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Big Butts No Lies Plastic Surgery Podcast
Big Butts No Lies is a plastic surgery podcast created to help women feel informed, confident, and prepared when navigating the world of cosmetic surgery.
Hosted by plastic surgery consultant and former patient coordinator Mavi Rodriguez, the show offers a rare behind-the-scenes perspective into how the plastic surgery industry really works. With more than 18 years of experience working inside top plastic surgery practices, Mavi understands how surgeons evaluate patients, how procedures are planned, and what recovery truly looks like after surgery.
Each episode features conversations with board certified plastic surgeons, recovery specialists and industry professionals who share their experiences with procedures such as breast augmentation, liposuction, BBL, tummy tuck and other aesthetic treatments.
Whether you are researching plastic surgery, preparing for a procedure, or want to understand the process better, Big Butts No Lies offers honest conversations, recovery guidance, and expert insight to help women make smarter and safer decisions.
Big Butts No Lies Plastic Surgery Podcast
What Is An Inner Thigh Lift ft. Dr. Pamela Brownlee
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In this episode, our host & plastic surgery consultant Mavi Rodriguez is joined by Dr. Pamela Brownlee, also known as Doctor Bombshell from Bombshell Aesthetics in Dallas, Texas. Together they dive into the topic of inner thigh laxity and the various procedures available to address it. Dr. Brownlee shares her expertise and advice on surgical and nonsurgical options while emphasizing the importance of post-operative care and scarring management.
Questions covered in this episode:
1. What are the most effective procedures for addressing inner thigh laxity due to weight loss or bariatric surgery?
2. What are differences between crescent thigh lifts and vertical thigh lifts? What types of thigh lifts are there?
3. What does the recovery process look like for patients undergoing thigh lift surgery?
4. How to take care of your scar after plastic surgery? How do you minimize scarring?
5. How to reduce saddlebags?
Tune in to gain a wealth of knowledge and practical advice on achieving your desired aesthetic results while ensuring a smooth and successful recovery process.
Connect with Dr. Bombshell: Pamela Brownlee, DO (@dr.bombshell) • Instagram-Fotos und -Videos
📞 Want help planning your surgery?
Book a discovery call with Mavi Rodriguez.
🌐 Visit our website: www.bigbuttsnolies.com
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @bigbuttsnoliespodcast
📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube
Hey, guys. Do I have the show for you today? I am very excited to have a very special guest, doctor Pamela Brownlee, but you might know her as doctor Bombshell from Bombshell Aesthetics in Dallas, Texas. Hi, doctor Bombshell.
Hello. I am so happy to be here. I'm a huge fan of yours, and I just love how you promote open questions, open conversation, and really get the information out there.
Oh, thank you so much. I love to hear your feedback. That just gave me goosebumps and a little more fuel under my butt to keep going. So the, topic for today, you guys, is something we've never talked about before. And I it's something that a lot of women are really considering or thinking about or don't even know that there's things that they can do for this procedure, for this part of their body that maybe they don't like. And that body part is inner thighs, inner thigh laxity. So doctor Bombshell, I want you to tell us everything we need to know about considering an inner thigh procedure, whether that be surgical, nonsurgical with the scar, whatever you're seeing in your practice that can help my girls who are maybe considering an inner thigh lift in their journey.
Absolutely. So I see so many people for this now, especially with all the amazing weight loss, with diet exercise, with bariatric surgery, with Ozempic, whatever the case may be, our thigh skin is just so thin. It doesn't retract like other skin. So you might lose the weight, and then you're left with this crinkly looking wrinkled skin that you feel is just visible in your shorts, in your skirts, in your bathing suit and so many people nowadays are asking what can be done about this. So let's talk about all our options like you said. We're gonna start with the least invasive. So let's talk liposuction and skin tightening. So if you have some fullness in your thighs, let's say when you walk, you feel your thighs brushing together, but you don't have a lot of skin looseness or wrinkly skin, then I love to recommend liposuction for my patients here.
This is a great way to really slim down the legs, tone the legs. You might be working out nonstop and you just cannot get that area to thin down no matter what you do. So it's a great way to thin out that area. Now like I said before, that skin is very, very thin and it does not retract like our other skin, like our tummy tuck skin or our back skin with lipo. And so for that reason, anytime I do liposuction of the inner thighs, I also have my patients do skin tightening. So there are bunch of skin tightening devices out there. Probably the 2 most popular are j plasma or Renuvion or Body Tight. I've used both.
I like both. Right now I have Body Tight. I really like it. And so anytime I liposuction that area, I tell people we need to preemptively get more collagen into that skin so that it is more elastic and it retracts. I don't give people an option because I've seen too many horror stories of people being like, oh, I did the liposuction in a thinner but I absolutely can't wear shorts. I can't wear a skirt now cause it just looks terrible. So we preemptively tell people we're gonna do skin tightening. So tiny little incisions about 4 millimeters for our cannulus to go in.
That's what we use to take away the fat. We lipo that area so that it's even on both sides and then do the same tiny incisions. We do the skin tightening. And, again, that is great option for people who have plumpness fibula eggs but still have good skin tone. Now let's talk about once you start getting to that point where you have that wrinkly loose skin on your inner thighs and you're like, I don't know what to do. Some people have wrinkly loose skin just in their upper inner thighs. So think about pretty much where your shorts hit. So you're not really concerned about the area from where your shorts sit down to your knees.
You've got good skin tone down there. But really up high, you have that loose wrinkly skin. So if you have short shorts or in a bathing suit, it's really noticeable. It really drives you crazy. For these people, I recommend what we call a crescent thigh left and what that means is that incision is all hidden in your bikini line. So think about where your bikini kinda hits right on the sides of your vagina going up. That area is where the incision is. So it's all hidden.
There is no scar on your actual thigh or on your leg that would be visible in clothing. A lot of times these are completely hidden. When you have your bikini on, when you have your underwear on, no one can see these scars. And this is great for that upper skin of the thigh. It is not going to help if you've got loose skin that goes all the way down your thigh to your knees. Again, I wanna differentiate that. This is some people are a great candidate for this. Some people need a different procedure.
But this really allows us to thin out that area, remove extra fat, and then take away that upper inner thigh skin that's loose, wrinkly, creaky looking that is visible in your swimsuit. Now the other option is some people especially our amazing weight loss patients who have lost so much weight. They've put in the time. They've put in the work, and now they just have all of this loose skin. And they're like, nobody told me about this part. I thought it was gonna finally have the body I want, and I still can't wear shorts. I still can't wear smaller size jeans because I have all this loose skin. So if you've got skin that goes from your bikini line down to your knee that's just loose kind of, pouches over your knee hangs down then the best Thyla for you is an incision that goes from your bikini line all the way down towards your knee on the inside part of your thigh.
So this can really and this is the most significant way to remove skin. So again, if you've got all this loose skin, it is a great way to tighten up your whole leg, make your whole leg smaller, get rid of that loose, crayby skin. The downside is that this does leave a scar. And so even though scars fade, we do all of the things for scars, all the scar care, all the scar regimens, all the lasers. You know, we hit them hard. Even with that, this is a scar that is still visible if you have on skirts, bathing suits, shorts. So it's just something that you should talk to your surgeon about. Figure out which one is best for you.
I can't hear you.
I love how detailed that was. I'm so thankful that you went into the different options, and I'm so glad you went into the nonsurgical or I don't wanna say minimally invasive because of liposuction. But the no scar solution, which is liposuction with skin tightening. I would love to for you to go into the details of how what does a recovery for a thigh lift look like?
So thigh lifts are just notoriously a tough recovery. No matter how diligent you are, you follow every instruction. It's just a tough recovery because those incisions are in a place that is warm, moist all the time, that you're constantly sitting, standing, moving, walking, moving your legs. So it's it's just an area that has a lot of swelling and is not uncommon for you to have a little bit of wound breakdown. So this is how I tell everybody. When I say, listen. We are probably gonna have some because this is just a hard area to take care of. And I get them in that mindset going in.
And now if we don't have any, they're so thrilled, but at least they're not scared. And it is not something you should be scared of if it happens. We're totally prepared for this. But because of this, we watch you so closely during your recovery with a Thylift. So after Thylift, for me, these are my instructions garment. Right? Because you're up, you're walking, you're moving, you're standing, and that fluid is just kind of building up in your legs if you're not doing something to prevent it. So you will have a compression garment usually kinda if you just had the crescent or the bikini thigh lift, then it looks more like shorts. If you had the one that goes all the way down to your knee or the vertical thigh lift, then it usually is a little bit more like capre pants, compression style pants.
And that is gonna help keep the swelling off of the area so that your incisions can heal more efficiently. You're gonna wear that compression all the time for 6 weeks for me. Now it's really important that starting day 1, you are up and you're moving and you're walking. Because, again, you've got swelling in the area, and the last thing we want is your blood flow in your legs to start moving slower and for you to risk, god forbid I even say it, a blood clot. So you are up and walking that day moving around. You'll have compression socks on too, again, keeping the circulation in your legs good, but up moving really probably by the end of the week, it's not a super painful thing but you're starting to resume some normal activity. So you might by the end of the week or beginning of the first post op week go to the store and walk around with someone with you, things like that. So you're getting back to life.
Again, still wearing your compression. For me, all my incisions have surgical glue on them, so there's not a lot of dressing changes. I know other doctors have other opinions and preferences for what they do. So this is for me, but not a lot of dressing changes, not a lot of weeping of the wounds. You're really just kind of focusing on moving your legs, keeping them elevated when you are resting and getting rid of swelling. Starting at 3 weeks, that's when I let you start doing light activity again. Okay? So you can do things like maybe jogging or fast paced walk. You can get your heart rate up, your blood pressure up, but no crazy leg activities, no squats, no bicycling, nothing that's gonna put pressure on those incisions because, again, they're still very delicate at this point.
At 3 weeks is also when we start your extensive scar care regimen. So we give you a scar gel that you're going to use a day 1 and a night 1. We give you sunscreen because that's just as important to make sure these scars completely fade and are not visible in a year from now. Show you how to do scar massage, and you start watching them looking for any areas that we need to hit with either steroid injection or with a laser in the future. So we watch it carefully. By 6 weeks, you can stop burning your compression. This is usually usually when people start to like me again because I'm not making them more compression in the heat. And that's when I let you resume vocal activity.
So, you know, again, squats, things that spread that part of your leg or put pressure on that part of your leg, you're allowed to do that again at 6 weeks. Biggest thing then is just that the swelling does take really about 6 months for it to fully go down and you just see your final results. And then that scar will take a full year for it to fade, flatten, blend in with the rest of your skin.
Beautiful. You mentioned a little bit about scar, gel and scar treatment. We are all about scars over here. We want to help our scars heal beautifully. So I would love to hear what products you're using, how are you using them. Any any any tip for my girls will take it.
I totally hear you. So for me personally, the scar result is a matter of how I suture, the suture I use, immediate care we do, and then the scar care. So for me, I use special sutures to pull the tissues together tighter to keep tension off of them. Tension is what causes wide scars that we don't like, so keep tension off them. Same with that compression garment that everybody hates so much. That's gonna keep the fluid from making those scars bulge when they're healing which can widen them. So again, all of this goes into your scar care even if we're not expressly saying it. I use a surgical glue.
It just in my experience I have found that it really helps hold the incisions really nice and tight together and prevent those micro movements which again end up in a wider scar. So, again, all of that plays into it. After 3 weeks, that's when we start the scar care. We use here we're using silogen, but really any, silicone based gel. Silicone is the one thing that's been medically proven to reduce scars. The only thing I know everybody has their vitamin E and their cocoa oil and all the things, but, silicone is the only thing that's really been able to be reproducibly proven to decrease scars. So it's a silicone based gel. There's a morning one which has sunscreen built in it because sunscreen is just important.
Even though you're not walking around showing your legs all the time, those UV rays can go through your clothes and make your scars stay dark. So it is very important that we are keeping UV completely off of that for the 1st year. So morning 1 is silicone based and has sunscreen in it, and then the night one just is silicone based. We give you those at your 3 week appointment so you can start them. We also show you how to do scar massage. So when your body is formless scar, just kind of throwing down cells in this haphazard kind of bundle. So they're all mixed up, and that's why it's a lumpy, bumpy, visible at first. Over the course of the 1st 6 months, you are building that scar.
Right? So it's all the things we take. It's red. It's visible. It's bumpy because, again, we're throwing cells. We're throwing cells. It's in a big heat. After 6 months, so 6 months to 12 months, your body starts to kind of sort through it and really start to smooth it out and flatten it. We can help that out by performing scar massage.
And what that is is you basically take your finger. I tell people find those bumpy areas of the scar. You're gonna push your finger on it like you're smooshing a bug under your finger. And that's really just gonna help encourage your body to start flattening out those big sections a little bit sooner. The heat from your hands has also been shown to help flatten things out faster. Now it's not gonna happen in a day, but as you do this, if you did it to half your scar and then do it to half your scar, you would quickly start to notice a big difference that one side is healing better than the other. So we start with this at 3 weeks. Watch it carefully.
Some people are just prone to have worse scars. So usually people with a little bit of color in their skin are African American, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Asian, cultures, all of them might you might be prone to that, and that's really important to tell your doctor beforehand. But if so, then again, we bring you in frequently. We have you send pictures if you see any areas that are not behaving like the rest, in which case then we can do a steroid injection possibly or a 5 f u injection. They're just different medications we use to help stop that inflammation in that area to, again, soothe it. And then usually around 3 months, sometimes a little bit sooner depending if there's redness and scars. Again, if we're noticing any crazy places, that's when I have you both sit with our aesthetician, and we're gonna do a laser to that scar to really help smooth it out and encourage healing. That being said, it is not going to heal it right then in that treatment.
You have to go into this knowing that it will take a full year for you to see where your scars are gonna end up.
I love how passionate you are about the scars.
Oh my god. I'm this is everybody's least favorite part of surgery, and I 100% hear that. And so I am, like, the biggest advocate of how to make these invisible for you.
I love that. One other body part that I feel is kinda connected, maybe on the other side of the leg, is saddlebags. What are some solutions for somebody who's suffering or, I mean, suffering? It is suffering because we don't like seeing it in the mirror, but if somebody who's dealing with, saddlebags that they
don't take. So saddlebags, for those of you who don't know, that's when you have those outpouchings of fat right on your outer hips. So kinda like with you hung your hands by your side up in that area where your hands hung down when you have those outpouchings. And it really bothers some people. It can be visible in clothing, your leggings. It's definitely visible in a swimsuit. It's it's nothing that you're doing wrong. Just everybody's body stores fat in different places, and this is some people's preferred place for their body to store fat.
So it can be a tough problem to fix depending on how much loose skin is there. Usually, I start, with most saddlebags by trying to lipo. Nobody wants a scar on the outside of their hip, and there's not a great way in certain areas to pull that skin really nice and tight without a scar that would be visible in your bikini or in your underwear. So I usually, for saddlebags, start by lipoing and then same as what I said for the inner sky, I always make people do skin tightening because the eyeskin just behaves a little bit differently, a little bit less predictably than other areas of our body. So we lipo that area and do skin tightening. You have to wear compression so this is usually the same kind of compression garment like the short biker shorts tight, but I put foam there as well because your body has been storing fat in this bulge area for your whole life. Right? And now we've taken away the fat, and I don't want your body to be able to put any fluid or any fibrotic tissue there. So it kinda look like you have, like, like, a VBL padded, like, leggings on, basically, because we need that extra compression to get that skin to suck back down where it was.
But it can really, really help people. The again, some people afterwards, they see improvement in clothes, but they still have some bulges, and so it's not uncommon for you to maybe need a second touch of lipo in this area to get it smoothly contoured with your front of your leg, inside your leg, and going into your butt.
Beautiful. Do you notice oh my god. I just lost my train of thought. Okay. Let me go back. So for somebody who's considering a thigh lift, inner thigh lift, saddlebag, anything on their lower body, How should they prepare? Like, what are some tips that you could give them to get ready for surgery?
That's great question. Because getting ready or preparing for surgery is half of the battle. So I like patients who start doing leg exercises actually before. So if they're saying, I'm gonna have my thigh lift in August, then I want you to start trying to build up some muscle in that area. And, again, it gives us a stronger canvas to drape the skin over as opposed to if your legs are very very weak and now we're trying to figure out what's muscle, what's fat. So I like to try and sculpt it a little bit beforehand. So I have people start doing leg exercises before. This area, like I said, is prone to wound breakdown.
And, again, it is nothing that you did wrong. It's just a warm moist area that is moving at least 50% of the day. So you just have to be prepared for that. So I make sure you're eating plenty of protein before surgery so that you have the building blocks inside of you already to heal after surgery. Also, make sure that people are homed are set up. You know, if you have to climb 4 flights of stairs every time to get from your kitchen to your bedroom, that's really difficult in a thigh lift. Right? And, again, every time you're lifting your legs up those stairs, it's stretching those incisions, especially in the very beginning. So, again, talk to people about arranging your home so that maybe that first week, maybe you just stay on the couch downstairs or, you know, have somebody help you and go and get the stuff that you need from upstairs, whatever that case may be.
Those are probably the biggest things. And then afterwards, it's all about, like I said, compression, compression, compression, and then walking to help get that fluid off.
Thank you so much for going into that. One thing I wanna go back and talk about that you just mentioned is foams. Let's talk a little bit about foam.
I love WIPA foam, and I know some doctors absolutely hate it. The I I feel like everybody just kinda depends on your experience with it. Right? I'm a huge fan. I think I love garments. I love compression garments. I think that they roll. They slip. They slide down.
They allow bending. So, like, even when you're driving, you might start off driving super good posture and then you bend down. Right? Or it kind of allows you to bend. And so people can get these creases, these lumps, bumps. Again, all the things that we hate when you're wearing these. So I love compress or lipo foam. I think that it takes out all of those variables. It keeps you in great posture.
It helps compress that skin evenly so we avoid those lumps and bumps. We avoid the creases from the garments. We avoid where that zipper is imprinting on it day after day after day. I love it. Worst part about lipo foam is that it is so hot. So I'm in Texas now and it's summertime because I make you wear it for 6 weeks. It is so hot. I tell people you you need to have a planned from the car into the store.
There is no dillydallying. You know, there is nothing because you will get dehydrated so fast. So that is a huge downside to it, but the results are so worth it.
It's so worth it. I love lipo foam. I think Yes. If they're if you're out there and you're like, I hate wearing this, just wear it, girl. It's okay. Yeah. You're gonna be so thankful that you did.
Oh, yeah. And you are gonna so regret it if you don't. If on the backside, you're like, you know, there's no going back at 8 weeks and being like, you know what? Let me sign my phone in and see if this helps. Like, it might help a little bit, but really, you know, those first 6 weeks are when you can really get a great smooth contour from that lipo foam in your compression. So just do it. Just do it and suffer through it. And then in a year from now, it's gonna seem like old news, and you're gonna be so happy that you did it.
So happy. Or you know what I like to tell them? I like to tell my girls, if you have to wear a garment and, lipo foam, just do it in the fall. I that's what I that's BBL season is in the fall. Lipo season is in the fall.
I tell everyone that. I'm like, breast, face, those are great for spring, summer, but fall is perfect for your tummy tuck, your thighs, your lipo, anything where you have to wear that compression and that that foam is gonna be so much better when it's a little bit cooler. And when you have big bulky sweaters that you can put over too, so it's not so obvious.
Absolutely. And you can definitely hide it. So I had a a story on my Instagram of, like, work outfits where you could hide your Faja. Mhmm. Hide your garment. Garment. Underneath it.
Oh, yeah. I love that. And there are people like, I can't even waste the hydrant drains that, like, you know, somebody whoops out drains and they're like, man, I didn't even know you had those in there, but there's so many creative things now that nobody ever has to know that you had this done until summertime, and then you pop out and everybody is jealous.
And you say what all the gym what the gym influencers say that they've made it in the gym in the winter
Yep.
In reality.
Yep. Just working out and eating right throughout the winter, and all this loose skin went away. Yep. If only it was that easy.
Right? Exactly. If only it was that easy.
Yeah.
So, doctor Bombshell, I love what you're doing online. I have been fangirling all over your TikTok feed, and I would love for you to tell us a little bit more about your practice. What makes you so excited in the morning? I wanna know a little bit more about you.
So my practice, I was in Baton Rouge, and now I just moved back to Dallas, Texas, and I'm opening my own practice. So I've actually opened it. I'm currently working out of another facial surgeon's office while we look for a building, which hopefully will be done very, very soon. But I am under my own practice, my own entity, and it's called Bombshell Aesthetics. And the whole goal of Bombshell Aesthetics is just to get you to wherever you wanna be. Right? And that's different for everybody. This is not for me to tell you what surgery you need or what needs to be fixed. Nothing needs to be fixed.
You're beautiful. You're strong. You're independent. You've got this. But there are things that when you wake up in the morning, you're like, man, I just wish I didn't have to worry about that, or I wish I didn't have to deal with that. And that's what we are here to do is take away that worry so you can just worry about your kids and your life and your work and all the other things we have. So that is the goal of my practice. You know, it's really starting to take off, which is super exciting.
I just hired another nurse that's starting next week. So, again, it's exciting to watch it grow. The best part of, I think, every day is just I all my patients have my phone number, and some people text me every day. And I love hearing every stage that they're at. Right? I like hearing that pre op. They're excited. Oh my gosh. This is gonna be me.
I'm so excited phase. I like I like getting those texts that are just, like, even on the bad days that are, like, man, I'm post op week 3, and I'm just, like, so swollen still. And I love when people send me pictures and they're, like, 6 months out or a year out, and they send me, like, a picture of them and their family at the beach or them in a dress they haven't been able to wear in 5 years. I mean, it's just the people. Right? Because we all have a story. We're we're all amazing. And so many of us just lose that confidence, lose that ability to project that to the world because we're under this loose skin or because we used to look a certain way, and now we've had kids and we don't look like that anymore. So even though you're the same amazing person, you just you just kinda wanna hide or kinda not be seen.
And so that moment when you're like, no. I'm here to be seen. I'm here to tell my story. I am here to reclaim all of that. That is what gets me excited in the morning. That's why I do this.
Oh my god. I love that. That gave me chills because I that's my why. Because I love watching my girls, my patients transform and turn from a a shy Mhmm. Caterpillar into this amazing flying high butterfly walking in with a hair blow dried, sundress, feeling like they just can conquer the world.
I love it. And I love when people send me comparison photos. So they'll send me, like, a before they took in the mirror, and you can see it in their posture and how they're standing. You know, that they're just like, taking this before because I gotta remember what I looked like. And then they'll just send me an after, and it could be, like, post op week 1. Right? They're still super solid. They got, like, their hand on their hip. They got, like, their cutest lingerie on their pose.
Like yeah. And, like, you can see it. Right? And, like, and and so even if they don't recognize that in that moment, I'm like, do you see what this difference is that even though you're swollen, even though you got this compression suit on, just look at the difference in how you stand and that is translated when you walk into the store, when you walk into work, when you pick up your kids at school. People pick up on that. Right? And they respond to you differently. And even though you're the same amazing person, like, I just believe that you should be able to project that best confident self to everybody all the time.
I love it. One thing I wanna talk about before I let you go. I always ask this. I always ask my surgeons, and it's, we have a little inner joke here on the show. Are you team drains or no drains?
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Okay. I get this all the time. I am team drains, and I've read all the paperwork. I've talked I've talked and met with the people who don't do drains and who wrote the papers of it. And even at the service center I'm at now, I think I'm, like, 1 of 2 or I think there's 2 of us use drains and, like, 8 people do not use drains. And they're like, you can't use drains.
You can't use your drains. I know that drains suck. That being said, I do a lot of lipo at the same time as my tummy tuck. So, like, it I'm putting in a lot of fluid there. And I don't know how much you guys know about drains versus no drains. It's not exactly the same procedure in just one we choose to put drains and then one we don't. When we don't leave drains, we put special sutures that reattach your abdominal wall back down to the muscle fascia. They're called plication sutures and just limits the space that's in there where fluid can form.
So it decreases fluid in that way, and that's why people are able to get away without drains. I think that sometimes it works really well. I think sometimes just how people's skin is kind of tethered over their rib cage or previous scars they have and other things, it doesn't work really well and you can get some pulling, some some puckering in the area, some tucked in area, some lumps and bumps from it. And those usually go away, but it's very scary when you're a patient. So in my hands, the way I get a consistently good predictable result because I don't like change. I like to be able to predict exactly what's gonna happen. I don't like variation, is to leave drains. And I tell everyone, you can call me every day and tell me how much you hate the drains and that they're annoying and that one got pulled today and that it hurt and it burned.
And I will prefer that because I know we're gonna get them out. And once we get them out in usually 10 to 14 days, kinda depending on you, but then you're gonna have this nice sleek look. And, again, it is predictable. It is something that I know exactly how it's gonna turn out. We don't have to say there's lumps and bumps, but, you know, I'm really hoping that in 3 months, the sutures gonna dissolve and loosen up and if there's not a divot there, that in just 2 weeks, you're gonna have this predictably smoother result. Now again, maybe one day I transitioned to drainless. I know a lot of surgeons who do it. I have nothing against the procedure.
This is just me and my hands. I get a predictable good result that I know that you'll be bragging about in 2 weeks, then I'm gonna take that every time.
I'm team drains. We're actually, I wanna be I'm gonna take a poll today on my Instagram. How many of us are actually team drains? Because I ask most of my surgeons that I interview, and I would say 80% of them 80 to 90% of them do drains.
Mhmm.
Maybe 10% are the ones that don't. But but for the most part, I'm gay I get a lot of team drains, and and I prefer it for my patients, for my girls when I'm walking them 1 on 1 through surgery. And they're like, I don't know. What do I do? I don't want drains. They're so scary. I don't they're gonna be, like, hanging out of hanging from my body. It's so weird. And they just take it for 2 weeks.
Yep.
And it'll it's better than the in my opinion, in my opinion, better than the alternative.
I totally agree. And, again, the the drain list is a newer technique, and so maybe more and more of us start doing it. In the meantime, I'd say, like you, hang on to your drains. Again, people FaceTime me all the time, ask me questions about drains. I would much rather this and know that you're gonna get that predictable, great result that you love right now than to, again, have it be a little bit less predictable.
Beautiful. And before I let you go, doctor Bombshell, I want you to answer this one last question I ask all of my surgeons, all of my guests. If you were talking to your best friend, your sister, your mom, somebody who's considering having a surgical procedure and you could give them one tip before you send them off on their journey, what would that tip be?
I think the most important thing is that you really need to vibe with your surgeon. Right? You can have a surgeon who is amazing, who is the best in the world. And if you go in and you just have that uncomfortableness, you don't feel like you can tell them everything, or you kinda feel like they're telling you, so you're like, okay. I'm not gonna say anything after my you know, my dad is lecturing me right now. I don't wanna talk back. You feel like you can't express your concerns or your opinions or what you want for the surgery. It makes for a really bumpy ride. Right? Because if anything happens post op, if you have any question, you kinda feel if your voice has been taken away from you.
Right? And I'm not saying surgeons do this on purpose. Sometimes it's just that they have a very strong personality, and although they would never want to project that onto you, it's how it comes across. Or I think the most important thing is that you have somebody that you can talk to, like your friend, that you can say, wait. Wait. I don't understand that. Explain to me again. Or you can say, you know, I don't think that that fits my body image and my lifestyle, so I want something more like this. Now that doesn't always mean that you can get exactly what you want, but at least you're opening the dialogue and you might be able to come up with something that works for both a realistic expectation as well as meets what you have set for your body.
Right? Same within the post op period. Like I said, everybody has my phone number and can call and text me anytime. I feel like I'm a member of their family most of the time. Right? Like, I know everything going on. They'll they'll just give me updates of other things. But I'm like, oh my gosh. How's how's the cat doing? You know? Like, and so but, again, you I want people to go in with just a certainty that if anything happens, if you have any question, because there are scary moments that could just be like, oh my gosh. I'm a little bit of something on the gauze.
I don't know what this is. Just something more serious in the recovery period. You need to have a surgeon that you're like, I know that they're going to be there and answer the phone. I'm not gonna be send a voice mail or talking to so and so who's passing me to so and so who's passing on my message. I never actually get a clear answer. So having someone you can openly communicate with, that you feel comfortable with, you were gonna have such a smoother road the entire time. You you can't and once you're in it, you can't change it. Right? So go in knowing that.
Go in knowing, like, I really need to just vibe with the surgeon and make sure that we're on the same page and that they're gonna be there for me the whole time.
That is a beautiful tip. Perfect. Exactly what I would say would be better vibe with your surgeon. Make sure you feel very comfortable and make sure that you can reach out to them. The episode I recorded just previously to this, that was one of the topics that we touched on, which was, can you even get a hold of them after surgery? Can you get ahold of the surgeon after surgery? That should be your number one one of your number ones questions.
Yes. I totally agree. It's and so many horror stories come from that. Right? Like, I had surgery, but now I have whatever, big thing, little thing, whatever it might be, and, like, nobody's returning my calls. I can't get ahold of anyone. I mean, I have one lady come, and she was, like she's having complication from another surgeon. She was like, I went to his building, and there were chains on the door and it was chained shut. And, like, she said, I don't know if you move practices.
Like, I don't know what's happening. And I was like, I can't imagine, like, the utter panic I would feel. And I'm a surgeon. Right? But you just feel like you got abandoned in the middle of it. Right? And that's you never want that feeling. You need to know that you are supported the entire time before, during, after you got somebody in your corner who is going through this whole thing with you.
Absolutely. And wouldn't you agree, doctor Bombshell, that after that first, maybe, like, 3 to 6 month period when patients are post op, after that, it's so hard to get a hold of them and get them to come back.
It is. Everybody's like, well, what does it look like after a year or 2 years? I'm like, that's not my fault. I want to see. They're like little birds that go and fly away and leave you, and you're like, I never got to hear the end of the story or how was the wedding? I never even heard. And you were so right. Like, suddenly, they don't need you. They won't answer any calls. They won't answer any texts.
Everyone's like, why do you only have photos after, like, 6 months or a year? I'm like, nobody wants to come back and see me because they're just out living their best lives now.
That's so true. I'm so happy to hear that you're experiencing the same. They don't come back. They're too happy. They're living they're off onto their next grand adventure.
Oh, yeah. I know. And I'm happy for them, but I do miss them. And if any of you guys are listening, call me and so I can catch up with you, and I miss you so much.
I love it. I think we couldn't end the show on a better note. Thank you so much for coming on the show with us today, doctor Bombshell. It was so nice chatting with you and getting to hear everything about inner thighs and all about your practice.
You are so wonderful. And like I said before, I'm such a big fan. I think this is so great for people to have a safe space to listen to this and to have somebody who's as friendly, as open, and as go get them as you. So I appreciate what you do, and I'm always here if there are more questions to be answered.
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Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And with that, I'll see you guys next week.
