Picking a Plastic Surgeon & All the Procedure details

So back when I started my weight loss journey, I knew that if I achieved the goals I wanted, I was most likely going to want some plastic surgery.  I didn’t focus on it very much during my VSG process because I was focused on developing a healthy lifestyle that was sustainable.  VSG surgery gave me the tool to do that and I knew if I focused on a healthy lifestyle, weight loss would happen.  Sure enough I hit my goal of -120lbs right at my year anniversary in August.  I was so happy with my results, especially since I knew I was much healthier, but this is when I started to think about the next steps. . .plastic surgery.  Picking the best doctor is crucial and I could not be more happy with my plastic surgeon.  Sharing all the details below.   Warning, this post is long (and contains before and after plastic surgery photos), but I want to make sure to try to share everything because this is such an important process and when I was doing my research I was hoping to find more posts on the internet sharing everything.  I didn’t find much of that so I am hoping to fill that gap for you.

Once I hit my weight loss goal at my year mark, my new goal was to maintain my weight loss and really tone up.   They recommend waiting 6 months after you hit your goal weight/maintain before you do plastic surgery.  This timing was perfect because January was my slowest month and it would give me time to recover before summer.  During this time I started doing my research to find the best plastic surgeon. 

RESEARCH PHASE

When you lose a significant amount of weight you have lose skin.  No amount of working out or diet can do anything about that.  Honestly, I faired pretty well in that department.  Don’t get me wrong, I obviously had areas I wanted to fix, but I think being taller, helped me.  I also carried my weight fairly evenly so my weight loss was distributed all over.  The areas that bothered me the most were my stomach and my chest.  I knew mommy makeovers addressed these 2 areas so I started researching both tummy tucks and breast augmentations.  Since I had more extreme weight loss I wasn’t sure if I would need something more than a typical mommy makeover which most people have after having babies.  I started researching lower body lifts, extended tummy tucks, breast lifts, fat transfers, etc.  It was all very overwhelming and there were so many different schools of thought out there depending on the doctor.  I joined a Facebook page called Plastics after weight loss surgery and started reading real life comments there.  I also followed LosingGravity, LisaGetsFit4Life and SimoneAnderson on Instagram.  These 3 women are incredibly inspirational and transparent in their weight loss and plastic surgery journeys.

I knew my first step was finding some plastic surgeons I was interested in and then start doing consultations.  I researched so many before and after pictures.  The problem I was running into was I would find someone that I loved their breast augmentations, but didn’t love their tummy tucks, or vice versa.  Since I wanted everything done at the same time it was very important to me to find a plastic surgeon that was great in both areas.  This was way more difficult that I expected.  Everyone is different in what they want, but I wanted a very natural look.  I wanted “appropriate perky boobs” and a tummy tuck with a low scar line and good looking belly button.  To me tummy tucks are a dead giveaway when you see people’s belly buttons.  There are some really great natural ones out there, and some that scream tummy tuck.  From my research, I found 2 plastic surgeons I was very interested in, but they were out of state.  I was seriously contemplating the idea of traveling, but that idea just seemed so daunting.  Being away from home, in a hotel for weeks recovering, away from my family, how would check ups work, what if there was a complication, etc.  I kept both of them in the back of my mind as an option, but was hoping to find a great plastic surgeon locally. 

FINDING MY DOCTOR

I kept looking into surgeons that were recommended in groups, from friends, etc, however I kept running into the same problem. . .none of them were great at both procedures in my opinion.  The most highly rated mommy makeover surgeons in the Dallas area didn’t have before and after pictures I loved.  One day in my Facebook group a local woman came on there sharing her results. . .she looked amazing.  I reached out to her and she could not stop raving about her plastic surgeon.  I hadn’t heard of him before so I was so excited to be given a new name to research.  His name was Dr. Venneymeyer, he was in SouthLake and she couldn’t say enough amazing things about him.  I immediately went to his Instagram and was blown away!  I LOVED HIS WORK (a few photos below, but head over to his Instagram & website for many more)!!  I could not get enough info.  I looked at every post, watched every Instagram highlight, looked all over his website and his before and afterwork very much lined up with what I was going for.   He is knows for low tummy tuck scar lines and natural looking belly buttons!! I found several more people online who used him and talked with them about his process, etc and the reviews were all incredible.  Website after website said his attention to detail is like no other, the after care is top notch, etc.  These were all the things I was looking for.  I read one of his reviews from a nurse that has worked with him and she said “Dr. V is the best.  His attention to detail and safety are 2nd to none.  I have seen him during surgery and it is impressive.  If I was going to have something done or a friend/family member was going to, there is no one else I would want doing it besides Dr. V.  I trust him completely”  That spoke volumes to me! 

Here are some of the before and after pictures from Dr. Venneymeyer’s Instagram that caught my eye.  You could see his amazing transformations, his low scar lines, and great belly button work.  

1ST CONSULTATION

I was so excited so I called and set up a consultation with Dr. Venneymeyer in October.  I went in hoping everything would go well and it really did.  I met with Andrea, Dr. Venneymeyer’s wife who is also a doctor.  She was wonderful.  So personable, knowledgable and made me feel so comfortable about everything.  We went over my goals, my inspiration pictures, etc and talked about the different procedures she thought would help me reach my goals.  She was very honest and I appreciated her directness and patience.  She thought the best procedures for me would be an extended tummy tuck with 360 liposuction, thigh liposuction with fat transfer and breast augmentation.

THE PROCEDURES

EXTENDED TUMMY TUCK WITH 360 LIPOSUCTION & MUSCLE REPAIR:  This is one of Dr. Venneymeyer’s specialties.  He really is an artist when it comes to a woman’s curves.  He does a special procedure where he does lipo all around your abdomen (360 lipo)  and then really tightens up your skin to give you a flat stomach.  He also does muscle repair to help tighten your ab muscles.  They said mine definitely had a large gap in between them from having kids.  Andrea recommended an extended tummy tuck to get more of the skin in my love handle area, but did’t think I needed a lower body lift, because I didn’t have much lose skin on my back. Lower body lifts help more if you have that.  If you look on Dr. V’s Instagram you will see #snatchedbyDrV.  To be honest that hashtag gave me a few laughs, but the truth is he does make beautiful waistlines which he calls “snatching” your waist in.  If he could get mine to look like that I was happy to be called #snatchedbyDrV 🙂

THIGH LIPOSUCTION WITH FAT TRANSFER: I have always had large thighs.  Even when I was younger and didn’t struggle with my weight I was always more pear shaped.  I also had a fairly large booty.  When I lost a lot of weight I had lose skin in this area and my booty kinda deflated.  I was not at all interested in having a large booty again, but I did want everything smoothed out a bit.  Andrea said I didn’t really have much fat they could pull (that is a crazy thing to hear when you had been over 100lbs overweight for years), but they could take fat from the area and inject it around to smooth everything out.  She explained that the tools surgeons have are implants, fat and lack of fat.  They use these tools in the appropriate way to acheive the curves they want.  They could use the fat from my thighs and 360 lipo to add a little more volume in my butt and smooth out my hips and thighs, by putting the fat back in the right areas.

BREAST AUGMENTATION:  In the long list of things I would change about my body honestly, my boobs were never really on my list growing up.  They were always fine.   They were a fairly perky C.  Well, having 2 kids, breast feeding and gaining/losing weight definitely changed that.  They were OK, but I wanted them back how they were.  I thought I might need a breast lift, but Andrea explained that lifts have to do with nipple placement mostly and I didn’t have an issue there.  She said I just needed an implant to fill back in the volume I had lost.  We went back and forth on size because I really didn’t want large boobs.  Because of the length of my décolleté (from my height) and the inspiration pictures I brought in she recommended a high profile silicone implant to give upper fullness.  They have a formula they use to recommend natural looking size, so they did some measurements and said the smallest they thought I could go to look most natural, fill out my breast pocket, etc was 385cc.  At first this number felt large to me, but now that I have them I can honestly say I think they are perfect.  She did a wonderful job of listening to me, looking at my photos and recommending something that was what I wanted, not what she or Dr. V thought was the best look.  They told me that they would probably have gone bigger, but based on my input thought this would make me the happiest.  I left the consultation thrilled.  Not only did I love the pictures I had seen before I went in, but I was so thrilled with Andrea and the entire staff I had met.  I was 99% sure I wanted to do with Dr. V, but wanted to do 1 more consultation just to be sure and have more research. 

2ND CONSULTATION

A few weeks later I met with another well known Mommy Makeover plastic surgeon in Dallas.  I really liked him, he was a nice guy, he had great reviews, etc, but I didn’t love his work as much as I liked Dr. Venneymeyer’s.  This doctor recommended many of the same procedures Andrea did, but he suggested different implants and said he though I would not be happy with high profile implants at all.  In fact he used the phrase “you would hate those”.  YIKES.  That had my head spinning.  He had a little different take on my tummy tuck and thought I could do a full lower body lift, but didn’t really have a good reason for it when further discussed.  All and all, this consultation made me even more confident Dr. V was my guy.

After this consultation I called back Dr. Venneymeyer’s office and said I wanted to schedule 1 more consultation where I actually met with Dr.V himself.  Andrea was incredible, but I wanted to actually meet with the person who would be cutting on me.  They were wonderful, got me right in and put me at ease.  Dr. V and Andrea came in.  He was so warm, again, so patient and really made me feel comfortable.  We discussed implant size again and I told him what happened at my last consultation with a different plastic surgeon.  They had me “wear” the implants so I could get an idea of what they would look like, etc and at the end of the day I just had to trust him. 

BIGGEST ADVICE

That is my biggest piece of advice.  DO YOUR RESEARCH AND PICK A PLASTIC SURGEON WHOS BEFORE AND AFTERS MEET THE LOOK THAT YOU LIKE.  Plastic surgeons are artists.  It is a very personal thing.  Not everyone agrees on what looks best.  Find someone that has results that meet what you love.  I LOVED Dr. V’s work and had to trust his eye.  I am so so happy with my choice.  After this meeting I immediately scheduled my surgery for January.  He books up fast so I definitely recommend starting your research months before you actually want your surgery.

REASONS I CHOSE DR. VENNEYMEYER

The main reasons I chose Dr. Venneymeyer were his beautiful work, his amazing reviews and his safety standards.  Dr. V is ALL ABOUT SAFETY!  This was so so important to me.  Of course all doctors want to be safe, but Dr. V takes it to the next level.  I will explain what I mean below.  When I decided to have plastic surgery I spent a lot of time really soul searching on this decision.  Having a elective procedure when you are a parent, wife, daughter, etc was something I didn’t take lightly.  If God forbid something happened to me during this surgery (which is always a risk) how would that make me feel?  There is always a little bit of “guilt” in the back of my mind with an elective procedure and I wanted to be sure to address that with myself and really think about my decision.  After thinking it over, researching the risks, etc, I made the decision for myself that this is something I wanted to move forward with.  It was kind of the period on the end of my weight loss journey. 

Having said all that I wanted to be as safe as possible and Dr. V is just that.  Dr. Venneymeyer required me to have my IUD birth control removed prior to surgery.  To be honest, this was a pretty big pain.  I had just had one put in and I really didn’t want to have it removed.  The other plastic surgeon I spoke to didn’t require this.  Dr. V said it increases your risk of blood clots by 5%. I am not taking that risk with any of my patients.  He was right.  While it was a total pain and definitely cost me money and pain, it was a minor inconvenience in the big scheme of things.  I don’t want anything that could increase my risk of blood clots.  I also had kidney issues when I had Braden.  I had to go to a nephrologist for a year and then was cleared and my issues were all pregnancy related.  I had shared this in my paperwork and Dr. V and staff wanted to take extra precautions to make sure there would be no issues.  They wanted me to go back to my nephrologist ( that I hadn’t seen in 5 years) and get final clearance that he was ok with my having these procedures and didn’t think there would be any issues with my kidneys.  They also custom make my pain med plan to be sure all meds filtered through my liver to avoid any kidney issues.  I was very impressed that they spent this much time and research on each individual patient.  I also was concerned about fat transfers.  If you google that what you can find is alarming.  I had lots of concerns and he put me at ease.  He does several things to prevent dangers from happening during fat transfers.  You can hear him explain them HERE.

A FEW MORE THINGS

A few more points I want to touch on, but I will go into greater detail in future posts.  I was impressed with the entire staff at Dr. Venneymeyer’s office.  Everyone was friendly, did what they said they would do, had wonderful communication and customer service and got back to you immediately.  There were definitely processes in place and everything was very organized.  You get a packet with all the things to expect on your procedures, what to buy, FAQs, etc.  Once you schedule your appointment you get a call from their nurse who goes over your health history and anything you will need to do before your procedure.   There is lab work that needs to be done and they were so helpful in trying to save me $.  Gina (the amazing Pre-op nurse) told me about requestatest.com that is a game changer.  My husband and I are self employed so we are basically cash patients for everything and everything is $$$$.  My original lab work quote came in at $1500, but after using requestatest.com it was less than $500.  Still expensive, but a HUGE savings.  The week before your procedure you have a Pre-Op appointment where you go over everything, meet with Dr. V & Andrea, etc.  Day of, the entire staff was incredible.  They do the surgery on site in their surgical center and I stayed overnight.  I left early in the morning and they literally follow up every single day.  You text pictures of your incisions each morning and get a call from your post op nurse (Brittney) every single day to check on you and make sure everything is going well.  I was seriously blown away with the level of care on all stages of this process.  I think this is so important to note because they are not just trying to get you in and you are a number.  They legitimately care about each patient.

Whew. . .that was long!  If you have finished reading this entire post you are clearly very interested in having a procedure done. I hope this gave you some helpful insight when picking your plastic surgeon.  I cannot recommend Dr. Venneymeyer enough.  I am only 2 weeks out from my procedure, but have been blown away by the process and can already tell I am going to love my results.  Dr. V is a true genius at what he does.  

CLICK HERE FOR MORE WEIGHT LOSS & PLASTIC SURGERY POSTS

**If you’ve had or are interested in Gastric Sleeve surgery or Mommy Makeover type of plastic surgery join the HOH Private Facebook Community where we can all share our stories, get questions answered and cheer each on during our individual journeys.  I am hoping this will be a very helpful resource for everyone considering/or have had these procedures.

PIN PHOTO BELOW FOR REFERENCE