At 55, L.C.'s three children were all grown and had gone to start lives of their own.

But childbirth had been hard on her diminutive body. Standing just a tad over four-foot-eleven, L.C. (she asked to be unidentified for medical privacy) was left with the extra, sagging flesh that so often accompanies the physical after-effects of pregnancy.

"I just hated the hanging skin on my tummy and that I could not find clothes to fit," she says.

Tummy Tuck Surgery

"I tried and tried with exercise and dieting to rid myself of the skin and extra pounds on my stomach, but nothing seemed to work," she says.

Then, several years ago, L.C. went to work for Sean Younai, M.D., a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.. She had worked for many doctors in the past, but now only saw patients interested in some type of surgical rejuvenation.

"I soon discovered that almost all women in our office asking about a tummy tuck were mothers who did not like their sagging mid-sections because the loose flesh made fitting into clothing too difficult," she says. "It seemed like everybody -- even women in their 20s and 30s -- were having a tummy tuck and I began to think, 'Hey, why not me, too?'"

Liposuction and Tummy Tuck

L.C. talked with her husband about the idea of having a tummy tuck. He was against the idea at first because he did not like the risks found in any surgery. Plus, most tummy tucks commonly include some liposuction and that only meant more risk to him.

Then, while watching a program about plastic surgery on the Discovery Channel, L.C. saw a woman visiting a plastic surgeon about her sagging tummy and complaining about the exact same things as she, L.C., had been harping about.

"Although my husband was against it at first, he finally agreed that it was okay if I really wanted to go ahead with it," L.C. says.

Tummy Tuck Recovery

L.C. had the tummy tuck on an outpatient basis, went home the same day and was away from work for one week. However, many other tummy tuck patients have the procedure in a hospital where they spend the night after surgery as a cautionary measure.

L.C. at age 55 on the left shows the state of her mid-section
before her tummy tuck. Six months later, on the right, she
was ready for a bikini.
(Photos courtesy of Sean Younai, M.D.)

"The procedure was not bad except I had to keep the surgical drains in the incision for the whole week," L.C. says. "The scars on a tummy tuck go from hip to hip so it takes a while for a long scar like that to lighten and fade. But everybody heals differently. Due to my age, it was a full six months before I was completely healed."

She says the typical recovery period for a woman in her 40s having a tummy tuck is two weeks off work. Almost any tummy tuck patient can go back to her regular workout schedule in about six weeks.

Weight Loss After A Tummy Tuck

But the wait was worth it, L.C. says, because when she found how much better her trim new body fit into her existing and new clothes, she was motivated to lose even more weight.

Actually, make that highly motivated.

"At the time of the procedure, I think I weighed about 148," L.C. says. "Because exercise was so much easier after my drooping stomach skin was gone, I found I had dropped down to 112 pounds after working out daily for a few months.

"And that's what I weigh today!" she says. "I can wear anything and look good in it, a bikini included! At my age!

"And I still work out every day to keep that look going," she says.