Plastic Surgeon in Greater Seattle/Tacoma area

I'm 16 mos. postop & basically at my goal of 96 lbs lost Yeah! Any recommendations for an exceptional doc in my area? How about costs? I'm most interested in my arms,breasts (I look like shrunken bread dough in a bra! :) & a back bra line lift. Any recommendations are so welcome!

I'm in Seattle, just had boob lift/implants done with Dr David Pratt in Kirkland. He's doing my stomach at the end of the month. I have seen a couple of docs in the area and would be happy to share my thoughts with you via private message (I guess docs can search forums and will sue you if they catch you saying bad things about them??? Someone told me that and now I'm paranoid). I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Dr Pratt though. His boobs are absolutely the best. But he is the most expensive of all the docs I consulted with.
I've also heard wonderful things about Dr Baxter and Dr Rand, in terms of breasts at least. There is one doc in the area I'd highly warn against but I won't say his name here, I don't want to be sued. I sent you a friend request, if you want to talk about it lemme know!

Thanks so much for replying Lizzy! I had seen his name before so am familiar. Good luck with your tummy!

So far I've had a consult with Dr. Pratt, Dr. Dry, and Dr. Egrari. I'm meeting with Dr. Satler tomorrow. So far here's my take...

Dr. Egrari and Dr. Dry are the go-tos for full-body post weightloss work. They have the most experience and show it in their before and afters. Particularly when it comes to the full lower body lift and thigh work. They are also tops in avoiding risk and complications. I didn't think anyone else in the are really has the kind of experience in post weightloss that they do (and Dr. Egrari will tell you so himself :-)).

Dr. Dry excels at pain management, forward-thinking on healing, overall tightness and leg lifts. I like his straightforward communication style. I'd seen him speak a few years ago and always assumed he'd be my surgeon. I have a second appointment with him in a couple weeks. For me he wanted to start with the lower body lift with things and breasts in a future procedure.

Dr. Egrari excels at breasts and a natural, feminine, age-appropriate result. He's a bit more schmoozy but after my second consult I'd say that he really, really cares about what he's doing. I sent him a very long list of questions. He'd printed them out and marked the paper up with his thoughts and ideas. The he pulled out a study he's been working on to show us along with lots of pictures to go through together. He was very enthusiastic about having a patient who wanted the details and who'd done her research. Some doctors would have been put off by that. Dr. Egrari wanted to do the lower bodylift and breasts in the same procedure. Arms and thighs would come later.

Dr. Pratt, like our gal Lizzy says, is the go-to for amazing boobs - even amazing saline boobs. He doesn't do long-scar thigh lifts. And he won't do a full body lift (where the scar goes all the way around), he'll do the tummy tuck first and the backside later. He's also got a technique for belly buttons that's amazing. Have never seen anyone else's that look so natural. He's as pricey as Dry and Egrari but in different ways - like his boobs were way more than theirs but his tummy tuck was cheaper. Go figure.

Dr. Baxter. I've had friends go to him. Like, Pratt, he does more in the mommy makeover area with boobs and tummy than with post-weightloss. He also does progressive tension sutures for the tummy tuck that reduce drain usage and are intended to prevent seromas and make a narrower scar.

I've looked at Mary Lee Peters web site many times but have yet to call her office and find out what kind of post weight-loss experience she has or her pricing.

I've also done virtual consults with Dr. LoMonaco in Texas and the much-loved Dr. Sauceda in Mexico.

Dr. LoMonaco is right up there with artistic focus on the post weight-loss patient. His patients love him. I really appreciated his thorough email consultation. If I had family in Houston he'd be in my short list with Dry and Egrari. But his pricing is similar and it doesn't make sense to travel when Dry and Egrari have similar experience. All three are very expensive, almost twice the price I had originally guestimated for arms, thighs, lower body lift, and breast lift with augmentation. Almost three times the price of Sauceda.

Dr. Sauceda seems to be great at many things including post weight-loss. And he stands out not only in price but in the aftercare patients receive (12 days for lower body lifts). He does many procedures at once which U.S. doctors don't often do -  I think that's because Dr. S uses an epidural so the surgery can be longer, daily nursing care to reduce potential complications, and his take is that it's better to recover once than from multiple surgeries. I don't know for sure which way is better. Doctors in the U.S. tend to only bundle two things at once if at all (arms and boobs, boobs and tummy, arms and thighs, etc.). And both Dry and Egrari felt you can't do the inner things until after the lower body lift is done and healed.

I haven't had surgery with any of them so I can't offer a recommendation. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do. Save big bucks and get the kind of aftercare I prefer with Dr. Sauceda in Mexico? Pony up big bucks and go with Dry or Egrari here at home? Choose a franken-body aproach and have different docs for boobs, arms, legs and face to get the best doc for the best part? Won't know for a couple weeks. I'm wearing myself out trying to decide.

Keep us posted on who you decided to see...

Britt

 Britt, this is an awesomely informative post about other surgeons in the area. I haven't started looking into people for my other bodyparts, but I'm copying and pasting this and saving it in my files. Thanks for the effort and descriptions!! 

Whoa, Britt, girl....you are some researcher! How did you discover the docs out of our area? Truthfully, I haven't even broached the subject seriously with anyone so I'm so naive on this entire thing.

I don't know what kind of money we're even talking about here...I'm assuming big bucks for all of this. I know some insurance co's will cover some individuals if their issues go beyond cosmetic...however mine is strictly cosmetic so the entire bill is on me. Ouch. I'm going to need to win the lottery or find a rich benefactor to pay for this. I can't touch our investments and going into debt is not an option. I just had no idea I would even "need" plastic surgery when I had my wls...that's how naive I was.

My problem areas are not that bad...My arms are prob my worst issue. The wrinkly excess skin thing really bothers me when I'm in short sleeve or sleeveless tops. I can get away with a Victoria Secret Miraculous bra...but in a bathing suit well, that'll be the test. I'm off to Maui in a few weeks.

Thank you so much for all your input. Please keep me posted in your pursuits. I am truly interested.

Sue

The research thing is a curse - the hours spent planning my recent kitchen remodel were insane. My neighbor just basically did what I did (same cabinets, contractor, etc.) and saved herself months of time.

As for local docs. I went to hear Dr. Dry give a presentation at Evergreen Hospital on post-bariatric surgery plastics and why they're different. I figured he'd be my doc but it took months to get in so I started looking around, asked my augmented friends and did a lot of googling.

The pricing just kills me. For lbl, breast lift and augmentation, thighs and arms locally I'd be between $40,000 and $50,000. That's about twice what I expected. I think Seattle has an especially high surgery mark-up over other areas of the country. For Dr. Sauceda it's less than $20,000. So I realistically can't justify going local unless I win the lottery.

The thing that I'm still stuck on is whether I really want to do everything at once. The doctors here are just so adamant about never doing any other procedure, especially the lower body lift, at the same time as the circumferential thigh lift. And that scares me. So I'm kinda noodling the following:

Option 1 - do LBL here. It's the riskiest and longest recovery and I might be better off doing it at home. Plus Dr. Sauceda isn't sure he'd want to do the muscle tightening since I had a hernia repair. The docs here aren't worried about it. Then I'd do everything in one fell swoop with Dr. S early next year.

Option 2 - do everything but thighs with Dr. S and then either do thighs here or go back to Mexico for thighs later.

Option 2 - do boobs and arms here and everything with Dr. S later.

Today I met with Dr. SATTLER (I wrote Pratt, editing my doctor name mix up so Lizzy doesn't have a heart attack). I really liked him. He's relocating to Portland so I can do breasts and arms with him in early October. The later I could go to Portland to do everything else. But the problem is that his arm and boob prices are higher than everyone else's. I was shocked because I think of Dr. Dry and Dr. Egrari as the top guys in town and really thought he'd be less. I wonder if he'll be less once he's in Portland.  

I did learn a lot of new info from Dr. Sattler though and liked his approach, where he'd put the scars, etc. If the price had been right I'd probably have given it strong consideration. But his price for arms and boobs was almost as much as Dry and Egrari prices for LBL + boobs.

One good confirmation - he agreed I should lose 5 to 10 more pounds for the best possible  leg result. The only two places I still have any fat on my body are my back side love handles and my legs. He said losing the weight would make pulling the excess around to the center easier, it wouldn't have to be done so tightly and would look better than having to do too much lipo. Finally! Someone agrees with what I already knew about my own body. I can be super stick skinny gaunt looking from face to neck to chest to waist and still have tree trunk thighs. So it's back to tracking my food and upping my protein so I can get these extra pounds off.

Funny that losing 10 more pounds seems daunting when the other 105 I already lost seemed like magic :-). I'm pretty motivated now though.

You know, Sue, I didn't think I was going to want as much plastics as I do. Honestly, if I was apple shaped and my legs looked good I'm not sure i'd really have headed down this road. Most everything else on me looks great in clothes. People tell me all the time how tiny I am and how I ought not lose any more weight (imagine! I haven't heard that for 20 years). And my batwings aren't that bad. But if I have to do an LBL to get to good thighs then I just kept playing out that I might as well do it all. And if I can do it all in Mexico for less than just one procedure here then why not.

Honestly, I never expected to really get to goal. I couldn't get past 164 with the lap band. But with the sleeve I breezed past that, then past 155 and then past my stretch goal of 145 and all the way down to 135. I didn't really believe that'd be possible. And I also didn't know that the last 10 pounds would take my boobs with them.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. I really appreciate when people think out loud on the boards but maybe it's just boring when I do it :-).

Britt

Don't ever apologize for writing really helpful in-depth posts (I know, I do it too though!). You're extremely thorough and it's invaluable for the rest of us who haven't been able to put that much time or thought into it yet. It helps me think about things from a slightly different angle and form new questions, search for new answers.

Dr Pratt is moving to portland?! Nooooooo!!!! Well I guess it'll be ok because my sister lives in Oregon, if I want anything else done by him I can always go stay with her for my recovery.

I'm curious about what he said to you in regards to losing weight before surgery. I also asked him about it. I said, I'm planning on losing another 10-15lb eventually, do you think I will need a revision if I do that? And he dismissed it, saying "I don't think it will really matter whether you lose the weight before or after surgery, the end result should be about the same." (I've been a calorie nazi regardless, and I've lost 5lb since my original consult with him. I still would like to lose another 10). Reading what he said to you, it makes me think twice. From your signature it looks like you've already surpassed your goal weight. I know that goals change over time, we get more picky, we achieve things we didn't think were possible and are continually raising our personal standards. Can I ask how tall you are? 135 just seems so danged TINY already. (I know, I hate it when other people say to me "You're so thin! You don't need to lose any more weight!" and I think, you don't live in my body, so you don't have the right to comment on it.). I'm just trying to get a sense of where you are in relation to your height, compared to where I am with mine, because you're probably already relatively smaller. So if losing that last 10lb would benefit you, why wouldn't doing the same benefit me?

Without knowing you personally (and that's a huge caveat), option #1 looks the most advantageous to me, on the surface at least. It IS the riskiest/most uncomfortable recovery, and do you really want to be having to fly on an airplane just 2 weeks after having all that done? On the other hand, I've heard that for those 14 days many surgeons set you up in a hotel or even surgical recovery resort with trained nurses and you have people to support you, so if you don't have that kind of support here, it could be a worthwhile trade-off.

You just also have to consider how wide the variation in results seems to be, or could potentially be. If you can pay half as much for arms boobs and thighs in mexico, and the quality will be on par with what you require, then babe, it sounds like kind of a no-brainer. I admit that that statement is coming from an inbuilt personal bias, because I still tend to reflexively think of docs in mexico as inferior to those in the US. Which isn't based on any actual research, it's just a bias that's been carefully perpetuated by our own doctors, and by my uninformed friends and family, who all gawk at the prospect of "being butchered in a back-alley Tijuana clinic". Absolutely nobody would support my decision to go out of the country, and that makes it a non-option for me.

You have to think about longer term aftercare too though. If you do this stuff in mexico, you'd better have a local doctor who has already agreed that they'll see you for any issues that arise, medical and potentially cosmetic. It'd be ideal to have a plastic surgeon, because they know a whole lot more about this stuff than primary care docs. But that will also cost you because nobody would do it for free.

I'd urge you to at least do the LBL here, it's such a huge surgery, the potential for complications is greatest, and being that far from home if anything did go wrong (knock on wood) would just make things that much more awful. If it's at all financially tenable, "most safe" versus "safe for most" is a good route to go.

I wish wish wish I were doing my arms along with my TT now (Dr Pratt said absolutely not). The long days of sitting at home being bored are seriously testing me. I wouldn't even care about the intial added discomfort and difficulty. I just want to get on with my life, my job, everything. Consolidate your surgeries as much as possible.

I apologize to the original thread poster, I am not meaning to hijack the topic. This is all just very thought-provoking.

Britt, this post is so helpful! Thanks so much for breaking down the different Seattle-area docs. Did you get a consulation with Dr. Agha? His before and afters are amazing, but I wonder how his prices compare to local docs, especially as I'd have to consider hotel costs as well. My problem is that, based on photo galleries for Seattle-area docs, I'm just not wild about the butt lift results. I haven't had any real consultations yet, so maybe my opinion on that will change, but for now I'm fairly certain that I'll have to travel for plastics.

Good luck with whatever you choose Britt, and keep us posted. :)

I got all excited when I saw Dr. Agha's before and afters but I decided against him for several reasons. First, I found some compaints about his work and a couple of unhappy patients. His prices were higher than the local docs. If I'm going to travel I think I'll go with Dr. Sauceda so I can get the hospital time and all the after care. And lastly, in two local consults the doctors told me why they did not agree with Dr. Agha's spiral thigh lift procedure which I found compelling.

I think I might have a consult with Dr. Peters in Seattle. I called and her prices were lower than the Bellevue guys and she has glowing reviews. I really like the natural look of her breast work too.