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Maleny went to Tijuana, Mexico, for a tummy tuck and BBL in April
She tells PEOPLE that her price quotes for the procedures in California and Miami were way out of her budget
After getting the procedures done, she says she feels like a whole new person and can’t stop looking in the mirror
She recognizes the risk with medical tourism, but says she did her research, adding, “anything can happen anywhere”
Maleny has spent her whole adult life taking care of everything and everyone else except for herself.
Then on day she was ready to put herself first. She admits to PEOPLE that she loved her body — it was the body that gave her two beautiful children — but it was also a source of insecurity.
“I tried losing weight by going to the gym and being consistent. I lost over 20 pounds, but you could still see the mommy pouch,” she says. “I was no longer happy with myself. Some would say you can’t blame it on the kids anymore — my oldest is 11, it’s already been 10 years — but the skin stretches and your body goes through a lot. I tried the ‘healthy’ way and it didn’t work. So I explored other options.”
The other option Maleny, 32, explored was a tummy tuck to address the loose skin on her stomach. She says she got a price quote in her area in California for all the procedures she was looking for and it would have cost around $22,000. She then sought out a quote in Miami and was told it would cost around $33,000.
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“I was like, absolutely not. That’s a down payment to a house,” she says.
It was then that she realized that medical tourism might be the way for her to go.
Maleny turned to a friend who had previously gone to Tijuana, Mexico, for plastic surgery. The content creator, who has been sharing her plastic surgery journey on TikTok, was so impressed with her friend’s results that she decided to go to the same place. It’s how she found herself doing a consultation with Bella Bodiez in October 2024, putting down a deposit and getting her own plastic surgery at the facility in April.
The mom of two, whose son is 11 and daughter is 6, brought her husband down to Mexico with her for the first night. He had to head back home, though, after that, but she insists, it wasn’t too bad dealing with any of the pain — it was the mental toll that she had to work through.
For her procedure, Maleny breaks down everything she got done: “I got an extended tummy tuck. I got a Lipo 360, which was lipo all over my back. I also got arm lipo and on my inner thighs and fat transfer to the glutes [Brazilian butt lift], and the muscle repair that comes with the tummy tuck as well.”
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Maleny after her tummy tuck
For all of that, plus her garments, vitamin IV and lymphatic massage, some additional medical procedures related to the surgery and her overnight stay (plus her husband’s) cost $7,800. Her weeklong stay at the medical recovery facility was an additional $1,000.
She says the Mexico surgery facility also offered her a customized experience. They played Bad Bunny in the operating room while she was going under for surgery, at her request.
She stayed by herself in Tijuana for a week to recover and says she only had mild discomfort during that time. Much of it came while she was sleeping or if she would jolt her muscles, because of the muscle repair.
“Every time I would cough or sneeze, forget it. It was the most painful ever,” she says looking back.
Now that she’s more than three months post-op, she’s still a little swollen, she says, but she already loves her results. She’s had a fantastic support system around her, including her mom, her sisters-in-law and her husband, who pitched in when she needed help with the kids and the house, and her social media circle. It has all combined to help her see that getting the surgery was the empowering move that she needed to make at this point in her life.
“Everyone who I talked to in person that had gotten any plastic surgery procedure, they were like, ‘It’s the best thing that you’ll ever do for yourself,'” she says. “That’s how I feel now. It literally changed my life. Now I can’t stop staring at myself in the mirror. It’s like a whole new person, a whole new body. It literally changes your life.”
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Maleny has been sharing her journey on TikTok since she revealed that she would be getting surgery in Mexico, and she was surprised to find such a welcoming community of people who are asking questions about her procedures and are championing her decision. She admits she was nervous about being open, but she’s hopeful that if more people are open about their surgeries that more people will continue to feel empowered to make decisions about their own bodies that make them happy.
“Everyone has been so positive and so supportive. I thought that I was going to get negativity, backlash, whatever. But no, absolutely not. If I can help someone, if my story can help someone make it feel less judgmental and more understanding, then why not? Especially if you’re a mom.”
While medical tourism has risen in popularity in recent years, there is still always a risk involved, which Maleny was comfortable taking.
“Anything can happen anywhere,” she says.
Read the original article on People
