It is normal to have questions and concerns before undergoing any type of surgery or treatment. Your Girlfriend the Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Danielle DeLuca-Pytell is happy to help you understand your options and expectations. When you are considering a tummy tuck, reach out to our office to schedule a comprehensive consultation to learn more about what to expect.
Probably the most important thing going into any type of elective surgery is to make sure you are in a good place with your decision mentally. This can include making a “pro and con list” of the things that you would benefit from with a tummy tuck and the things that are potential downsides and making sure that you are comfortable with everything. Utilize your surgeon’s expertise to help alleviate your concerns by asking plenty of questions.
It is also important to make sure you have optimized your health and your nutrition because surgery puts stress on the body. The healthier you are prior to your procedure, the smoother your recovery period will be.
Not everybody who has surgery—like emergency surgeries—is able to prepare ahead of time, but for an elective surgery like this, you can be prepared ahead of time. You should consider how long you are going to need to take off work, exercise, and hobbies, and make sure you are prepared to do that.
Something else that is very important, especially for people with young children having a tummy tuck is who is going to help care for your child. You will be restricted from lifting anything over 10 pounds for a period of six weeks. This includes small children, so parents need to have someone at home who will be able to help care for their kids, their home, and their errands while they are caring for themselves.
It is important to set realistic expectations. Your results will be based on your own shape. If somebody is very straight and wants to be very curvy, that is unlikely to happen with just a tummy tuck surgery or even with liposuction. Underneath the skin and fatty tissue, there are muscles and bones that do not change. Results are different for each person. Also, tummy tuck and liposuction are not a substitute for weight loss. If you are at a higher weight and are hoping to have a tummy tuck or liposuction to help lose weight, that really is not appropriate either.
A tummy tuck and liposuction are great for stubborn areas of fat that do not respond to exercise and weight loss or for excess skin that again results from weight loss or another process where the skin is stretched out. The other thing that you should be aware of is that a full tummy tuck with muscle repair is a surgery that is going to require a significant amount of recovery. So, especially with social media showing before and afters as if things happen in a second, there is no substitute for the time that is required for healing. A person cannot pay more to have a faster healing. Your body only heals as fast as it will heal.
Additionally, everybody heals differently, and everybody scars differently. So, having a scar is going to be a part of any plastic surgery that occurs. Whether or not the scars are wide, thin or thick, has a lot to do with your genetic makeup and less to do with who or how the stitches are put in. There is no such thing as scarless plastic surgery.
The best thing to do to ensure you have all of the information you need before choosing to have a tummy tuck is to schedule a consultation with Dr. DeLuca-Pytell. Our team will answer any and all questions you have about what to expect from the procedure itself, recovery, and results. Reach out today to learn more.
Please take a look at the upcoming events hosted by Your Girlfriend the Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Danielle DeLuca-Pytell. We look forward to seeing you there!
