Recap
Ever since having Gavin and Mackenzi all I have ever said was I want a flatter stomach. Now if you remember I have diastasis recti AKA torn abdominal muscles. Also I have skin that just hangs there from being pregnant and HUGE. So when you look at me I look 10 times bigger then what I really would be without it.
Gavin Mackenzi
Cyber World
Well one day on Facebook (because what else do we do with our time now a days) I came across a post about a doctor snap chatting his surgery on one of the teen moms from MTV. She was having a mommy makeover. So me being me I found him and added him. This is where my obsession for watching plastic surgery came into play.
Viewing his snaps you get a look into what it is like to have surgery with him. Also how he is as a doctor and his personal life. (hilarious) Steps from the consultation, to pre op, to him making his marks on you, to anesthesia to the actual surgery. He explains everything that he is doing and explains the surgical tools he uses. It is actually very informative. I have definitely learned a lot about the body. And the before and afters are amazing!
Kyle asked me how can I watch that knowing that its going to be me one day.. Well me being me I NEED to know that is going to happen to me before I go though with something. I do so much research on things I swear I could do it myself HA!
Back to said snap chat. He has a whole team of doctors all over the US that he has introduced to the snapping world. Each doctor has their own ways about doing each surgery and explains things differently, Which is awesome to see. So this is when I really started to look more into getting it done.
Rewind
This all came about I want to say about a little over a year ago. One random day Kyle and I were taking a shower.. I know I know (TMI) but lets keep it real. I was joking with him and said “babe you should let me take taxes this year and get a tummy tuck.” And to my surprise his response was “go for it!”…EXCUSE ME? one moment while I clean my ears out some more. What did he just say?!?!?! He told me to go for it. I would get taxes this year and him the next. At this point I could not tell if he was serious or not but he kept saying go for it. Do some research and start setting some consultations.
Research
Where do you even start when it comes to something so big? Good ole internet! So first thing first look up some doctors. I must have researched about 30 different doctors from Spring Hill to Miami. I even reached out to DR. Miamis office. He has nothing but great reviews, is board certified, and well I have seen plenty of his surgeries and already felt like I knew him. Only downfall? *****We are scheduling surgery for August 2018, but it is possible to get an earlier date if patients cancel their surgery.
This meant that I would have to wait OVER a year at that time to have surgery. Yes there COULD have been a chance to have surgery earlier, but that type of spur of the moment thing would not work for us with Kyle working and Gavins school schedule. And to be completely honest I dont want to travel very far for such a big procedure. So back to researching I went.
I reached out to a few other doctors Mr. Miami referred. One of them being Dr. Oppenheimer.
He even has an on site recovery center that all of his patients stay at for one night. ($600.00) His quote for me was a little over $18000.00
I continued to look at so many before and after pictures, looked all these doctors up on realself.com emailed each office a million times. But no one seemed right. I had a million questions that I wanted answered before taking the time to go to consultations. Even tho majority of them are free, its still gas and time away from work. I wanted to be comfortable with who was about to see my lovely naked body, and to be honest I just did not get that feeling from those I spoke to.
What am I looking for
I want a surgeon who is 150% open in every way. One who does not hide anything. If I have a question I expect an answer. No matter what type of question it would be. I had questions about where the procedure would take place, who their anesthesiologist is, what all is included in the final price, what type of payment plans they accept and many more questions.
Lets be real, one of the REAL questions is how much money is this going to cost and how will I pay for the whole thing?!?! Here came DR. Eberbach! I found him on Realself. I read amazing reviews on him and his team, the amount of education this man has is amazing, and the things he does for the community is outstanding. He is one of the few doctors that offers IN HOUSE FINANCING.
****For your convenience, we are pleased to offer in house financing. With our in house financing option, the patient must put 60% of the total procedure cost down and finance the balance for 12 months. There is also the option of 70% down and financing the balance for 18 months.
- NO credit check
- 0% interest
- one time set up fee of 15.99% of the amount borrowed
- proof of income for patient and co-signer
- co-signer required (must live in Florida and be available to sign required documents)
- paperwork must be signed by patient and co-signer the day of pre-op
- patient and co-signer must each have a credit or debit card on file
Dr. Eberbach
When I went to his site the first thing I noticed was he had two numbers, one you can call and one you can TEXT! This is awesome for those who work a lot or dont care to talk on the phone. So I sent them a request and the next thing I know I received a text message from Leah their Marketing Coordinator & Patient Coordinator. We went back and forth, she asked me a bunch of typical questions. Height, weight, what procedures I am interested in, if I smoke.. so forth and so on.
With out even asking she told me the price of a STANDARD tummy tuck. $7770.00 and the price of a tummy tuck and breast lift would be $12000.00. She asked for several pictures of myself to show the doctor to see what he would recommend without even going in for a consultation. This was the type of service I was looking for! So I did just that I sent in a hand full of pictures all different angles… now the waiting game..
About an hour or two went by and I received a text message from Leah with Dr. E’s recommendation. He said that I would be a great patient for a mommy makeover. He also mentioned to her that I would be a great patient for bariatric surgery. For those who dont know what this is.
***Bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery) includes a variety of procedures performed on people who have obesity. Weight loss is achieved by reducing the size of the stomachwith a gastric band or through removal of a portion of the stomach (sleeve gastrectomy or biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch) or by resecting and re-routing the small intestine to a small stomach pouch (gastric bypass surgery). 
Like any procedure, this procedure could come with a lot of complications. And is normally put in place for those who want to lose a large amount of weight. That is not the case in my situation. So I told them that I would pass on that and continue on with having what I want done. In order for me to have the surgery I would have to lose about 25lbs. I would need to have a BMI of 34 or lower. The lower it is the better surgery and recover will go.
So as my date for my consultation with Dr. Eberbach is approaching I am working out almost every day and eating portioned meals. I am extremely excited to see what he has to say and get a final quote, and hopefully schedule a date for surgery!
My next post with have a little deeper look into how Eberbach works and what questions I have already asked. along with a second opinion from a well named surgeon and what he has to say. So stay tuned!
Mommy makeover journey 