Fixing a previously botched job
I came to cosmos having already undergone another procedure with a surgeon that’s was careless and haphazard with my body. Something that was supposed to be a minor touch up to create a contoured shape left me with rippling, buldges, unevenness and minimal self confidence. So, long story short, I came to cosmos for help. Help with fixing what was done to my body and also help with rebuilding body/self confidence. As you can probably guess I was anxious about going under the knife again, and I spent countless hours reading reviews, speaking with specialists and having consults. My mothers skin specialist told me about cosmos clinic, she has said that if she were to get any more work done that that is who she would trust. So again, I spent more and more hours stalking their website, reading Cosmos’ reviews on websites like realself and emailing back and forth to the girls at Cosmos. Still being far far to nervous to let anyone be trusted with my body again I decided it would be best to leave the procedure for a year and see if my state of mind would change, if I could get used to the botched body that I was now living in, and if by the time a year was up I still wasn’t happy and cosmos still seemed like the right choice then I would go ahead with the procedure. As you could have guessed, by the time the year was up, i still was far from happy and I just could not get used to this body I was living in. I didn’t go swimming anymore, it dictated where I chose to go on holidays, I always wore baggy clothes and I stopped dating because I didn’t want anyone to see me without clothes on. I was 24, and that’s not really how life is supposed to be lived. So I booked in for a consult and arranged flight to get to Sydney. At my consult I first met with Dr Franc, I was hesitant to say what I thought was wrong with my body first up as I wanted him to look at my thighs and tell me what he saw from his professional opinion before I told him was issues I saw. He was lovely, honest and easy to talk to. He could clearly see that the previous surgeon had left me with an uneven contour and rippling under by buttocks, and talked to be openly about the likelihood of correcting these issues. I then met with Dr Adjaka, who was briefed by Dr Franc and he then gave his professional opinion on my likely outcome. We came to the conclusion that due to the location of the rippling and dimpling caused by too much fat being removed in some places then not enough from others that we wouldn’t be able to get it back to 100% of what it was before but the visual appearance could definitely be improved upon. My front on contour could be evened out so that I had my old hourglass shape back and that my inner and outer thighs could be smoothed and made symmetrical again. Right after the consultation I made a tentative booking for a few weeks later, not fully committing to the surgery, but feeling far more comfortable with the whole situation now that I had met face to face with the surgeons who would be working on me. It was also comforting to now that this last year and a half almost two years I hadn’t been seeing and stressing over nothing and that my unhappiness was indeed warranted. AGAIN, I stalked cosmos’ website and read up on the producers we had spoken about in the consultation. I chatted with mum about it and what she thought was the best idea. She agreed, not before really knowing to the full extent that it had restricted me from doing normal day to day things, that this needed to be done, even in the outcome wouldn’t be back to my old body it would be an improvement and will hopefully change my outlook on my self image. So I booked in. The night before the surgery we got to the hotel room, I was nervous and anxious and tired. I took the sleeping pill they gave me so that I had a solid night sleep before the operation. I was up at cosmos by 10:30am the following morning. Dr Adjaka and Dr Franc again looked over what they had to work with and made their texta markings. I was given a light sedative so that I would be calm and relaxed but awake for the entire procedure. From there I was in their hands. I do remember bits and pieces of the procedure, like listening to Adele playing in the background, being asked to roll this way and then that. Sometimes there was a slightly painful feeling but I just said ouch and they would give me the little green whistle again. God knows what I said or what conversations we had but my mum was told after the procedure that I was quite chatty and kept on singing haha! The next 2 days I was in a fair amount of pain but made sure I kept moving around as much as I could, everything was really swollen so I felt like a balloon, it was uncomfortable to sit and to stand and to walk and to lay down, but that only lasted for a few days then everything just kept on getting easier and easier by the day. As I am in interstate client I had all 5 of my post op massages done in the one week, so that I didn’t have to keep on flying to Sydney and back. Which I wouldn’t have been able to afford to do nor had the time. The nurse that looked after me was Fernanda, she’s this lovely Brazilian, she was happy to answer all of my questions, teach me how to do the lymphatic drainage on myself, how to put that garment on so that it didn’t cause creasing and also reassured me that all those lumps and hardened tissue would all go away over time. I saw her each day of the week post op. I left Sydney feeling like I had a grasp on what was to come and how I was best to look after myself as I went forward. After having one botched job, I was making sure I did everything possible to ensure this one went along smoothly and that anything that may be end up being an issue was hopefully not from my wrong doing. For the first 2 weeks I did a 20 minute lymphatic drainage massage on myself morning and night (I found out the one episode of forensic files on Netflix each morning and night was the perfect timer and saved you from getting bored while you did the same old massage day in day out) I then applied my strataderm and vitamin e oil to my skin. After 2 weeks I started alternating between lymphatic and deep tissue massages, still doing it twice a day for 20 minutes. At this point I started back at work as well, which was a bit of a shock to the system as I work in hospitality so being on my feet for hours on end made me exhausted, but that to got easier. Once it hit 3 weeks I was able to stop wearing my garment 24/7, but I was told if I wanted to continue wearing it full time then it would be nothing but beneficial to my outcome. I had also emailed the clinic to see if it was still necessary to massage twice a day, and again Laura said if it’s not a nuisance to do so then keep on going with it. I have now just passed my 4-week point, I am wearing the compression garment basically all day still unless, I am at home, then I will take the corset off but for not any longer than 5 or 6 hours. I have started back with really light gym workouts (just at home from YouTube) and I am doing to modified granny versions of the exercise, but this is helping with my flexibility and stiffness. Looking at my shape now I am happy with what I see in the mirror, I have an hourglass shape back ☺ my thighs are even, they do have lumpiness but that is just because of the collagen under my skin doing its thing to tighten my skin. Under my bottom there is still rippling but in comparison it has diminished a lot and hopefully it will continue to improve. I have 2 weeks left until my 6 week post-op follow up, where we will compare my before and after photos. until then, I will keep on doing everything I can to ensure that I am holding up my end of the deal and I will keep on trying on all of my old clothes and admiring in the new way that they fit. Maybe a cull of all those oversized baggy tops is in order as well? I will post photos of my before and afters once I have been to the follow up and my final thoughts on everything once it has been the full 6 weeks, as things will change in the coming two weeks.
