ObesityHelp

I haven't yet, but I'm going to on March 9th.  So I'm curious what other people will say.  I hear the thighs will give me the most trouble.

I had them both together on December 9th.  I figured if I was going to be in recovery, I might as well get it over with instead of going back twice.  The legs are more difficult to heal from because there is more change of swelling, incisions opening etc.  I had a tough time with the incisions in my groin area.  Those were the worst of all of my procedures.  They can open up so easily.  I had two dropped stitches, one on each side so had steri strips on them when the stitches came out.  Then at week 5, I had an opening around 1" long on my right groin incision.  It's healed now but even at 8 weeks they can be tender.

The LBL was a breeze.  I've barely felt those incisions.  But I will say that for the first 5 weeks I was very careful how I turned in bed etc to be sure not to open anything up.

I have yards of incision lines and truly, the only ones that bothered me were the groin.

I'd do them together again in a heartbeat.  I'd hate to have two recoveries since you have to be so careful anyhow.

I went back to walking 3.25 miles a few times a week at around 5 weeks out from surgery.  I really babied myself and pampered myself.

Reasons for NOT doing them together:

The bikini incision pulls upward, the groin incisions pull downward.  Hence you have incisions pulling aganst each other which can lead to more pain,  a less effective lift, and a higher chance of incision separation.

Its hard (and IMHO inadvisable) to wear a garment after inner thigh lift.  It binds up with the groin incision, does not allow the area to air out, and adds to discmfort. Add a few drains to the picture from the LBL or TT and yu get the picture.  Thigh lifts dont require the compression needed by an LBL and even if lipo is done, stockings or wraps are the better more convienient and comfortable deal.

When there is a large amount of excess skin of the buttocks, it can affect the inner thigh skin.  IN other words, after a buttock lift the lines drawn to remove the inner thigh skin will shift...this complicates doing the proper excision during surgery.  This issue applies only to buttocks with a LOT of loose skin.

Reasons FOR doing them together:

If there is not  a lot of tummy pull that's needed, or the thigh lift is relatively limited you won't have much issue with countertension across the incisions.

Hope this helps

If the patiet has a chance of geeting all their issues done at once, then the risks might outweight a whole other separate surgery, downtime, and recovery.

My usual staging of procedures is LBL + breast lift at Stage 1, then arms and legs, and bra roll at Stage 2 with addition of implants and touchups from Stage 1 if needed.

This gets 90% of my patients done in 2 stages.

What is the time frame recommended in between the 2 surgeries?

I consider doing Stage 2 as early as 2-3 months after the LBL.

I include all revision (if needed) at Stage 2 also, so if there is something from the LBL I want to wait on to settle that could delay Stage 2.

Hope this helps.