September 11, 2026 | Tummy Tuck
About 60 percent of the people I operate on do not live here. They fly in, stay in a hotel, have surgery, and go home.
Some of them compare notes afterward on Reddit, in r/tummytucksurgery, where people post their photos and their prices. I did not ask them to and I cannot edit them. Patients keep arriving at consultation having read those threads, so here are the questions they raise.
What they actually say
One of those threads opens with a question that has nothing to do with me. “So far I’ve been going to Google maps, then to their instagram to look at before and afters. Is there a better way?” asked u/Melissaru in How did you find your surgery?. That is where most people start, and nobody teaches you how to shop for this.
The patient who turns up most often in these threads posts as u/Exotic-Way-6903. She flew in from the east coast. On what she was actually shopping for, in a reply to that thread: “He also plicates both oblique muscles in addition to the mainstream repair of the rectus muscle (the three muscles plicated gives more of a corset/hour glass shape).”
She is also the source of the $17,600 figure, and when she posted it, it did not go unchallenged. “That’s extremely expensive just for a tummy tuck,” replied u/Yelenablanka1987 in Who in the US can give me results like this?. “Respectfully for Texas too.”
Her answer is the part I would want a prospective patient to sit with: “A coworker of mine went more local last year, only paid 6k and unfortunately her results are not pleasing. I wasn’t going to let that happen. You get what you pay for.”
I am not going to tell you she is right that I am worth it. That is not my call to make about my own fee. What I will say is that the argument in that thread is the correct argument to be having, and reading two strangers disagree about it is more useful than any before-and-after gallery, including mine.
One practical thing she flags that I should have been clearer about publicly: “He usually does BBLs with his TTs, so if that’s not want you want, make sure you tell him. Most of his patients do. When I got my quote, it included the BBL, so had to ask for a new quote without it.” Her first quote came in at $25,000 with a BBL folded into it. Ask for a quote for the operation you want, not the one most patients want.
One figure keeps circulating: $17,600, all in, for a tummy tuck with liposuction 360, a hernia repair, oblique plication, mons work, and a new belly button. Is that accurate?
Dr. Agullo: “This article is talking about a certain patient’s experience, so that figure would be correct for her and for her particular combination of procedures.
“As of this writing, our published range for a tummy tuck is $16,000 to $26,000, depending on the combination. For the most updated figures, readers should go to agulloplasticsurgery.com/fees, which is the page we keep updated.”
A hernia repair is not a line item everybody needs. Neither is oblique plication.
What does the quoted fee cover here?
The surgeon’s fee, the operating room, anesthesia, garments, and the pre-op and post-op supplements. SinEcch for bruising and swelling, Skinuva scar cream, a moisturizer, Exparel for long-acting pain control. Every lymphatic drainage massage and every post-op visit. A BBL pillow if the case calls for one. The patient pays for prescriptions at the pharmacy and nothing else.
I told Yahoo Finance this year that two price quotes are often not measuring the same service. One covers the operation. The other covers the operation, the facility, the anesthesia and the follow-up. Ask both practices what falls outside the number.
When can an out-of-town patient fly home?
Dr. Agullo: “So for this one, we need you seven days minimum. Some people stay two weeks, but seven days is the usual.”
On the flight itself: “You can fly after seven days, that’s not a problem.”
Day seven is the suture day, not the finish line. “On day seven the sutures come out, and usually the drain comes out on day fourteen.” Patients who fly at a week frequently go home with the drain still in.
Here is that same week from the other side of it, in her twelve-week update: “I flew in the day before and signed consent forms and took before pictures.” A nurse came to her hotel the next morning. “I had a lymphatic massage on day 4 and 7, free of charge at the surgeons med spa. I had my post op appt on day 7, stitches removed from my back where lipo was, and I flew home that afternoon.” Everything after that has been virtual.
She got two massages, not the eight to twelve I recommend, because she was only in town for a week. That is the honest trade of traveling for surgery, and it is worth naming.
The week before that is scheduled tightly. “The first night I want you to stay the night here in El Paso. We do have specials at a nearby hotel. Just so we can check you in the morning and make sure everything looks good before you go further, so that if we can catch anything, we catch it on time.”
“My nurse does visit you the day after, wherever you’re staying, to help you with the first shower, maybe some IV fluids just to make sure everything’s going well, going over all the instructions one more time. And then usually you’ll be back on day two or three for your first massage.”
On what the recovery actually feels like: “Your recovery is gonna be two weeks to get back to normal activity, kind of like a C-section, except I do the Exparel block, so a lot of, half my patients really don’t have any pain. It’s just pressure, and of course, you feel fatigue because your body is trying to recover.”
On the massages, which patients underestimate: “I usually recommend two or three per week for four weeks. It really helps with the lipo area and to get all the fluid out, and then also you get a smoother result and it actually feels good and you start moving and you recover a lot faster.”
“The faster you move the quicker you recover.”
Is there anything in those threads you want corrected?
Dr. Agullo: “I don’t think so. This is all a patient’s opinion.”
Those posts are unsolicited. They are not testimonials, I did not commission them, I cannot edit them, and no claim in them is a representation by this practice. Everything quoted above is excerpted from public posts and linked back to its thread so you can read the whole exchange, including the parts that disagree with me. Results vary by patient.
Read them anyway. Then check the fees page for the current number.
Dr. Agullo is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, completed his plastic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, and serves as Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
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