Liposuction/liposuction revision results - really unhappy with my surgery

I’ve had some requests for pictures. While I find pictures of my entire body incredibly hard to take and to see now, I do have some pics of my stomach. I will try to take a pic of the very deep and long ravine running under my right butt cheek when I’m feeling up for it. It causes me constant pain and is a literal spot of contention, so taking a pic and posting it will be a challenge. But it’s def something to see so I’ll work up to it! I’ll also try to take a pic of the long indentation along my pelvic area- this is the spot that causes me the most pain after the right banana roll. Thanks for the messages and feel free to keep reaching out. There is a whole world of women out there who are staying silent in shame and pain. Let’s do our best to be there for one another. X

In 2021, at the age of 35, I made the decision to finally have a breast augmentation. I had grown up with a very asymmetrical chest, A-34 on the left side and completely flat on the right, and the chest wall of my right side was a little inverted/caved in a bit. I went to a doctor in Ontario, Canada. My university roommate had had great results with her augmentation from him and he was an experienced doctor with great reviews. He told me that in order to fill the chest wall, we would need to "graft some fat." 100ccs. I was on the thinner side so he told me that he would try to get the 100ccs from my stomach but may need to take some from the inner and outer thighs. I was very reluctant, stating multiple times that I liked my legs the way they were and that, really, I liked myself the way I was, I just felt very insecure about this one thing and whatever we did, it needed to be subtle because I could not fathom, "not feeling or looking like me."
I measured 100ccs, a paltry amount, and we agreed to take it from my stomach and only a little from the inner and outer thighs to supplement if absolutely necessary. Surgery was 10 days later. Post surgery, I woke up and asked the doctor how the surgery went. He looked unsettled and said, "I didn't want to ruin your stomach, so I had to take the fat from your legs." I was drugged and surprised, "Oh," I said, "and did you manage to get enough?" He looked confused and said that he had. The first few days of recovery were tough, after that I felt something was wrong. I could see a lot of fat had been taken from my thighs but compression was not administered or prescribed, and the swelling was intense. Over the course of the next two months I just couldn't seem to find things to wear that looked right, although I couldn't quite figure out why. Over the months, as the swelling continued to slowly go down, I felt I was losing my mind and then finally the swelling went down enough that I was certain that I had- in fact- lost my body. The doctor had taken thousands of cc's from my thighs, hips, and butt. Not only had these additional areas not been discussed, let alone the amount taken from them, we had never ever discussed the possibility that the doctor would forego my stomach entirely and take everything from my lower body. I cannot describe the devastation, confusion or shame. To his credit, at least, the doctor did not (as I think is often the case) try to blame me or become accusatory. He was apologetic and issued a refund- which I know is a luckier result to this conversation than most. But it was little comfort.

In search of answers, I came across a review of Dr R by someone who had had something similar happen. I had my consultation with Dr R and decided to go out to Brazil in the hopes of at least filling some of the indentations and holes, and evening out my upper body and lower body- as, naturally, they were very disproportionate now. It was a hassle, to say the least, to arrange the whole thing. A date for surgery would not be confirmed until a month or two prior, making flights considerably more expensive. I was informed after booking flights and appointment that fees had gone up considerably and it would cost an extra few thousand dollars due to an unprecedented rise in inflation. This was stressful and seemed poor form after surgery costs had already been sent and flights had already been booked. I arranged to arrive three days before surgery to ensure that I would not risk missing my consultation which was scheduled two days before surgery. When I got there, I was informed that my consultation had been rescheduled to the day after- 24 hours before my surgery. I was concerned about this because it didn't give me much time to process or ask additional questions in between. I also could have flown out a day later and saved quite a bit of money had I known. The consultation went well. Dr R is very affable and has an easy and comfortable bedside manner. I quite like him. I showed him pictures of me prior to my botch in bathing suits and tights in order to try to show him what I was hoping to get as close back to as possible, but he said they weren't useful. We circled all of the parts of my body that had the worst indentations. The initial surgeon had left two hunks of fat on my saddle bags, for example, and they stuck out awkwardly. Dr R asked whether I wanted an "athletic look" and to shave them down or a "latino look" and fill around them and I responded that I wanted a "me look" and to fill around them as that's how I was before. There was fat also left under my right butt cheek, the "banana roll," I now understand it's called, and I pointed that out. Dr R said it was a tricky area and at most he could take 15cc's from it. I told him that if he felt it was too tricky to leave it, but wanted to point it out. Overall, I felt he had found the spots the fat was taken. He was also happy that my upper body had not been previously liposuctioned and felt this would yield better results.
After our consultation, I was told I had a lot of running around to do. Pharmacy to get drugs, hospital to pay the considerable hospital fee, and to stores to get garments for post care. There was so much running around and little time for processing. I was up all night that night. It's a scary thing, a big surgery. I'm not sure why we see so much pretending like it isn't when it comes to cosmetic surgery. Then, we were told my surgery was also postponed -until the afternoon. When I spoke to Dr R before surgery, we re-drew all of the markings on my body from pictures we had taken at the consultation. I told him I had been thinking all night about the hunks of fat on my saddle bags. I asked if he was concerned that he wouldn't have enough fat to fill around them and if that was why he offered to shave them down and he said he was. In that case, I said, fill around them if you have enough fat, but smooth them a little if you find you don't. So they don't stick out so awkwardly. As we started to head to the surgery room, Dr R said to me, "so we are prioritizing your legs?" "Over what?," I asked. "Over your hips and bum," he replied. I was rather shocked by this, as we hadn't spoken about prioritizing areas only circled all of the holes. "We are prioritizing everywhere," I said. He looked at me like he was concerned and said that might not be possible. And God forgive me, in that moment, I absolutely panicked. I hadn't realized it was an either or between those two options, and looking back, it needn't have been. I went back and forth - I think a few times- "legs. No bum and hips. No legs." I had not realized I had to choose, and now I think how foolish it was of me to not realize it didn't need to be one or the other. I should have doubled down on putting it everywhere, but I was walking into the surgery room and had been given option A or B. "Hips and bum," I said, because - even though we had talked about how not a lot of fat was taken from my bum or needed back in there- the worst indentation was in my left butt cheek. And, while my thighs had been made shrunken and uneven, my hips had been taken down to nothing.

I am not sure if that last hurried and panicked exchange is why Dr R put so much fat in my bum. I have chastised myself since as if it was. But...Dr R extricated 1800 ccs of pure fat from my upper body. More than enough to fill the indentations, around my saddle bags, and to put a layer of fat over all areas. So, I am not sure why removed the saddle bags- which are now another hole that needs to be filled- and put 600ccs of fat into each butt cheek and across the upper hip. That's 1200ccs into those areas and 300ccs divided between each thigh. Dr R and I had spoken previously about the current trend of women wanting huge bottoms. We had talked about how gravity catches up to those butts after a few years and they end up coming back for butt lifts. Not the butts, but the women attached to them haha. The point is, I had made the observation in our consultations that likely the butt -which is a highly fatty area and mine still had lots of fat left in it- would take the fat much better than other areas. So, I really can't understand why such a huge volume of fat was placed into my butt cheeks, even if we had spoken about prioritizing the hip and butt area, only if there was not enough fat to add volume back everywhere after indentations had been filled- which there absolutely was.

THE RESULTS:

I want to be clear first that it has been a year since my surgery with Dr R. And I want to let anyone who is unfamiliar with the surgery know that it takes months and months - up to a full year- to see the final results. When fat is taken from and transferred to areas in which there is a lot of blood flow and movement, swelling can take a long time to go down. So, often results are celebrated or posted after a few weeks (which is typically when post-op pics are taken) or months. This is premature. I waited the full year to post my review (a year yesterday, in fact) in order to ensure that I had seen it all. My biggest reason for my one star rating, is not due to the areas where we placed the fat but where it was taken. Dr R was extremely pleased that my upper body had not been liposuctioned and ensured that this would yield better results. He took fat from my stomach, arms, and back. By far the worst is my stomach. As the swelling went down over time, I could see that the were pockets of fat left in the stomach area, and that there were other pockets where too much had been taken. My stomach is a mess of uneven lumps and holes, the most significant being a hole over my solar plexus, an overhanging lump of fat on the upper part of my belly button and hanging over my belly button, and- most upsetting- a very deep and extremely painful trench/indentation across my lower abdomen about where a c-section scar would be (I have not had a C section although it now looks as if I have). This indentation is long and extremely painful. I am also concerned that it has affected my lymphatic system. The area under my right butt cheek, the "banana roll," is the worst spot on my body. Dr R did decide to take fat from there after all, and now I have an extremely deep indentation running along under my butt cheek. It has dropped my butt cheek but- more importantly- throbs very painfully, especially if I sit for too long. My arms are a little wavy- as I think is always the case with lipo despite no one seeming to talk about it much- and Dr R took a strip along the back of the arms which is quite apparent, rather than taking from around the arm evenly. However, again, I think this is the nature of the game and how so many get botched. It's large amounts from plentiful areas- that's always was lipo was intended to be. And, in all honesty, had everything else gone smoothly, my arms wouldn't bother me. My back looks quite nice, I think. The least amount of fat was taken from there and -although it is a difficult area to get a good look at on yourself- I am happy with that area from what I can see. Also extremely upsetting to me and quite shocking- is my chest. We talked about taking fat from under my breasts, but we did not discuss taking fat from between or above them. I want to be very clear- this was not discussed at all. Immediately post surgery, I was very pleased to see my breasts seemed less heavy than they had been with all of the weight gain. I pointed this out, and Dr R said it was his gift to me, what they do for breast augmentation. But, as in the case with other areas, the swelling was immense and the actual results could not be seen. In a few months, when the swelling went fully down, I could see that fat had been taken from the cleavage area and from above the breasts. Even from the chest walls- which was what all this fuss was about in the first place and the area the initial surgeon had taken so much fat to fill. On top of looking awful and creating saggier breasts, as well as making the implants much more apparent, the scar tissue in the chest area is also very itchy and uncomfortable. In terms of areas we placed fat back into, my bum is, I am sad to say, incomparably worse off than it was prior. My right butt cheek is now far bigger than my left, which was not the case prior to revision. The fat injected into my butt sits like two, overfull, and uncomfortable pockets at the top of my butt cheeks. The are full and then my buttcheeks go in at the middle and are quite lumpy and uneven still at the bottom- the bottom lumpiness being mostly a result of the initial botch, I believe. Far too much fat was placed into my buttcheeks. Stacking that much fat into a butt that is unsupported by thin thighs and is not evened out by wider hips is a grave mistake. It looks quite ridiculous and obscene, really. There is some improvement in the scar tissue of the outer thighs. The fat injected into those sites- even though it was a small amount- seems to have made the scar tissue slightly less tight and the discomfort less acute. Unfortunately, all indentations are not filled and are, in fact, more pronounced now then they were before. I understand this better now. Scar tissue rejects fat. When fat is grafted to indentations and around them, it is always a real crapshoot. But likely, scar tissue will kill most or all of the fat. Therefore, the areas around the fat take the fat put there better, and the indentations don't. So, if you have one big indentation and you only fill that, you will likely see some improvement. But if you have many indentations and a general area you want to smooth out or add volume to, it is likely the indentations will become more obvious.

OVERALL

I am so terribly sorry to say that, overall, I am really unhappy with my surgery with Dr R, although I very much liked his bedside manner. While I think we often forget that these surgeries are elective, and that a charming and empathetic approach means more clients and therefore isn't necessarily genuine, I would like to believe that Dr R was. He was also, however, incredibly busy and overbooked. Often there were long wait times for appointments and, of course, both my consultation and surgery were delayed at the last minute. I think we often don't talk about the fact that more surgeriesmore money and more reviews. The very nature of this industry works against it's clients, as naturally the busier a doctor is, the less time/energy/thought they have for any one patient. We want to believe that a doctor will approach a surgery with the gravity and solicitude that we have for it, but of course they don't. This is your body, the vessel through which you experience all of your life. It is only another passing body to a doctor, and probably it must be in order for them to carry on with their work. That being said, Dr R did put me at ease while I was there, and I appreciate that. I very much enjoyed talking to him. However, despite wearing the tapes, compression garments, gaining and then losing weight on command, exercising when recommended, and following all other instructions- the results of my surgery are incredibly disappointing to me. I am particularly surprised and let down by the areas where the fat was taken, which I had thought - given Dr R's experience in the field of liposuction- would be safe.


SUGGESTIONS

I would not suggest fat transfers or lipo to anyone, given my experiences with them. I do not believe they are what we want to think they are. It seems to me that precision and subtlety do not exist in the realm of liposuction. That being said, should you decide to go to Brazil, some suggestions:

-buy different sizes of compression garments online and bring them with you. I did the tapes with Dr R, as he suggested, but found them less effective than the compression garments I purchased once I was home- and also found the tapes incredibly painful. I have since learned that bringing a variety of compression garments in different sizes and combining them with lipo foam brings swelling down the fastest. I also found garments in Ribeiro Preto overpriced and would say buy 3 online at home for the price of one you will buy there. Plus it saves you running around right before your surgery date.
-Dr R suggested I gain a lot of weight prior to surgery. I do not suggest this. In retrospect, I realize this could be problematic. The idea here is that the fat cells will be larger and easier to extract. This does not give you more fat cells. However, it also means that your skin will expand as you gain weight and then be forced to retract post surgery and then even further when you lose the weight. This is asking a lot of your skin and, I would think, likely increases the chances of having loose skin. I also think that gaining weight by any means necessary is not great advice prior to surgery. I think that going into a surgery as healthy as you possibly can and as close to your actual weight will yield you better, more reliable results and give you a quicker idea of what those results are.
-drink coconut water and pineapple juice for optimal hydration and reduced swelling post op
-prepare yourself for a world of pain. My first surgery was painful, very much so. However, nothing could have prepared me for the pain I experienced in Ribeiro Preto. I don't know if that was due to the areas operated on or the way in which they were operated on, but this was a level of pain and a duration of healing that has aged me and likely taken years off of my life. I'm not sure the extent of the damage these surgeries do. Likely we will hear about it years down the line, like we have other procedures such as is currently the case with botox.
-after initial healing period, cool/cold plunges helped immensely. I found lots of swimming in cold lakes and cold bathes really helped with swelling and skin retraction.
-yoga helps break up scar tissue.
-make sure you have a very soft mattress.

I will likely add to this list and may add some pictures to my review. For now, I just want to say that if anyone has any questions or just needs some emotional support, please feel free to message me. I had incredible support from women who had had similar experiences and I found them on this site. This is a harrowing, demoralizing, devastating thing to go through. I have worked hard on finding ways through it with much success. Please know that this is not the end, just a very hard beginning. You'll find your way to piecing the parts of you back together that matter most. If you want a hand with that, reach out. You're not alone.