She gave me a better version of myself - Vaser + Butt Lift

My experience with Dr. Reichel and her staff was great! I was a bit nervous and unsure of what to expect during my consultation, but Dr Reichel and her staff made me feel super comfortable. I was initially only interested in cool sculpting and a mole removal, but I mentioned how my friend had recently gotten a BBL and it looked amazing and how I was jealous of her new booty. Dr. Reichel had me show my figure and my expectations (I was looking for something more natural) and said that VASER HI-DEF with a modest butt lift (not a true BBL) might be a better fit for me. She was even kind enough to recommend me to other plastic surgeons that she knew that gave amazing BBL results! After our initial consultation I went to a couple of other surgeons and ended up scheduling my surgery with Dr. Reichel for vaser hi def on the abdomen (whole) and flanks on 2/3/2022.

For reference, I am 34 years old 5'6, 127lbs.. I have played sports my entire youth (up until college) and am still fairly active. The tiniest I've been was when I was about 115 - 120lbs in high school and I guess it was when I looked the "best", but even then I never really felt "sexy". I would still consider myself lucky because the fat I had was distributed proportionally around my whole body (except for my boobs and butt HA!), but I was looking for something a little bit "more".

On the day of surgery, Vida (the nurse who has helped me through the whole process and answering all of my questions) brought me into the consultation room and started prepping me for the operation. After changing into a gown and some meds (maybe 30 mins?) they took me into the operating room and started their magic! There was some minor discomfort here and there when they were injecting the fluids and again some minor discomfort when they started the actual suctioning, but otherwise it was pretty easy. When the doctor got to my sides, I started giggling because it felt like the cannula was tickling me! That was probably the hardest part for the actual lipo procedure. Afterwards, the doctor started injecting some of the fat into my butt and that was easy too! I can't remember too clearly, but I'm pretty sure that I told everyone that it felt like I was trying to sit on a pine cone or something. lol. Finally, they dressed me up in my compression garment and sent me on my way.

Now, the recovery is probably the worst part of all this. Make sure you have someone to baby you the first week!!! My husband was extremely supportive and honestly I've never felt so babied in my life by him. lol. The first few days were awful because you're going to be leaky and you body feels like it got beat up AND you're not allowed to shower until your follow up appointment (4-5 days). I am now 22 days POST-op and I love my results already! There are days where I can't see a difference and then there are days where I'm like "whoa!! I look GOOD".

Overall, I'm really happy with Dr. Reichel's work and the responsiveness of her staff. There are a couple of things to consider if you're going to do this procedure though (with Dr. Reichel or not). 1)From the few surgeons I've talked to, I realized that plastic surgery is really an artistic expression. I like Dr. Reichel a lot because her idea of "natural" was exactly what I was looking for. I think partly it's also because Dr. Reichel is a female and I wanted to look good AND natural in the eyes of another woman. During our initial consultation, Dr. Reichel didn't even mention doing a butt lift, she said I would look good with just the Vaser alone. Not only that, but I have several moles on my face and when I unmasked, she honestly said that only ONE of them caught her eye and the rest were fine as they were. Oddly enough, Dr Reichel made me feel very pretty with that one comment because I realized that we (patients) nit pick at a lot of different things about our body or life because that's all we really know! My husband has never once complained about my body or moles and talking to Dr. Reichel kind of felt like I was talking to my husband again. lol. 2)I had a very different experience compared to my friend who had the actual BBL. During my operation, Dr Reichel, Vida, and a couple of other gals chatted with me and just treated me like a friend. My friend's operation was a bit more "professional" and quiet. I am NOT a picky person, so I would've been fine in either setting, but I definitely enjoyed my operation because of the light atmosphere.