“My figure is better now than before I had kids!” says 36-year-old Holly, a mother of three who recently had a Mommy Makeover. “Before my surgery, my size 12s were tight,” she recalls. “Now I'm wearing an 8! I don't ever remember feeling so confident about my body, even as a teenager.”
Results like these would be great for any woman—but for Holly, who has had Type 1 diabetes since age five—they're remarkable.
What is a Mommy Makeover?
A Mommy Makeover is a combination of plastic surgery procedures to restore your figure to your pre-pregnancy shape. In Holly's case, it included:
- A breast lift to rejuvenate sagging breasts, combined with breast implants to replace lost volume.
- A tummy tuck to remove loose, excess skin from the lower abdomen and tighten overstretched abdominal muscles, along with liposuction on the upper abs and flanks.
Should diabetics have plastic surgery?
“About one out of every 10 patients who come to see me is diabetic,” says Dr. Parungao. “Diabetics face additional risks after surgery, such as poor wound healing and an increased risk of infection.
“Many people have heard that diabetics shouldn't have plastic surgery,” he adds. “But the biggest factor that determines whether a diabetic patient is a good surgical candidate is how well she keeps up with her blood sugar and diabetes medical management.
“If you have diabetes and come in for a consultation, I'll need to hear from your endocrinologist or primary care physician as to whether you've been doing a good job of keeping up with your diabetes,” Dr. P explains.
‘I didn't feel comfortable until I met Dr. P’
Especially if you have diabetes, you need to be as careful in choosing a plastic surgeon as the surgeon needs to be in evaluating you. “I had consultations with several plastic surgeons,” Holly recalls. “One surgeon told me flat out that plastic surgery wasn't possible for me.
“Another plastic surgeon told me, in effect, ‘We'll just get you in and out of here.’ He didn't mention contacting my primary care physician. He didn't ask about my insulin regimen. I didn't like that.
“I didn't feel comfortable until I met Dr. P,” says Holly. “He told me it was possible for me to have surgery, but that we'd need to do certain blood work and I would have to be very careful after surgery to prevent infection. He said I would need to be monitored closely.”
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