The Perfect Wedding Dress—after Liposuction
Lisa had finally found the perfect dress for wedding day. Unfortunately it just didn’t fit correctly. With just a few months before the wedding, Lisa found it hard to lose the necessary weight for a better fit and bought a “back-up” dress.
“I wanted to get back into the gym and eat right,” she explains, “but it’s hard to get rid of old habits.” Lisa had started eating out more as she was dating her fiancé. An elementary school teacher, Lisa had also just switched to a new district and felt she needed to give “above and beyond” to make a good impression. There was hardly time for the gym between long hours at her new job and picking up her 9-year-old from school (it would be her second marriage).
Her solution for smoother thighs, stomach, and hips? A visit to Dr. Davila at Esana Plastic Surgery
Center and Medspa. “Initially I came in for CoolSculpting ® ,” says Lisa. This increasingly popular non-surgical contouring treatment freezes stubborn fat, which then is naturally shed from your body.
Unfortunately, the process can take up to 6 months to complete—and her Esana appointment was in May, two months from her wedding day. Dr. Davila suggested liposuction instead.
Both Lisa’s husband and her daughter worried about Lisa having surgery. Lisa has irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which was a further concern. She went to her primary doctor to get a thorough check-up and blood work. He found her healthy and a low risk for surgery. Lisa was comforted that her primary considered the level of liposuction she wanted to be “minor surgery”—less invasive than a tummy tuck. It also helped that during a follow-up appointment, Dr. Davila pulled in her fiancé and answered all of his questions as well. “Dr. Davila is so personable and lively—not cold at all,” says Lisa. “We found him really, really nice.”
Lisa was also concerned about the downtime. “Dr. Davila knew exactly how much down time I needed,” she says. “Since it was my first year in the new district, I couldn’t spend weeks and weeks out.” Lisa’s surgery was on the first of June at a surgical center since she required anesthesia for the 3½–hour procedure. After a few hours in the recovery room, Lisa was ready to go home later that afternoon.
During the night she experienced some bleeding at the entry points at the back of the thighs, but found she was not experiencing anything unusual when she called Dr. Davila. “He did a great job,” says Lisa. “I was only out from Thursday to Tuesday.” She had to move around a bit more slowly for a few weeks and used special padding to sit down, but by her wedding day, on July 15th , she felt “perfectly fine.”
Both the dream dress and the back-up dress had to be taken in significantly around the waist since Lisa had gone from a size 18 to 14. Both dresses now fit perfectly. She wore the special dress for the
reception, and the fall-back dress for the ceremony. “I got a lot of compliments,” says Lisa, who explains relatives from all over the US attended the wedding. “I just didn’t want my relatives to see me as I was before—it was definitely worth it for me.”
Along with her changed appearance, Lisa has also made a change in her lifestyle. “We don’t go out to restaurants so much, and I make my own breakfast,” says Lisa. With her life more settled, Lisa also has more time for exercise and healthy eating. And it all began with her hope of fitting into the perfect wedding dress.
