May 2016 Mommy Makeover in Cali, Colombia

I've been inspired by other real-self users to write this review. So basically I'm a mom of 3 children 14, 3 & 17months. After having my daughter 14 years ago I was left with extra sagging skin and severe stretch marks on my abdomen. All these years I've been saying "once I finish having children I'm getting a tummy tuck". The baby making shop is no longer manufacturing, So it's time for my tummy tuck! I was looking at surgeons once I gave birth to my last son but since there are lifting restrictions I waited till he was able to walk ( which now I think might be harder). I've also been having a hard time dropping the baby weight despite doing cardio 4 days a week. I'm 35, 5'3 and 170lbs.

In 2011 I had breastlift and saline implants and after 2 babies they went back to what they looked like before. Now I'm scheduled with Dr. Villalobos for a Tummy tuck, Contour Lipo another breastlift but swapping my saline for Silcone and hopefully going a bit smaller. I'm currently a 36DDD. I find with my figure if I'm not wearing a low cut shirt I look fatter. I'm hoping to be a D. I'm naturally a C so it won't be a huge implant.

Dr. Villalobos came highly recommend by 2 friends that recently traveled to him for Lipo and fat transfer. They were very satisfied and they said he does amazing tummy tucks. I also like the height of his nipples (Sounds weird... I know) currently my nipples are too high so every time I wear something low cut I have to keep checking that my areola isn't showing.

I did my research on Dr. Villalobos and feel very confident in my decision. I saw other doctors that I was interested in but I didn't get that gut feeling that made in comfortable. It seems like he plays safe.

The hardest part of this journey for me is leaving my children, I love them dearly but I also been wanting this forever. My husband is the only one I have supporting my decision. I've been scolded by my mother about leaving my children and having surgery prior to my daughter's middleschool graduation ( which I'll be back home for) I guess she sees me dying or something. ( I pray that saying "mother's always right" isn't true). Shes never been a supportive parent. My husband will be taking off work to be with the children and keep them on their regular routine.

I hope this is not TMI but it all plays into my journey.

Let the stress begin! So I'm less than a month pre-op. I scheduled my physical and routine gyno visit, to make sure I'm in best health. I was having heavy menstrual cycles while being on Paraguard (IUD) so I switched to Mirena. According to Paola this is an acceptable form and my IUD doesn't have to be removed prior to surgery. After I go for my physical. l had blood work and EKG which looked great with the exception of my hemoglobin it was a 10 the lowest it's ever been :-/ Dr. Villalobos will not preform surgery unless you are a 12 (higher is better). I tried talking to my doctor about sending me to a hematologist he just want me to wait a month to see if there heavy Mense was the issue :-< ugh!!! I explained that I'm considering having a tummy tuck he said this will have to be resolved first (duh). By the way US doctors do not want to hear you're going out of the country for surgery (they'll think your crazy and lecture you) Now the challenge is to get my levels up. I was on iron daily and still came low. So now I will try adding blood builders and folic acid. By the way the guy at the vitamin shop explained that if you want higher than 28mg of iron it's sold over the counter at pharmacies up to 300mg.
Now my follow up blood work is 3 days prior to departure..

So right now I'm sitting in the doctors office Anixiously waiting. My last visit my heme was a 10 and I can't have surgery unless I'm a 12. Today my doctor was able to do the blood test with immediate results :-| I've been working very hard trying to get these numbers high. I've been taking Iron, Hemaplex, no caffeine and a high iron intake. Hopefully all this worked.