My red blood cell count is at 5.52 - Bbl, lipo 360, and maybe a tummy tuck safe to do?

Dear Optimistic568623,
every plastic surgeon has his own preoperative protocol which he recommends to his patients. You should be healthy prior to any elective procedure. I would suggest you to discuss this with your plastic surgeon.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

You are not a surgical condidate if your blood count is low. You need to work on increasing it prior to considering elective surgery.

The word safe is always a relative term.

People have died from both of these procedures so that’s the worst case scenario.

For highly risk averse people cosmetic surgery probably isn’t the way to go.

But then again people who are afraid of risk should probably not drive a car either.

Risk also needs to be stratified into what kind of risk.

There are risks of bad outcomes to the point of being disfigured and there are risks of having complications.

What risk are you worried about?

I would say the highest risk is having poor results from the BBL.

I see lots of BBL‘s done poorly with very unnatural outcomes. some providers have disregard for what the human body should look like or simply don’t know the difference.

Delivering consistent quality results from Liposuction and fat transfer is more difficult than people believe.

In regards to complications it’s probably more likely to happen with a tummy tuck. Many people believe a tummy tech should not be done in conjunction with a BBL for a variety of reasons.

A tummy tuck is a very big operation. It’s highly invasive and difficult to recover from.

It’s certainly doable but it’s not like something you just go in and have done. It requires proper planning and being physically and emotionally prepared.

If you’re interested in having cosmetic surgery then the process begins with having consultations. The following is a list of general recommendations for those seeking cosmetic surgery. Perhaps you’ll find one of these ideas helpful.

1. I recommend patients avoid traveling long distances for elective surgical procedures. There are of course instances where there is a lack of local talent and traveling to some degree is inevitable. If traveling for the procedure patients should be ready to travel to have the consultation, post operative appointments and follow up should there be issues or complications.
Patients sometimes do not appreciate the importance of in person consultations, that complications do happen or the number of people who have issues with their results or need revisions.

2. Schedule multiple consultations with different providers in your area who seem to have a good reputation for the procedure you’re interested in. Starting with at least five consultations seems like a reasonable number to me.

3. Whenever possible schedule in person consultations.
4. During in person consultations ask each plastic surgeon to show all of their before and after pictures for the procedure you’re interested in.

The goal is not to see the best results of their career but to get an idea of what average results look like and get some type of confirmation of how many of these procedures that provider has performed.

Ask to see results that were not as good as the doctor would’ve hoped for and talk about the differences in outcomes.

Honest and experienced providers should have no problems presenting this type of information.

A highly experienced plastic surgeon should have hundreds of before and after pictures for the procedure you’re interested in. At a minimum at least 20+.

5. Read all the reviews on various physician review websites paying close attention and avoiding providers with any significant number of justified negative reviews. Providers with an abundance of reviews often have aggressive marketing campaigns.

The plastic surgeons I respect most all have the single variable of not having justified negative reviews on their online profiles.
In my opinion justified negative reviews are far more telling than an abundance of positive reviews.

6. Avoid scheduling for surgery or making a deposit on the day of the consultation. Give yourself some time to think about the decision and make sure you finished all scheduled consultations before committing to having surgery that will permanently and irreversibly change your body.

When in doubt slow down and schedule more consultations.

Choosing the right plastic surgeon is the single most important variable to having a positive experience.

7. Don’t go chasing after technology or names of certain equipment. Instead focus all your efforts on finding the most experienced and talented board-certified plastic surgeon.

Best,

Mats Hagstrom, MD