36 Y/o Mother of 3, Mommy Makeover (Tummy Tuck No Muscle Repair and Breast Lift W/ Fat Transfer Augmentation)

Like most of you, I have been reading reviews in this site for months. I really appreciate women sharing their stories/pictures, so I decided to share mine in case it might be helpful to anyone. My "mommy makeover" surgery is scheduled for January 18, 2017.

I'm an athletic 36 year old, 5'8", 162 lbs, natural 32G cup, and mother of three little ones. I nursed each of our babies for a year and have lost almost 80 pounds since having baby 3. My stomach and breasts are in sad shape now after having been stretched from the pregnancies, nursing, and weight gain. I've worked very hard on my health and fitness over the past few years and it's very frustrating to see my breasts and stomach look like this knowing that no exercise or diet can help. Also, as I get closer to my ideal weight (I'm thinking around 150 lbs), it is very discouraging to see the skin on my stomach and breasts get even more loose (since there's not as much fat to hold the skin tight). So this is where plastic surgery comes into play...

I am very holistically minded when it comes to health. I opt to avoid medicine and surgeries if there is any way to achieve health in a more natural way. For this and many other reasons, I really struggled with the decision of whether or not to have an elective, cosmetic surgery. But after I wrapped my brain around the decision to have the surgery, I decided I'd like to have a less invasive and more "natural" plastic surgery, if possible.

I consulted with a couple of plastic surgeons and felt overwhelmingly more confident in and comfortable with one, Dr. Symbas. He was highly recommended to me by my friend, a nurse who worked with him in the past, and he was also highly recomended by 2 other friends who went to him for mommy makeovers. On top of that, he really listened to me and together we decided upon the best combination of procedures to get me my desired result.

Specifically, I don't want to have my muscles repaired with the tummy tuck and I don't want to get breast implants. He told me that my muscle separation was very minor and that I will still get a very good result even without the MR. I was overjoyed to hear this because I kept reading that, after having kids, nearly every tummy tuck patient gets muscle repair. I could probably have an ever so slightly flatter stomach if I let him do the muscle repair, but I feel that the small gain from muscle repair doesn't outweigh the downside of the extra procedure. I'm happy with the shape of my stomach and muscles, I just want the skin tightened.

As for my breasts, he explained that with a lift alone, I would lose between 1 and 2 cup sizes. While I absolutely don't want to be any bigger than I currently am, I also wasn't thrilled about the idea of being a lot smaller. Since I'm not comfortable getting implants, he and I discussed doing a fat transfer to augment my breasts after the lift. Since fat transfer can only provide a small augmentation, he said my breasts will still be smaller afterwards, but not as much smaller than if I did the lift alone. So the plan is to lipo my sides and back and use that fat to transfer to my breasts.

So that's my back story and surgery plan. :) My pre op appointment is on January 9th and I may check back in after that if I have anything new to report. Otherwise, I'll post some "before" pictures at some point before surgery on January 18th. I'm so nervous and excited!!

So excited and nervous. Can't believe surgery day is almost here! :)

Some pics just before surgery. Sooo nervous and excited. Felt very surreal.