Delia Atenea never considered going under the knife \u2014 she\u2019d always been slender, fit and confident in her own skin.<\/p>\n
But three pregnancies, including two sets of twins, took a toll on her body, leaving her with stretched skin that hung from her belly.<\/p>\n
Then a friend mentioned Dr. Ryan Neinstein. Atenea scrolled through his social media \u2014 and her idea of plastic surgery was turned on its head. Instead of the usual \u201cadd-on\u201d procedures like BBLs<\/a> and boob jobs<\/a>, she discovered a way to undo what carrying five children had left behind.<\/p>\n Delia Atenea, a mother of five from San Antonio, traveled to New York City for a \u201cmommy makeover\u201d performed by plastic surgeon Dr. Ryan Neinstein. @mommalovesfashionblog<\/p>\n \u201cMy main concerns were my gut area and my breasts,\u201d Atenea said. \u201cWhen I saw that it was possible to not have this 34DD chest, I was like \u2018Oh my gosh, I\u2019m so on board. Take it off.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s how Atenea found herself signing up for a $75,000 \u201cplastic surgery vacation\u201d \u2014 a luxury package offered by Neinstein\u2019s Manhattan surgery center<\/a> that attracts clients from around the world and carries a three-month wait just to get a consultation for the VIP service.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are amazing surgeons in every corner of the globe, but people today want more than that,\u201d Neinstein said. \u201cWe call it the pink glove experience.\u201d <\/p>\n The surgery stay-cation<\/p>\n In the weeks leading up to her procedure, Atenea was riding an emotional roller coaster \u2014 equal parts excited and apprehensive, and especially nervous about the anesthesia<\/p>\n But the moment she touched down in New York from San Antonio, \u201cit was like everything had just faded away.\u201d<\/p>\n Like all of Neinstein\u2019s out-of-town patients \u2014 who make up roughly 40% of his business \u2014 Atenea was greeted at the airport by a chauffeur and whisked straight to the Plaza Hotel, the glamorous base camp for her recovery.<\/p>\n Neinstein\u2019s \u201cplastic surgery vacation\u201d patients recover at the Plaza Hotel during their stay. Tamara Beckwith\/NY Post<\/p>\n She spent the night in her suite, then crossed the street in her pajamas early the next morning for her procedure at Neinstein\u2019s office overlooking Central Park. <\/p>\n \u201cThe minute I walked into the operating room, my worship music playlist was blasting,\u201d said Atenea, a full-time fashion content creator (@mommalovesfashionblog<\/a>).<\/p>\n As she drifted off to sleep, Neinstein stood beside her, holding her hand \u2014 a ritual in his clinic that he says isn\u2019t just symbolic, but delivers measurable benefits<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe see it in their vitals,\u201d he explained. \u201cPatients come in and their blood pressure is up, but when the surgeon holds their hand it comes back down. You go into surgery and you come out a lot safer.\u201d<\/p>\n Nurses attend to them in the room, where they also get lymphatic drainage massages.<\/p>\n Later that evening, Atenea woke up in a recovery suite after a tummy tuck and 360-degree liposuction<\/a>. She also had a breast reduction<\/a> and lift without implants<\/a>, with fat from her abdomen grafted to reshape her chest instead.<\/p>\n Then it was back across the street to the Plaza, not home to five kids and chaos, but onto the next phase of her plush \u201cvacation.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u2018pink glove\u2019 experience <\/p>\n The morning after surgery, Neinstein was at Atenea\u2019s bedside. He makes these house calls with all his patients, checking in and explaining how the operation went.<\/p>\n He says this kind of house call has largely fallen out of fashion in the modern healthcare space.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMedicine probably has the worst customer experience of any business in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re put in a room naked with a stranger and then later you\u2019re given a bill, and you don\u2019t even know what happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Patients, he has found, want to talk to their surgeon after major surgery.<\/p>\n Neinstein\u2019s \u201cplastic surgery vacations\u201d aim to let patients recover away from daily stress. Courtesy Neinstein Plastic Surgery<\/p>\n Patients have their meals prepared and other needs taken care of as they recover.<\/p>\n \u201cThey feel safer and more comfortable. It creates a real therapeutic relationship and not just a transactional one,\u201d Neinstein explained. \u201cI don\u2019t want medicine to be done to you. I want medicine to be done for you.\u201d <\/p>\n During her recovery, Atenea had nurses on call 24 hours a day at the Plaza.<\/p>\n \u201cThe nurses were there around the clock,\u201d Atenea said. \u201cIf I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, they were there to take me to the restroom. They were there to bathe me. They were there to walk with me every single day.\u201d <\/p>\n In the first days after surgery, Atenea and her nurse walked laps around the Plaza\u2019s gold-trimmed halls. On Day 4, she ventured out into Manhattan.<\/p>\n Atenea said Neinstein gave her back her \u201cpre-pregnancy body.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy nurse took me outside to the fountain,\u201d Atenea said, \u201cthen to do a lap at Bergdorf\u2019s in my pajamas.\u201d<\/p>\n The nurses also monitored her vitals, changed her dressings and kept her on schedule with pain medication.\u00a0<\/p>\n