Dear Readers,
As a mother of three adult children and a few months into my 50th year on this Earth, I have decided to give myself a gift – a mommy makeover. I’ve honestly been thinking about plastic surgery ever since I can remember. I didn’t breastfeed my kids but I have always been extremely flat chested since a teenager and extremely self-conscious. On top of the physical changes my stomach experienced from pregnancy, I hide my 5’5/130lb. figure under size large and extra-large clothing. With the encouragement of my daughters (I really just think they were tired of hearing me complain honestly), I decided to go see Dr. Whiteman and explore my mommy makeover options. My consultation was just last week and I am so excited to share with his readers that I am scheduled for my mommy makeover in a little over a month’s time. I keep asking myself if this is real life and pinching myself because the fear that I had prior to my consultation is now filled with excitement and happiness just at the thought of what my mommy makeover results that I have been longing for over several decades will finally look like. I’m tired of hiding and now I want to share my story with as many mothers, daughters, and grandmothers out there!
I’m a detail oriented person so research has always been my first step when making any big, life-changing decision. I was recommended to check out Dr. Whiteman at Southern Plastic Surgery (SPS) from friends that had themselves had previous procedures at SPS (none of them had a mommy makeover but most had either had a breast augmentation or a tummy tuck). I live almost two hours away so I was worried about actually being able to make a consultation with my work schedule, but the SPS staff was amazing and worked with me to find a time for me to meet with Dr. Whiteman (he made a special trip from the hospital to meet with me!). I brought my oldest daughter along for moral support and I’m so glad I did honestly because it’s nice having family support and someone who can help with questions that I may have forgotten – and did. From the time I filled out paperwork to the time I went into the office, I have to say I was beyond nervous. I was scared that Dr. Whiteman wouldn’t be the type of doctor for me, or that he would tell me that there was nothing he could do (sounds crazy, but hey, this is all new for me).
They set up an account on their TouchMD consultation software and I was able to look at before and after pictures and read more on the procedures I was interested in until Dr. Whiteman came in to the consultation room to introduce himself and get the consultation started! I met his sweet intern and we all just started with a simple conversation about what were my biggest concerns and more about me current and previous medical history. Up next was taking before and after photos so they could be uploaded to my TouchMD account to discuss his thoughts on my procedure. After taking measurements of my breasts and examining what he was going to be working with, he shared that I had excellent breast tissue and skin to work with and I wouldn’t need a breast lift, just an augmentation! Next he examined my stomach. I have a pooch that makes me look bloated but I honestly wasn’t sure if I had what research considers muscle separation or not. Turns out I did have minor muscle separation but his “Fab Ab” tummy tuck (that’s the name his patients gave it – isn’t that clever?!) combined with liposuction was going to help me get my flat stomach back. Dr. Whiteman hit me with a TON of education and I have to admit that of my millions of questions I had written down, he covered EVERY SINGLE ONE before I even had a chance to ask them. To say I was impressed is an understatement.
Once we went through the techniques for both the tummy tuck and the breast augmentation, it was time to try on implants! I had done my research on the various breast augmentation techniques and we talked about the look and feel that I wanted to go for. I’m not trying to go obnoxiously big since I’m a fairly small woman, but I wanted something noticeable but understated so friends will wonder what changed, but may not be able to place it, if that makes sense. I wanted natural looking breast augmentation results so we settled on trying silicone breast implants. Best part of this was that I literally was able to place the implant in a sports bra and see what my results could look like when wearing a t-shirt (ya’ll it was a size medium shirt too – and I actually filled it out!). I can’t describe the feeling I had when I examined myself in the mirror; just pure anticipation and joy. I knew that I was most definitely going to have the tummy tuck done, but it wasn’t until I tried the implants on that I decided to just go with both procedures. After all, since I was already going to be in recovery over Christmas break, why not just do those both now?
After the consultation was over I met with Jackie to go over my expected costs and we talked about plastic surgery financing and possible surgery dates. Generally they would just send you home with a packet of goodies and you let them know what you decide at a later date but I was ready to go. I think that surprised my daughter as I like to really take my time to deliberate, but it just felt right. I was really nervous that they weren’t going to have open dates because I had my consultation so late in the game, but Jackie worked her magic and was able to get me scheduled in enough time to allow my body to heal, meet with Dr. Whiteman for my follow-up consultation, and also be back to work without having to take a lot of time off. I’ve never had a team work so hard to make everything work out for me, regardless if it wasn’t their usual routine, it didn’t matter to them. Usually I think it’s cliché for businesses to claim to be a family, but for the SPS team that is exactly what it felt like. Dr. Whiteman didn’t sugarcoat anything or try to sell me on anything he honestly didn’t think I need. For that and many, many other reasons, Southern Plastic Surgery is like my Fairy Godmother and I cannot wait to share my results with the rest of the world!