Tummy tuck & BBL with lipo 360 not what I had expected

I have had multiple consults with surgeons who keep saying I should go back to my original surgeon so that he can do the revision for me. Nope, he won’t do it and I also don’t trust him to do it anyway. One surgeon says I would have to do a full tummy tuck again to improve/revise my bb and scars that curve downward. One surgeon said that my bb should’ve been more vertical than horizontal and doesn’t look like it was anchored with my bb stalk. And another one said he can repair it but waiting to see some before and after photos of his bb revisions. Costs ranging from 4,000-30,000 to get the bb fixed and sides repaired with downward turn and dog ears. My scar from the abscess is flat and not draining anymore over 1.5 years later but still leaves a darkened scar on the skin.

Additional photos-the first one is another photo of what the sides look like in a normal fitting swimsuit bottom. The second photo is of the abscess slowly getting worse even though I was on antibiotics. I developed a low grade fever during this process as well.

I felt I had done my research, couldn’t find much on social media, real self reviews, listened to all his lives. Not huge red flags but I thought his arrogance was just confidence that he would do a great job. But after I booked my appointment, set the surgery date, and put down the deposit, I did find out that he was not actually board certified in America for plastic surgery but “eligible”. Per his wife Julia, he had taken a written test about a year ago but was waiting to take his “oral exam”. I have yet to see that his is American Board Certified. Another item of concern was he does not have malpractice insurance.

Here are some notes of from my surgery that I wanted to include in my review:

The day before surgery-I had been checking out after the pre op apt with a non medical staff member and Julia saw me and didn’t say anything so I said hey I’m “my name“ and she said yeah I know who you are. And nothing else.

(day of surgery):

Got to the clinic at 11:15am. Brought me back at 11:30am. Nurse was super nice. Nurse anethestist poked me three times. Re-weighed myself and was 158.7- not 167lbs like preop the day before. Scale was significantly off in two different rooms. Did a urine pregnancy test.

My plan was to have a mommy makeover (he was undecided if I would need a mini or full until he would see me in person) and lipo and jplasma of arms. Dr G came in to mark me up. He thought I would need a full tummy tuck but there was absolutely no discussion of where the incisional line would be located or extended to, or that I would need a t incision. Dr G thought I should get a bbl with lipo 360 to make a “snatched” waist after seeing my body. (I think if I had to to do it over again, I’d do an in person consult so I would eliminate all the what ifs). I had not sent pictures to him of my back and butt because I wasn’t interested in it when I did my consult or ever until 5 minutes before surgery.

Dr G didn’t think I should worry about my arms and lipo. The price to switch was exactly the same so I opted for the change after he drew on me and pointed out what would be helpful. One of his staff (who no longer works there) was super pushy about getting jplasma with my lipo and I said no literally 3 times and she had to ask dr G before they would approve the bbl and lipo 360. He was okay with it. But didn’t have me sign a consent for the bbl/360 and fat transfer.

I walked into the OR with the nurse anesthetist, another man who I didn’t meet, 2 other ladies I didn’t meet and my nurse. They gave me the drugs and I fell asleep super quick.

Woke up with the nurse and I hate waking up from anesthesia. I don’t like the feeling of not being able to wake up. I was a little nauseous and shaking pretty bad. I was in lots of pain and discomfort. Which I was surprised since I heard most ladies don’t. She gave me 800mg of ibuprofen and some other meds but no pain meds. I think I was shaking more from the pain. But….after settling into my hotel room, my pain had improved. No nausea. I had the scopolamine patch on and had zofran before the surgery. I also took arnica pills to see if that helps since I was not due for more Tylenol or ibuprofen yet. But did do better than when I was in the surgery room. Pain was coming from the muscle repair and my right thigh where he put a little fat to balance out my shape.

Since I had no clue I’d get a bbl, I wasn’t prepared and so my husband had to leave to find a zero gravity chair to sleep in.

My throat was a little sore, mouth was super dry. Like cotton mouth.

Woke up almost every hour the first night to urinate.

Please note, if you can’t read the text on your phone or read close up, it’s from your scopolamine patch. No one seemed to know at his office that it does this or someone said “I’ve never heard that before.” But just note that if it happens, remove the patch and wash your hands and in a few hours your vision will come back.

Day 2
Went in for massage at 10:00am, drained from back but not the front. They took photos. Dr Renzo (I found out they call him Dr but I believe he is also not board certified in the United States), removed the suture from my back to get more drainage

Slight discoloration/bruising around bb. Looked like some photos I had seen of early necrosis but luckily it did not lead to anything.

I relaxed in the hotel room, got up every so often to move around and focused on high protein, lots of water and prunes.

I was super swollen from the IV fluids, even face was swollen.

I had gone in for my second to last massage and I was getting concerned about my t incision since I was leaving back out of state in a couple days. He didn’t sew it linear so it was puckering up and sticking out. I asked the massage lady if I could talk to Dr G or his assistant to see if it was normal and if it would get better. She said okay I will get him. He comes in, I lifted my head off the table to show him what I was concerned about and he brushed me off staying “it’s fine” he said you’re too anxious, you need to go out to the garden and chill. This only made me more concerned with it and him brushing it off and not addressing the issue nor reassuring me that my concern was valid but that it would improve over time. But it would also been an easy fix to locally remove the bunched up skin that was puckering. I left the room and he continued to talk about me very loudly to the massage lady and in the hallway. I could obviously hear him and he said the the massage lady “you see, that’s the problem, when they’re so anxious about everything…” and it was only a half wall and the front desk lady looked at me like “I hope she didn’t hear that”. I left feeling terrible.

The next day we went in for the last post op with my husband and the first thing he says is “oh you’re so much less anxious than yesterday.” But I was the same as the day before but was just with my husband. I told him it looked like a little “male part” and of course I’d be worried. I asked some questions about how much fat was removed, the size of implants, how much skin removed, how much fat put into the hips and bbl. I gave him a small gift (because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do-which was so stupid) and gave a gift to Julia for their upcoming baby girl. Someone tried to get her to come out and accept the gift but she never came out to say thanks. I left just praying that I wouldn’t have post op complications after leaving Florida.

I took all the antibiotics as prescribed and even continued hibiclens and/or antibacterial soap washes every time I’d shower. I finished my 14 days of cephalexin, On about day 16 I noticed a painful, red, warm lump developing on my right hip where I initially had pain right after surgery. There was no puncture wound, abrasion or incision where the lump was located. I watched for a couple days but then started doxycycline twice a day in the hopes that would help but it started getting bigger and more painful and I was getting a low grade fever. I tried to contact Dr G’s office but didn’t hear back so I went to the urgent care. They ended up lancing the abscess slightly with a little drainage but nothing significant that came out but the culture came back negative. And my leg continued to get worse. I ended up seeing if I could get into wound care but the wait to get in was super long. So I was able to get into infectious disease and they decided to start me on Septra and augmentin after completing the doxycycline. I would slowly get drops of yellowish drainage from the lance of the abscess and It got a little better but then about 2 days later it ruptured. It literally drained for 10 or more minutes. I have a 10 minute video of it, just pouring out yellowish drainage. I wasn’t able to get into
ID very quick so I went to my pcp who did an anaerobic and aerobic culture. But the anaerobic got canceled for some reason and the aerobic was negative. I got back into infectious disease where they did another culture and gram stain but were negative and then referred to general surgery. During this time, I ended up hearing back from Dr G by phone and email and he was concerned with the wound and wanted it to be checked for mycobacterium and possibly get on IV antibiotics. On the phone, he said he didn’t have me down for a bbl/fat transfer and I said yeah you did, you can see the photos you posted on Instagram and he said well why didn’t you sign the consent? And I said you didn’t have me sign one. He looked through his photos and confirmed he did do the BBL/ fat transfer on me.

When I went to general surgery, they did a second ultrasound on it and could still see the abscess present but didn’t want to cut me open more than I already was. But the only way to check for mycobacterium was from a deeper tissue sample and no one seemed to want to do it. So months went by, I had been on antibiotics for over 2 months straight, and had a draining wound for months. I’m now at almost 9 months and still have a wound on my leg that hasn’t closed all the way. I did an US a couple months ago and they said the findings are consistent with a small abscess but ID said he thinks the infection has cleared but if still draining to check back with my initial plastic surgeon or find a different one. But the problem is that at 2 1/2 months post op, I had posted on a private FB page that if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have surgery with dr G. I got a warning email from Julia, and then another one about “stuff people are sending her” that was negative about Dr G, then I was removed from their FB page. I hadn’t said anything negative about Dr g on that page and people were reaching out to me asking my experience with him so I would tell them some of what was going on, but not all. But after that, I learned to not talk to anyone who asks me about him. I just honestly wanted to tell my truth of what happened to me and my experience but to leave it for them to choose if they wanted to continue on their journey with him. Some people have great results but I have also heard of more terrible outcomes and complications than I have experienced. I waited to post this, in fear that I would be disconnected from them if I needed further medical care (but they honestly didn’t help me post op anyway) and I wasn’t healed emotionally and physically, but I feel better now to be able to talk about my experience.

Even though I was removed from Dr G’s FB page, Julia approved of a post that included my first name and profile photo and she also commented on it and people who I don’t know made horrible comments about me and lies and I couldn’t defend myself or comment back because I wasn’t on their page. It was up for over 24 hours and I even had people that didn’t know I had surgery, find out from that post. It was unethical, a hIPPA violation and very unprofessional.

Having a separate surgery sister page with ladies who had surgery the same month was the best thing that could help with recovery. It was good to throw things off each-other and ask questions about progress or changes. I was censored several times in dr G’s fb page with simple posts about my recovery, so I appreciated my surgery sister’s support.

My t incision is better now because I massaged it consistently with vitamin e or bio oil after it sealed. I still massage it. I also did cupping on it. This was all my doing, not the suggestion of Dr G. But it’s still there, it’s a scar that I didn’t know I’d have after a tummy tuck. Again, because it wasn’t discussed with me pre-op.

I need a bb revision for sure. My bb was never deep, I don’t think it was anchored in deep enough. When I look back on photos I can see it wasn’t that deep but thought it was post op swelling. 6 months post op, I sent a message to see if I could do a revision of my bb but Dr G declined to do the revision (noted by email-but I wouldn’t have gone to him anyway. I just wanted to make sure other surgeons know that I attempted to reach out to my original surgeon but he refused).

Some things dr G could do differently based on what I wrote my first couple weeks post op:

Have a MAR-you can’t give a patient all those meds without explanation of when to take them and how to keep track of them

More post op instructions-how long to use compression hose, how long to wear compression bra 24/7 etc

Tell me after surgery exactly what he did and why.

Tell us what the possibilities are of things like a t incision before surgery so we know what we’re getting into. (His lives didn’t start talking about the t incisions until after my surgery because so many gals were complaining about them)-I can’t wear a low lying bikini because the little scar pokes out.

Lots of uncertainty of what I was even going to do 5 minutes before surgery. Have at least a preop with the surgeon the day before surgery. It was so rushed and pushy. And let the spouses or partners in for that day of surgery.

Need to have pain meds available to the patients if needed. To be cut up like we do for mommy makeovers, just give the pain meds for a pain free recovery. Never heard of plastic surgery like a mommy makeover not have pain meds (he changed his policy literally less than a week before my surgery that he wouldn’t be giving any tramadol to patients anymore). Only Tylenol and ibuprofen and some gabapentin. Ibuprofen given as he directed causes major swelling.

Don’t dismiss concerns, instead address them with reassurance. That’s what good providers do.

Lastly, if he comments on this post that he can’t respond due to HIPPA and to reach out with concerns, I already have. If he truly cares about patients, he wouldn’t dismiss concerns and be accountable for these concerns. He also wouldn’t block patients from his FB page like he’s done to many others. Be aware there is NO post op follow up after you leave Florida. The only time they called was asking for me to send post op photos or when things got pretty serious with my infection when Dr g called to ask how my “red lump” was doing.

I personally made the mistake going there with him not having malpractice insurance and not being American Board Certified in Plastic surgery.

I am being honest and open and I just wanted to share what my experience was. I wish I knew more of these reviews before I had my surgery.