Smart Lipo to the Flanks, Hips, Lower Back and transferred to Buttocks - Birmingham, AL

Well, to start off I am a very busy 21 year old pre-med full time college student. When I was a freshman and sophomore I was in immaculate shape, I would even compete in bikini contests. However, half way through my sophomore year I had something very personal and very traumatic happen. The aftermath of it was insomnia, anxiety, dramatic weight gain, major drop in grades, and mild depression. I also chose not to tell my family what happened, and I intend to keep it that way. I went from being 5"4 125 pound very in shape to now about 160 pounds. I feel so ashamed of how heavy I have gotten. I have never been close to weighing this much for my size. Over the past year and half I have learned to deal with this traumatic experience and learned not to let it take ahold of me. While I am no longer depressed or have anxiety, I am still overweight and still have to take prescription sleeping meds every night to fall asleep.

For the past year and half I have been trying to get my weight under control but I just can't. I think its due to a lot stress at school. I decided to make an appointment to see about getting some lipo done in an area that has always been a problem for me (even at 125 lbs) .... those dreaded love handles. Since the weight gain they have of course gotten worse and of all the areas I've put on weight, those bother me the most. After doing some research I came across a website called Hedden Plastic Surgery with an absolutely beautiful surgery center! The pictures on the inside looked just a nice and very comfy. They also have Spa Greystone in the same building. Which offers facials, massaging, waxing, nail spa, hair salon, spray tanning, and some medi-spa treatments as well. The Greystone Spa is very well decorated and feels warm. Very beautiful!

They have three doctors that are board certified in Plastic Surgery. I chose the guy who own the place, Dr. Hedden himself. He has many awards and many distinctions. When you first walk into the lobby and sit down on one of the chairs there is a glass placard that says "One of Americas Best Plastic Surgeons" presented by the American Board of Plastic Surgeons. I've read reviews about people coming as far as Canada to have work done by him. They even have an out-of-town specialist because of the number of out of state patients they have. When I walk up to the check in counter the lady was pleasant and told me the doctor would see me shortly. After a short 20 min wait, they called me back and brought me to a room. The woman was very nice, and I told her what I was looking to have done. I took off my shirt like I was told to and put on a paper gown. About 5 mins later I meet the man of the hour, Dr. Hedden. He seemed nice and was very knowledgable about everything. He told me he thought Smart Lipo would be the best option for me because it gives better results and also helps tightens the skin back to normal. A cash only price was $2800 for one area ($800 for each additional area you wanted). I was only going to do my flanks (love handles) so it would only be $2800.

I called about 3-4 weeks later after my lipo consultation to set up the actual surgery appointment and was told before I come in I need to get a physical exam ($35 fee, but whatever.) So this Wednesday I will be going in for that and I assume they will go over all the pre-op stuff with me as well while I'm there. The surgery date is set for December the 9th in the early morning. I am very excited! While I know some Smart Lipo of the love handles isn't going to fix my big overweight problem, I think it will give me the start and push I need. After lipo your put on a strict diet anyways and are encouraged to exercise after the doctor gives you the okay. So I think because of the lipo it will force me to make time to eat right and exercise. Plus I will be on winter break, no school until January 5th, so no stress!

I will keep you updated and will provide photos soon!

Hello again everyone! Thanks a lot for all of your input, I really appreciate it and sorry for not posting back sooner! But I am currently in a hotel in Birmingham (I live an hour and 15mins away and had to be back for a check up on the morning of day two) and will be staying another night here (:

So I'll rewind a little, yesterday was surgery day and at the last second I decided to add on to having my hips Lipo'd as well. When I saw Dr. Hedden a week ago he asked me what exactly I wanted to do with the fat he was gonna take out. I was like "Huh? What do you mean?..." And he told me "Well I usually offer this to a lot of my patients but throwing away fat is like throwing away gold. It's a shame to see it go to waste I ask if they would like it to be put anywhere else, such as your butt. A lot women get it put back into their butt to give them a bigger booty. And I don't charge extra for it, it's free. But it's up to you! You don't have to if you don't want to!" Of course I said yes, I mean who doesn't want a free mini Brazilian Butt Lift? Lol

I had to be at the surgery center (he has his own surgery center built into his office building, really convenient) at 6am. I changed into a bathrobe kind of thing and as he was marking me he asked me if it was okay to take some fat out of my upper back, ya know "the bra fat" haha and I said absolutely go for it! Haha and of course there was no extra fee. I can tell Dr. Hedden really cares about giving his patients the best results possible, even if that means going out out the designated zone I paid for. I thought that was really nice. And he's a real sweet guy!

After I was marked up I was taken back to the surgery room and was under for about 3 hours. I woke up in the recovery room and they gave me paid meds and anti nausea meds, I was in pain but it wasn't terrible. And I'm a baby when it comes to pain lol. The ride to the hotel was probably the worst part because I had to sit on my butt (my friend was driving of course) and we were in the morning rush hour traffic. So it was about a 30min ride -.- the rest of the day I was really sore, id say it was a 6/10 as far as pain, no crying or anything, which was surprising to me haha. I would describe the pain as if someone had a wooden paddle and beat you on your booty and back with it haha. And I have a compression garment that goes a couple inches below my boobs to just above my booty crack.

Today at 8:15 I went to my check up where they took off the garment and peeled off all tape and gauze. That's when I had my friend take pics, I'm REALLY swollen btw, my hips arent nearly that wide haha and my butt is swollen too. But honestly I thought it was gonna be worse. Then they put the compression garment back on, told me I looked great, said the swelling will go down day by day and told me to come back in a month. I have to say, even after surgery in the first day I was up and waddling around haha. Today the pain is only about a 4, it just hurts to sit on my booty without a pillow and the compression garment can get annoying, especially when you're trying to sleep and my back is obviously sore, but I can't wait for the swelling to go down (: Also, I was put fully under for the procedure, I don't think Dr. Hedden allows you to be awake for Lipo unless it was perhaps something minor. Being put to sleep is actually safer anyways because if you're awake you run the risk of overdosing on local anesthesic and I'd imagine it would be terribly uncomfortable D: I forgot to take before pics but I know Dr. Heddens office took them so when I get my hands on those I'll post them for yall! If you have any questions please feel free to ask (: I'll post another update tomorrow!

Hello world! I must say I really appreciate everyone's positive comments and questions! Answering questions on here helps keep me a little sane since I'm pretty much limited to my apartment haha. Today is my fourth day out of surgery and I'm feeling pretty good! I'm not waddling as much and my walk is more normal now haha. The stairs do take a minute though when I have to go outside to take my puppy to go potty. I've been eating healthy, things such as salads, grilled chicken, oven baked salmon, etc. And for a snack I have these individual small packs of Welch's tangy fruit gummies, really yummy and pretty low in calories!

Ive gotten better at sleeping with my garment on, of course I have to sleep on my stomach but the garment is pretty darn stiff so it takes some getting used to. But I do wear it 24 hours a day, taking it off briefly when I need to put on the Arnica cream, which I do three times a day. The swelling is going down each day but I wish my hips were smaller /: maybe I'm just being impatient. My love handles/sides are looking good though! And my booty looks nice and full! But the hips are worrying me, what is they don't go down too much more? Do you all think my hips look massive/bad?

I'm no longer really taking pain meds, I'll take one norco in the morning because when I wake up I am really sore and it does hurt quite a bit but thats really it. I am still taking my antibiotics obviously and even though I have insomnia and take sleeping meds for it (Lunesta) they also gave me a prescriptions for another sleeping med (Ambien) which in my opinion is a bit stronger. But I have to say, it is needed, atleast probably for the first week after surgery because between the soreness and the stiffness of the garment I would imagine it would be quite difficult to fall asleep without the sleeping meds.

I can't wait to go home for the holidays, my puppy and I are flying back to Florida on Tuesday and will be home with family and friends for two and half weeks before flying back to Tuscaloosa for the spring semester of school. I am hoping by this coming Tuesday that I will be feeling pretty good, considering I will be taking two flights (we have to change planes in Atlanta) and even though the flights arent too long, I just hate the thought of having to sit on my booty for that long, but I'll definitely be sitting on a pillow haha. Another thing I am a little worried about is hiding my surgery from my family and some of my friends. I was raised by my grandparents and so my grandfather is the one picking me up from the airport and he definitely cant know, he'd flip out. My grandmother knows and my grandmother informed me that she told my mom. But other than that no one knows, I'm going to have to hide the fact that I'm wearing a stiff garment under my clothes and hide the fact that I am sore and covered with bruises haha. I also am going to be a bridesmaid in one of my best friends wedding on Jan 3rd.

Anyways, I'm uploading some pics of myself today with this post! Like I said, I really appreciate everyones positive comments and questions! I'll be back to post again soon.