The last step of surgery day at Dr. Leo Lapuerta’s facility is a walk to the car. Patients leave through a private door to a waiting vehicle, with the driver who brought them, after time in recovery to make sure they are awake and ready to go home.
For a Friendswood mother researching a mommy makeover, that exit sits at the end of a long sequence, and his practice’s overview for Friendswood patients is one place to start reading about it. Traced backward from the door, the sequence shows where each decision gets made.
The recovery area and the waiting room
Patients need a driver on surgery day, and the practice says that person can relax in a private room while the operation is underway. Most mommy makeovers are same-day outpatient surgery. The practice advises patients with complex medical problems, or those having a significant amount of liposuction, to have surgery in a hospital and stay overnight for observation.
Pain control is planned before the patient leaves. Dr. Lapuerta injects a time-released local anesthetic into the abdominal surgery site, which the practice says provides numbing for three days after surgery and helps patients manage pain at home with oral medication.
The operating room
The practice performs mommy makeovers under general anesthesia in an accredited surgical facility. Dr. Lapuerta opened his, the Plastic Surgery Institute of Southeast Texas, in 2003, and he works with physician anesthesiologists rather than nurse anesthetists or anesthesia assistants. The practice notes that the facility is dedicated to plastic surgery, which it says gives patients scheduling flexibility and can lower infection risk because no other kinds of patients are treated there.
The operation itself combines procedures. Surgery time ranges between four and ten hours depending on the plan, and the practice describes a typical case as about seven hours.
On the abdomen, a tummy tuck removes excess skin and tightens the muscles of the abdominal wall, and the practice notes that its incisions sit below the bikini line. Liposuction removes fat that diet and exercise have not reached, and the practice says Dr. Lapuerta often includes the flanks to shape the waist. On the breasts, the options are a lift, an augmentation, the two combined, or a reduction.
The consultation
Each of those choices traces back to the consultation. The practice describes a relaxed office with no long lines, where patients meet with Dr. Lapuerta to talk through surgery options, incision placement and the best type of sedation or anesthesia for their case. He helps patients decide whether to combine procedures in one session and prepares them for the recovery that follows. He also explains what happens if a pregnancy follows a tummy tuck or breast augmentation.
He brings more than 30 years of experience and more than 30,000 surgical and non-surgical procedures to that conversation, along with certification from the American Board of Plastic Surgery, the American Board of Surgery and in Surgery of the Hand. His recognitions include Living Magazine Best Plastic Surgeon and Best Place for Botox, awarded in multiple years in the Houston and Pearland/Friendswood editions. Patients can review more than 3,000 before-and-after images.
Before the first appointment
The earliest decisions happen at home. The practice recommends the surgery for women who have completed their families, since a later pregnancy would likely undo much of what the surgery accomplished. After a birth, it asks patients to wait at least six months after delivery, or six months after they finish breastfeeding.
Candidates should be in good health at a stable weight, and smokers need to quit at least six weeks before surgery. The practice also looks for realistic expectations about the final results, a support system at home and the ability to take at least two to three weeks off work. Most women return to work in that window, depending on the job, and full recovery takes about six weeks in a typical case, with final results showing within eight to 12 weeks.
Results vary, and all surgery carries some risk. The practice lists four offices, in Houston, Katy, Pearland and Piney Point, and a Friendswood patient can book her consultation at whichever one suits her schedule.
This article is for general information only and is not medical advice. Results vary from patient to patient. Consult a board-certified plastic surgeon or your physician about your own situation. Written in partnership with Joseph Lambert, a publicist working with Leo Lapuerta, MD Plastic Surgery.
