Christie Prendergast, DO

I had my surgery too recently to include post-op photos, yet I couldn’t wait to review Dr. Christie. For starters (and frankly irrelevant when someone is looking for a skilled surgeon) Dr. Christie is fun and you feel like she’s your best friend within seconds of meeting her. She totally gets it. With all due respect, sometimes guys aren’t as sympathetic to women’s needs/concerns. There is zero ego and I find that refreshing. Again, totally irrelevant when skill is the only relevant factor. In fact, I would probably tolerate a lot of undesirable personality traits from a skilled surgeon I trust. Fortunately that wasn’t the case with Dr. Christie.

Since 1999 my butt resembled a melted candle & I was concerned it wasn’t fixable. I hadn’t had major (or even minor) weight loss, so I don’t know why my skin didn’t fit my body. My butt looked like a deflated bosu ball. I would look at my profile in the mirror and lift my butt up-to where I wished it would stay on its own. I knew this result would require 40 years of time travel and David Copperfield, but one can dream. I went into this with well-managed expectations. I didn’t care about scarring, I’m not parading around in a thong...mainly I would have been thrilled with a 10% improvement. That’s it. 10%.

Imagine my surprise when Dr. Christie made my dream butt my reality. I legit look like I’m doing a handstand. My butt is perkier than when I was 14 years old. I had an amazing butt at 14 so that’s saying a lot btw. It doesn’t even make sense to me. I feel like I was in the desert with no water and Dr. Christie could make water appear. I realize how crazy that sounds but she’s a magician. I can’t wait until I can upload my photos. I used to look at the before/after photos on real self and I would have killed to be the “before”, that’s how bad it was. While this was irrelevant to me, the scarring will be non-existent. I’ve never seen such fine-tuning with stitches. Total perfection.

BEST EXPERIENCE and over the moon about my results from my breast augmentation and liposuction. One word of caution I will say is DO NOT SKIMP ON COST. This is cosmetic surgery, you're doing it to give yourself that extra "oomph" that makes you feel fabulous. With surgical care, you get what you pay for, so the premium over a "can't believe I'm getting this deal" is WELL WORTH the results!

I'm a 38 year old career woman who takes good care of myself and yet, let's be honest, age is no one's physical friend. I've wanted to get a breast augmentation and liposuction on my "pouch" since I was 16. I have always been a small A and while I've never been a woman who wanted attention because of my body, I always wanted to feel sexy and classy in certain shirts, dresses and bathing suits. As for my "pouch" I have been a health and fitness freak since I was a kid. 80% of the time my diet is extremely clean and I don't overly drink. I do 60-90 minute HIIT weight and cardio workouts 5-6 days a week and have never been able to get rid of the fibrous fat in my lower abdomen, even with coolsculpting (which was a waste of money and time). After months of consideration, talking to 15 people who have had one or both of these procedures, and doing some research I decided to call Dr. Prendergast's office for a consultation.

The consultation with Dr. Prendergast set me at ease that she understood the conservative industry I'm in, the reputation in my industry that I've build for 12 years, and that at 38 I wanted to feel sexy and thin while doing the right things by my diet and exercise. I was assured she only does natural augmentations and that she won't commit to an implant size because of the way she measure each woman and makes a "game day decision" based on what will look most natural and what her patient wants to accomplish. I also talked to one of my best friends who works for Allergan. His regional VP knows Dr. Prendergast from her fellowship at UCI and said that Dr. Prendergast is one of the most progressive and meticulous surgeons he has see and that I was in great hands.

Five days ago I got the breast augmentation and liposuction on my abdomen, flanks, and the front "bra fat." The day I got home from surgery I was sending out work emails and texting people until 9 PM and worked on emails and texted with friends all the next day. While this might not have been the smartest move, I had no pain and felt great. The key is to stay ahead of the pain with your medication and valium for 36 hours, then switch to IP Profen. Make sure to take 4 business days off work because day 3 and 4 I was exhausted and fuzzy from getting off the strong pain medication.

It's only been 5 days post surgery and am more than ecstatic about my results. Prepare for soreness and mild bruising (very minimal) around the areas of liposuction. If you are used to really hard workouts in the gym you won't feel any pain, it will feel like you did a really hard chest workout and have soreness for a few days. Make sure you have someone with you at all times for the first 36 hours because you basically wander around like T Rex and getting up and out of bed or off the couch require some help. Also make sure to have baby wipes on hand to give yourself lite washes since you can't shower at all for a few days after surgery.

Try to buy three sizes of compression garments BEFORE surgery so you have them to fit into (buy them larger than you need, I was a size 6 before liposuction and I need an X large for the first few weeks, then will need to scale down)

Every few minutes I look down and think "OMG how GREAT does my chest look!" And even though I was told my abdominal swelling won't go down for a month, and that 5-6 months post liposuction I will drop a couple dress sizes, I already see the results and my stomach is flattening out.

So to make a short story long, if you've been considering either of these two procedures but haven't made up your mind based on fear of pain after surgery or of how you'll feel with suddenly having bigger breasts and you're a professional who isn't trying to look "sexy for a living"...it's TOTALLY worth it if it's something you've wanted in a while. And there is NO OTHER surgeon I'd send you to other than Dr. Prendergast after my own experience. (And side note, I spend 6 years in the operating room as a surgical device rep, so I am no stranger to surgery and good surgical technique).

My breasts have been a D cup from age 13 through a G cup most recently at age 47. Had a lift 9 years ago after nursing 2 kids, and ended up a decent 32D. But in the past year, I’ve gained 15 pounds, all in stomach, back and boobs. I couldn’t find a bra that gave me a decent shape, had major indentations in my shoulders, beck & back pain every evening, especially if I’d had a somewhat active day. Well, with 2 kids, 3 if you include my hubby, and 2 dogs, most days are somewhat active. Went to a surgeon on my insurance plan who requested coverage. Got a copy of letter back to him asking for documentation of treatments I’d been doing. So I replied directly to Blue Shield telling them that no, I hadn’t gone for

P/T, but had self treated with weekly massages, over counter pain pills, hot baths, and ice. Most importantly I think was the statement that I wanted to take care of this while I was young (I feel young even at 47) healthy and before it got worse. That I wanted to be able to jog, and couldn’t. Well, it got approved. ???????? Dr. Christie Prendagast at Finesse Plastic Surgery is so unbelievably talented and nice. I had 30 second moments of unbearable pain when getting out of bed every time, but other than that, the pain was manageable on days 1,2,3, and 4 providing you take your meds on schedule. Today is day 5, I’ve been up for 2 hours, made my kids breakfast and lunch, haven’t had to take anything for pain. Anyone out there wondering if it’s worth it, the answer is YES, YES, YES. The pain will go away. But to have smaller, perky boobs, and to be able to wear things you couldn’t wear before, to be able to jump, jog, run if you want, you’ll forget all about the pain.