Whole-hearted Recommendation for Dr. Cardenas and Her Recovery House Following Buttocks Reduction and Thigh Lift

I had an excellent experience with Dr. Cardenas this March and April of 2021, when I had a buttocks reduction and thigh lift (lower body lift) and stayed in her Recovery House for almost three weeks. I was not a weight loss patient. Rather, my lower body had always been much larger than my upper body. Finally, since I am in my 50's, my buttocks and thighs felt like two backpacks attached to my lower back. My knees constantly ached, and I had wearied of the way the excess skin and fat looked. Please note that I was a normal weight and exercised frequently, but with age and gravity, my skin and fat hung over my upper thighs and knees, and I could lift handfuls of it.
I got no support from friends when I mentioned my plan to have the procedure. "People pay to have that ass!" they said, although my sister, who is built similarly, understood. I was tired of carrying the weight around. Over the years, the displacement of the skin and fat made my feet turn in, further irritating my knees.
I had an in-person consultation with Dr. Cardenas and knew she was the right doctor for me. I explained that I realized many people ask for bigger buttocks, but I wanted the opposite, and she immediately understood my desired aesthetic. During her examination of my body, she noticed something I had not: that a round of minor liposuction with an exalted New York City doctor to remove fat from my hips three years ago had culminated in a slightly uneven result: the right side did not match the left by a few centimeters. She made that observation within fifteen seconds of my removing my gown. The lack of symmetry was very slight, but I asked a friend the following week, and she confirmed Dr. Cardenas' view. Even once I saw it, the asymmetry did not bother me; asymmetries are normal in the body, and I accept them. The reason the observation matters is that it shows Dr. Cardenas sees the whole body and when in front of a patient, focuses on the patient. She did not charge me extra when she did my lower body lift for the liposuction to one hip, so she was not trying to talk me into another procedure. I asked about doing fat transfer into my breasts, and she said no, that they were not drooping, so I should leave them alone. During the procedure, she decided that I needed a bit of fat transfer underneath one buttock, as I had liposuction on my buttocks in my 20's, and a bit of fat was needed to fill in what would look like an indentation after the lift. This too, she gifted me.
Many reviewers say that their doctor cares a lot for his/her patients. I think Dr. Cardenas does care about her patients, but more importantly, she cares about her work. She wants the results of her procedures to be the best, to match in quality the work of New York and LA celebrity doctors. I had a couple of procedures in New York City from lauded physicians, and I was pleased, but I felt the doctors tried harder to be nice and to seem caring than to be laser-focused on the results of their work. Dr. Cardenas is straightforward, clear in explanations of what is possible, what is not, and the risks of each procedure. The kind of work I had done involved many, many stitches: halfway around my waist above the buttocks and all the way down both legs to the knees. Exposing my body to the air by opening it up and then stitching it shut was a big deal for my system. Of course my incisions opened up in a few places, and keeping the operated part of my body clean and bandaged was a six-week-long effort. I had no infections and no serious complications, but I knew my body was vulnerable for that time, so naturally I was anxious and vigilant and exhausted. All that said, after six weeks, I was solid. My body was closed again, so all I had to do was treat the scars, which, four months later, have begun to fade thanks to silicone strips and Mederma cream, which is expensive and smells like onions but is magic stuff.
I am so very happy with my results. There are places where the scars are already almost invisible. My feet no longer turn in, and my knees do not hurt unless I work out too long on the elliptical machine. I noticed a reduction in my knee pain almost immediately, and my massage therapist agrees that the procedure made a hugely positive difference in my knees, which prior to the operation, I had often asked her to work on because they so ached and were inflamed from the pressure of the weight of my thighs and buttocks. According to arthritis.org, a five pound weight loss takes 20 pounds of pressure off the knees. I have not finished healing, but the operation has already removed about 8 pounds from my lower body. My legs are dramatically thinner, and the skin is much tighter. I'm so glad I did this procedure with Dr. Cardenas.
I will post pictures, but it is hard to get good ones now, since my friends are not great at getting the right angle. I remember when I was considering getting the operation that I was horrified by the immediately after photos. Now I know that immediately after pictures look so like a product of Frankenstein's work because the flesh is still marked with the black pre-op marker. Most people post pictures for only a few months after the surgery, when the incisions still look awful, so I will try to do better, but please be patient as I must find a decent photographer.
Of crucial importance in my healing well was Dr. Cardenas' Recovery House. I stayed almost three weeks, and I urge anyone doing a serious procedure to do the same, because bathing, urinating, defecating, and finding a bearable position in the bed are all very difficult for three weeks, and full-time nurse care is essential. I don't see how anyone could do as good a job as the nurses and cooks at the Recovery House for this crucial time period. Sheets are changed every day, the girdle is washed every day, the nurses bathe each patient daily, and bathing is not pleasant. I am strong, and I almost passed out three times in the two weeks after surgery immediately after showering, not from pain but from either anxiety or the stress of that simple act--bathing--on a body full of stitches that is struggling with intense healing. I really cannot understand a patient who pays to have this surgery and wants to save on aftercare. So much can go wrong if one tries to go it alone or with caretakers who aren't nurses. Even after almost three weeks, I was very uncomfortable on the flight home. If I were Dr. Cardenas, I would require anyone wanting these invasive surgeries to stay in her Recovery House for a minimum of two weeks, because otherwise, they go home early, exposing themselves to an unhygienic environment, probably overexerting themselves, and then have complications for which they unfairly blame the doctor or the Recovery House, which was given only five days to help a remade body heal.
This procedure results in six weeks of pain, discomfort, and the tedium of incredible amounts of "self-care." But after those six weeks, I was happy, thankful to Dr. Cardenas and her staff and proud of myself for going against the naysayers to get all that heavy hanging fat and skin removed from my lower body. My body is now aesthetically balanced, and I feel lighter and energized. I recommend Dr. Cardenas and her staff without reservation and thank them for this significant change in my body.