Pre-Op office appointment

Ok, well I had my pre-op appointment and I'm feeling much better about things now. Almost excited! So here's a rundown of what all happened.

1. I arrived at Dr. Telepun's office, checked in and waited for just a moment until his nurse, who is so nice, called me back to the examining room. She gave me a quick run-down of what would be happening in the visit and left.

2. Dr. Telepun came in and went through the consent forms. He was very thorough and went through line by line so I wouldn't have any questions.

- He explained that he couldn't 100% promise that things would be perfectly symmetrical , and that with any surgery there comes risk of infection, etc.

- He talked briefly about the jp drains that would be put in. Since I'm having two surgeries, an abdomnioplasty (tummy tuck) and a Wise Mastopexy (breast lift) at the same time I will have three JP drains in the tummy and one drain in each breast. He then briefly discussed that the breast drains will come out after 48 hours and the ones in the tummy come out when certain measurements of output are recorded.

- Then I signed my consent forms for both procedures.

3. After that it was time to be re-examined. So Dr. Telepun left and the nurse got out one of those oh so lovely paper vests and told me I could keep my pants and underwear on and that they would just be slightly lowered when the time came. I'm not really shy about this so it didn't bother me much.

- When he returned he checked the breasts first. He seemed to think it will be a "perfect procedure". One of my breasts is larger than the other, so one will require tissue removal while the other will not. This causes a bit of trouble since you're having to get them to the same size. But for me I know that normal breasts are not perfectly the same either, so I don't care as long as its not insane. He said he thought I'd be really happy with the results.

- Then he checked my tummy. He explained that the lower pooch, which is all the hang-over below the bellybutton, will be removed in the procedure. "So you will be really flat there", he said. Since my muscles are being significantly tightened he seemed to have hope that the top part will not be as pooched out either. It does have a layer of fat, but he said with proper diet and exercise and losing maybe 10-15lbs that are could get flat as well. He explained that when those muscles loosen to the degree mine have they actually account for a good deal of the "top pooch" and also told me when the skin is pulled down and sewn back into place some of that will "roll out". This was great news for me, since I know that he doesn't like to do liposuction while doing two big procedures like I'm having because of blood and body stability.

4. Next it was time to get the dreaded before pictures. We stepped into a room next door to the examination room where he has set up lights and a backdrop. Your head is NOT a part of the shot, so nobody will know it is you except for him. I was only asked to pull down my pants to the pubic line so that I was still covered but you could see the overlay. He then takes your picture from the front. You then turn and get photographs at 45-degrees to the right, 90-degrees to the right, 45-degrees to the left, and 90-degrees to the left. I really let it all hang out in those pictures. My feeling is that the worse the before shot the better the after looks. Besides, it will all be different in 5 days anyway.

5. I was then taken back into the examination room and told I could get dressed and meet the office personnel at the front.

6. After I was dressed I went to the front office window and the lady at the desk took my Care Credit account number. We are using the 6-months no interest option with Care Credit. Dr. Telepun's office doesn't allow you to take the 12-months or the 18-months option of no interest because the fee to the office is so high. Understandable. I already have the money set aside, so I could have paid up front, but its all the same to me to let it sit in the bank and draw interest till its time to be paid.

7. She then gave me a check to take with me over to the hospital as well as my forms. So off to the hospital, which is just next door, I went. You can read about the next part of my pre-op by clicking HERE.

This entire procedure took less than 30 minutes. Now granted, I was the first appointment after lunch (at 1pm) so there was no waiting, but it was all done very quickly. I would NOT suggest bringing a child along with you to this. You'll be distracted and you need to be able to pay attention to what your doctor is saying.