It hurts! But not where you'd think.

As you may recollect, the lower body lift is a removal of a "belt" of skin that encircles the waist. My belt ended up weighting 10lbs with the removal of another 2lbs by liposuction. (Brenda's husband, Eric, called it a body circumcision LOL). Not a small amount of tissue loss by any stretch of the imagination.

I really thought that the incision that encircled my body would be the thing that hurt the most, but I am here to swear to you that I don't even notice it. What is killing me is a combination of couching stitching and a deep cough that I have developed. Let me back track.

When they remove the belt of skin they liposuction away the extra fat that is between the skin and the muscle on the upper abdominal wall so that the new “tummy” lays flat. However, in order to make sure that the tummy stays flat (and to reduce the area in which fluids can build up between the muscle and the fat), the surgeon places hundreds of stitches holding the two layers together (kind of like when you see a pillow with a button holding both sides together). Now that alone doesn't really hurt either, and let's just say, I freely use my pain medication. The problem is that I have a dog allergy and the recovery centre has three dogs. I did not not know about the dogs until I got here (and really, it has been years since this particular allergy has caused me a problem). Anyway, my allergies kicked in; the itchy eyes, itchy throat, itchy ear canals, a runny nose and a deep, deep phlegmy cough. This cough is the killer because I am using the low abdominal muscles jut above the pubis that is all stitched to the underside of my skin! Let's see, on a scale of 1 – 10, when I cough I hit a nine.

I have started taking allergy pills and codeine (which is a natural cough suppressant) in efforts to control the coughing. I must say that this has been working. However, the other concern to me is not just the coughing. Because I am so sedentary and I have all this fluid in my lungs, I run the risk of phenomena, So I am trying to make sure that I cough, but in a more controlled way that doesn't cause so much pain. I will be seeing the doctor on Friday to confirm that all is going well.

In all honesty, I can say, to date, that this has been the most uncomfortable thing I have had to deal with. Count you blessings when the come, I say. It could have been a lost worst.

Alive

We are alive, and speaking in coherent sentences. However, we are also falling asleep about every 30 minutes or so. The care here has been great and we both don't how we would have done this at home even with the help of loving families and friends.

Keep us in your thoughts and I will update you as soon as I can stay zzzzzzzz.

Second Thoughts and Thirds and Fourths and so on

Nothing like a panic attack on Friday night to sharpen ones focus! Honestly, once the thought that I was spending way to much money on something so frivolous entered my head, I started to reel. If I could have found a way to cancel my flight and surgery, I would have bailed out sooooo fast!

It's not that I don't want to have the surgery done. Rather, it is the idea of spending so much money on it. In the grand scheme of things, $15,000.00 is not a lot of money. But damn, it is a lot of money! I just have to keep in mind that I have to amortize the total cost over the next 40 years of my life.

Right! Now where the hell did I put that paper bag.

San Jose, Costa Rica?

So I am just going to lay it out for you because there is no good way to introduce this subject without people saying "Are you ******* nuts! You're going where?"

I am going to have my Lower Body Lift surgery done in Costa Rica. There I said it. So now let me explain how this is going to work.

It all started with the quote of $17,000.00 for the Lower Body Lift in Ontario. I knew that prices were high, but I did not expect it to be so high. With the inclusion of the excess skin removal of the upper arms and the inner thighs, the total became a whopping $ 31,000.00. Needless to say, I was acutely upset about the entire situation.

When I happened to mention this to my family doctor, she informed me of the Rosenstock - Lieberman Centre in San Jose, Costa Rica and the success of her procedures. Since Dr. Andrew has been my family Doctor for 17 years (and a good one, I might add) I decided to follow up on her suggestion and looked into the centre. I started with the web site Health Escapes. I filled in the questionnaire and was sent a quote from Nora Allen who is the Patient Coordinator at the Rosenstock - Lieberman Centre. For the Lower Body Lift and all it entailed the cost would be $10,000 (US) with a $500 (US) discount if I paid in cash.

Upon further research I found out that the flight would be $889.00 (CAN) and the recover accommodations at Casa De La Mariposa would cost a total of $975.00 (US). At the time the Canadian dollar was a lot higher and the exchange rate was a lot better, so I really believed that I was greeting a fantastic deal. Today, the Canadian dollar is not as good, but still. So in total I would be spending 13,600.00 (CAN).

I did all the research that I could on Dr. Rashi Rosenstock and Dr. Joseph Cohen and even joined a Yahoo Group that discusses solely the goings on at the Rosenstock - Lieberman Clinic. I still think that I am making a good decision.

The next entry will discuss the finer points of this adventure.