I'm not sure I can answer all your questions but I can offer you my experience. I had a FTT/MR two months ago. Like you I was miserable about my stretchmarked yukky tummy. I have two children, one with a c-section, and I gained a HUGE amount of weight with my first then lost it pretty quickly. This left my tummy loose and hanging, it was so bad I gained weight to fill it out a bit, my tummy looked a little better but I was miserable. For me the TT was the only option I had to try and restore my confidence in my looks. So far it has been a long and difficult recovery, not so much in a medical sense, although I did have a hematoma, but in an emotional sense it's definately a rollercoaster ride.
I am still a little swollen but it is going down slowly but I LOVE my new shape, I'm already wearing clothes I wouldn't have even considered before surgery, I'm 32 so I'm not talking crop-tops or anything here just fitted tops that look so much better now. I have got my pre pregnancy curves back and I barely have any stretch marks left. The scar is so much easier to live with than the stretch marks I had before surgery. On the whole I'm very happy I did this and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. It took me years to make the descision and I took out a loan to pay for it, but the way I see it it costs less than a new car and it will last me a lifetime and improve my and my familys standard of life by making me happy and confident again.
I had mine done in a BUPA hospital, I cant reccomend them enough. Excellent, highly regarded surgeon and faultless after care, I have nothing bad to say about the service I recieved from them
I'm afraid I cant tell you about getting the op done on the NHS, I don't think they would have considered me a bad enough case to be honest so I didn't even bother getting a referral from my doctor. Call around and most surgeons offices will be happy to send you a ton of info, it gives you somehwhere to start with an idea of prices etc.
You can see my before and after pics at
http://www.picturetrail.com/loola1 the password is mytt.