I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Monterrey, Mexico about 2 hours before I'm to be picked by Dr. Sauceda for my surgery. He's coming here at 7 AM. Slept off and on last night but got more sleep than I thought I would. The prep will take approx 1.5 hours and my surgery should begin around 9 AM. DrS said the procedures should all take 7 - 8 hours to complete.
There was a slight change after he examined me in person. He decided that for the best result on my stomach an anchor cut was advised for tummy tuck. I've seen this cut in other patients so I wasn't absolutely shocked or anything. I carry a lot of my skin in the front/upper part of my stomach and the anchor cut will remove and tighten it nicely. The downside is an extra vertical scar starting at my sternum and running to my waist line. It'll be an inverted T. For the results, I can definitely live with it. :)
The other two procedures did not change - small inner thigh lift and normal arm lift. I did have the choice for a regular thigh lift but didn't think the extra scar to the knee was worth the absolute best result in this case. Most of my extra skin on my inner thigh is near the top and that's what bothers me. My legs are large anyway from weight training and I'm not looking to perfectly tone them with surgery. I mainly want to be rid of the inner flap, flap, flap. The 3rd procedure, the arm lift, is also 3rd on my priority. I will be glad to have bat wings gone but the belly and thigh skin is where I'll be most relieved.
The trip down here was uneventful. Nice weather for the most part and smooth flights. Everything went fine in the airports and the crowds were at a minimum (a nice bonus). DrS was right there to pick me up and picked him out of the crowd immediately. Everything that's been said about him on the obesity help forums and his obesity help group is true! He's super nice and very personable while maintaining a great professionalism. Any stress I had being in a foreign country fled as soon as he took me "under his wing."
Here is a little impromptu list of many of the things I've done as I think back over the last 6 weeks since I made my decision to come to Monterrey.
Serious training with heavy free weights for 4 weeks
Cardio training between free weight sessions
Extra protein consumption (24 - 50 grams per day) above my normal calories (including extra for weight training)
1000 mg Vitamin C daily
No Vitamin E supplments except for small amount in multivitamin (stopped 2 weeks before today)
Limited amount of fish oil supplement
Personalized the checklist from DrS group post
Got passport
Planned scar treatment
I'm sure I'll think of more and really each one could be a post in itself. Right now I need get repacked and ready to be meet DrS.
WISH ME LUCK!
Mark
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