He's a Da Vinci. Seriously. Magnificent. An Artist - Cherry Hill, NJ

Why: I have been on weight-loss quest prior to seeing Dr. Sorokin last fall. I had been losing weight, but plateaued and was getting frustrated and discouraged. Yo-yo dieting had been the name of the game for me and I had lost almost 40 lbs, then gained 35 of it back, and had once again lost about 10 pounds, but it had stopped there. I was eating about 1400 calories a day, was working out 4-6 times a week, and nothing was changing.

The Procedure: Lipo - Dr. Sorokin elected to do good old fashioned lipo for me. He thought it would be most effective for the type of fat I had, and because my skin retained some elasticity, we elected to not do the tummy tuck. Because he took out so much, it was a longer procedure, but everything went fine. I took the hardcore pain killers the first 48 hours after the procedure, then switched off to prescription strength motrin. Part of the procedure involves them injectimg a liquid into you as the break up the fatty tissue to help in the removal process. The thing is that some of it stays in you, is naturally absorbed by the body over the next few weeks, but word to the wise don't weigh yourself. I did that. 22 lbs. more than a week before. Two incision were made at the top of my pelvic area, one next two the belly button, and two on the back, along my spine, one near the base and the other about 6 inches up from that point. The bruising is substantial in a procedure of this magnitude (6 liters), and can be quite shocking. Def. not sexy. Expect to see bruising in your upper things and labia (this was accompanied by swelling, which led to a panicked call to my PS office, only to be told its very normal). I honestly can't recall how long it was until he took the final stitches out, but they didn't dissolve completely and were itching like crazy when I went in to see him several weeks after the procedure, at which point he took them out. Perhaps most irritating, at first, is the compression garment. When you wake up, after surgery, you're in a Stage 1 garment, which is basically like a girdle, except with a zipper on the side, which quickly becomes annoying. It has the whole snap crotch thing going on so you don't need to undo the whole freakin thing every time you use the lav. Moving onto the stage 2 garment was welcome, given that it lacked the whole side zipper problem. You have to wear the garment 24-7 except when bathing of course, for at least 6 weeks while the swelling goes down and your body heals and re-conforms itself, so I would recommend buying an additional garment so you have one to switch out and wash. Things were fine after the first week. I returned to work, after missing an entire work week (m-f) and was fine. Bruises slowly but surely faded. On a random note: for both procedures I drank a lot of bee balm tea, made from the flowers of a bee balm plant. Its an anti-inflammatory and I swear it made a difference. I drank at least 5 cups of it a day, and Dr. Sorokin always commented on how perfectly I was healing in my follow up visits.

Breast Aug and Sec. Lipo: I am presently 5 days out from having this procedure so my comments on it are colored by the how recent the procedure was done. This took about 2 hours, having both implants (635cc saline in both) and the sec. lipo done. Being my second time, I was for more comfortable with everything. The look I was going for with the implants was going back to having breasts that fit my body type. I am short and stocky, and have broad shoulders, which probably enabled me to pull off the larger implants. The lipo was minimal, and really wasn't the focal point when I came out of recovery. You're not allowed to wear an underwire bra, or a bra with a lot of elastic in it for at least six weeks following the augmentation. My stitches were done in the under-breast crease, and there has been some irritation there from the bottom band of the bra-garment they provided, but using adhesive bandages I was able to deal with the discomfort. I am thinking I have a fair amount of swelling, given that I measured myself and I am now a 38 f/g, hoping to become a 38 d/dd once the swelling goes down completely six months from now. Apparently swelling differs from patient to patient so I am hoping I'll shrink some. I took the heavy-duty pain meds for the first 48 hours, then switched off to motrin. For both this, and the previous, procedure I was more achy than in pain. This seems to differ from person to person though. The bruising is minor in comparison to the last procedure, and he only did two incisions for the lipo once again at the top of the pelvic region. The incisions for lipo have all been maybe 1/2 an inch long. I am fair skinned, so the scars show up more readily on me, but using something like mederma really helps.

Right now: My major problem in the recovery phase is sleeping. I am a stomach sleeper, and find it very difficult to sleep comfortably on my back or side. I couldn't start laying somewhat comfortably on my side until about the third night, but it is hard for me to sleep like that, and found myself only able to fall asleep when I reached the can't keep my eyes open. The nights have been filled with a lot of waking up. I can sleep on my side on a couch, where I am moreso leaning back against the couch, holding a pretty substantial pillow in my arms, to prevent my rolling over. It took almost 4 days for the awareness that there are these bags of liquid in my chest to fade, and depending on how I move it still feels awkward at times. I weeded the garden today, and did fine, and am able at 5 days out to brush my hair, wash my back, my hair, etc. without feeling like the movement is pulling at the stitches. I have showered twice since my surgery, the first two days after, and the second today, 5 days after. Been doing sponge baths in between. My next appointment with my PS is at 11 days out.

I did it for the self-esteem factor, because I had the $$$ on hand (not a fan of financing cosmetic surgery). It's totally natural to maybe feel a little selfish doing this, but you're investing in you, and if you aren't going to blow it all by gaining a zillion pounds after or doing something to nullify work done, then it is worth it. The psychological pay-off alone is worth it.