Extreme Makeovers !

[Kimkhuu]

This is from a PEOPLE magazine issue (this is really interesting !)

Even as more than 20,000 people applied for all-expenses-paid radical redos on the new season of ABC's Extreme Makeover, many Americans are revamping themselves on their own dime — despite potentially serious health consequences. When her plastic surgeon warned that the risks ranged from infection to death, Donna Timmons listened carefully. "They are literally cutting you apart and putting you back together," she says. So did the warning give her second thoughts? "I couldn't get there fast enough," she admits. Neither, it seems, could the other determined people whose stories follow.

# 1 Alicia Quiñones

• gastric bypass
• breast lift and augmentation
• tummy tuck
• thigh lift
• hair color and highlights
• tooth bleaching
• total cost: $35,000
The new Alicia Quiñones made her official debut on Sept. 6 at 2:35 in the afternoon in the Gap store at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. "I've waited since I was 10 years old for this," she said as she checked out the fit of a pair of brown boot-cut cords. "I got into a size 8! Low cut! I can't believe it!" Given that she was a size 24 just 18 months ago, Quiñones, 24, has reason to celebrate. But her 130-lb. weight loss, much of it achieved after gastric bypass surgery in April 2002, isn't the only thing contributing to her new confidence. After the 5'4" Quiñones shrank to a size 12 within a year, she wanted more. "I wanted to be fabulous," she says. "I wanted to wear my sister's cool, skinny jeans."

In August Quiñones, an office manager, checked into a Beverly Hills clinic for a tummy tuck and a thigh lift. A week later she was back for breast work that took her from a size 38B to 36C. Quiñones then bleached her teeth, lightened her hair and began working out to hold her weight at 140 lbs. While she pays off her debt, she has moved in with mom Coco, 54, and sister Claudia, 25. "Alicia," says Coco, "looks beautiful now, like she is on the inside." Adds Claudia: "We're so proud of her — though every time I see her she's wearing my clothes."

 

[Kimkhuu]

# 2 Donna Timmons

• tummy tuck
• lower-body lift
• inner-thigh lift
• breast lift/augmentation
• total cost: $22,000
Donna Timmons's wake-up call came five years ago, when she threw her back out lifting her daughter Kaelin, then 2. "I needed to do something," she says. Virtual starvation had failed her, so this time Timmons, 33, tried eating in moderation, coupled with cardio and weight training. In one year she lost 130 lbs. — and got a divorce from Kaelin's dad. "Losing weight," she says, "gave me the courage to deal with the situation I was in."

Still, Timmons, a Web master in Pittsburgh, was not comfortable in her own skin — there was too much of it left from the weight loss. "She had a saddlebag deformity. Her hips and thighs were way out of proportion," says Pittsburgh plastic surgeon Dennis Hurwitz, who last December performed seven hours of surgery to remove fat and skin. Around that time, Donna met auditor Bob Timmons, 31; they wed in May. "I am much happier," she says. "I feel I reaped the benefits of the change I made."

 

[Kimkhuu]

# 3 David Bandas

• two tummy tucks
• four liposuctions
• brow lift
• removed bump on nose
• eye lift
• suction to chin and jowls
• fat removed from upper eyelids
• skin removal on arm and lip
• hair transplantation
• gastric bypass surgery
• fat injection from buttocks into left cheek
• abdominal scar removal
• breast lift
• chest lift
• laser of lower eyelids to smooth out wrinkles
• dermabrasion
• face-lift
• microsuction to cheeks
• total cost: $126,000
While growing up on a farm in Temple, Texas, David Bandas and his five siblings all struggled with weight problems. "I was morbidly obese," says David, 51. "I was the funny, fat kid." Some of that excess weight was hereditary; some of it was the result of poor eating habits. "We ate a lot of down-home cooking," says his older brother Rick, 60. "We had lots of chicken-fried things." It wasn't until David took off for college that he began to feel acutely self-conscious about his girth. He shed 125 lbs. through diet and exercise and then, at age 26, had his first plastic surgery, a tummy tuck. After that, he recalls, "clothes fit better, things just worked better. It encourages you to do more things for yourself."

As his weight bobbed up and down, those "things" added up to 45 major and minor surgeries. Bandas has tucked and liposuctioned excess skin from his face and body; lifted his eyelids, eyebrows, chest and breasts; removed moles and skin tags; and transplanted hair to his balding pate. "If I weren't financially successful," concedes the unattached Bandas, who owns a tax-consulting-services firm in Austin, Texas, "none of this would have been possible." Of his $126,000 tab, only the $14,000 gastric bypass surgery, which he underwent in 1998 after tipping the scale at 320 lbs., was covered by health insurance. Now a trim 190 lbs., the 6' Bandas says, at last, "I'm done. I'm happy with where I am."

 

[Kimkhuu]

# 4 Risë West

• two face-lifts
• rhinoplasty
• breast lift
• liposuction
• lip sculpture
• lip lift
• laser resurfacing on face
• fat insertions to fill out cheeks
• Botox treatments
• total cost: $100,000
Ten years ago, it seems safe to say, the magic had gone out of Alan and Risë West's 18-year marriage. When she awakened each day, Alan would look away. "My husband got nauseous looking at my face," says Risë, 56. Alan, 55, a real estate investor in Boca Raton, Fla., puts it a little more gently. "I felt my wife looked aged," he says. "She had a great body, but her face needed to look as good."
In January 1994, after attending a seminar on plastic surgery, Risë (pronounced Reeza) approached Dr. Daniel Man, who practices in Boca Raton. She thought, she said, she might have her eyes done, nothing more. The doctor had other ideas. "Dr. Man suggested I have my entire face reworked," she says. "So I thought about it."

Then she went for it. Since 1994, Risë, a homemaker who, at 5' and 96 lbs., has had a dozen procedures, has reshaped everything from thighs to nose to cheekbones. "I look prettier than I did as a teenager," she says. "I am thrilled with the results — and I will continue to do whatever is needed to make me look good."

And what about Alan, who, after all, signed onto the $100,000 that Risë has spent so far on plastic surgery? "My wife looked better and better after each procedure," he says. "It's amazing! It was like living with a new woman. Risë is like an annuity; she has improved with age."

 

[Acid]

where the F*CK do these people get that much money from

 

[Erin]

Ugh, pathetic. I'm sorry, but REALLY...

Plus, why can't they just try the old-fashioned way and work out and eat well? Some may argue here with the point that it just doesn't work for some people. IMO, that means they're at their "target size" and that is the shape that is genetically meant for them to live a healthy life.

I'm so annoyed by these people!

 

[LolitaLuxe]

OMG that donna woman! her before shot-that hair
thank god she got a new cut as well.......


i dont know I say good for these people. they probably feel so much better about themselves. They seem the right age to make desicions......

but taking care of yourself with diet and excerise IS essential. much btter than that gastric bipass

Ive read this magazine- its very insightful for those thinking about surgery

comsmetic surgery magazine

 

[xclusive]

i still can't close my mouth..wow..what's a difference. there would b so many more beautiful people if they could only control their mouth..

 

[Meg]

Originally posted by xclusive@Nov 8th, 2003 - 8:29 pm
i still can't close my mouth..wow..what's a difference. there would b so many more beautiful people if they could only control their mouth..

thats so rude. How can you say the world would be beautiful if people weren't overweight? I mean there is definately a pro to being healthy but being overweight doesn't make someone ugly. What about a little thing called personality? There are a lot of what you might consider "good looking" people in the world who's personalities make them ugly. And usually it's not just about controlling their mouth. There are issues beneath over-eating.

 

[leyla m.]

i am so for these makeovers!!!
nothing against people who are fat, short, big nosed, small chested, big thighed...!
but this is brilliant.
I, for exapmle, have and ideal. and i would not be happy (in my own life) if i dont reach that ideal. personality? YES! but this is something some people need to boost their confidence....
i am for: trying everything by natural means but if that doesnt work: surgeries welcome

 

[Kimkhuu]

Originally posted by leyla m.@Nov 8th, 2003 - 5:10 pm
I, for exapmle, have and ideal. and i would not be happy (in my own life) if i dont reach that ideal. personality? YES! but this is something some people need to boost their confidence....
i am for: trying everything by natural means but if that doesnt work: surgeries welcome

I 110% agree with you !

 

[leyla m.]

 

[Alejandro]

I agree also! if thats the road that leads you to a better understanding of yourself, its worth taking.

 

[Meg]

I just feel that in today's world there is no emphasis put on being natural and just who you are. Why are these people unhappy with themselves? Often because they do not fit a societal ideal. Not because they aren't at their own ideal. I'm not anti plastic surgery and if in the end it makes you happier fine, but it's not right for everyone and to say the world would be full of more beautiful people? The world IS full of beautiful people it's just not all surface beauty and if people would stop being so superficial they might see that...

 

[banana]

I can't believe that one girl went in to debt to pay for that. A bit excessive in my opinion. What's the point of having this great body if you're stuck living at your mom's house for the next 15 years?

 

[charlottesometimes]

Wow, they're some amazing makeovers, thanks for posting them kimkhuu

I'm all for this type of thing if the person is doing it to please themself, and not someone else (in that regard I hope Risë dumps Alan and finds someone who appreciates her for more that her physical attributes. She looks 'aged' because she is 'aged' you jerk!!! )

 

[leyla m.]

Originally posted by charlottesometimes@Nov 9th, 2003 - 11:39 pm
(in that regard I hope Risë dumps Alan and finds someone who appreciates her for more that her physical attributes. She looks 'aged' because she is 'aged' you jerk!!! )

heheh that was funny and so true. there is just so much one can do to look younger