Surgery // My Second Consultation with The Hospital Group
2/20/2014
So, I went for my third and final consultation for Skin Removal surgery with The Hospital Group.
If you haven't checked out my how my other consultations went, you can click the Plastic Surgery tab at the top of the page!
I emailed the Sally, my surgery coordinator that saw me the last time that I came in for a consultation. She notified me that surgery dates for booking are only available two months prior to when you are considering having surgery. I was pretty set on April, so I emailed her at and asked if I could have an appointment to see her to have a look at surgery dates and ask her some questions I had.
She mentioned that there was another surgeon in on the 7th February if I wanted to see a second surgeon. Originally, I was just going to go along with the first surgeon and book with him, but I saw no harm in having another consultation so I agreed.
The surgeon I was going to see was Mr Mario Russo (he is going to be my surgeon in April). I did some research on him to find out a little more about him. He's a celebrity surgeon, has been on TV for surgery like Embarrassing Bodies (show in the UK) and is famous with TOWIE stars.
I found out his nickname is 'Dr Boob' which seems quite appropriate as that's an area I was looking at having and I've heard a lot of good things about his work.
So, I went to see him on the 7th of February. Much like last time, I had to fill in my medical history and the clinic was running late again, meaning I had to wait 45 minutes past my appointment (this is the only thing bugging me currently, I HATE waiting around when my appointment is for a certain time).
The fundamentals of the actual consultation went pretty similar to the last one. Mr Russo went through my medical history, asked me why I was there and then examined me, same as last time.
However, I didn't get the same outcome that I expected based on the other consultation. He gave me his recommendation of a Breast Uplift with Implants and a Tummy Tuck.
Straight away, I asked why he didn't recommend a Fleur De Lis like the other surgeon. To which he explained that its a procedure that he would ONLY perform on patients that had really dramatic loose skin following weight loss and that I would achieve the same (flat stomach) results having a tummy tuck as I would from a Fleur de lis (but minus the scar, which is a HUGE bonus!).
He showed me the results that I would have afterwards by pulling and stretching the loose skin from my stomach downwards and explaining what he would remove and what I would be left with.
I expressed my concerns raised during my previous consultation, where the other surgeon mentioned that if I had a tummy tuck alone, when I bent over, the pouch of skin would still hang around my mid section.
Mr Russo is confident that this is not going to be an issue if I have a tummy tuck and I suppose if the results don't turn out as I expect, then I will have the opportunity to express this afterwards, but I'm pretty happy that Mr Russo feels confident enough to say that I won't have a problem.
He explained the scarring and any possible risks from surgery, something they have to tell us about. This included, obviously, the effects of having a child and that some of the results COULD be reversed. He also mentioned implant rejections, where your body can reject a foreign object such as the implant. A low possibility, but a risk that still needs to be mentioned.
He said that both the surgeries could be done in one, rather than the recommended two from the other surgeon (I asked Sally about this, it is based on how fast the surgeon is able to do the procedures).
I then met up with Sally, I explained that I wanted to see both of the surgeons work to see a comparison. Both of them were quite good. Mr Russo is very neat with his lines and is a perfectionist in the breast area, all of his work looked amazing!
I decided there and then to book the surgery with Mr Russo for the 10th April.
Generally, overall I felt happy with Mr Russo, he made me feel comfortable, I was able to have a normal conversation with him, he didn't make me feel nervous or embarrassed and seem to be very confident that I would achieve 'perfect (in his words) results'.
It's been quite a good outcome. I don't have to have two sets of surgery, which I was worried about for work. I would have had to have 2 lots of 2-3 weeks off work, which isn't very good for me when I'm in training at the moment.
It would also mean I'd be out of exercise for a very long time and I wasn't too happy about that. The thirdly, I wont need to have the big vertical scar going up the middle of my body - which for sure would get questions all the time and was one thing that almost put me off.
I know that a lot of people can see loads of surgeons before ultimately making the big decision but I'm happy with my decision to have Mr Russo as my surgeon.
I'm looking forward to it. I'm trying not to really look at any photos or read up much about the surgery because it makes me really nervous. I don't deal with pain well or anything gruesome looking, so I'm pretty sure looking at the scars after surgery is going to be quite an ordeal in itself.
but bring on 7 weeks! It's going to fly by!
If you haven't checked out my how my other consultations went, you can click the Plastic Surgery tab at the top of the page!
I emailed the Sally, my surgery coordinator that saw me the last time that I came in for a consultation. She notified me that surgery dates for booking are only available two months prior to when you are considering having surgery. I was pretty set on April, so I emailed her at and asked if I could have an appointment to see her to have a look at surgery dates and ask her some questions I had.
She mentioned that there was another surgeon in on the 7th February if I wanted to see a second surgeon. Originally, I was just going to go along with the first surgeon and book with him, but I saw no harm in having another consultation so I agreed.
The surgeon I was going to see was Mr Mario Russo (he is going to be my surgeon in April). I did some research on him to find out a little more about him. He's a celebrity surgeon, has been on TV for surgery like Embarrassing Bodies (show in the UK) and is famous with TOWIE stars.
I found out his nickname is 'Dr Boob' which seems quite appropriate as that's an area I was looking at having and I've heard a lot of good things about his work.
So, I went to see him on the 7th of February. Much like last time, I had to fill in my medical history and the clinic was running late again, meaning I had to wait 45 minutes past my appointment (this is the only thing bugging me currently, I HATE waiting around when my appointment is for a certain time).
The fundamentals of the actual consultation went pretty similar to the last one. Mr Russo went through my medical history, asked me why I was there and then examined me, same as last time.
However, I didn't get the same outcome that I expected based on the other consultation. He gave me his recommendation of a Breast Uplift with Implants and a Tummy Tuck.
 |
| Image Sourced from Real Self and ammended for Tummy Tuck Illustration |
He showed me the results that I would have afterwards by pulling and stretching the loose skin from my stomach downwards and explaining what he would remove and what I would be left with.
I expressed my concerns raised during my previous consultation, where the other surgeon mentioned that if I had a tummy tuck alone, when I bent over, the pouch of skin would still hang around my mid section.
Mr Russo is confident that this is not going to be an issue if I have a tummy tuck and I suppose if the results don't turn out as I expect, then I will have the opportunity to express this afterwards, but I'm pretty happy that Mr Russo feels confident enough to say that I won't have a problem.
He explained the scarring and any possible risks from surgery, something they have to tell us about. This included, obviously, the effects of having a child and that some of the results COULD be reversed. He also mentioned implant rejections, where your body can reject a foreign object such as the implant. A low possibility, but a risk that still needs to be mentioned.
He said that both the surgeries could be done in one, rather than the recommended two from the other surgeon (I asked Sally about this, it is based on how fast the surgeon is able to do the procedures).
I then met up with Sally, I explained that I wanted to see both of the surgeons work to see a comparison. Both of them were quite good. Mr Russo is very neat with his lines and is a perfectionist in the breast area, all of his work looked amazing!
I decided there and then to book the surgery with Mr Russo for the 10th April.
Generally, overall I felt happy with Mr Russo, he made me feel comfortable, I was able to have a normal conversation with him, he didn't make me feel nervous or embarrassed and seem to be very confident that I would achieve 'perfect (in his words) results'.
It's been quite a good outcome. I don't have to have two sets of surgery, which I was worried about for work. I would have had to have 2 lots of 2-3 weeks off work, which isn't very good for me when I'm in training at the moment.
It would also mean I'd be out of exercise for a very long time and I wasn't too happy about that. The thirdly, I wont need to have the big vertical scar going up the middle of my body - which for sure would get questions all the time and was one thing that almost put me off.
I know that a lot of people can see loads of surgeons before ultimately making the big decision but I'm happy with my decision to have Mr Russo as my surgeon.
I'm looking forward to it. I'm trying not to really look at any photos or read up much about the surgery because it makes me really nervous. I don't deal with pain well or anything gruesome looking, so I'm pretty sure looking at the scars after surgery is going to be quite an ordeal in itself.
but bring on 7 weeks! It's going to fly by!
Question: Do you get the heebie-jeebies when you look at something gruesome?
Do you think you have a low or high pain threshold?
Do you think you have a low or high pain threshold?
Like this post?
Other places to find me:
2 comments
I know you are so happy to be moving forward with your surgery. I'm glad you found someone how puts your concerns first, that is important.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind looking at gruesome stuff. I wanted to be a medical examiner at one point in my life. My career is in healthcare and I have seen some things most people would turn their heads from. My pain tolerance is pretty high. Not sure why, or where I get that from,
Yeah, I'm totally the opposite. I got completely grossed out and felt SO weird looking at pictures of tummy tuck scars.. so I'm not sure how I will react to mine, we shall see.
DeleteNot looking forward to the pain though, I've heard its managable.. but I'm pretty sure my pain threshold is preeetty low.. even when I get a cut its horrid. ;)