All was well until I paid

I’ve went back and forth about whether or not to post this, but after living in a body I no longer love and reading similar reviews, I decided it was the right thing to do. Anyone who is considering such a life changing event should have all the information necessary to make a good decision available to them.
I had kids pretty young & it took a huge toll on my body. Like most moms, I put myself on the back burner for many many years. I had thought often of having cosmetic surgery, researched procedures and doctors... even had a couple consultations, but could never bring myself to follow through. Until last May. I was finally in a decent enough place mentally and financially that I was going to put myself first, make myself happy, get my confidence back.
So after some more research I went in for a consultation with Dr. Roche. I was a little thrown off by the office itself, but the staff at that point was so welcoming & helpful. I went in with Tracy and just talked about what I was wanting to do, what I was trying to achieve etc. she took down some basic information and went over what each procedure would entail. At this point I was just wanting to do some light liposuction in my abdominal area and a breast augmentation. Once she had all of the information she needed, she stepped out of the room to get pricing. When she came back was my first surprise and where I probably should have turned away. Their prices are significantly higher than even the most elite surgeons in ritzy areas like Scottsdale, Arizona. Not only that, but she informed me that Dr Roche would not perform liposuction without Lipotite which added another 5k to the quote.
After she presented the pricing she stepped out of the room. My husband and I talked things over until Dr Roche came in. He is a very blunt person, which honestly is why we liked him. We are no nonsense type of people and appreciate when someone can just be direct & down to earth, which he seemed to be. Dr Roche kind of went over the same stuff that Tracy had already done, but when he got to my before pictures he started saying how much better my results would be if I did other things like lipo on my inner & outter thighs, back, banana roll etc. Mind you majority of the people walking in that office, including myself, are people who are already self conscious and unhappy with themselves so when they hear someone in a position such as Dr Roche they believe what they’re told. If he thinks these extra things need to be done then surely they do! Ultimately I left the consultation happy. They seemed to know what I was looking to achieve and they seemed confident they could achieve it and then some.
After a little bit of hesitation and some email communication to finalize things, I went in to pay the deposit and schedule the surgery. Here I learned that there was a ‘cash price’ and a financing price. Now my cost went up again because I was paying a portion in cash and a portion on Carecredit. But I was invested at this point and again decided that it was going to be worth it. I was told I would have a preop appointment where we would go over sizing and whatnot, that never happened. My surgery was scheduled for roughly two weeks after I paid. I didn’t see or hear from anyone in the office until the day of my surgery.
Tracy came in to prep me for surgery. Thats right, Dr Roche is not the one who preps you. Tracy is the one who marked their guidelines etc. at this point I’m about to walk into the surgery room and literally have to ask about sizing. Still not completely turned off at this point because I thought they had a good understanding of what my goals were. So I went in for surgery.
I’m not sure exactly how long I was in surgery, but I want to say it was about two hours. When I came out is where things started to go downhill. I got into the post op room and was having a very hard time waking up from the anesthesia. I was coming in and out of it. They had me sitting up in a wheel chair and kept clapping by my head and hollering “it’s time to wake up”. My husband came back to get me and almost fainted himself because of the condition I was in, how they were treating me and the overall intensity of the situation. He said that they were all but pushing me out the door. Which must have been the case because I wasn’t even awake when I left! Or after the hour drive home. Or when I got home! My poor husband was forced to get me out of the truck and into our house by hisself and no sooner than my feet hit the ground, I was fainting in his arms - he was terrified he was going to have to carry me and that it would tear stitches/staples if it came to that. Clearly I should not have even been allowed to leave their office until I was no longer under the affects of the anesthesia. My husband said there was one nurse that seemed really concerned about my condition, but that seemed to be nervous to say anything so ultimately just ended up letting me leave.
He ended up getting me in the house and I spent the next couple of days recovering. I couldn’t walk or move much on my own, which I guess is to be expected so that didn’t alarm me much. When I got my garment off to take my first shower is where I really began to worry. My abdominal area was very lumpy, even for being swollen, and my thighs had a very ‘pinned in’ appearance. I contacted Dr Roches office and was told that was normal, that I was still very swollen, to give it more time and they would check it out at my first post op appointment.
I went in a couple weeks later for my post op appointment and things seemed to be healing pretty well as far as the bruising and swelling went, but I was still very lumpy and my legs still had that pinned in appearance. When the nurse came in to remove my staples, I was able to piece a little bit of stuff together. The first words that came out of her mouth was “oh my gosh I didn’t even recognize you, I was so worried about you!” This was clearly the nurse my husband said seemed concerned about my condition. She said my wounds were healing well, my incisions all looked good etc. I pointed out the lumps and the indents in my legs & again was told that I was still healing. I was told to push on the area and to feel the “sponginess” this meant that the area was still swollen and that it would flatten out once it was healed.
I checked in every couple of months when there were still no changes and basically got the same responses. Now here I am about ten months post op and no change. I reached out again to Dr. Roches office and was told to send photos (I’ve since moved out of state). I immediately sent photos over. They came back and said Dr Roche said that some sequential tightening may be necessary basically agreeing the results weren’t great. I replied and asked what that entailed, what the costs on my part would be if any etc and have not gotten a reply back since. No answers. Just left with a body worse than what I went in with.
So moral of the story, do your research. And then do some more. Don’t let people talk you into procedures you weren’t even interested in getting to begin with and turn away the first time you feel unsure of anything! The people in this industry will tell you what you want to hear just so they can make a buck, they don’t truly care about you.