but he was also going to split it into two surgeries (I think he was going to do them in different combinations and/or in a different order than the other two, but still - two surgeries)

Edited July 24, 20206 yr by catwoman7

What you are saying about the marathon surgeries is valid based on my research. I’m understanding that over 6-7 hours is considered ‘too long’ for elective surgery....so the surgeon has a time limit to complete the combined procedures.

Both Sauceda and Cardenas recommended a lower body lift, breast augmentation, and breast lift. Both indicated all procedures would be done in the same surgery. Sauceda said he could do a face lift a few days later if I wanted, but Cardenas said no, that is too much and I should wait at least 6 months.

I believe the other part of the equation is how much blood you might lose during these long procedures and risks of hemoglobin dropping too much. From what I understand, the higher your hemoglobin is before surgery, the better the healing.

If you are healthy and have the time to get everything done during one trip, I say go for it!

Cardenas recovery timeframe is 8 days and Sauceda 12 days.

There is so much to consider! But safety is not negotiable. Both Sauceda and Cardenas seem to feel the same.

1 hour ago, catwoman7 said:

I know you didn't direct this question at me, but some surgeons have a limit as to how many hours they'll spend on a surgery. I know Dr. Zachary doesn't like to operate for more than about six hours - and some surgeons are good for more or less than that. So I had my procedures done in two separate surgeries. I was OK with that as I didn't want some tired guy with a knife cutting on me. But yes - some surgeons are willing to operate for several hours. Someone on this or another bariatric site said she was under the knife for eleven hours with Dr. Sauceda. But you're right - his safety record is good, so he's evidently good to go for that long.

btw: Dr. Sauceda was the only one of my consults who said he'd do everything in one day. Dr. Zachary and Dr. Shifrin both said they'd do my LBL in one surgery, and my breast lift and arm lift in a second surgery. I had one other consult in Chicago - the surgeon's name escapes me at the moment, but he was also going to split it into two surgeries (I think he was going to do them in different combinations and/or in a different order than the other two, but still - two surgeries)

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!

1 hour ago, HoosierGirl said:

What you are saying about the marathon surgeries is valid based on my research. I’m understanding that over 6-7 hours is considered ‘too long’ for elective surgery....so the surgeon has a time limit to complete the combined procedures.

Both Sauceda and Cardenas recommended a lower body lift, breast augmentation, and breast lift. Both indicated all procedures would be done in the same surgery. Sauceda said he could do a face lift a few days later if I wanted, but Cardenas said no, that is too much and I should wait at least 6 months.

I believe the other part of the equation is how much blood you might lose during these long procedures and risks of hemoglobin dropping too much. From what I understand, the higher your hemoglobin is before surgery, the better the healing.

If you are healthy and have the time to get everything done during one trip, I say go for it!

Cardenas recovery timeframe is 8 days and Sauceda 12 days.

There is so much to consider! But safety is not negotiable. Both Sauceda and Cardenas seem to feel the same.

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!

Gonna chime in!

First off, did not have my PS done by neither Cardenas nor Sauceda (I had mine done locally here in Toronto).

My surgeon is one if the ones who have a time limit to how long he prefers his patients to be under: 5-6 hours. He did an arm lift, breast lift and tummy tuck in me in that time period last December.

While I was/am happy to get it all done in one shot, recovery was a b*tch. I think I probably would have had a better recovery time if I did less. HOWEVER: if I had to do it again, I’d still do it the same way as I think I prefer to have ONE longer-ish recovery period vs. multiple short-ish ones. But that’s just me.

Super excited for you though, plastics are a game changer.

Good Luck!