Thanks Dr. Yily De Los Santos! - Review - Dominican Republic, DO

Height: 5"9
Surgery Date: March 14th, 2013
Procedure: Large Volume Lipo - Stomach, Flanks, Back, Inner Thighs
Overall: Happy with the results
I want to thank all the people that posted their pictures, experiences and advice on Dr. Yily. It really helped me on my journey. Over the next few days I'll post my experience with a timeline. I didn’t want to be one of those people that didn’t “give back” or disappeared now that I had the surgery. Today I've uploaded pictures Pre-Op - March 14, 2013 and Post OP - May 3rd, 2013.
I know a lot of people go to Dr. Yily for BBL but I was looking for a doctor that did aggressive liposculpture. I came across Dr. Yily profile by accident while doing reach on Real Self. Once I saw what she does for the waist I was sold! Most doctors in the US don’t do large volume lipo. My requirements was to find a doctor that worked with my ethnicity who did this kind of surgery day in and day out like a factory. I didn’t want anyone experimenting on me. I also checked to make sure no one died under her care. I had my arms done in the U.S. 2 weeks before I went to the DR because I didn’t want to do everything at once. I will say comparatively Dr. Yily took a lot of precautions. She made sure to have blood work, EKG, XRays and a cardiologist looking you over before she even touches you.
I will stress that I don’t think that having surgery in the DR is for everyone. I would advise not to go to the DR for surgery if you expect everything to be like it is in the U.S. It is not the U.S. First don’t expect that everyone will accommodate you if you only speak English. If you’re not comfortable in an environment where you’ll have to use your English/Spanish dictionary or a Translator Application to communicate with people or have a companion that speaks Spanish then you’re going to be frustrated constantly. A lot of things are quite expensive there because they import EVERYTHING. Plan to bring even your own protein shakes. If you have no PATIENCE then this is NOT the place for you. First everything is on Caribbean time. A lot of women got frustrated because they arrived at the CIPLA at 6:30 am and expect that they’d be in surgery soon thereafter. They never promise a time slot to anyone and you have to prepare that even though you’re there at 6:30 am you may not get to surgery until 4 pm or like me the next day because my blood pressure was high and they had me do extra testing to determine whether I was fit for the surgery. Secondly Patience for the drama! You might be there when someone shows up who didn’t pay but still expects surgery…. Because her prices are so low you will encounter a spectrum of women with ALL different backgrounds and personalities. As I saw some were vocal and start arguing with Dr. Yily and her Staff and the people at Cipla… You name it. I went during “high season” – Spring Break so she was over booked.
It’s important to stress that this is major surgery. Even though I was up and out of bed on day 3 after surgery, it’s been a long recovery. It's 7 weeks since I had surgery and I'm still swollen. I was told it will take about 3 to 6 months to see the full results.
Started back exercising 5 weeks post-surgery which really helped the swelling to go down. The Lymphatic Massages and Acupuncture has also helped. Because my body is recovering I get tired very easily. Dr. Yily stressed a post-surgery regiment of vitamins which I've only started to follow two weeks ago. I think it's important to add Iron, Magnesium and B12 to your supplements post-surgery. Felt the difference immediately.
The worse thing for me post-surgery is the itching. The areas that are healing itch like crazy! I get up at night to itch. Would rather the pain. Benedryl and Advil helps but I had two straight weeks of intense itching which has finally started to subside.
More postings to follow.

I turned 45 last week! Below continues in a timeline my experience in the DR. I’ll give another update this week with what I carried and what I WISHED I’d carried.

NOTE: If I could do it again I would have gone to Cipla the day before my surgery, gotten all my tests done and met with Yira. By getting this out of the way you’re already prepped for surgery and would more than likely be one of the first ones the scheduled surgery day.

Found an American Airlines First Class flight to the DR that wasn’t much more money. Also wanted to get Priority Check in and larger seats as I didn’t know how I’d feel when I returned. The flight had a layover in Miami and I called, once again, to confirm with Jacqueline Recovery House that I’d go there after the surgery. Again they couldn’t find me in their system and I told them to cancel my stay there (I would find out later that they called Dr. Yily and told them I cancelled the whole surgery….)

I was already staying at Aparta Hotel Plaza del Sol on my first night. It was really easy to communicate with them so I called and booked the room for 10 days at a rate of $40u.s. per day. They already had a driver meeting us at the airport. The driver charged $40.

When you get to the DR have your $10u.s. ready for customs. Pedro, our driver, had a sign waiting for us at the airport. He turned out to become like a bodyguard for us and really took care of us. On the way to the hotel I asked him if I could hire him for two hours after we got to the hotel to take us to the grocery store (It’s like their version of Walmart. It has everything and is right down the street from the hotel), we also got a cell phone with a DR number for $20 and I asked him to take us out to an expensive restaurant for dinner on the water. I figured I had surgery the next day and wouldn’t be leaving my bed for a while. (added some pics of the view from the restaurant).
Hotel Sol is simple but it had everything in the room we needed. There’s an elevator and our room was on the 2nd floor. Our room wasn’t as modern as the rooms of some of the other women I’d meet there. It could have been because initially I’d only booked it for 3 nights, but we had no complaints. The AC and hot worked well. We had a kitchen with cabinets, small table and chairs, stove and sink. TV had cable. There was a sofa and mirrored dressing table, 2 beds and most important internet access. I have a Netflix account and after surgery, while I was stuck in bed, I watched a ton of movies online.

It was nice to have a fun dinner in the DR. I was relaxed, full (since I couldn’t eat after midnight) and ready for surgery. Logged in and checked my email at 2:30am and saw an email from Yira asking if I’d cancelled the surgery the next day. I was like no, I’m HERE. She responded 10 min later saying it’s ok. That girl doesn’t sleep. I found out later that it usually isn’t until after midnight that she gets an opportunity to respond to a lot of the emails.

Got to CIPLA at 6:30am.

NOTE: They don’t tell you what floor to go to a CIPLA. Ask Yira to tell you which floor to come to.

It was Spring Break and there were a lot of women for surgery. Thank God all of them wasn’t for Dr. Yily. There are quite a few plastic surgeons with offices at Cipla. However Dr. Yily had a lot of women there that day. I wasn't going to complain because 1. I booked the surgery 2 weeks prior and just send my money because I wanted it done in March. I even booked my plane ticket before getting the confirmation. My intention was that I’d show up with money and she’d find room for me:) As it turns out I heard two days before I left that they got my plane ticket confirmation and had me on the books for the day after I arrived.

We were given our rooms at CIPLA. My original intention was to spend 2 nights after surgery at CIPLA under medical supervision since I was going to the hotel instead of the recovery house. There was a pull out Sofa that my friend slept in comfortably. We asked for extra blankets and sheets.

There are forms to be filled out and you’re sent for bloodwork, xray and the cardiologist. By the time I got to the Cardiologist around 11am with one other lady we were told that The Cardiologist had to leave for an appointment and wouldn't be back until 1 pm. Sooo I couldn't drink water or eat. Just wait. We had to go to the lobby and put a deposit down on the remote control for the TV.
The lobby is great for spectating. We decided to stay there and watch all the people for a while. There were these girls in maxi dress walking by with this folded organ like object on a string that they wore like wrist purses. Found when I got one it was the drain. All these women were like peacocks walking around proud of their surgeries. There was this one woman who’s behind and breast was sooooo big and waist so small she looked like something otherworldly!

After seeing the Cardiologist I was told that my blood pressure was too high so they wanted to put off my surgery for about 5 days as recommended by the Anesthesiologist, whose really nice. They decided to send me with another woman to a doctor in the city to run further tests. They sent us with a driver in an SUV and one of Dr. Yily’s assistants Theresa. It costs $75 for the stress test.
I have what is called white coat syndrome. Whenever I’m in a hospital or a doctor’s office my blood pressure goes up. I have blood pressure pills just in case. So both the women and I took or blood pressure pills and by the time we ran on the treadmill (around 4:30 pm) and had the stress test done it wasn’t until after 5pm that we got the green light that we’d both passed the test and headed back to CIPLA in rush hour. We figured we weren’t having surgery that day and finally drank some water, but we still hadn’t eaten since midnight.

After we got back to CIPLA we were told that we would be the first to have surgery the next day and that they wanted CIPLA’s staff to monitor us overnight. They told us that they would pay for the extra night at CIPLA.

NOTE: Bring money for tipping. We tipped an overnight nurse who gave us the phone number of the place that would deliver us food, batteries, phone cards etc. This guy came straight to our room at the hospital from a place next door! The food at CIPLA sucks!! Bring protein bars, shakes etc. as needed.
The next morning, Dr. Yily came in and marked me up. Of course I had things to say like that I’m short waisted and that I’d love for her to give me the illusion of a longer waist. Dr. Yily was like I can only give you what your body will allow. I was like ok. I respect that you know what you’re doing. Then she told me that she couldn’t do my knees and would only do my inner thighs because she didn’t want to risk it with the high blood pressure and bleeding.

The blue pill came and I took it. Didn’t sleep. They finally came for me for surgery and I was so nervous and awake. When I got to the surgery room there was like six medical personnel there. I recognized the Anesthesiologist. They put a barrier between my face and body so I didn’t see anything. I didn’t feel any pain but I could feel that my skin was stretching. Then I started this out of body hallucination. Found out later that other women had the same crazy hallucination so it was either the blue pill or the drugs used for anesthesia. When they finished surgery I screamed out that they forgot my chin! They came back and did it. The hallucination is trippy!
After surgery I was wheeled back to my room. That’s where the long recovery process begins!

NOTE: After surgery when the anesthesia starts wearing off you ARE going feel like you are naked in a snow storm. My teeth were rattling. I felt like there was no blood in my body. I was freezing! My friend turned the AC off and wrapped my face and body with the extra blankets we’d gotten. The only thing showing was my eyes. Thank God this doesn’t last long only about an hour. When the pain killer drips kick in you feel delusional great! Now I understand why some of the people blogging from their bed say they feel so great they forget they’re on powerful pain killers LOL!
I now had the drain and a catheter. They don’t want you to move at all the first night. I LOVED that the hospital bed was mechanical and could be moved with a remote. I was ready to leave CIPLA after two days but I would miss the hospital bed after I left.

I’ll continue post later this week. Just posted some updated pics.

Note: Post Surgical Garment - For hygiene and to help avoid infection I recommend that you take a second garment to change into when you wash the other.

Dr. Yily get's her's from www.marenagroup.com. I bought a smaller size (medium in black) from them. It cost around $100. The first one they sent me was F5 compression, a second stage garment. I called and asked it they had one with the same double compression as the one I got from Dr. Yily. They said yes, but it isn't on their website and it's called a F7. I ordered a garment in F7. Love having the extra compression.

Now that I'm going from a medium to a small garment. I don't want to spend another $100+ I read on one of the blogs where they had it adjusted. My Mom has a sewing machine so I asked her.

It was so EASY. With one stitch she took in the seam on the back from the opening at the crotch area tapering it to where the snaps end under the breast so the upper back area stayed the same size while the stomach area is smaller. After trying it on I wanted it tighter so she ran a wider stitch and now I have a size small faja. Thanks Mom!