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Journey to Fix Severe Disastsis
Background
I had severe diastasis recti, loose skin and sagging boobs after after having several kids and gaining and loosing the same 30-50lbs half a dozen times. I basically looked 7-8 months pregnant at all times, and would be asked about being pregnant from strangers several times each year. I have never been a person that ever cared about what other people thought of me, or having great looks. I had zero desire to run around on a beach in a bikini. But, the severe DR made me feel deformed and annoyed that I couldn’t comfortably wear the clothing and do activities I wanted to do.
Research
I was hesitant to travel for surgery but once I had a couple local consultations, I realized those doctors didn’t have many cases in their portfolios that looked like mine. When I asked about how they would approach my severe DR, they didn’t really articulate specific strategies on how they would approach the problem. I found Dr. Rahban when I searched “diastasis recti repair”, and saw he had extensive information on his website and podcast where he talked in-depth on how to correct this specific type of problem, especially when it is severe. He had dozens of patients in his portfolio that looked just like me. So despite the fact that I’d have to travel, stay in LA for two weeks, and pay basically double the price, I felt that his work was so outstanding for my specific situation, it may be worth it.
Consultation Process
Interacting with Dr. Rahban’s staff was easy an they were responsive on the phone. I had my first consultation over Zoom in September. The consultation was $500 and gets put towards surgery if you move forward. You must send photos of yourself ahead of time, so the doctor already has an idea of what you have going on. During the video meeting, Dr. Rahban explained how he would approach my case, drawing diagrams and discussing how the geometry of the body works, which I enjoyed learning about. I will say, Dr. Rahban is not exactly the touchy-feely type. He’s a world-class expert and as such is quite technical and blunt. Personally, I really liked this about him. If you’re looking for more emotional support or dealing with things like trauma or body dysmorphia, it may be good to sort those things out with a professional or other people that can help with that side of it. After the consult, I got a cost breakdown from the staff via email. The cost of the breast lift (without implants) was around $25k and the tummy tuck was also around $25k. He recommended a small amount of lipo to the flanks and that was another $3,500.
Making the Decision
I continued to agonize thinking about the travel and the cost. My inner voice was saying, I’m not a celebrity or someone that shows off my body, do I really NEED the best surgeon in Beverly Hills? How can I justify this level of expense? I did another round of combing through hundreds of photos on RealSelf, and I read every single review of Dr. Rahban’s. In the end, I decided it wasn’t about me wanting perfection, but rather the desire to have the most predictable result possible. So many other doctor portfolios seemed to have cases nowhere nearly as difficult as mine, so there was no demonstrated evidence they could give me a good result. And I knew for sure I was not willing to roll the dice.
Getting Ready
Once I got the phone call that Dr. Rahban could do the surgery during the week I had requested, it was the kick in the pants I needed to make the final decision to move forward. I had to get a mammogram and bloodwork ASAP once the date was locked. The mammogram was covered by my insurance (they billed my insurance $800 for the procedure, crazy US prices!) and the bloodwork was $60. The staff helped me arrange 24 hours of aftercare with a surgery trained nurse. I ended up using Calicia Care which were totally stellar! I think that part was about $3-4k because I chose to do 48 hours of care.
I booked an AirBnB for the two weeks since I was bringing my whole family, and I wanted my own bedroom where I could recover while the kids could play out in the yard and pool. I’m glad they all came with me because I think I would have been lonely without them, especially over the holidays. There were lots of options for places to stay near the doctor’s office, from houses to hotels, and I think you could find places for $3k for the two weeks, depending on time of year. But if you want to go all out for a nice house and bring your whole family, it would likely be more in the range of $10-18k. We rented a car so the family could go to some places and that was another $1200. The flights for everyone was $2k.
We arrived in LA a couple days before the surgery, and had my pre-surgical appointment the day I arrived. Dr. Rahban took measurements and expressed he thought I would get an excellent result, which made me feel encouraged despite being nervous about surgery. After this appointment I walked down the street and picked up the medications they prescribed me, which ended up being around $300.
Surgery Day
On surgery day, I stopped eating and drinking at midnight, and then headed to the surgical center to arrive by 5AM. It’s attached to Dr. Rahban’s office so it’s easy to find. I signed a bunch of paperwork and by 6AM I was in the gown and the anesthesiologist explained the process and put in an IV. He was nice and funny, which definitely helped with my nerves.
After this Dr. Rahban came in and did all of the marker drawings on the body. I originally indicated I didn’t want any of my photos in their portfolio, so he spent time explaining to me the benefits of sharing them and what we could do to help me be fairly anonymous. One recommendation I’d have would be to have this conversation earlier in the process with the staff, because I felt stressed having to think about this right as I was about to walk into the surgery room. Timing aside, I do think they will address my anonymity concerns while being able to share my results in a way that helps others.
Once I got into the surgery room, I remembered laying down on the table, and then I woke up in the recovery room. I was wheezing a bit so they gave me an inhaler and Dr. Rahban came over right away. He had me cough a bit and clear some stuff that was probably lingering after the breathing tube. Even though the wheezing ended up not being a big deal, I appreciated how they intervened immediately to make sure it wasn’t anything serious.
Recovery
Calicia Care picked me up and took me to my AirBnB, where the nurse that would stay with me was already there. They gave me my medications and maintained my drains, helped me get in and out of bed and brought me food. My spouse handled the kids and I enjoyed listening to them play games in the pool and periodically coming in to give my hand a squeeze. The first three days I basically just slept all day and night and ate light meals every few hours. In retrospect I wish I would have rented a recliner chair because I do think it would have made things a lot easier. By day four I stopped the pain medication because I think it was making me feel dizzy and super out of it, so switched to Tylenol and also took the Valium they prescribed, which helped me sleep.
First Follow up and Initial Results
I kept on the abdominal binder and the surgical bra on the entire week as they instructed. Then it was time for my one week folllow up appointment. During this they removed the binder and bra, cleaned my surgery areas, clipped out most of the stitches and removed the drains since I met the criteria for under 30ml of drainage in the past two days. The doctor then came in and took a look, making sure there weren’t any of the common compliacations. Everything looked great, so he advised that I take it easy another week, shower within 48 hours and generally to leave everything alone (no creams, tape, massaging, anything). I was still slightly slouched over, and he encouraged me to try to be fully upright by the end of the week.
At this point I was able to see the initial results in the mirror they had in the room. I was…totally floored. I couldn’t believe it was me. I hardly had any bruising, everything looked so symmetrical, and my stomach was almost totally flat. I genuinely couldn’t believe getting that type of result without the use of mesh, vertical scars, implants, etc. I felt 1000% sure that I had made the right choice in going to Dr. Rahban. The nurse gave me a new abdominal binder along with a foam board and showed me how to use it. The surgical bra was pretty uncomfortable so I ended up ordering something from Amazon that was much better.
After the First Week
I’m now 10 days post op and waiting for my 2 week follow up appt before I can fly back home. I have to come back for a 6-8 week follow up and then a 1 year follow up, so have to factor in the costs of doing those in the future.
So far I am truly ecstatic with my results and feel I made the right decision. I hope this review is helpful to those thinking about getting a mommy makeover with Dr. Rahban.
I had severe diastasis recti, loose skin and sagging boobs after after having several kids and gaining and loosing the same 30-50lbs half a dozen times. I basically looked 7-8 months pregnant at all times, and would be asked about being pregnant from strangers several times each year. I have never been a person that ever cared about what other people thought of me, or having great looks. I had zero desire to run around on a beach in a bikini. But, the severe DR made me feel deformed and annoyed that I couldn’t comfortably wear the clothing and do activities I wanted to do.
Research
I was hesitant to travel for surgery but once I had a couple local consultations, I realized those doctors didn’t have many cases in their portfolios that looked like mine. When I asked about how they would approach my severe DR, they didn’t really articulate specific strategies on how they would approach the problem. I found Dr. Rahban when I searched “diastasis recti repair”, and saw he had extensive information on his website and podcast where he talked in-depth on how to correct this specific type of problem, especially when it is severe. He had dozens of patients in his portfolio that looked just like me. So despite the fact that I’d have to travel, stay in LA for two weeks, and pay basically double the price, I felt that his work was so outstanding for my specific situation, it may be worth it.
Consultation Process
Interacting with Dr. Rahban’s staff was easy an they were responsive on the phone. I had my first consultation over Zoom in September. The consultation was $500 and gets put towards surgery if you move forward. You must send photos of yourself ahead of time, so the doctor already has an idea of what you have going on. During the video meeting, Dr. Rahban explained how he would approach my case, drawing diagrams and discussing how the geometry of the body works, which I enjoyed learning about. I will say, Dr. Rahban is not exactly the touchy-feely type. He’s a world-class expert and as such is quite technical and blunt. Personally, I really liked this about him. If you’re looking for more emotional support or dealing with things like trauma or body dysmorphia, it may be good to sort those things out with a professional or other people that can help with that side of it. After the consult, I got a cost breakdown from the staff via email. The cost of the breast lift (without implants) was around $25k and the tummy tuck was also around $25k. He recommended a small amount of lipo to the flanks and that was another $3,500.
Making the Decision
I continued to agonize thinking about the travel and the cost. My inner voice was saying, I’m not a celebrity or someone that shows off my body, do I really NEED the best surgeon in Beverly Hills? How can I justify this level of expense? I did another round of combing through hundreds of photos on RealSelf, and I read every single review of Dr. Rahban’s. In the end, I decided it wasn’t about me wanting perfection, but rather the desire to have the most predictable result possible. So many other doctor portfolios seemed to have cases nowhere nearly as difficult as mine, so there was no demonstrated evidence they could give me a good result. And I knew for sure I was not willing to roll the dice.
Getting Ready
Once I got the phone call that Dr. Rahban could do the surgery during the week I had requested, it was the kick in the pants I needed to make the final decision to move forward. I had to get a mammogram and bloodwork ASAP once the date was locked. The mammogram was covered by my insurance (they billed my insurance $800 for the procedure, crazy US prices!) and the bloodwork was $60. The staff helped me arrange 24 hours of aftercare with a surgery trained nurse. I ended up using Calicia Care which were totally stellar! I think that part was about $3-4k because I chose to do 48 hours of care.
I booked an AirBnB for the two weeks since I was bringing my whole family, and I wanted my own bedroom where I could recover while the kids could play out in the yard and pool. I’m glad they all came with me because I think I would have been lonely without them, especially over the holidays. There were lots of options for places to stay near the doctor’s office, from houses to hotels, and I think you could find places for $3k for the two weeks, depending on time of year. But if you want to go all out for a nice house and bring your whole family, it would likely be more in the range of $10-18k. We rented a car so the family could go to some places and that was another $1200. The flights for everyone was $2k.
We arrived in LA a couple days before the surgery, and had my pre-surgical appointment the day I arrived. Dr. Rahban took measurements and expressed he thought I would get an excellent result, which made me feel encouraged despite being nervous about surgery. After this appointment I walked down the street and picked up the medications they prescribed me, which ended up being around $300.
Surgery Day
On surgery day, I stopped eating and drinking at midnight, and then headed to the surgical center to arrive by 5AM. It’s attached to Dr. Rahban’s office so it’s easy to find. I signed a bunch of paperwork and by 6AM I was in the gown and the anesthesiologist explained the process and put in an IV. He was nice and funny, which definitely helped with my nerves.
After this Dr. Rahban came in and did all of the marker drawings on the body. I originally indicated I didn’t want any of my photos in their portfolio, so he spent time explaining to me the benefits of sharing them and what we could do to help me be fairly anonymous. One recommendation I’d have would be to have this conversation earlier in the process with the staff, because I felt stressed having to think about this right as I was about to walk into the surgery room. Timing aside, I do think they will address my anonymity concerns while being able to share my results in a way that helps others.
Once I got into the surgery room, I remembered laying down on the table, and then I woke up in the recovery room. I was wheezing a bit so they gave me an inhaler and Dr. Rahban came over right away. He had me cough a bit and clear some stuff that was probably lingering after the breathing tube. Even though the wheezing ended up not being a big deal, I appreciated how they intervened immediately to make sure it wasn’t anything serious.
Recovery
Calicia Care picked me up and took me to my AirBnB, where the nurse that would stay with me was already there. They gave me my medications and maintained my drains, helped me get in and out of bed and brought me food. My spouse handled the kids and I enjoyed listening to them play games in the pool and periodically coming in to give my hand a squeeze. The first three days I basically just slept all day and night and ate light meals every few hours. In retrospect I wish I would have rented a recliner chair because I do think it would have made things a lot easier. By day four I stopped the pain medication because I think it was making me feel dizzy and super out of it, so switched to Tylenol and also took the Valium they prescribed, which helped me sleep.
First Follow up and Initial Results
I kept on the abdominal binder and the surgical bra on the entire week as they instructed. Then it was time for my one week folllow up appointment. During this they removed the binder and bra, cleaned my surgery areas, clipped out most of the stitches and removed the drains since I met the criteria for under 30ml of drainage in the past two days. The doctor then came in and took a look, making sure there weren’t any of the common compliacations. Everything looked great, so he advised that I take it easy another week, shower within 48 hours and generally to leave everything alone (no creams, tape, massaging, anything). I was still slightly slouched over, and he encouraged me to try to be fully upright by the end of the week.
At this point I was able to see the initial results in the mirror they had in the room. I was…totally floored. I couldn’t believe it was me. I hardly had any bruising, everything looked so symmetrical, and my stomach was almost totally flat. I genuinely couldn’t believe getting that type of result without the use of mesh, vertical scars, implants, etc. I felt 1000% sure that I had made the right choice in going to Dr. Rahban. The nurse gave me a new abdominal binder along with a foam board and showed me how to use it. The surgical bra was pretty uncomfortable so I ended up ordering something from Amazon that was much better.
After the First Week
I’m now 10 days post op and waiting for my 2 week follow up appt before I can fly back home. I have to come back for a 6-8 week follow up and then a 1 year follow up, so have to factor in the costs of doing those in the future.
So far I am truly ecstatic with my results and feel I made the right decision. I hope this review is helpful to those thinking about getting a mommy makeover with Dr. Rahban.
Provider Review
Board Certified Plastic Surgeon
152 S Lasky Dr., Beverly Hills, California