Horrible Mommy Makeover

I am choosing to share my experiences with Dr. Ronan at Blackhawk Plastic Surgery, in hopes of being able to stop someone else from wasting $30k on surgeries like I did, which left me feeling more insecure about my body after having these surgeries.
In July 2021 I had a consultation with Dr. Ronan. I had lost 65 lbs after giving birth to my two children, I had excess loose skin on my stomach and sagging in my breasts.
Dr Ronan gave me a consultation on multiple procedures, Tummy tuck, breast lift, liposuction and a rhinoplasty, which Thank God I did not have him do.
My original intent was to get a 360 liposuction, a bbl, tummy tuck and breast lift. Dr Ronan said he did not think a bbl was necessary, that he would contour my body with liposuction to give the look I wanted to achieve. He held my breast up and said this is the way they will look like after the lift, is that okay with you I said yes. I was a 36DDD at that point and would have been a great candidate for a breast reduction vs a lift, however he never recommended this, or gave me any warning that getting a lift at this size would result in my breast unevenly sagging less than a year later.
Fast forward two weeks to my surgery date, I had made the decision to separate my surgeries, as I didn’t know if my pain tolerance could handle all three at once, I am happy that I made that decision as the tummy tuck recovery was a lot on its own.
My first surgery consisted of my breast lift and my entire body excluding my calves , ankles, face and neck. The day of the surgery I was told by the nurse that I would not be given anesthesia until after speaking with Dr Ronan, and going over with him, the mark up of my body for the surgery. This was a lie, moments later the anesthesiologist walked in and I do not have any memory after that. I was so upset when I woke up because I had not been coherent for the discussion with Dr Ronan prior to surgery to go over everything that was being done. I expressed my concerns with the staff and they just brushed me off.
Once I got home my mother vocalized her concerns that my back in her words “looked like a linebacker and looked like no work had been done” I immediately sent a photo to the Blackhawk staff and was again brushed off and told my entire back and arms had been done. In the days to follow I did not have any signs of bruising or any pain not on any part of my arms or back, bruising and pain in those areas are a sign of liposuction. They looked exactly the same as they did pre surgery, there wasn’t any change at all. The day I was finally able to shower and see my breasts, I was very disappointed. I still had a lot of loose skin and my breasts still sagged. The only difference I saw, was that my nipples had been placed higher than they originally were.
I have a tattoo across my rib cage and my breasts still fell to the same place they did prior to surgery. Once again I vocalized ny concerns at my follow up appointment. I was told I had to give it 6 months for swelling to go down to see the true results. During my recovery the stitch under my left breast fully opened and misshaped my nipple, also creating a ridge where my nipple and breast meet so it appears like my nipple is lifted off of my breast. Once again I was dismissed and told to give it time to heal.
At 6 months we followed through with the tummy tuck, to complete the plan we had put into place to achieve the desired look I was going for. I had Diastasis recti which meant I needed both muscle repair and a tummy tuck. Before this surgery I requested not to be given any medication until after the pre surgery meeting with Dr Ronan. During this meeting he didn’t say two words to me, his demeanor and bedside manner is non existent. During the scheduling of this surgery I asked for a revision to be done on my left breast as it was hanging lower than the right breast, the nipple was not centered in my areola. It looked as if my nipple was being stretched and pulled downward. I reminded Dr Ronan of this going into surgery and he just responded with ok.
Following my tummy tuck surgery I knew something wasn’t right immediately. I reached out to his office and let them know that the lower left side of my stomach was bubbled and not flushed down my stomach the way the right side was. I was told it was just swelling and dismissed me once again, I told them it felt different and that something was wrong, once again I was just brushed off. I began seeing fluid leaking from my incision and was instructed to remove the surgical tape and send them a photo. This is when I saw where my skin was sewn together, it was thick and stitches were overlapping and scrunched up. Once again I was told that this was normal and that I would have to wait a full year following my surgery to wait to discuss any concerns I had. I quickly realized I had been left with huge dog ears hanging off of my sides. I began developing hard balls under my incision that caused me a lot of pain. One hurt me so much I began seeing what I believed to be bruising, but now after months of begging them to remove theses hard balls, I slowly realized I am now scarred from the inside out.
When I went into their office to get my “dog ears” removed, their employee “Sandy” was who performed the procedure. Sandy was nice and suggested that the discomfort and bulge on my left side, could be due to my skin not reattaching in that area but could easily be fixed with Dr Ronans approval. The scars from Sandy’s work are beautiful and thin, not at all like the scars Dr Ronan left across my full mid section.
December 15, 2022 was my one year anniversary from my tummy tuck. I reached out to Dr Roban’s office vocalizing all of my concerns. I provided pictures to back up my concerns. Brette their office manager returned my call. She advised me that before anything could be done, I would have to go in and speak with dr Ronan.
I requested a staff member to be present at that meeting to ensure that my concerns wouldn’t be dismissed, well that never happened. I was also threatened that if I were to go public with my experience with Dr Ronan that he would pursue legal action against me. I was told he couldn’t see me for two months, the irony that he was able to book me in for my first surgery in two weeks and the second surgery with only one weeks notice, but ok I waited the two months for my next visit.
I asked my mother to attend this meeting with me because of my previous interactions with Dr Ronan, where all of my concerns were quickly dismissed.
After explaining to him all of my discomfort I feel in the lower left side of my stomach and how a pouch hangs over and how my scar is jagged and goes up and down and dark, he said all of these things are 100% normal. Dr Roban said it is normal for a tummy tuck to have a flap hangover because the skin above is thicker. Not once in all of the research I had done, did I see this. I explained to him that when I work out at the gym, and when I work at the hair salon a full day, that specific area swells up into a painful bulge. My mother compared it to a tumor in my stomach. Dr Ronan responded by saying it was normal and then aggressively told me to get an ultrasound. I said yes please, he then said I’m going to need you to come in when it swells like that. I told him I work full time and can’t predict when that will happen. His response was for me to go to the gym at 4am go to the gym work out so that I can go to his office at 6am. I said that’s a great plan for a mother of two who works two jobs and has to have the kids in school by 8am who do I leave my kids with to go to the gym at 4am? The whole comment was unreasonable.
Moving on to my lumpy arms and back, dr Ronan said that my lumps and bumps are because I have poor skin elasticity, that liposuction won’t fix that. I asked him, then why wasn’t I told this during my consultation, he had looked at my skin, told me I was a perfect candidate and that 10k for a 360 liposuction would achieve the look I was going for. He had no answer. As for my uneven breast he told me again that was completely normal. Dr Ronan deflected every single concern I had, and told me that it was my body’s fault because I had poor elasticity. He said that plastic surgery is for improvement and not for the dream body I wanted.
I believe that for 30k there should be positive improvements, I however was left with less then desirable improvements, I look worse then when I went in. His solution was for me to pay for additional surgeries. In my opinion I was promised great results, I was lied to about my outcome, once he received payment I no longer mattered, my concerns were not valued or considered. Dr Ronan was not honest with me about all the negative possibilities, only stated how great everything would be after surgery, my experience was the polar opposite. This has been a nightmare, and I pray that people take the time to find the negative reviews, amongst the many fake paid reviews because every single one us the same. In my experience Dr Ronan leaves lumps and bumps and does uneven work and then wipes his hands clean of you after he takes your money, it is what he did with me and many others I have spoken with. We all have the same experience, he performs a mediocre surgery leaving bumps that never were there before and then some how puts the blame on us. I have documented in photos my entire experience, and highly encourage looking at them before scheduling any appointment with Dr Ronan.