4D High-def Vaser to Abdomen, Flanks and Axilla 2017

There is still a bit of swelling and the scars are still visible. Overall I am very pleased with the result. I still feel self conscious about taking my top though. Maybe I'll get more confident as I get used to the new me.

All my life I’ve battled with a belly. I’ve never really been fat but the belly has always been there, even when I was a kid. Thanks genetics! I go to the gym quite a bit (4-5 times per week) and generally eat well. I’ve gone through periods where I have been ultra-committed to losing the paunch, but the improvements have only been minor and it left my face looking gaunt and drawn. I’ve experimented with my workouts, and counted every gram of every macro for months on end, but all I got was a slightly less pronounced roll around the middle. It’s one of those things that probably wasn’t that noticeable to other people, but I really had a problem with it. I think in my entire life I’ve probably only been outside without a shirt on maybe 3 or 4 times. It made me feel hugely self-conscious, and limited the things I could do, especially in the summer or on holiday.

Just before I turned 38 I began looking at cosmetic procedures. I researched and researched. Traditional lipo versus cool sculpting. Mid-def vaser versus high-def vaser versus 4D vaser. I looked at them all. In all of this, the posts by other RealSelfers have been really useful. It’s a supportive community that allows you to see un-airbrushed real-life results. I learned quite quickly to steer clear of some other forums (lots of bodybuilding and fitness forums especially) because of their negative ‘you just need to try harder’ attitudes. So last year I began to visit a variety of surgeons to get their advice and thoughts on what would be realistically achievable. In all I had consultations with 5 vaser surgeons and 1 traditional lipo surgeon. The feedback and level of detail they provided was incredibly mixed. Some spent over an hour going through the options, examining me, drawing on me, showing before and after photos of patients with a similar build to show realistically what was achievable, and some spent all of 10 minutes (1 was probably about 5 minutes, not even joking) making general statements before ushering me out of their office. In the end I decided to go with Dr Grant Hamlet through the Private Clinic. The quote was at the higher end but his care, enthusiasm and attention to detail left me in no doubt that I would get the best possible result.

I booked through the Private Clinic as they had a branch closer to me so things like bloods, drains etc. could all be taken care of without the time and hassle of getting in to central London, which would be the case if I had gone to Dr Hamlet directly. The surgery would still be in London but that was fine. It took a while to get a surgery date as the theatre time was longer than most of their patients, at 4-5 hours. I followed all of the instructions, I worked out like a demon because I was told the more definition I had, the better the end result would be. Eventually the day came, I travelled to London, I’d fasted from the previous night and was admitted at around 9am. The staff were great, weighing me and getting me changed into a gown and compression stockings. So then I waited. And waited. At around 11.15am Dr Hamlet came in to say the Private Clinic hadn’t ordered the correct compression garments and the operation would have to be cancelled. I was gutted. Dr Hamlet and his team had spent the last 2 hours phoning various people to get to the bottom of the mistake and to find a solution, but without the correct compression garments I couldn’t have the operation.

I don’t know what happened but the Private Clinic and Dr Hamlet had already decided to part ways so I was left with the choice of going to another surgeon or going to Dr Hamlet directly. I chose to go to Dr Hamlet as I trusted his judgement and he was the only surgeon I met who I felt properly comfortable with. The downside is it added another 25% to the cost, but ah well. I eventually had the surgery at the end of 2017. 4D vaser to the abdomen, flanks and axilla which removed nearly 6 litres of fat.

To be honest, I expected to wake up from the general anaesthesia feeling like I’d done 2,000 crunches. That good post-workout feeling where you are really sore but you can just about move and function normally. Yeah….no. I woke up feeling like I’d been hit by a bus. I couldn’t move anything except my hands and feet. I was on oxygen, tramadol, morphine and maybe paracetamol. After a few hours I managed to stand with some help so that the nurses could change the sheets where my wounds had leaked. I couldn’t walk to the bathroom. I stayed in hospital overnight but didn’t really sleep. The next day they were keen to get me discharged so I managed to walk down the hallway, albeit a little light-headed and very slowly. All those posts from people who have had vaser and have been back to normal after a few days, well there’s vaser and then there’s the kind of vaser that Dr Hamlet does. You can’t really compare the 2 hour or less operations you see advertised with the 5 hour plus procedures that Dr Hamlet does. That’s where the cost difference comes from and I think you can see that in the results.

The recovery was a lot worse than I was expecting. The drains came out after 48 hours and that helped. The drains pulled and tugged and were quite painful, even with all the meds I was on. The MLD sessions were the only thing that kept me going in that first month while the compression vest was on. That blissful 90 minutes where I could take it off and let my skin breathe was so nice. I found a very good local therapist via the MLD website and she was amazing. In all I had about 13 MLD sessions over the course of 6 weeks. I probably could have had fewer but I found them really beneficial and also very relaxing. I was off work for just over 2 weeks after the procedure, and even then it was a struggle to go back and act normally. The compression garment is probably the worst part of the whole experience. I could never get it comfortable, and it would always dig in at certain points. For the last week or so of having it on I would have to take breaks in the evening as my skin started to be irritated by it. I lost my appetite for a good 2-3 weeks and was constipated by the anaesthetic. The hospital gave me a week’s worth of decent painkillers and after that it was regular paracetamol and ibuprofen. It was 5-6 weeks before I could come off the painkillers altogether. I would definitely recommend having this procedure in the winter as the compression garments are very bulky and difficult to hide under normal clothes.

The compression garments stayed on for 4 weeks, but my skin was so sensitive afterwards that I bought a couple of thin lycra compression/rash vests. They were on for a couple of weeks while my skin got used to having normal clothes next to it again, but I had to tape my nipples for another week or so as they were so tender. In all I had 7 wound/drain sites. A few are still visible 3 months post-surgery but I’m applying Bio-oil every day and they are slowly starting to fade. Some are very well hidden (nipples and belly button) and you wouldn’t even notice they were there. The groin and abdomen ones are the most noticeable but it’s early days.

I went back to the gym after 5 weeks, and I couldn’t believe how much strength I’d lost. It was really disheartening at first because I was still quite swollen so I couldn’t see the results of the surgery and I’d lost all of the fitness I’d worked so hard for. It’s pretty much back now but it’s been hard going. The first time I tried to hang from a bar I thought my skin was going to tear from my abdomen.

So 3 months post-surgery I thought I would write about my experience. Having someone who I could ask advice from who had been through the same procedure a few months previously was invaluable, thank you AshleyM16! I hope this will help people who are thinking about having it done or who are going through the recovery phase. I’m more than happy with the results but I’m still seeing changes in my body. The changes are getting smaller but they’re still there. I’ve got canula tunnels either side of my abs, but I’m told these will fade over time. The scars are a reminder of what I’ve been through but hopefully these will also fade over time. I’m left with a couple of small skin pockets where the skin is settling in some places but still fixed in others. Apparently these will also soften over time.

This procedure is not a quick fix. It’s expensive, painful and the recovery is slow. I had reached the limit of what I could sanely and safely do with my body through diet and exercise. I’m thrilled with the results, but the abs are my own and they wouldn’t be there without a lot of hard work in the gym. Vaser can help to show them off but they’ve got to be there in the first place. Any questions please feel free to get in touch.