Excess Skin Care: Infection and Recovery

NateH
on 8/21/17 2:51 pm
VSG on 09/26/14

I've lost about 250 pounds on my journey and am left with some excess skin. I'm fortunate that it's just in my mid-section and not horrific. However, for my specific situation I have to sort of "tuck" my extra skin into my waistband and "smash" it against my hips to properly contain it. (I'm not sure how to say this exactly, but hopefully that makes sense).

Well in doing so, my skin is always folded over a bit on itself on my sides, right where my hipbones are. Lately (3 weeks or so), I haven't felt well. My skin on my sides/abdomen is always red, damaged looking and just not pretty to see. Finally after a few weeks of no energy, fevers and massive (!) night sweats I went to my doctor.

It turns out that my skin had a small lesion from being mashed between waistband and hip bone. It created a very small, straight line, incision-like cut in my skin. The skin folding over kept this area hot and damp and an infection grew.

I'm on oral antibiotics and a topical cream, and am feeling much, much better.

I thought I'd pass this along to others to be mindful of the dangers of your excess skin and "bundling" it and smashing it around.

I've not seriously though of skin removal, but this actually has me thinking about it now. I don't want to have to constantly worry about an infection and I simply can't move my skin to other places unless I wear my pants around my ankles! :)

HW: 450
SW: 428 9/26/14
Reached 'normal' BMI (24.9) with a weight of 199.9: 2/5/2016

    

Shannon S.
on 8/21/17 3:30 pm
VSG on 11/07/17

Thanks for sharing. Glad you are on the road to recovery. Hate to say this, but you now have a documented skin issue. Insurance may help at least with a panni!

Doriam R.
on 8/21/17 8:21 pm - Austin, TX
VSG on 07/12/17

You should check on your insurance, best of luck!!

Valerie G.
on 8/22/17 7:55 am - Northwest Mountains, GA

What Doriam was eluding to was that your skin infections can be documented to help get insurance to pay for a tummy tuck. You can use this to help demonstrate medical necessity.

What you're experiencing is a yeast infection in the folds. This is a fungus, and can be treated with an antifungal cream, like that used for jock itch or athletes foot. If you want something even stronger, get a vaginal yeast infection cream, which the active ingredient is even stronger.

When dressing, tuck some absorbent paper towels where the skin folds over to absorb the moisture. Some also use a powder like Gold Bond or Anti Monkey Butt which absorbs moisture and is also medicated, as a preventative measure.

Another thing you may not have thought of is a shaper garment. They do make them for men, and they will help hold things in place much easier. I suggest a larger size than your shirts for the sake of comfort, since you're just securing things and not trying to look slimmer, necessarily. I found some on Amazon

Valerie
DS 2005

There is room on this earth for all of God's creatures..
next to the mashed potatoes

NateH
on 8/22/17 8:27 am
VSG on 09/26/14

Thank you for the tips! I do have an appointment with my GP and a dermotoligist coming up to keep documenting these. My insurance company has rejected me, so I need to have more documented "events" to try to get their decision overturned. Still not sure I'm ready to commit fully to skin surgery (scared of long recovery time) but I think I'm leaning more and more to exploring this as an option.

Thanks again! Oh, also I did find some undershirts to help corral some of the skin and I did get some powder my derm recommended.

HW: 450
SW: 428 9/26/14
Reached 'normal' BMI (24.9) with a weight of 199.9: 2/5/2016

    

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