bodypostbaby's blog

I answered a question recently about timing of a mommy makeover.  The person was traveling out of state via plane to have the surgery done.  I tried to redirect her to the real issue: how safe is travel to have surgery?

Mommy makeover is a combined surgery of breast and body.  Her question was when to do surgery after you stop nursing (I would wait 3-6 months, and be close to your ideal weight if possible).  The bigger issue I saw was her travel from New York (place with many great doctors) to Florida for surgery.

There are short surgeries with easy recoveries, and there are long surgeries with long recoveries. 

Mommy makeovers are usually two surgeries done at one sitting.  In most healthy women, it is safe.  But combined surgeries have higher risk of bleeding, anesthesia complications, DVT, infection, and other issues.  You are at higher risk for a DVT for 3-4 weeks after surgery, making airline travel riskier.  If you do a tummy tuck, you will have a drain.  In heavier women, that drain can stay in for 3-5 weeks after surgery.

If you have a complication, it will be difficult to get to your doctor.  A local doctor will be hesitant to treat you.

Find someone close to where you live.  If you live in a small town, then go to a nearby larger town.  For a qualified surgeon near you, find someone board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.  Meet a few doctors.  You’ll know the right one when you meet them and see their photo books. 

(I do have patients travel to have me do surgery.  Usually though they have family or friends near me, and I require they stay around for 2-3 weeks depending on the scope of surgery.  It is not ideal.)

When I started my practice a decade ago, most of my breast reductions were covered by insurance.  I think they are a great surgery, improving posture, neck pain, back pain, shoulder notching, and the ability to go jogging.

Things have changed.

Now almost none of my reductions can get covered. It is frustrating for me and my patients, as I see many large breasted women who can’t get covered.  What changed?

First, I now do a short scar breast reduction technique, called a vertical breast reduction.  I “cut out” less breast tissue with this technique.  Why did I change?  First and foremost: much shorter scar.  Also, I find this breast reduction better at shaping, with a longer lasting result.  I love it.  But with this technique I do liposuction of the lateral breast in the armpit area.  Insurance won’t include this fat as part of my “breast tissue removed” total.

Second, the amounts they require have gotten higher.  Not a good combo with my short scar technique where the amounts I directly cut out went down anyway. 

The Schnur scale came out of a study in the plastic surgery literature.  They did the study to prove breast reductions objectively, medically IMPROVE symptoms. During the 1980s plastic surgeons started to see insurance companies refusing to pay for breast reductions, calling them “cosmetic.”  So multiple studies followed, documenting scientifically that back pain, neck pain, and breast pain had about an 80% improvement after surgery.  (And patient satisfaction was around 90%.  Pretty fantastic, particularly given those were the days of the longer anchor scar.)

The Schnur study came up with a scale used to show the volume which needed to be removed for breast reductions done for medical reasons only.  The issue is the Schnur study had a mean height of patients being 5′4″, 163 pounds, and a mean total amount of breast tissue being removed was 1515g. (That is over 3 pounds per breast.)

Ug.  When I started my practice, if a woman was going down about 2 cup sizes, they would get covered.  I used to have to remove about 300g for insurance coverage.  Now it is adjusted to the body surface area, and the required amounts have gone up.  With current recommendations, a 5′6″ woman who weighs 140 pounds needs a reduction of 370-400 grams per breast to be covered.  If she weighs 160, she would need about 450 grams per breast.  Liposuctioned fat cannot be applied to this total.  In my office I can show you visually what “volume” (using an implant sizer) this would be.  Many times the amount looks like the total of the entire breast, essentially being a mastectomy.

You don’t need to convince me a breast reduction and lift is a good idea. Insurance is another story though.

BODY SURFACE AREA CALCULATOR at http://www.bcbst.com/providers/calculator.asp

SCHNUR SLIDING SCALE at http://www.bcbst.com/mpmanual/The_Schnur_Sliding_Scale_chart.htm 

Short answer: Yes. You can get pregnant after a tummy tuck.  That being said, every plastic surgeon you meet will tell you to tuck after babies.  Why?

Well, what makes you want to get a tummy tuck now? You are likely

stretched out,

hanging or loose skin, 

loosened muscles,

and maybe stretch marks. 

When we do a tummy tuck we 1. tighten the muscles and 2. tighten the skin.  Another pregnancy will do the opposite.  Your muscles and skin will stretch to accomodate the pregnancy.  Your internal stitches to tighten the muscles will likely loosen or rip.  Your skin will stretch  and if you are prone to stretch marks, you will likely form new ones

STORYTIME:

 I had a patient who had major weight loss. 100 pounds.  She came to me for a tummy tuck.  She also was 30 ish, and when I asked, she said she wanted children in the future.  She was a great tummy tuck candidate- she had horrible stretch marks and hanging skin.  But I told her to wait.  Why? She is 30.  She can’t wait too long to have kids due to that darn fertility time clock.  She formed bad stretch marks from her weight gain.  People who form bad stretch marks tend to do it again.  The stretch marks now are mostly on her lower belly, and I will remove them when I tummy tuck her.  If I tuck her now and tighten the skin, when she gets pregnant she will form new stretch marks.  These stretch marks will go where she stretches, which includes above the belly button.  I most likely won’t be able to cut these out after her pregnancy.

IF she waits, she is “prestretched” for her pregnancy (from her prior 100 pounds of weight.) She will likely look just like she does now after the baby.  I can then tuck her after the baby, and likely get rid of her stretch marks.  It is also one less surgery. 

 And, something doctors don’t talk about, but being pregnant can be tough.  Watching your flat belly stretch… and stretch…and stretch is hard to do.  When you”fixed” your belly with a tummy tuck and your new pregnancy and baby is now “ruining” it – that is not a good dynamic.

If life throws you a curve ball, then it happens.  But if you are planning things out, think of your body for the long haul- what will be the best result 10 years down the road.

Ah. The joys of being female.  All those lovely “woman” things, sometimes can lead you to need a hysterectomy.  Ug.  But can there be a silver lining? If you have to have a hysterectomy, can you do this with a tummy tuck? 

For those with no attention span, the quick answer: Yes. 

But there are conditions….

1.  Hysterectomy needs to be done for a benign condition.  If you have cancer, you need to focus on the treatment and healing for that.

2.  You need to be healthy.  Hysterectomy is a big operation, which has blood loss, healing, yadda yadda.  I had a patient who needed a hysterectomy due to intense heavy bleeding each month.  She was a great candidate for a tummy tuck.  I would have loved to do them at the same time.  But she was anemic.  NOT OKAY to do tummy tuck.  A tummy tuck is a cosmetic surgery.  It lengthens the time of surgery, causes more blood loss, and increases overall risk.  If you are anemic, you won’t heal the long incision well- you have higher risk for infection, wound dehiscence (fancy way of saying your wound opens up), poor scarring, etc.

3.  A lot of benign conditions which used to treated in the past by total hysterectomy such as heavy bleeding or fibroids, can now be done by less invasive means such as ablation.  Can’t have a tummy tuck with a hysterectomy if you don’t need a hysterectomy.

Any combined surgery has higher risk of complication, wound infection, DVT/PE, and anesthesia reactions such as nausea, etc.  In healthy women, this additional risk is low, and the benefits of one anesthetic, one surgery, and one recovery outweigh the risk.  For busy moms and working women, doing the 2 for 1 is the only way they will get to have a tummy tuck.  But we must keep in mind this is elective, cosmetic surgery.

For those who fit the criteria and are healthy, go for it! I love buy one, get one free. It’s the like tummy tuck was on sale. What girl doesn’t like that?

Yup. That’s right. Go raid your kids toys. There is a use for those marbles.

The marble trick is supposed to help “round” out the belly button and/or enlarge it a bit if it is starting to constrict down too much.

Unclear how well this works, but I have had some patients with success.  Don’t make it too big- We don’t have a “shrinking” technique for belly buttons which are too big.

The marble trick:

If you have a small or slit like belly button, you can try the “marble trick.” 

Once healed (likely at least 2-3 weeks out from surgery), you put a marble into the belly button and tape it or hold it down. 

The first time do it for 15 minutes and see how you feel. Is it sore? Irritated?

Make sure the marbles are clean (alcohol or antibacterial soap)

Clean and change it out daily. You can work up to a few hours daily.

What is the thought?  The idea is the marble serves as a kind of stent to help massage the scar, soften it, enlarge the area, and round it out a little.  ? Not sure how much it works, but it’s worth a try.  Just go steal a few of your kid’s marbles of different sizes, and you can gradually upsize.  Just don’t overstretch it.  That you can’t reverse.

Let’s hear it for the girls! 

I love breastfeeding.  We always knew it was good for your heart to snuggle and be close to your baby (awwwww.)  But now science supports it as well.  I know breast feeding doesn’t make the breasts look prettier long term (in the short term it can do wonders though).  I know as a plastic surgeon many of you think we only care about how pretty your breasts are.  And I do care what they look like, but the breasts have a purpose other than looking good in a bikini.

A new study came out in Diabetes  (and was presented by Gunderson’s team on June 6 in New Orleans at the American Diabetes Association’s 69th annual Scientific Sessions meeting).  It was a long term prospective study of 1400 patients.  In it, they looked at the benefit to mom (not babe) of breastfeeding, specifically looking at the “metabolic syndrome” of risk factors which cluster and increase your heart risk.

What increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes?

• Abdominal obesity (the apple body shape, not pear, especially when the fat is “intraabdominal” behind your belly muscles)
• high blood pressure
• cholesterol (low HDL the good one, and high LDL, the bad one)
• high triglycerides
•  insulin resistance
• inflammatory markers
• a tendency to clot.

They found of these 1400 women, 50% had kids.  They followed them at 7, 10, 15, and 20  years. They found the risk of the “metabolic syndrome” was reduced in women who breastfed.  This risk was reduced further the longer you breastfed.  For those who breastfed over 9 months, the risk went down 56% in those with no gestational diabetes (diabetes while pregnant, a marker for those at risk for diabetes later in life) and 86% for those with gestational diabetes.

Yay.

They don’t know why. ? Does it increase your good HDL cholesterol?  Lower the abdominal body fat? Or help with the metabolism of blood sugar and lower your insulin levels?  We don’t know. But it was nice to see these results.

So let’s hear it for the girls.

Don’t worry- if they look bad when you are done, I can help you. But a healthy heart- that looks good on everyone.

Ah.

I just wrote a blog on my website about skin products. Winter is a fantastic time to clean up your skin.  Shorter days, less sun… But many of  those lovely products which help with wrinkles and ridding of pesky pigment in your skin (which while pregnant likely got worse.)… many of those products you cannot use when you are with child or breastfeeding.  Ug!  I was pregnant and/or breastfeeding for 6 years straight.  I get it.  You are sleep deprived; your body has been depleted of every vital nutrient; the hormones wreak havoc on your skin; and then you can’t use stuff to fix it.  That can do a doozy on having lovely skin. (Imagine how it is when you are a plastic surgeon and people expect you should have nice skin.)

So blah blah blah.  I hear I can’t use Retin A (Antioxidant. Makes dermis thicker, realigns collagen, helps skin turn over more), Hydroquinone (Skin bleacher- doesn’t make it white, just gets rid of pigment), Latisse (eyelash enhancer), Botox (wrinkle remover) or do a TCA chemical peel (to resurface the skin- improves fine lines, reduces pore size, and removes superficial pigment).  Let’s be positive, what CAN I do?

When I was in my babymaking and breastfeeding years, I purposefully looked for products which 1. worked (and could prove to me they worked with scientific studies, not the “70% of women thought they saw improvement in the mirror” ) and 2. were baby safe.  What to do?

1. Sunscreen. I know you are tired of hearing about it. I am tired of writing it. But prevention is always the best.  Mechanical blockers (zinc, titanium) block the sun rays and are not chemicals absorbed into the skin.  Thought to be safer for babies.

2. Antioxidants.  Vit C and E products are antioxidants.  They are not miracle workers, so don’t expect any changes overnight.  But with steady use, they help fine wrinkles and pigmentation.  And again, are baby safe if not mixed with other things.  (Some products are mixed with hydroquinone or other things which are not baby safe.)  My favorite brand? Skinceuticals. They were one of the only brands who showed me studies of the skin improvement with histologic biopsies. (oooh aaah. Real science is great to see.)

3. Natural agents against pigment.  Phyto by skinceuticals is one I favor.

I know the list is short, but continue to treat your skin while you are pregnant and breastfeeding.  The healthy “glow” thing is great, but you want to avoid losing as much ground as you can.  When you are done with all the baby stuff, then we can talk about other ways.  So snuggle in with your little one. Winter is here.

Yup.
The Senate, at the 11th hour, on a Saturday night while no one was watching tacked on a cosmetic procedure tax.

5%.

On every cosmetic surgery, botox injection, filler injection, and ??? what else.

The issues are multiple:
1. Never has the government taxed a patient for a medical procedure.
2. 90% of all “cosmetic” procedures are done by women.
3. This tax applies to procedures paid for by insurance, as well as by the patient. So if your insurance considers your breast reduction “medically necessary” (no small hurdle- see my blog on getting insurance to cover a breast reduction. It is as difficult as getting a child to eat broccoli over ice cream), the government will still consider it “cosmetic” and walah! You get to pay 5% more.  On a breast reduction surgery, this could amount to an additional $400-500.

4. The majority of plastic surgery patients are not the rich and famous.  They are, as I see in my practice, the soccer mom and the working mom.

This tax is effectively a “Soccer Mom” tax that will adversely impact mainstream American wives and mothers, who are the majority of plastic surgery patients,” said Renato Saltz, MD, President of ASAPS. “As doctors, we understand and appreciate the need for health care reform, but taxing physicians and cosmetic surgery procedures to pay for the reform is not realistic or beneficial,”

In a 2005 ASPS survey of people planning to have cosmetic surgery within the next two years, 60% of respondents reported an annual household income of $30,000-$90,000 a year. Most importantly, 40% of those reported a household income of only $30,000-$60,000. Only 10% of respondents reported a household income of over $90,000, which clearly refutes the suggestion that elective surgery taxes are “luxury” or”sin” taxes affecting a privileged few.

eeeek! I have on my website gone through the specific issues: breast reduction, diastasis after babies, botox.  And my biggest issue is why women.  WHY?  Let’s look at pure botox for wrinkles, pure elective cosmetic botox.  Why is my desire for botox as a 40 year old woman taxed, but a man’s desire for medications for his “erectile dysfunction” not taxed? Are there too few women making laws on Capitol Hill? Is it that doctors and women have poorer lobbies than men and pharmaceutical companies?

This is a broadly worded way for the government to try to get revenue.  If you think this is not a slippery slope to taxing more medical procedures and medications, think again.  Their definition is :

COSMETIC SURGERY AND MEDICAL PROCEDURE-  ”1. is performed by a licensed medical professional and 2. is not necessary to ameliorate a deformity arising from, or directly related to, a congenital abnormality, a personal injury resulting from an accident or trauma, or disfiguring disease.”

Many many surgeries are not congenital, related to injury from accident or trauma (though can I argue having an 8 pound baby constitutes trauma?), or disfiguring disease.  Mole removal? Hernia repair? Breast cancer reconstruction? Breast reduction? Under this broad definition, who determines what is “necessary”?

A tax was done on cosmetic procedures in New Jersey.  It has proved arbitrary and difficult to administer.  And the “projected revenue” was 59% lower than expected.  Eight other states have looked at taxing these procedures, and all did not do it.

As I said before, EEEEK.

If you would like to know what to do, go to my website.  Why can’t medicine be about medicine? I am not a politician, nor a tax collector.  I really love being what I do best- a surgeon and doctor to my patients.

Mini. I love that word. Mini connotes cute. Mini skirts, the mini car, mini M&Ms. Adorable.

So who doesn’t want mini facelifts and mini tummy tucks?

A mini tummy tuck is not a tummy tuck. There is a place for it, but the application is limited. A mini tummy tuck involves removing skin and fat below the belly button only. If you have no issue with loose skin above the belly button and have tight muscles, then the mini is a good way to get rid of the extra little pooch of skin from the lower belly.

I find most of my mini patients come from two categories:
1. skinny women who get the muffin top when they wear tight lowrider jeans.
2. more overweight women who have thicker fat who need aggressive liposuction, but will end up with some loose skin in the lower belly if we don’t tighten it up a bit.

A benefit is you can position the scar as low as you want, and there is no scar at the belly button. But there is a scar, and the more skin you remove, the longer the scar will be. Sometimes the “mini” scar is not much smaller than a true tummy tuck scar.

Recovery from a mini tummy tuck is as expected- It is mini too. It is not very painful (woo hoo! Those real tummy tucks can hurt. So you Bay Area girls can get back to working out faster), because mini tummy tucks do not tighten the muscles.

So, are you a candidate for the mini? If your skin is only loose below the belly button, you don’t have much diastasis (separation of the muscles), and you scar well, it may be a good option for you.

But sometimes mini isn’t better to get what you want.

We have established it isn’t a good thing to do the tummy tuck with C section.  I know. I know.  I’d love it too.  But it just isn’t a good idea.  So when can you do it?

When is good timing? Here you will get varied answers.  Most plastic surgeons will advise 6 months or more.  Most will advise trying to get to your pre pregnancy weight.

My advice?

1. KNOW YOU ARE DONE WITH KIDS.
2. Wait at least 3 months: you lose blood during delivery and need to give your body time to rebuild up its blood stores.
3. Get back to prepregnancy weight.
4. Work out and focus on your core.
5. Be done with breastfeeding.  I would wait a couple months after breastfeeding so you can build up your nutrition again.
6. See a Plastic Surgeon.  Make sure you don’t see someone who can only do liposuction- you need someone to evaluate you who actually can do a tummy tuck or liposuction.
7. Know the “price” you are willing to pay for surgery.  (For this please see my blog on the grey zone for tummy tucks at bodypostbaby on wordpress.)