Anyone Know About Tummy Tucks?

lizaj

New member
Love that youtube clip..love her!
I don't agree with the comments on the clip apart slim dancers. Body shape has nothing to do with ability to do this dance well. That's what makes it a great dance to watch. And a dancer might not seem commercial but she can still be admired particularly amongst her peers.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Most surgeries are bloody. Personally, I think those kinds of pictures/videos should not be on this forum but on a forum where people are interested in medical advances, not bellydancing.

The original question was "does anyone know anything about tummy tucks?" and the pictures are part of a thorough answer.

Since we are warned of the graphic nature of the photos in advance and they are not depicted directly in the thread for someone to trip over by accident, I see no problem.

Of course, once a biologist, always a biologist. I'm the first one in line to see videos of medical techniques. One of the most fascinating things I ever saw was a video of eye surgery done on a friend, only the second surgery of its type ever attempted.

But I digress. :cool:
 

DrBermant

New member
The original question was "does anyone know anything about tummy tucks?" and the pictures are part of a thorough answer.

Since we are warned of the graphic nature of the photos in advance and they are not depicted directly in the thread for someone to trip over by accident, I see no problem.

Of course, once a biologist, always a biologist. I'm the first one in line to see videos of medical techniques. One of the most fascinating things I ever saw was a video of eye surgery done on a friend, only the second surgery of its type ever attempted.

But I digress. :cool:

That is exactly why I use links in posts. It permits those who want to look at information, to do so, others to ignore the link with warnings on it. Even the actual page itself has safety issues built to minimize exposure, but as other posters have asked, some want even more the actual videos themselves. That I had been reluctant to use on my website. The power of choice is what makes internet education such a powerful tool.

From a surgeon's perspective, I study my own and other surgeons' videos to perfect and evolve techniques. The other surgeons videos to date have only been from their procedures. I am only starting to crack getting my peers to document their before and after problem / solution with a motion component.

From my patients' perspective, the before and after videos and during surgery details enables their education. Part of my patient's comfort and recovery after surgery is having a smart well educated patient. All look at the basic information on the web, a small minority chose to avoid the during surgery details.

Thank you
 

Shanazel

Moderator
One of my students watched her caesarian section in the reflection of the overhead lamp. Said it was fascinating.
 

Aniseteph

New member
One of my students watched her caesarian section in the reflection of the overhead lamp. Said it was fascinating.

Wow. I would totally do that (but might pass out and scare the anaesthetist). All those people and interesting activity going on down there and I'm not allowed to see :mad:. It felt like someone rummaging in a shopping bag.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
One of my students watched her caesarian section in the reflection of the overhead lamp. Said it was fascinating.

Actually, I wanted to watch when I had carpel tunnel surgery but they wouldn't let me. But a caesarion? God bless your student but I don't think I could watch my own :shok:
 

DrBermant

New member
One of my students watched her caesarian section in the reflection of the overhead lamp. Said it was fascinating.

What becomes even more strange is watching your own Tummy Tuck. My patients are done under local anesthesia with heavy sedation. The comfort is maintained by my Tumescent Technique. Near the end of the case as we are sewing up, the patient is often awake, comfortable, and chatting with anesthesia as I am finishing my abdominal sculpture. Occasionally, I video the cases during surgery to document evolution in technique, unusual problems, and provide visual feedback to anesthesia during surgery. On one of these occasions I heard our patient ask to turn the monitor so she could also watch which was done. You have no idea how bizarre it was listening to the patient expressions and comments as we were finishing. The most recent videos has been in HD format and comments have been something like "this is like watching The Discovery Channel HD but I am the patient and it is happening live!"

No I do not always video during surgery, I already have so many that I have yet to find the time to edit. Perhaps one day I will take the time to edit components of a few or at least one of them into something more than my meeting PowerPoint videos. I does take a great deal of work editing the material and then I have yet to conquer voice over for the video. The title text would just not be enough to describe to lay public what is going on.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, M.D.
 

DrBermant

New member
Actually, I wanted to watch when I had carpel tunnel surgery but they wouldn't let me. But a caesarion? God bless your student but I don't think I could watch my own :shok:

The method of watching has to be so that the patient is not breathing germs into the wound. The doctor would need to have some form of video set up to do so safely. Very few doctors have such equipment.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, M.D.
 

sjoanda

New member
I completely agree! I haven't been pregnant yet, but I plan to be in the next 5years or so... I also hope to be able to dance while pregnant, to feel my future (hopefully) baby moving with me... A woman's belly is one of her sexiest attributes (in my view) A belly with no fat looks unhealthy and unnatural, and besides, the underlying muscle moves it, and you need a wobbly belly to move properly... :)
 

Zara Black

New member
I had a tummy tuck years ago and it was a really great thing to do. I was overwhelmed with joy when I saw my new tummy! I had twins and so no matter how much I dieted, my whole lap disappeared when I sat down, so you can imagine how that looked while I was dancing. We maintain our cars, we maintain our homes and everything else we invest in. Why is it not OK in some people's minds to maintain the vehicle that our souls walk around in? What is wrong with looking our best? I felt that my movements were not visible with all that distracting excess skin.

One warning! Make sure you mark a line where you want the scar to be so your DR. sees it just before surgery! I told my surgeon I was a belly dancer, showed her in the exam room where I wanted the scar and I think she forgot because my scar is too high! Now if I don't want them to show, I will need to get an appropriate tattoo which I do not really want to do.
So be careful with that issue!

Even with the scar too high, I am still VERY happy that I got the surgery. If you do not tolerate pain well, it will be miserable for a short time, but like childbirth, one forgets that. Make sure you do NOTHING for several weeks. My surgeon told me I could go back to work in two weeks and that was HORRIBLE advice. Take at least a month to heal.
 

lizaj

New member
I agree in that women should be never be ashamed of their bodies especially after childbirth. I also think you should never ever have surgery unless it's absolutely necessary. Some women are left with " a mess" after childbirth and I don't blame them one bit and I have a student considering a tummy tuck after losing.... wait for it 17 stone! I understand that she's got more skin than she now needs and go girl go!.
But a little unfashionable padding and/or a few stretch marks does not warrent taking such a risk.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Do you know that Valhalla is not only for warriors who die in battle but for women who die in childbirth? It's time to make padding and stretch marks not only fashionable but scars of honor. God knows there are plenty of us out here dancing with both.
 

DrBermant

New member
I had a tummy tuck years ago and it was a really great thing to do. I was overwhelmed with joy when I saw my new tummy! I had twins and so no matter how much I dieted, my whole lap disappeared when I sat down, so you can imagine how that looked while I was dancing. We maintain our cars, we maintain our homes and everything else we invest in. Why is it not OK in some people's minds to maintain the vehicle that our souls walk around in? What is wrong with looking our best? I felt that my movements were not visible with all that distracting excess skin.

One warning! Make sure you mark a line where you want the scar to be so your DR. sees it just before surgery! I told my surgeon I was a belly dancer, showed her in the exam room where I wanted the scar and I think she forgot because my scar is too high! Now if I don't want them to show, I will need to get an appropriate tattoo which I do not really want to do.
So be careful with that issue!

Even with the scar too high, I am still VERY happy that I got the surgery. If you do not tolerate pain well, it will be miserable for a short time, but like childbirth, one forgets that. Make sure you do NOTHING for several weeks. My surgeon told me I could go back to work in two weeks and that was HORRIBLE advice. Take at least a month to heal.

Planning Incision Marking
Planning where the scar will be should be part of any surgeon's education before tummy tuck surgery. For my patients, I ask them to bring in a bathing suit or underwear they do not mind me ruining with my marking pens to show me where they want their scars. You can see the plans I discuss with a patients here in these Photographs of a Belly Dancer Before / After Tummy Tuck. Go to the Oblique Photos or Front Photos panel and select the small image of the surgical plan to see the markings I make then review with the patient in front of a mirror the day before surgery. The red lines mark the outline of the clothing / region they are asking me to hide the scar. The blue line is the estimated plan for where the scar will be. The lower black line is the incision location. The upper black line is the tentative skin reduction region that is not decided until the surgery is performed. You can then match up that or other patients to see how close that planned blue line is to the final scar. Each tummy tuck also has the scar around the belly button where you will need to check close ups on how well that scar is hidden for each patient.

There is a limit how low an incision can be for men and women. Get too low and you are putting the important nerves to the genital region in jeopardy. Rarely I will have to veto the requested hiding site as just too risky to use.

Recovery After Tummy Tuck really varies by problem to be treated, technique used, skill of the doctor, patient individual issues, and many other factors. I advise my patients that this is like recovering from a sprain. Push healing tissues too far too soon and you will slow recovery and hurt healing. With some surgeon's methods recovery can take much longer. That is why each person exploring a tummy tuck should seek specific patient experiences from the doctor they are planning to use. My patient typical experiences in recovery can be listened to in their video discussions. That is a key question I ask every patient as part of my video documentation of recovery after surgery.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, M.D.
Board Certified
American Board of Plastic Surgery
 

DrBermant

New member
Make sure you do NOTHING for several weeks. My surgeon told me I could go back to work in two weeks and that was HORRIBLE advice. Take at least a month to heal.

I thought I would elaborate on a point that I missed in my last answer. Another common theme in the Plastic Surgery literature is how to prevent DVT or clots in the legs that can go to the lungs and kill people. The best way to increase those risks is to lay in be doing nothing. The complication rate for bed ridden patients whether from hip fracture or any other process is, in my opinion rather scary. Moving about, walking, doing activities, pumping the legs, all greatly lessen such risks of DVT. Besides the pain, that was another monster factor in why I evolved the Tumescent Tuck. Having patients comfortable so that they could move about is the best way to keep them safe. A side effect was that the swelling went down so much faster when active. That does not include pushing oneself to discomfort. That can injure healing tissues and slow recovery. Early on in my experiences I was horrified hearing my patients telling me that they were back to washing floors, walking on treadmills, back to light duty at work, playing with their children. I then learned that they were not hurting their healing, but making it resolve faster. That is another reason why I put the patients' recovery experiences on video to learn myself and show others what this technique recovery characteristics were like.

On the other hand, when the pain cycle started in the operating room with older methods, lying in bed and not stressing sensitized tissues was the way to go. Now, however, some doctors recommend DVT medications for patients needing such lack of motion.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, M.D.
 

Nejmeh

New member
*just read this tread*

Mega rep for chani!!! And if I could, a anti one for the doc.

This pulls out so many thoughts that this post will probably be a bit fuzzy. Sorry about that!
Beauty is no longer in the eye of the beholder, it`s been put in the eyes of hollywood. Girls get the idea they have to look like barbie(who would break like a twig if she was flesh and blood) and boys are raised to believe all women should look like a playboymodel. Interesting, but raising a couple of generations in a way that will make them constant consumers(look at how much money we all spend just to look better?!) doens`t make the bodytype more normal, healthier or more beautifull.
I remember when I first started to 'develop' I was still quite young and I was totally impressed by my moms boobs. I wanted those! The thing I taught that made them better then mine wasn`t the size, it was because those didn`t point out like mine(aka, they where sagging to put it inpolitely) I liked that, it made them look like 'grown up' boobs. Mine were still the adolescent boobies, fit for a girl, not for a woman! For me, that was the norm. I forgot my point, but it did wake me up when I finallt realized it.
 

arcane77

New member
Planning Incision Marking
You can see the plans I discuss with a patients here in these Photographs of a Belly Dancer Before / After Tummy Tuck.


OMG!!:shok:
I just came across this thread, sorry if i have unearthed an old one, but its just shocked me as I have this issue - Diastasis Recti.

I have been thinking carefully about having it fixed and while doing my research about abdominoplasty, I came across this Doc and then found links to him here too. Anyway, My shock was when I viewed the photos and saw how drastically the side profiles show how much the back arches because of the slack muscles in the stomach. NO WONDER I ache everywhere! Plus my recent trip to the x-ray room found me with the start of curving of the spine :(:( Can cry...... depressing

Man... I need to find 20K!

Anyone else get their tummy fixed?
 
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Ahava_Melantha

New member
interesting. I have been very interested in having a tummy tuck. the last time my stomach didn't hang over my groin was when before I had my son @ 20. I understand body acceptance of a rounded feminine body. totally, but for me, I still need to lose quite a bit of weight. but even now - i have GOBS of loose skin on my stomach my inner thighs, my upper arms - loose skin from losing weight when I was 16 - so yeah I would TOTALLy

totally get a full tummy tuck and thich lift and loos e skin and fat removed from my out thighs, etc. I don't think I'll be getting it done anytime soon as I need to lose weight and i may (secretly) want another son, lol.

but I wouldn't encourage a woman to get it done just cuz her breasts aren't as perky as they were at 16 or for having a soft belly. even when I'm skinny - I have a belly and I'm quite "fleshy" even with muscles.
 
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