Liposuction Abdominal, Waist, Hips, Thighs - Tampa, FL

So obviously the cool sculpting did not work for me. The thunder thighs remained and I really did not see a difference at all. The whole thing was very disappointing to me. The pain, tingling and numbness took at least 8 months to resolve. Next step, I did a lot of research and spoke to many friends that had liposuction as well. There is asleep lipo and awake lipo. Obviously because I am a nurse and like to be aware of EVERYTHING, I wanted to be awake. It's called tumescent liposuction, which means you are fully awake and are asked to participate throughout the procedure. Andominal crunches, hip thrusts, tightening of certain muscle groups, standing throughout the procedure, etc....

In the end I chose Dr. Thomas Su in Tampa. Now I read the bad reviews on him as well as the good ones. Yes his team in his office have had lipo performed by him. And no, he did not come across as condescending and full of himself during either of the visits I have had with him so far. Believe me, I have a lot of physician partners where I work, so I know when someone is full of themselves. With his team having procedures performed by him actually helped me feel at ease the day of. Angie, his MA was super sweet and very attentive to me the whole time.

5/18 day of procedure. I woke up at 1AM and was not able to go back to sleep due to chronic back pain that creeps up when I am stressed. (Hmmmm, I really did not feel anxious about the procedure at all but did have a hellacious three days at work with staffing issues). I arrived at my appointment time, 7:00, and was taken back around 7:30 to sign my consent form and all other necessary pre-op needs. Angie gave me my "Victoria Secrets" bra and panty set to wear (no this was not really Victoria secret, it was a paper tube top and bikini panties), a paper robe and then the weigh in. Of course as women we all hate this part. The number 142 came across, UGH! My ideal weight for me is 135-138, I am 5'5 and in the gym (hard) 5 days a week. I do cardio and weight training plus I eat very healthy, planning meals every Sunday in containers to take to work and snacks through out the day. High protein low carb. I also have a personal trainer as well. So reasons for me doing this came very easy for me. The areas I had done were all resistant to my exercise program and eating plans. Okay, back to procedure day.....Dr. Su came in with a new face. He also has a plastic surgeon training with him as well. Again, super nice but unfortunately I cannot remember her name. I will get it today and post later. Dr. Su went over my H&P, labs and asked if I had any questions. Once he left Angie scrubbed me down and then I laid on a nice heated bed. Enter Dr. Su, he used lidociane to numb the incision areas (the size of a small grain of rice) and then proceeded to use a stainless steel catheter to infuse the lidocaine mixture under my skin. This took a little while due to all of the areas involved. Dr. Su did one side and the plastic surgeon did the other side under his watchful eyes. Finally we began the abdominal lipo first. It felt weird, not painful just weird. There were a few zingers that got to me but he was very understanding. Now I metabolize lidocaine very quickly so there were times he had to localize certain areas again by injection. The waist was a little more painful due to this but more so one side over the other. During the whole abd and waist lipo he had me stand to see where every was laying. There were some areas that he just felt he had to go back to in order to make it look smoother. OMG, I could see the results immediately. Now I had a flat tummy, and more curvature to my waist accentuating my hips. Next were the upper hip area which originally I did not want him to touch because I love my hips. However once the rest was done we decided together that just a little bit on the top portion of my hips needed to be rounded out instead of the square look that I presented with. After I stood up to look at my butt cheeks I could not believe how rounded and lifted my butt looked. Yeah!!!! Next to the thighs, now I have to say this is the area that originally brought me to him so I will probably be more critical of this area once all healing has taken place. They spent a lot of time there, but due to my underlying muscle mass it was a little tougher than expected. By this time I was completely exhausted and just wanted to be done. So I really cannot say if I am satisfied with my thighs yet. However will keep my recovery posted. This site helped me make a decision due to other real women posting their successes and set backs so I want to make sure I contribute as well.

I posted on the experience a little this morning but I wanted to share with you some things that I left out. Once I left Dr. Su's office (by the way the plastic surgeon's name is Dr. Gruber) I came straight home because I am not used to taking pain meds and phenergan to boot. I was exhausted. My word of warning, DO NOT stay home alone the first day. I was in the kitchen getting ready to head to the bedroom when apparently my knees buckled and I went down from orthostatic hypotension. My boyfriend said that when he asked me a question I gave him a blank stare, by the time he could get to me from across the room I was already on the floor. So please make sure you have someone to stay with you. You will need help, I am very independent and always do for myself but I thank God he was there for me.

I just returned from my day 1 post op visit with Dr. Su and Dr. Gruber. I am very swollen and bruised. But it looks good and they were very pleased with the outcome thus far. I was given a board to place on my stomach and an extra full compression garment to compliment the leg and waist compression garment that I already had. He said this will help with the lower abdominal swelling and keep me from bending that area while it heals. I was able to shower today and then put everything back on again. I am very tender but the pain meds are helping. Adding photos now.

I am still sore and my back waist area looks very swollen. This is all normal according to my "what to expect after lipo" instructions. I have to say the most uncomfortable part today is my back and waist. My stomach just feels like I did an amazing abd workout.