Candice: My lifestyle consists of, you know, a few different components. I’m a mom, I have two babies. The surgery, I think, will give me the confidence to be more active with my kids and get in the pool and wear my bathing suit. Ultimately, I just want to be healthy and be there for my family, that’s really what life’s about.
Dr. Brucker: Candice came into my office and wanted to talk about mommy makeover. I think it’s something that she’s been thinking about for a very long time. She’s gone through a lot of changes. She has gone through weight gain, weight loss, and some of the typical things that go on with multiple pregnancies.
We had a great conversation. She, obviously, came in fairly educated, knowing kind of what direction she wanted to go. She’s given a lot to this and done a lot of research. In the simplest terms, a mommy makeover is really just dealing with the pregnancy changes that happen around the midsection so, that would be your tummy tuck. And then typically breast surgery and that breast surgery can range anywhere from doing a breast lift, like what we’re going to be doing for Candice, to a breast reduction, to a lift with implants alone, fat grafting for volume. All those kinds of decisions – we have to talk about in order to figure out what’s going to be the best direction for that particular patient.
Candice: Well, several things have motivated me to finally move forward with this surgery. I have fluctuated in weight my whole life. I started working out with a girlfriend of mine, a trainer. I fell in love with going t the gym. I’ve lost about 65 pounds now. And I just have extra skin in my stomach area and in my breasts that I want to move forward with.
Dr. Brucker: So. We had a lot of discussions about the risks that go with this operation, and I think Candice is well-prepared for the healing process and the potential complications that can be involved. Picking the right operation with regard to the breast lift, we want to do an operation that doesn’t add an implant, doesn’t add a lot of weight, and that’s going to give her the most perky, lifted end-result, and I think that’s going to suit her well in the long-run.
Candice: I think the main concerns, although they’ve been addressed 100% with the nurses and Dr. Brucker, are my downtime, my recovery time, and my pain level – although I do consider myself pretty good at pain.
Dr. Brucker: Candice had a lot of loose skin, both in the middle of her tummy, but also on the hips. And in order to get rid of that loose skin on the hips, you have to continue the operation all way around to the center of her buttock crease. So, during our discussion and during our initial examination, it was pretty clear that a standard tummy tuck probably wasn’t going to give Candice everything she wanted, so we talked about doing a body lift. And you can think of a body lift like this: It’s a tummy tuck that goes all the way around. Now some patients might have a big issue with the scar, and that’s something that we did spend a lot of time talking about. I do my best to put that scar in a location that’s going to be as hideable as possible. but, it’s definitely there, it’s going to be there forever and my job is to make sure it’s as well-hidden as possible.
Hey there! So, how’s recovery so far? How would you rate it?
Candice: So far, I’ve been saying 8. I think overall it’s been very comfortable. A couple of nights, a little trouble sleeping in that position. But it’s easier than I thought.
Dr. Brucker: So, we saw Candice today for her two-month long-term follow-up, and it quite honestly absolutely exceeded my expectation. Candice is thrilled, and things really could not have gone any better. This was a truly, truly great procedure for her, and I’m just thrilled for her.
Part of getting a good result with a patient has to do with their post-op recovery, and there’s a lot of patient responsibility when it comes to what to do, what not to do. Candice came through that just with flying colors. She followed all of our directions. She was right there with us the whole way. And she healed really quickly, and I think you’ll see – hearing her talk about it, that she got through this a lot faster than she thought she was going to.
Candice: The biggest change that I’ve experienced so far is being so happy and comfortable in my skin. I think that doing this has made me want to be better in all the other areas of my life. So, I’ve just been, now that I’m where I want to be comfortable, I can be a better mom, I can be a better wife. I just want to better myself all around now. So, I think that’s been probably the best.
Dr. Brucker: So, if you’re considering a mommy makeover, tummy tuck, breast surgery, breast lift, any of those procedures, by all means, do your research. Come in, talk to us, we can answer all of your questions. If it’s not us, get out there – see a board-certified plastic surgeon. It could be one of the best things that you ever do for yourself.