skin removal surgery cost?

This scares me! I heard on The Doctors that anyone who loses at least 50 pounds usually has loose hanging skin that should be removed. I can't imagine EVER being able to afford the surgery, I can barely afford to pay my bills! When I get to my goal, though, it will be 51.3 pounds. :-(

Before hopping right into surgery how many of you tried to exercise and wait a year or two?

And I mean really exercise, as in, strength training with free weights.

I have worked out (lifting running, etc), ate right, drank more than enough water, used all the lotions and creams and scrubs and wraps, wore compression garments, and waited over 2 years. However, I talked to my Dr and he said it is a myth that skin continues to repair itself that long- If you are not showing any improvement after 6 months at goal weight, any additional change will be negligable, or at least its safe to say that it will never fully "tighten up."

I have stretch marks between my hips, below the pouch of loose skin on my stomach, that are wider than my fingers and still dark red 2 years after weight loss. My skin is extremely thin, stretched, and loose on my entire abdomen area. I wear a size 2-4 at 5'5.5" I am not overweight, my BF% is around 22% per testing, and I am at a healthy weight.

It took me a long time to even consider surgery. At my last appointment with my Dr, I showed him my stomach and although he is not an expert on plastic surgery/tummy tucks, etc, he did tell me that even the most extreme measures of working out and eating right are NOT going to change the things that upset me about my mid section, hips, and pubic area. He pulled and tightened certain areas to show me the difference, and it is crazy because my hip bones poke out when that stretchy, twistable skin is smoothed away from them, all of the skin is easily twisted and pulled without pain (if that makes sense) And my belly button looks soooo sad right now, I want it to look happy again! LOL

Anyway, most of my family cannot understand why I would even contemplate going through surgery, having scars, etc.. But the truth is, this skin is already scarring me. I look in the mirror at it daily. True, it is NOT as bad a some, but that doesnt mean it doesnt affect me and bother me emotionally. I have gone a long time still feeling "fat" and "unhealthy" when in reality, I am not the skin just gives that appearance.

I take offense when family, friends, and strangers make it sound like I havent worked hard enough and that this is the easy way out. But it isnt an easy decision and I dont know if I will ever afford it... But in 2 weeks I have a consultation to find out what my options are, so :happy:

I've only lost 67 lbs so far and my stomach is a disaster zone already. I'm giving it 2 years though, then we'll see... Frankly at this point I don't even know what's fat and what's skin! it's seriously awful.

My mother used to get infections under her skin fold and I would care for her every day, cleaning and putting on medication for the fungal infections. They oozed blood and pus and honestly smelled like a dead body. She was not a candidate for surgery because of illness, which was the cause of her weight gain to begin with. She had very painful auto-immune disease in her legs called vasculitis and had to take daily steroids to control the swelling and pain. Steroids made her gain weight very fast and made her last days very unpleasant.

Point: If this was not a medical necessity, what is? These infections can kill the patient and in her case almost did more than once. Her doctor wanted to do the surgery which would have been covered under her medicaid (she was 65) but she just wasn't healthy enough.

For those who want the surgery more for cosmetic reasons I can't say that I believe insurance should pay for it. My reason for this is that we usually appreciate what we work hard for and pay for ourselves. You've worked hard to get off the pounds now work hard to find a way to pay for it. Relapse into bad eating habits is much less likely to happen if you have a $10,000 reason not to. It's what I plan on doing. I have 80lbs to go.

Private Insurance must cover, at least in California. See H&S code 1367.63. Call attorney Robert Gianelli 213 489-1600 if it doesn't or if you have paid out of pocket to have it removed.

What a bunch of ignorance, nobody gets fat on purpose. If they did they wouldn't be here using these types of tools and support forums. It's definitely no ones fault that they were raised by ignorance, and sold on their ignorance. Companies sell some of the worst foods and drinks, in America more than anywhere else. There is hardly any education on proper eating, and horrible, awful marketing for diets such as low fat, low protein and high carb diets being sold to people. All of which, of course fail.

Sure, no one forced them to eat that way, but they didn't know any better, and then after being crapped on by the public for years, they want to crap on them some more by taking thousands of dollars for a surgery to make them look regular. People are never satisified. They'll scream at you to lose weight, and then they'll scream at you about raising insurance costs. Too bad that the health problems associated with obesity drives health costs.

People don't know any better, and there is no effort to educate them. Worst of all, the ignorant morons who blame people for gaining weight as if it's their fault for doing so treat them like they are animals of some kind. You want to do something about it, the first step is to stop being an a**hole, and try to inspire people to do the right and proper thing. Not crap all over them with nonsense you pulled from your *kitten*.

There are medical, psychological, genetic, and lack of knowledge reasons for gaining weight. It isn't just because they ate ten bags of doritos or whatever ignorant, moronic statement you can come up with next. Driving up the costs of insurance has nothing to do with excess skin removal, and everything to do with the lack of education and ignorance corporations and culture have forced on people. Whining about stuff you have no clue about and then insulting people just makes you look like an idiot, and you deserve to be insulted for it in return.

Don't crap on people who are a part of the solution and not the problem you ignorant primitive a**holes!

This is a very harsh comment. I'm not sure why you even chose to read a thread dealing with an issue that you obviously know nothing about let alone make such a mean comment. Thanks for making those of us who have chosen to better ourselves by losing weight gained over 20 plus years due to a variety of different circumstances feel like we're not worthy to feel good about ourselves. Fortunately for me, I am a stronger person now after losing about 100 pounds to I can just let your comment roll off. Some people, however, are not as strong and your comment would really hurt them.

Whether the weight gain was caused by eating too much or some other medical condition excess skin should be considered a covered procedure.

Here is my reasoning:
-I have one coworker that was an avid flag football player and water skier(mostly barefoot). Both activities destroyed the cartilage in his knees and he had BOTH knees replaced as a covered procedure.
-Friend of a friend is a big time runner. Runs in races all the time. She got a knee and a hip replaced due to the damage that the running caused. Again, covered.

If these types of self caused "repairs" can be covered then the skin removal should be also. If not then start denying all other self caused issues.

The weight loss that causes the extra skin will SAVE the insurance companies vast amounts of money in the long run.

PS: To add insult to injury the people mentioned above still continue to do the activities that caused their issues an will most likely need to have them done again at some point.

I was disappointed when I reached goal and realized that being a size six didn't make my body any younger. I lost 77 pounds and have elephant skin in lots of places. Most of them are covered by my clothes, but my arms do bother me quite a bit. I have to remember to do a "princess wave" instead of flapping my flab at people:). If I could afford it, I would do something. But I guess I will say goodbye to looking good in my birthday suit . I'm 64 years old though. Wish I had lost the weight when I was younger; I would definitely consider surgery. But then I might not have needed it.