My Tummy Tuck story, Tampa Florida With Dr. Stanley Castor

Well, I had my final consults with Dr. Michael Diaz in Melbourne, Dr. Thomas Fiala in Altamont Springs and and Dr. Castor in Tampa. I really liked Dr. Diaz in Melbourne, he was very personable. He does a lot of breast cancer patients and I am considering him for my breast lift. My consult with Dr. Fiala, wasn't that great to be honest. I actually loved his nurse and his staff and the facility but I didn't get that "shining bedside manner" feeling that was in his online reviews. I felt like he really wasn't interested in doing my TT. (This is just an opinion and feeling I got, he didn't specifically verbalize that.) However both he and Dr. Diaz have stellar online reviews and no negatives. One may be able to put fake good reviews on line but no Dr. can avoid bad ones if they leave unhappy patients. So that was a major plus in my book. A year ago I went to Dr. Armondo Soto, Dr. John Michael Choi, Dr. Richard Arabitg and Dr. Scott Greenberg all in the Orlando area. I really liked Dr. Greenbergs personality and his wife/surgical coordinator had work done from him that looked good. Unfortunately some of the negative feed back he got from a former patient just couldn't be shaken from my mind and I eventually just couldn't go with him. Also the recovery room was in the same hall way that patients pass by day to day for appointments and the bathroom was shared and inside the shower in the bathroom was a mop and old rags in a bucket. I felt like an infection might happen because of germs. That's just my opinion of how I perceived the facility. Not something that I know for sure would happen. In my opinion Dr. Arabitg over promised and rushed me through the procedure, he also charged a consult fee. He showed me a picture of a gorgeous outcome and flat out told me he said he could "make me look like this" I went to him before I realized there was such a thing as bad reviews. His reviews online are atrocious. Soto and Choi have great pictures and facilities but horrible online reviews of unhappy patients too. I can accept a few bad ones if they are complaining about botox or laser, and I can understand infection or something going wrong, but to hear any Dr. turns when something goes wrong will make me RUN in the opposite direction. If something goes wrong. I want a reasonable person with compassion, skill to fix it for a Dr. I'll be posting some more before pictures soon. If anyone has used Dr. Castor and has any input. I would love to hear it.

Getting a little apprehensive. I had my pre op appointment a few days ago and Dr. Castor and I went over the procedure some more. SO FAR he has been wonderful. He has a very relaxed demeanor. Seems to take his job seriously but also has a calming effect. I will be getting a full tummy tuck and lipo on my flanks. I filled my scripts, Percocet, antibiotics, and Phenergan. I picked up some stool softener, bought a comfy after surgery maxi dress and a second compression garment for after the drains are out as well. I also bought some biocorneum for scar treatment. I've heard great things about it. Today my recovery recliner was delivered. I bought an electric one at Kane's Furniture. I've posted a picture. This week I will be tying up loose ends and my mother is coming from out of town to take care of me during recovery on Thurs. Unfortunately I've had a nasty cold for over a week and a sore throat. I'm hoping it goes away before Friday Nov 7nth my surgery day because I don't want to be coughing one little bit. I'll post some updated before pictures soon and I'll also post some post op picts as well.

It's been 21 days since my TT surgery with Dr. Castor in Tampa. It's taken me this long to be ready to write. I'll get you caught up and give you a brief rundown of events so you can make an educated TT decision. Firstly I can honestly say I am so thrilled that I did my research and chose the correct Dr. I can not even imagine a better outcome. Words like "Artist, Magician, Perfectionist" don't even do him justice. When it comes to the Tummy tuck he is a PRECISIONIST. I thank my lucky stars I landed on the decision to go to Dr. Castor. From the sculpting on my flanks, to my belly button, down to the placement and precision of my scar I couldn't ask for a better out come. It's better than what I thought I wanted in terms of scar placement. My Mons pubis area was lifted perfectly. My scar is thin and has already begun to heal nicely. I included pictures. I didn't wake up with marks, ink, bruises all over my stomach and scars and a generally dirty beat up body like some I see. My body was clean and I had very minimal bruising just on my backside behind the flanks from the sculpting, with a steri strip and two nicely placed drains that will have hidden scars, with nothing over my belly button. This tells me he took care while I was under and didn't just rough me up, beating up my body while under to get the job done. He took longer than the normal TT surgery time to get the scar sewn up nicely. I do not have dog ears, I have very minimal puckering in a couple areas on my scar line from swelling. I had no issues with necrosis, not even close. When my steri strips came off I just had a nice line already in the healing stage. To be honest, myself, my mother, who came down to take care of me and my good friends that have seen my stomach are absolutely amazed at the precision and the job Dr. Castor did. I can't say enough about that. I will recommend him completely with anyone and everyone who asks. I'm telling you he is absolutely the best. I traveled out of town to go to him because I exhausted those in my town through research and consults. Dr. Castor was my 7nth "in person" consult.

The first few days of the surgery were the worst. My pain meds weren't working and I was in a lot of pain. I wish Dr. Castor used the pain pumps. I finally got it under control by the 3 day. When Dr. Castor called the second day I was upset and at my wits end. He spoke to my mother and gave us good advice and we got it under control after that. Don't get me wrong, this for me was a very painful, NO JOKE surgery. I didn't realize how serious surgery this was, to be honest. I read and read and researched and researched for a year and I knew the risks but I really just thought this surgery was routine. I can't imagine if had something other than the normal surgery pains etc, go wrong while going through all the normal issues that go along with a TT surgery. All I could think about was "thank my lucky stars that I did not choose to go out of the country, or to another Dr." Before the surgery (about a week) I was hoping I chose the right Dr. for me and having doubts, but then I would go over all the reasons I chose my Dr. to realize I chose right, but once I had the surgery I never questioned that again. I was so thankful I got it right.

One of the worst parts of the surgery for me was the swelling. I didn't wait for weeks and then get swelling. I was swollen right away. It wasn't so much visual but it was very internal. It took about 4 days or so for me to catch a full breath. I felt very claustrophobic and uncomfortable. Every bathroom break, every shower was an accomplishment. I can not stress enough how miserable the swelling was in my case. I am still swollen 21 days out. In the morning I am much better but by bed time I am a tomato and I am back to hunched over and with difficulty sitting on my duff, due to the pushing up of my "guts". Today is really the fist day I can stand straight up without too much pulling and stretching. I was capable of light house work about 2 weeks after surgery. Very light for me, I can't even imagine how some people go back to work at 2 weeks, let alone 1 week. I was able to sleep in my bed by the 8th day, before that I was in my recovery chair. Thank my lucky stars for that recovery chair although now I can't even stand to look at it, LOL. Also after the first 2 weeks the pain of the stomach changed for me, now I was able to feel the internal bruises of the muscles and it was tender to the touch, as well as tenderness by the incision. Touching sensation was mostly back and I have just a very small area under the middle of my scar that is numb. Frankly I thought much more would be permanently numb. I credit this again to my Dr.

6 days after the surgery I got my drains out. That was a very odd sensation and some burning. But nothing in comparison. Pretty tolerable. By the 8th day I had a carpet on my tongue with a feeling like thrush due to the antibiotics. I was extremely dry mouthed the first week. The first couple of days my mouth couldn't muster an iota of liquid. I had to drink water just to soften the crackers. It wasn't fun.

I had depression from the meds for about 10 days. I was off the pain meds completely in about 12 days with the last 5 of those 12 being a lot less and tapered down. It's took a few days for me to get uplifted emotionally again. I didn't even, and still don't even take much ibuprofen because I have a lot of acid indigestion from the swelling and my stomach feels pushed up. It's hard to eat as much as I used to and when I eat I am very bloated up and uncomfortable, still now 21 days later. I felt very little nausea and I never threw up, and luckily I didn't sneeze once in the first 2 weeks but now seems like I'm sneezing all the time and it's not too fun. I can't wait for the swelling to remain down and my "innards" to settle in place. I was using the binder the Dr. gave me up until a couple of days ago when I bought a spanx type pantywaist. I wear that now all the time. It does help with the swelling a lot. I gained 10 pounds the first week and then I went back down to a gain of five for a week and now I am exactly back to what I was when I went in for surgery. That tells me I probably still have some swelling and also gained some weight in other parts of my body since the surgery. I can tell my muscles everywhere are weak and I'm tired a lot during the day. I'm losing muscle tone and feeling pale and flabby. But I'll be damned if I will do anything to ruin the job my Dr. did. He did his part and now I must do mine, so I'm staying out of the gym and the tanning bed as long as it takes to do it the right way. I lost the weight and toned up before and I can do it again, and with even more motivation that before.

Today my biggest complaint is the swelling, I no longer have the agony of back pain from bending over which was hell because I had to rest a lot with the back pain. I actually tried to prepare In the gym for that prior to surgery, but it didn't help. But now the biggest thing is the bulges here and there from the swelling. From the front view it's harder to see, from my view looking down it's clear. But I'm going to just "keep on keeping on" and eventually it will feel like my stomach and it belongs on my body. The sensation of sucking in my stomach is so bizarre but finally starting to feel a little more normal. Each day my stomach if feeling more and more like my own and I can see my waist coming into shape. I can't wait for 6 months from now to see my complete results. I'm still not motivated to shop for clothes because they are tighter than before even though its flat, the swelling is uncomfortable and I don't feel great. But I can't wait until I am ready to shop for new clothes.

Here are some current photos. 22 days after TT. There is still some scabbing in my belling button. Most of any minor scabbing on the incision line is gone. I go this Monday for a check up.

Yesterday I went to my 3 week'ish follow up with my Dr. He showed me my before pictures and the pictures of the fat he removed as well as the 10 0unces of lipo fat he took out of my flanks. Gross. Angela (the surgical coordinator) emailed them to me and I have posted them. Everything is healing on schedule. I can swim, take a bath, exercise lightly (no weights). I'll continue to post PO picts every month or so for a while and my 6 month PO picts. I can't say enough wonderful things about my Dr. he is absolutely the best. This time next year I'll be posting my Breast lift story and perhaps an eye lid lift in between. Stay tuned.

Just wanted to pop in and let you know my stomach is doing great. Belly button looks great, scar looks great, stomach looks great. Here are the 8 week PO photos.

Lets try this again. Those last photos were tiny.