After weight loss: Lower Body Lift, Spiral Thigh Lift, Breast Lift. San Antonio, TX

It has been a long recovery and I am not 100% recovered yet. I am sleeping in my bed but I am not still comfortable when I turn and when I sleep on my stomach. It feels like I am getting pulled around my incisions, it is not painful but it is uncomfortable. I have been wearing the compression garment every day, all day, so far but I am staring to take them off when I sleep and today I am going to work without wearing them for the first time.
Swelling is still a problem, especially after I exercise too much. Last week, I was ramping up my running to 8 miles, took some intense Yoga classes and did weights and I was swollen up for about 2 days. It is better this week, still swollen but not as much. Apparently, the swelling is quite common at this stage when you increase your activity because of the lymph fluid that gets accumulated and cannot drain since some of the lymph channels that drain the fluid out have been interrupted bc of the surgery. My understanding is that swelling is OK bc your body is getting forced to create lymph channels (vessels) to take the lymph fluid to the lymph nodes. Most of my swelling has been around the abdominal area or that is where I notice it the most.

We all want the best possible outcome, we read reviews, visit doctors, talk to friends but how can we be certain that the surgeon or the surgery we choose is the best? To start with, one can narrow down the selection to a few doctors maybe within a 50-100 mile radius of where one lives and then consult a few of them. But even then, how can you know that you are making the right decision or the best decision?
It is one of these “one of a kind” experiments, you cannot repeat the surgery, not on the same person or with the same conditions or “try out” several of the surgeons. You can of course, make sure that the surgeon has a good track record and he has performed similar procedures “hundred” of times before with better than good success. The reality of it though is that each operation is unique and no matter how good the doctor is, something can go not exactly as usually expected and there may be “mistakes” or plans that didn’t work out and I am sure it happens and it probably happens to everyone. This is something that you can’t control but what you can make certain of is that you trust that your surgeon has the skills and experience and will care enough to do what he thinks is the best for you.
It may not be the “best of all possible worlds” but it will have to be good enough for you, not as a compromise but as a significant improvement to what bothers you. It will not be perfect. I still see a small asymmetry towards the right of where my belly button is but I really, really, really like my belly button. It is not round and it is not a stretched out, vertical line. It has a really great elliptical shape and I credit my PS for it, of course. The slight asymmetry discernible only to me, my PS, and maybe a couple more people that care enough to pay attention doesn’t matter as much to me. The transformation is not perfect, nor ideal but I feel that it is the best that could be done under the conditions and my circumstances whether it is time or timing, location, finances, support system or life stage. You really do get to choose not the absolute best but the best for you, right at that point. One of the most intriguing aspects of reading the reviews and looking at “befores and afters” is how someone can be extremely happy with what I view as a mediocre result or another complaining of a detail or be unhappy with what I judge as an amazing outcome. The psychological aspects involved in "body image" issues seem unpredictable and all over the place.
The relevant question, I think, is not exactly whether this is the best decision or the best PS but whether I can be happy with the most probable outcome as envisioned from the pictures of the doc’s previous patients and from the sought-after changes and their limitations that the doc himself, realistically and honestly, described and explained to me? If the answer is yes, then the patient is happy and their PS is indeed the best!

The raised toilet seat with handle bars, I still use it. It helped with not having to use the abs to sit down and up but was particularly useful with not putting too much stress on the groin incisions from the thigh lift.
The recliner is a must, slept there for about 4 weeks, my bed is a bit too high and not easy to get in and out when in pain.
The crotch-less compression garment for when you have to go and the “feminine urinary director” for peeing while standing-up, a definite advantage for men as it turns out, to keep the area around the thigh lift clean and not getting infections if an incision opens-up.
I started using Silicon sheets and gel sheeting after about 5 weeks and I prefer the silicon gel sheeting at this point because it stays in easier and it looks like it makes more of a difference with the scar maturation.