Sexy and I know it :-) - 16 Months PO (TT, Lipo by Dra Walkiris Robles in Santo Domingo, DR)

I'm a 40 year old mother of two (youngest is 16). I had my first child in my teenage years and the pregnancy ruined my body with stretch marks. So the last time I was comfortably able to wear a bikini I was in high school. I've wanted for years to have this procedure done but raising two children I never found the opportunity to do it. Well now it is here.

After tons and tons of research I finally found a doctor that had the reviews/recommendations that I needed. I had gone to several doctors for consultations but was not sold. After finding this site and hearing the great things about Dr. Robles I contacted her office. It was really weird doing business and handling such a serious matter through international long distance communication like emails and bad phone connects but that is to be expected. So far all of my communications, whether email, phone calls or text, have all been very pleasant with prompt responses.

I made the decision to choose Dra Wilkiris Robles for the following reasons:
1) The number of great reviews by previous patients. No very many doctors in my area have the number of reviews that Dr. Robles has.

2) The beautiful work that she does. I was able to see by photos that other members posted. I was impressed by her tummy tuck incisions, the locations of them, the healing and particularly the belly bottons. She seems to take a lot of pride in her work and does not just do a basic procedure. Her work is more like art and she appears to be a perfectionist. And that is someone who I would want to do my procedure.

3) The amount of recovery time included in Dr. Robles all inclusive package. When speaking to doctors in the US, they seem to want to send you home fairly quickly. Some doctor said they’d have you home in hours. I did find one doctor who kept his patients for 24 hours before releasing them to go home and for that reason he was my first choice in my area of Virginia in the US. But when I found out that Dr. Robles keeps you there in a Recovery House for 10 days I really liked that idea. I was far more comfortable knowing that someone would be there who is familiar with the recovery process and would know if anything was not normal or out of the ordinary. I would rather be with someone who knows then to be at home guessing, wondering or worrying about what’s normal or not.

The bottom line is that Dr. Robles appears to have great reviews, takes pride in her work and care about her patients and recovery. And on top of all that, her prices are affordable enough to make the trip to another country. If I would have to fly to another state to find a good doctor and they send me home the same day then I may as well fly to DR and stay 10 days all inclusive. I’m very comfortable with my decision. And I can’t wait post my before and after photos. I am beyond excited.

I have purchased my tickets and started my vitamins. I am trying to pack everything into a small carry on luggage to make travel as easy as possible. I am also taking my mother with me so hopefully she can get alot of pictures throughout this journey when I am not able to.

Ok so, 9 days before I leave and 10 days before actual surgery. I had my CBC done and my iron was slightly low (11.9) I am faithfully taking my iron and vitamins because I am so determined to get my numbers up before surgery. I'm also drinking my water which is really hard but I get 84 oz, at least, per day.

I've packed everything already. My BF was like "why are you packed already", and I told him that I wanted to be ready just in case they called and told me to come sooner. LOL! (He thinks I'm crazy)

I have pretty much on everyone else's list except maybe my Lysol wipes and small travel size spray. I've got my depends, compression socks and yesterday I grabbed a robe that had pockets since I heard you that you will need a place to put your drains. And I got a button up shirt for day of surgery.

My own little personal things:
I am carrying a small thing of Vaseline. Just seems like you can never go wrong with pure ole petroleum jelly.

I am a woman of color so instead of trying to wrap my hair at night, I packed a satin pillow case.

I need to have this surgery done and over with before I can focus on anything else in life right now. I'm totally obsessed with website right now. I'm on it more than FB, Twitter or anything else these days.

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION that I wanted to share about iron.

Please be careful when taking the iron that you are directed to take prior to surgery. I am regularly anemic and and my doctor has always recommended Vitron C in the past. So I purchased that in prep for surgery. Well on the supplement label it states Elemental Iron 65mg. I was instructed to take 300 mg twice a day (no specification as to what type of iron. Just Iron). So if you don't understand Iron...seeing 65mg would make one think that you should take 5 tablet twice a day which is INCORRECT. The one thing that raise a red flag for me was the supplemental facts on the bottle stated 361% of the daily value. So I started to do some research.

I found two articles to explain iron. One from the Center of Diease Control and the other from the Pharmacy Times website.

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/
check this site and look under "Some facts about Iron Supplements" and right under picture figure 1

http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2006/2006-12/2006-12-6128
Also check this site.

Bottom line is just check the iron that you are taking to be sure you don't confuse Elemental Iron with much smaller mgs with Ferrous Sulfate and try to compensate for the difference.

I wanted to share this because alot of people may not understand iron. (I post pictures of my iron supplements, my vitamins and an article about dosage)

Sharing is Caring! :-) Happy and safe surgery everyone!

I am 8 days away from leaving and the anxiety is killing. I just want to go now. I am going to contact AAA or my bank about Travelers Checks. I wonder if Dr. Robels accepts them.