40 Year Old, 5 Kids (Mini Tummy Tuck - No Muscle Repair, No Lipo) Chesterfield, MO

I am a mother of 5. I gave birth to 3 beautiful baby boys. My 3rd son was born Sept 2002 and by January 2004 I couldn't take it anymore. No matter how much I worked out my stomach was bulging and looking 5 months pregnant so I had a full tummy tuck in April 2004. It went great and was satisfied with my results! Well I thought I was done having kids until the twins were born in May 2013. I have since worked my tail off with diet and exercise. I am now about 25 lbs under pre-pregnancy weight with the twins. I warned my husband ahead of time that if I needed to do a full tummy tuck again I was going to do it (even though it was painful as well and recovery took forever).

Good news though -- I visited 4 different consultations. One said I could take care of this with Smartlipo (then I knew to run b/c the more research I did and the more I thought about it I knew he had no idea what he was talking about). By the way, that guy is not a board certified plastic surgeon. My 2nd consult I was told I Coolsculpting on the lower abdomen would help the area and give me the flatter look I was looking for (again, I knew better). 3rd consult was with the PS that did my full tummy tuck back in 2004 and he said your abdominal muscles are in great shape so you only need a mini tummy tuck. That was good news and bad news... as much as I didn't want to be cut on again I knew that would be the only way to give me the tight look I needed and eliminate with big blob of fat above my csection scar. The good news was that no muscle repair was needed which meant less down time. The 4th (and final) consult I had was with another board certified plastic surgeon. Right away he said mini tummy tuck with no muscle repair so that made me very happy because I got the same response from 2 very highly respected PS in the St. Louis area. I have chosen to go with Dr. Christian Prada not because I can confirm that he is better than Dr. Edmond Cabbabe (the one that did my full tummy tuck in 2004) but because Dr. Cabbabe doesn't do "awake" mini tummy tucks and he doesn't have a surgical center at his finger tips so he has to do everything in the OR (which means higher cost). Whereas, Dr. Prada has those things at his finger tips and he can do this under local anesthesia so as soon as he said those words I knew that I was ready to schedule with him. It took me a couple of days to schedule the date because I had to check the calendar and talk with my husband about the best timing to have this done.

Anyhoo -- I am scheduled for March 12, 2015!!! I will do my best to keep you all updated. I know this site really helped me out so I will do my best to give back to the community by sharing my experiences and results. 33 days and counting!!!

I know that I have a little skin elasticity in the upper abdomen so I am only expecting that the bulge in the lower abdomen be completely gone and contoured appropriately with my flanks... with a very low incision right at the top of mons pubis (or however you spell it) and since the doc said he was going to pull down on the abdomen and up from the mons pubis then I would expect little tightening in the upper abdomen (or maybe hoping :)) and a little tightening in the upper/inner thigh area. We shall see... I am going to talk more with the doc during my pre-op appointment scheduled for March 3rd.

Want this overhang gone!!