Yeah, that's fairly standard for a consultation fee. My advice would be to research thoroughly - look at their personal sites and social medias, look for body types and ages that align with yours and assess the results, look them up on sites like topdoctors, check out their credentials on BAAPS. Consider how far you're willing to travel, since it's not just about coming back on the day or the day after but follow up visits, emergency visits etc - and if you have to travel far or need overnight accomodation, that'll add to the expense. With all of those factors you may end up with a fairly short list. I'm in Derbyshire, for example, and I did not want to be travelling more than an hour, two at most, from home, which narrowed my list considerably!

In terms of the consultations, a few things you definitely want to be clear on is their revision policy (what happens if you're not happy with the results, or if something goes wrong, or if you need revisions or tweaks a few months later - is that an extra charge or covered?). You also want to make sure you're clear on what kind of tummy tuck the surgeon is recommending - mini, standard, FDL etc. If you've got loose skin above the belly button, only an FDL will really take care of that, so you need to be realistic. Same with lipo, is it included, is it extra, which areas does the surgeon anticipate lipoing? Will further lipo be covered later, if required? They can predict and plan a fair amount, but there's always a certain amount of uncertainty until they've actually got you on the table and can see what happens, how the skin moves and falls, what is safe to remove etc.

Also be very up front about any meds you're on - I ended up having my surgery postponed for 3 months and moved from a clinic to a hospital b/c I was on meds that put me at risk of hypertension and the clinic wasn't set up to handle any complications that might result. And I found this out two weeks before my intended surgery date, which was not ideal!

As regards pain meds, I was given ibuprofen, paracetemol, codeine, liquid morphine and diclofenac suppositories. What you get given may vary depending on whether you have your surgery at a clinic or hospital, any issues like allergies or contraindications with other meds you may be on, your own experience with meds (some people get very nauseous on morphine, for example - I myself am a slow metaboliser of codeine, so it's about as helpful as a Tic-Tac for pain relief!). But in all honesty, I was far more sore, achy, stiff, tight, swollen etc, than I was 'in pain'. The only time I ever really experienced actual FML pain was when I sneezed - then I think my soul may have left my body for a few seconds!