Excess Skin Forum (Surgery or Body Image)
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Plastic surgery costs varying depending on what part of the country you are in. I had an extended TT, scar revision and breast lift two years ago and it cost right around $15,000 for everything, including an overnight at the free standing surgical center. If you have any pre-existing medical issues you will probably require hospitalization, which adds to the cost.0
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Hi,
I had my arms done along with a breast lift in November of 2010.
It was out patient in a surgery center and I was thereabout 4 hours total.
I went home all bandaged around the chest and from my wrists to my armpits.
I had 1 drain in each armpit, but did not feel anything because of the anesthetic and pain meds.
I went back the next day and they unwrapped my bandages, pulled out the drains and re bandaged me.
The syrgery was on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. I took the whole next week off.
I was up and walking around the neighborhood by Saturday ... And driving and running errands byMonday, getting ready for thanksgiving.
I was uncomfortable but not in pain.
In the evenings, my arms would feel heavy ski would wrap them with flexible ice packs. For an hour or so.
Overall, it was a breeze and I am so glad I had it done.
I had a tummy tuck 2 1/2 weeks ago and also am surprised that it was not nearly as painful as I expected.
Completely worth it to have a body I a proud of.
Good luck0 -
I have been about 2 or 3 pounds from goal since June 2011. I had a lot of excess skin in the lower abdominal area and felt as though that excess skin looked pretty bad. On January 27, I had a tummy tuck. I am now back to exercising except for any kind of ab work. That will have to wait for a few more months. I am very pleased with the results, and finally feel comfortable when I look in the mirror. I stayed overnight and came home the morning after surgery. I had 2 drains that were left in place for two weeks. I had the surgery on Friday and took pain medication until Tuesday. After that I felt pretty good and really didn't need to take anything after that.
My arms and legs have a bit of excess skin but I have exercised a lot for several years and these areas aren't too bad. At least not bad enough to have further surgery,0 -
I will probably NEED a breast lift when I'm done losing the weight. For anyone who's had it done, how bad are the scars? I've seen "after" pictures (scars around the aureola and down the underside), but I don't know how long after surgery they were. I mean, I can hardly even find my tiny LapBand scars, but these would be more drastic, I'm guessing.0
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I will probably NEED a breast lift when I'm done losing the weight. For anyone who's had it done, how bad are the scars? I've seen "after" pictures (scars around the aureola and down the underside), but I don't know how long after surgery they were. I mean, I can hardly even find my tiny LapBand scars, but these would be more drastic, I'm guessing.
I have to ask, why are you so worried about the scars???????? Yes, I have scars, but they are minimal and faded. I love having my breasts up where they belong. My clothing fits better. I can wear strapless clothing. The scar are not visible in clothing and my boyfriend does not mind them. No one else sees them. I do not understand why people worry about the scars.0 -
I agree. You just have decide which one is more important to you. Hanging/excess skin or a few scars. Any surgery you have will have scars, so it is a part of the process.I will probably NEED a breast lift when I'm done losing the weight. For anyone who's had it done, how bad are the scars? I've seen "after" pictures (scars around the aureola and down the underside), but I don't know how long after surgery they were. I mean, I can hardly even find my tiny LapBand scars, but these would be more drastic, I'm guessing.
I have to ask, why are you so worried about the scars???????? Yes, I have scars, but they are minimal and faded. I love having my breasts up where they belong. My clothing fits better. I can wear strapless clothing. The scar are not visible in clothing and my boyfriend does not mind them. No one else sees them. I do not understand why people worry about the scars.0 -
I had and still have lots of loose skin. I had my arms done first in '04 and it was a botch job so I had to have a revision. That scared me to do anything else for 5 years and then in '09 I had the lower body lift and WOW! It was great so I had the upper body lift 2 yrs later in '11. I look and feel so much better and was going to stop but now I want to move forward to see if I can afford to do the legs. I'm currently between jobs so I have the time and I still have credit to pay for it. I never thought in a million years I'd spend this much money on myself. My legs are enormous still and I look very out of proportion. I have a consult set for Wednesday with the PS that did my upper and lower so we'll see how it goes. I'll let you all know what he says.0
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Back from my consult on the thighs. PS suggests 2 stage surgery whereby he does lipo first to deflate/debulk and then 3-6 months later the thigh lift. I think I'm going to move forward even though it is costly and I'm nervous. I will then hope an pray that I find a job to pay off the debt so my DH doesn't have to pay for it (even though is has offered because he knows how much it means to me) He says he loves me just the way I am and was before the surgeries, however, he never knew me before GB at 380, hahaha.
Has anyone else had the thighs done or lipo? I've never thought of having lipo.0 -
I was hoping someone would have responded I'm disappointed but that's life:brokenheart:
Here is an update to whoever is interested.
I went in for my preoperative visit today. Filled out all the forms, had photos taken (gross), measured for support garment that I will have to wear 6 weeks after & that they put on me while I'm under general anesthesia & of course paid in full. The nurse answered all of my questions and then I talked to the PS again. He reassured me that this is a outpatient procedure that should take 3 hours and he hopes to remove 3 liters of fat from my thighs and knees. He said I would be really sore and bruised for a couple of weeks and swollen for months. It's being done in a hospital setting in case of complications but I sure hope and pray that I don't have to.
I know that I still will need a thigh lift but that will have to wait until I win the lotto or rob a bank:laugh: but I'm hoping that this will help me with being able to get into pants better. It is such a drag trying to pull on jeans with all this loose saggy fat around my thighs and knees.:grumble:
If anyone is interested in any further updates please message me because I feel like a moron posting it on this thread since it appears that nobody is interested.
I'm very nervous but excited and would love to hear from anyone who has had this done to calm my fears, hopefully.
Good luck in your journey wherever you are at on it's path!0 -
Hi, Deb! I'm interested! I was disappointed no one replied to your earlier post. My legs are a mess but need to wait before I can have any of this done. I don't know if I'm even a candidate for any of it as I had a total knee replacement about five years ago. I wish that surgeon could have helped me out while he was in there doing the knee but he wouldn't.0
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As I loose weight I have saggy skin too. My upper arms are bad as is my upper thigh area. My tummy is also. Boobs too! My bariatric program will refer you to a Bari Plastics surgeon after you have met your goal and maintained goal weight for 6 months I think if you have followed all the bariatric rules like keeping your appointments, getting your labwork done, not smoking, no alcohol, no caffine, no soda.... I will probably look into it. They give you a discounted rate but it is still expensive and insurance won't cover it most of the time unless you get infections from the loose skin rubbing. I do believe my insurance states it won't cover it if a person has had WLS too. I guess I would just have to pay for it on a health care like credit card or rob some of my retirement funds!
At my WLS support group one woman had her upper arms and upper thighs done about 4 weeks ago. She said the pain wasn't bad. The procedure took 7 hours in Operating Room and she had drains and had to be wrapped daily so she said you have to have someone with you that can help you with that stuff.
I worry about the pain and then the cost too.0 -
Hi, Deb! I'm interested! I was disappointed no one replied to your earlier post. My legs are a mess but need to wait before I can have any of this done. I don't know if I'm even a candidate for any of it as I had a total knee replacement about five years ago. I wish that surgeon could have helped me out while he was in there doing the knee but he wouldn't.
First of all, thanks for your post. I appreciate it!
Second of all, funny but I need a knee replacement on the right knee. That is partly why I rationalized and wanted to do this first because I've heard from my husbands orthopedic (he's had both knees replaced within 6 wks apart, ouch) that any infection would go directly to the artificial joints. While I don't understand this since it's artificial, I still am concerned. In fact, he has to take mass quantities of antibiotics 1 hr prior to even a dental cleaning.
Good luck with what you find out!
Oh yeah, are you happy you had your knee replaced? Seeing my DH go through it twice REALLY made me nervous about that. In fact, I'm hoping that by removing this excess around my knees it will help buy me a few more years until I need it done but time will tell.0 -
As I loose weight I have saggy skin too. My upper arms are bad as is my upper thigh area. My tummy is also. Boobs too! My bariatric program will refer you to a Bari Plastics surgeon after you have met your goal and maintained goal weight for 6 months I think if you have followed all the bariatric rules like keeping your appointments, getting your labwork done, not smoking, no alcohol, no caffine, no soda.... I will probably look into it. They give you a discounted rate but it is still expensive and insurance won't cover it most of the time unless you get infections from the loose skin rubbing. I do believe my insurance states it won't cover it if a person has had WLS too. I guess I would just have to pay for it on a health care like credit card or rob some of my retirement funds!
At my WLS support group one woman had her upper arms and upper thighs done about 4 weeks ago. She said the pain wasn't bad. The procedure took 7 hours in Operating Room and she had drains and had to be wrapped daily so she said you have to have someone with you that can help you with that stuff.
I worry about the pain and then the cost too.
Thank you so much for your post!
I wish I had heard of this before I had any PS done! I guess because I wasn't in a bariatric program per se explains why I never knew of it. I mentioned to another post that my bariatric surgeon retired within my first year post op and I was never given a referral surgeon or nut. I was so ashamed of having to go through the surgery I isolated myself further from any support of any kind by keeping it a secret too. Hindsight I realize I was a fool and only hurt myself further. I stumbled on help on the web and I'm so thankful!
Only regret is that I didn't find out sooner and definitely before my 70 lb regain, lol.0 -
I don't regret having my knee replaced although it was a very difficult surgery to recover from. I hear it's one of the hardest surgeries to recover from, don't know why, but I believe it. Mine was complicated by this... The orthopedic doctor who did my surgery was the son of a doctor here in town who had his license taken away because they said he was selling prescriptions of narcotics. He claimed innocence and I don't know if he was or not but it made his son (my dr) very reluctant to prescribe pain medicine. After I left the hospital I had terrible non-stop pain that the meds he did prescribe didn't help. A couple of years later, I had toe surgery. That dr prescribed the same pain meds but at twice the strength and twice the dose! For a toe!
So, if you have the surgery, find out about pain meds for after surgery!!!
I should have my other knee done but it was such a difficult experience, I'm waiting until it's absolutely necessary. I can tell that it was worth it though. I do a lot of dancing and go to a folk dance weekend on Thanksgiving where you dance at least eight hours a day. My new knee doesn't bother me at the end but my old knee is usually killing me! So it was worth it.0 -
One more thing about knee replacement surgery... I know two people whose new knees came apart after a couple of years! So I'm actually more careful with my new knee than the old one because of that. I don't want to go through that surgery again! I think that the technology has improved tremendously since my friend's surgery. Theirs was about 10 years ago at least. So, I wouldn't let that stop you but I felt I should mention it. You're really not supposed to do a lot of high impact stuff like jumping, especially if you're overweight. Puts too much stress on the orthotic.
And I forgot to say that I, too, had to take antibiotics before dental appts but I thought they said just for the first five years after. I haven't been to the dentist since the five years have past. My dentist retired and I haven't found another. One of my friends whose knee failed had an infection. Not sure if that's why it failed or if the failure caused the infection. They had to clear up the infection before they could do another replacement.0 -
Thanks for your input AnotherAustin! I truly appreciate it and good luck to you & yours!
Deb0 -
2 wks post op of the inner/outer & anterior thigh, calf & knee lipo surgery. I'm just now getting a little bit back to normal. I had complications with the anesthesia and the pain meds which put me behind schedule in my recovery. The first night I had severe nausea but could only dry heeve since my tummy was so empty with surgery at noon and I could have nothing past midnight the night before. 2nd day I was mostly drugged but kept up all Dr's orders, fluids, legs elevated, ice on, ice off, walk, move, etc. I was so light headed and had the twinkly lights every time I got up to move or go potty. Day 3 I passed out on potty, scared me and hubby very badly. He said my eyes rolled back in my head and I was out for +-3 mins. I can't even talk about what was going on while I was passed out. Just glad it's behind me.
Got stitches out on 1 wk post op. The one behind my knees were growing into the skin so that was fun having yanked out. My iron levels were down from 15 to 8 and my BP was 94/68. No wonder I was having twinkly lights and weak. Oh yeah, my chest also felt like an elephant was sitting on it for the entire first week plus. I kept up the deep breathing and coughing, thinking it was the anesthesia. Nurses had no answers. Comforting, right?! I have to go back on Tuesday to see the Dr for the first time since surgery.
The worst part now is the support garment which is very restrictive but important I'm told and have to wear it 4 more weeks, 24/7 with a break only to shower and launder it. I am, of course, bruised worse than I expected too. I see no difference for all the pain and anguish but I'm told it takes months before you see it. They took 6.25 liters and I weighed today 185 which is the same as I did the morning of surgery. Very swollen so we'll see. Needless to say I'm not a happy camper EXCEPT that I'm happy to be alive!
At this point, I'm done with PS...no 2nd phase thigh lift for me. UNLESS, they find a miracle between now and when I die. Thanks for listening.0 -
I'm sorry you had some complications, but it seems like you are on the right track now. I hope the recovery goes more smoothly.
And thanks for keeping us updated. I'm only two months out of surgery, and I'm interested in getting all the information I can.0 -
Thanks for sharing Deb! This is the part that frightens me from persuing the thigh and butt stuff which is what I need. Everyone who I know who have had 1 of 2 proposed surgeries never go thru with the 2nd one because of the pain and issues encountered from the 1st surgery. I am going to see what you decide after 90 days or so. I don't know anyone so far who have went thru with the 2nd one. I am sure people have I just have not came across them yet. Now be encouraged that the people I know like the results but none have went thru with 2nd surgery.At this point, I'm done with PS...no 2nd phase thigh lift for me. UNLESS, they find a miracle between now and when I die. Thanks for listening.
Hang in there dear and keep us posted!! Continue to get well and have a good weekend!:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:0 -
Deb, those surgeries are difficult. There is a lot of bruising. Ithink you should give it a few months. See how happy you are, then go in for a consult on the 2nd surgery. Keep in mind that the 2nd surgery is completely different. No massive bruising. You will be happy with the tighter skin. Please keep up informed. Take care of yourself.0
