26 yrs/ Dr. Robles/ Dominican Republic!?

Hello ladies, I've taken a bit of a break. I figured it wasn't important to post until I was further along to see the results. So far I am still healing, I am still numb in my belly, and a little numb on my sides. I am not 100% happy with my tummy results thus far. The swelling in my lower tummy is so bad and nothing helps. The faja doesn't help, massages don't help, nothing! My doctor told me to just wait and be patient, but comparing my results to to others, I don't think my lower belly should still be this swollen. I saw a review a while back of another patient of Robles' and she had the same issue. She had a swollen lower belly that didn't go away even after a year. I kind of feel like that is my situation. I'll give it another 3 months, but if nothing changes then I'm going to see another doctor to fix it. I am also a little annoyed with my hips. The fat transfer she did to my laterals look great, but it leaves a dent from my hip to thigh. It's hard to explain in text, but in one of the pictures you can see the fat transfer almost looks like a pocket of fat randomly sitting on my hips. I wish she din't do the fat transfer now, it's just too much for me personally. But I must say despite me picking on myself and my results, I have a new found confidence. I feel like the hot girl in the room for the first time and that I have to thank Robles for. I can wear a bikini now and walk around sleeveless and not think twice about my arms. It's a great feeling. My tummy tuck incision started to raise and become dark. I expected it to because that's just how I scar. Even with the silicone tape it is scarring a little ugly. But I will keep with the silicone sheets and let time take it's course for my scar. I know in a year it will lighten so I'm not worried about it. I plan to heal up for a couple more months and then I'm off to Mexico to get my boobs done. I'm so excited. I paid my deposit for a breast lift w/ implants. I might have him lipo my back while he's at it since I couldn't do that this last round. I'm not addicted to surgery, I just want to complete this journey. I decided to not go back to Robles for a few reasons which will lead to my overall review of Robles.
Overall, I do like my results. I think she did a great job and I think she has great skill. However, the experience was not the greatest. Her staff deals with so many people that you have to beg for them to pay attention to you. I lost confidence in her team after I found out that Tavares, her assistant is NOT A DOCTOR. SHE ISN'T EVEN A NURSE. You want to know what she is, a freaking medical assistant. If you don't believe ask for yourself. I started to get worried with her when my mom and I asked questions and she didn't answer the way a "doctor" should. When I was there for one of my follow up appointments, I was talking to Adriana at the desk and noticed binders with her staff's names. Next to Tavares name was medical assistant. No wonder she never answered my questions fully. It really pissed me off that she makes you call her Dra. Tavares without her disclosing her actual medical title. I was very disappointed in Robles' team after that. But regardless, the lack of after care sealed the deal for me. When I was there, I would have to text Tavares and Adriana when I could come for my post op appointments and they would hardly answer. I felt so alone and abandoned by my doctor. Robles gave me her cell number too but she even didn't respond. My final straw was when I was back home in the states and something started to clog up my drain. It was a thick white substance and I started to freak out. It wasn't time to take my drain out and I wanted her advice. I texted her through whatsapp and sent pictures. She never even had the audacity to respond. I was so hurt that my surgeon completely left me out to dry once I returned home. But, that's one of the downside to surgery abroad. You better be able to have post op care ready for you when you get back, because not all surgeons over there think about you when you leave. As for Robles, that was the case with me. They offered a discount as a returning patient for my boobs, but it wasn't enough to get me back.
All in all it was an experience I will never forget. It has had it's up and downs, but in the end it was worth it. I recommenced surgery with this doctor and and DR as long as your'e prepared to deal with a little nonsense. I will post pictures at 4 mos and 6 mos post op.

Hey guys, I'm officially 6 weeks post op and wanted to share some updated pictures of my progress. I feel so much better! For the ladies who are just a couple weeks and feeling awful, don't worry. It really does it get better. I'm back to all my daily routines and I can get around just fine. I'm not back to work yet. I have a very physical job so I'm not rushing. My arms are awesome. They are healing really well. I don't have full mobility of my arms yet. I can't do certain movements like reaching above my head all the way. It also is a little uncomfortable to sleep on them so I'm still sleeping on my back. I showed an up close picture of my arm scar. The picture really doesn't do it justice because the scar is beautiful in person. It's thin, light, and practically seamless. Robles does such a good job stitching which I think is important to how your scar comes out. You'll see a little line and some spots on the incision line that had a harder time healing. Mainly the spots where my drains were had a hard time closing. Please keep in mind my arm is still very swollen. It may not look like it, but it still has a fluid underneath the tissue. I have a pocket of fluid that developed on my left arm that I am seeing my doctor about. She is referring me to a plastic surgeon because it may need to be aspirated. I think it formed after they took my arm drains out. It probably wasn't ready. But other than that I can walk around sleeveless and my scar is hidden unless I raise my arms up. I definitely recommend Robles for an arm lift.
As for my tummy, it has been a work in progress. I still have a love and hate relationship with my tummy results. Some days I love it and some days I get upset about the swelling and tightness. But I wouldn't change it for anything. I now have a flat tummy and I'm officially rid of all that extra skin. Robles did a great job with the tummy tuck. She lipoed my waist and added fat to my hips to give me a powerhouse curvy figure. Sometimes it takes a little getting used to because my hips were not as big before, so I sometimes feel like I look bigger. But she adds hips to give a better contour to the tummy tuck and waist. The swelling is still ridiculous. I had a hard time in the beginning with my expectations of how I thought I was going to look after surgery. Ladies please get your expectations in line. You will not wake up with a flat tummy and become miraculously skinny lol. I made the mistake of thinking I would wake up snatched and that wasn't the case. The swelling and bruising is unreal! My advice is to take it week by week. Your body goes through a lot of trauma during the surgery and it takes a while to heal itself. Don't expect the swelling to go down day by day either because it won't. You just have to trust the process and check your progress every week. So far, I had 6 lymphatic massages when I got home from DR and they definitely helped. I had two manual massages from some lady here in LA. I didn't really see much of a difference. She was charging $150 each massage. I was like oh hell no! Why would you charge that much to pet somebody like a cat? So I found a groupon at a wellness clinic for $150 for 3 bio electric lymphatic drainage massages. It's a wand that goes over your body for an hour and it puts electric pulses into your body. It's suppose to be 10x better and faster than a manual massage. I was skeptical at first but I'm not going to lie, my swelling decreased drastically after the first session. I became obsessed and did 3 more. I have some lumpiness on my sides from the lipo. I heard a treatment called endermologie helps with that for liposuction patients. I think I may try that to see if I can smooth out some of the lumps. On that note, I advise for everyone to factor in post op expenses. Massages and post op care are very expensive. They don't charge $25 dollars for a massage in the states like they do in DR lol. So please set aside a good $500 for post op maintenance and care when you get home. My tummy tuck scar is perfect btw. I couldn't have asked for a better scar. It's super low and thin. I wore paper tape on them for 6 weeks to minimize tension on my scars so they don't widen. Now I have moved to silicone tape. I'll see how the silicone works on them. I'm hoping to smooth them out even more and lighten them up before they darken because I tend to get hyper-pigmentation.
Lastly, I have had some trouble with my middle lower tummy incision. I might have been doing too much movement and some spots opened up and got infected. My doctor had to put me back on antibiotics which is annoying. I advise that you ladies keep a close watch on your incisions. Check underneath the tape and have someone really inspect them because I had a few spots on my arms and tummy that didn't heal well and I never noticed until it got red and [RS bleep]. Just be careful and stay calm when you run into a roadblock with your healing. Your body will do all the work, just keep a close eye on it.

Doing a lot better. Still a little hunched over but it's much easier to stand straight. Robles was laughing how hunched over I was on my last appointment. She told me that I could start standing straight but I told her I couldn't because it felt so tight. She insisted that I could stand and made do it lol. I'm glad she did because I then realized I didn't have to be hunched over so much.
Still a lot swelling as you can tell in the pictures. I'm not quite sure why the swelling is still so bad because I have been wearing my compression garment pretty consistency. I'll move to my second stage faja later this week.
My primary doctor here gave me an ultrasound of my legs to make sure I didn't have any clots. She was a little worried that my legs and feet have been so swollen especially after my flight last week. The biggest hindrance is the fact I still have this stupid drain. I'm still draining about 150ccs a day so I can't take it out until it's under 50ccs in 24 hours. I'm so over this drain, i'm ready to snatch this thing out! Since I was complaining so much about the stitch on my skin that was holding the drain in place, Robles cut the stitch. But after that my drain keeps sliding down from the little hole. Robles told me not to reinsert it if it starts to fall but...I cleaned it with some antiseptic and slid it back in a little. I know I'm not suppose to but I'm so scared to take the drain out too soon and develop a seroma or something. I'm taking antibiotics so I'll pray that I don't get any kind of infection. I also had to apply for FMLA at my job. There was no way I was going back to work this week coming up especially since my job is so physical. I requested an additional 3-4 weeks to make sure I have proper healing time. I definitely underestimated the healing time from this tummy tuck. I'm just trying to be patient and let this swelling go down and these incisions close completely so I start scar therapy and resume my life a little more. I must say that each day gets a little better and easier. I'm not that thrilled with my tummy results because I still have this little belly from the swelling. But I'm working on my patience and waiting for the weeks to come to see more of the final result.