Basic HTML Version
health
link
6
PLASTIC
SURGERY
Feeling
good
inside
and out
Any mother will tell you that having
a baby changes your life forever. She
may, however, forget to mention what
else will never be the same…your
body.
Carrying one baby – let alone four –
takes a physical toll on a woman, as
48-year-old Julie Glenn understands
all too well. “I was self-conscious and
felt like I needed to squeeze my
stomach in whenever I sat down.”
Despite faithfully exercising four days
a week and eating a healthy diet,
nothing Julie did could tighten the
skin around her abdomen or give her
breasts a post-baby lift.
“Women try so hard to get their
bodies back after having children,”
says local plastic surgeon, Kaye Riolo,
MD. “But some things are out of our
control.”
When a woman becomes pregnant,
her tummy is not the only thing that
expands. Perhaps no area changes
more than the breasts, where fat is
added to prepare them for their role
in providing a baby’s nourishment.
But after pregnancy and nursing, the
breasts begin losing not only volume
but their original shape. Likewise, the
fascia (or skin around the belly) that
is stretched out during pregnancy
doesn’t usually go back to its pre-
baby state.
“You can’t make skin shrink,”
Dr. Riolo explains. “So while you can
strengthen the abdominal muscle, the
only way to tighten the skin around it
is with a tummy tuck.”
When it comes to their breasts,
women have a few procedures to
consider: augmentation to increase
volume, a breast lift to address sag-
ging, or – as in Julie’s case – a combi-
nation of the two.
On the other end of the spectrum
are women who feel that their breasts
are too large and, therefore, seek a
breast reduction. This involves remov-
ing skin and breast tissue to reduce
the size of breasts and reshape them.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all,”
Dr. Riolo says. “It’s like going shop-
ping…there are lots of choices, but
you have to choose what’s right for
you.”
In Julie’s case, that included a
tummy tuck, breast augmentation and
a breast lift.
“Choosing to have surgery wasn’t
about altering my appearance,” she
says, “but rather, fine-tuning what I
already had. Dr. Riolo was able to fix
the one thing I couldn’t.”
Julie couldn’t be happier with
her results and with her surgical
experience at Saint Agnes Medical
Center’s new freestanding surgical
center, Outpatient Surgery North
(OPSN). Located just north of Herndon,
less than a mile from the Medical
Center’s main campus, OPSN offers
the conveniences and amenities of a
private freestanding surgical center,
while maintaining the quality, com-
passionate care that are the hall-
marks of Saint Agnes.
“My experience at OPSN was phe-
nomenal,” Julie says. “Everyone was
so sweet … I felt like the queen
of England.”
To learn more about the types
of procedures performed at
OPSN, call
559-450-7300
.
Julie Glenn
enjoys one of her
weekday workouts
at GB3 with son
and trainer, Justin.
www.samc.com