Did anyone have plastics before losing all of the weight?

Sara M.
on 5/26/12 8:52 am - CA
VSG on 03/06/12
I ask because I am having MAJOR issues with my back due to the drooping weight that used to be my full breasts.

How close to goal?  How long generally do they want the weight off (or stop losing) before it is considered?

I am seeing my doc in two weeks and the plastic surgeon is right there.  I am wondering if I should schedule a consultation or at least leave a message for him.

I did go through about 10 pages of posts to investigate, but I couldn't find specific answers to my questions.

Thanks for your advice!

   
Consult: 270   Surgery: 256   1 Month: 237    2 Mos: 223   3 Mos: 208    4 Mos: 198
5 Mos: 188    6 Mos:178     7 Mos: 169
Iam_with_the_Band
on 5/26/12 10:12 am
After losing over 200lbs and still not close to goal, I had my TT and brachioplasty due to chronic back pain and mobility issues.  I think it is fine if you remember these things:

If you lose more than 20lbs post plastics, you will need a revision.

Your results won't be a good - if you are still overweight.

The chance of complications is much higher if your BMI is higher than 35.  Many ps won't do plastics on someone with a BMI of 35 or higher.

It's major surgery, so you have to decided if you want to have it done twice.  You also have to decided if you want to spend that money.  In the end, I will have spent twice what everyone else has to have the same final result, but my back pain resolved immediately following my TT. 

12/09 and 6/11, 9 skin removal procedures with Dr. Sauceda in Monterrey Mexico
Revised to the Sleeve after losing 271 lbs with the LapBand. 

godzilla
on 5/26/12 12:24 pm - Israel
I too had my TT before reaching normal BMI and as the previous poster said about PSdocs and insurance coverage-many request a stable weight for certain length of time before they will even operate.
I live in Israel where we have socialized medicine. There are those who choose to go private but not me! I live off of Disabilty and any "extra" funds I have are for necessities of vitamin supplements and protein powder.
However and that being said/written, I began my surgical weight-loss journey in 1992 and it was a year's time before my date came up. Back then the surgery available was SRVG (open surgery and non-adjustable Ring). I weighed 120K/152cm (5ft.) and lost weight down to 92K but I vomited most everything I ate-or at least the food of nutritional value! I became anemic and remained
morbidly obese while gaining one kilo a year. In 2001 I was revised to a VBG (also open surgery and a different style non-adjustable ring). I developed severe GERD. In 2008, after researching my options for a solution in WLS and now weighing 104K (bmi45) and to the various medical risks that could possibly happen to me, I was basically told by five different Bariatric Surgeons thst my only option was RnY with no guarantee of success in performing the procedure as I already had a medical history of adhesions/scar tissues.
I am a RnYer that to me is a healthy "success". I am not normal BMI but neither my Bariatric Surgeon,PS or GP consider that an issue.
OF COURSE I went to a medical revie committee for Excess Skin Removal thst convenes once every five weeks for this specific HMO but for the entire country of Israel. The meeting is all of five minutes with an answer mailed to you.
I went to the meeting at a "stable" weight of 83K but horrific rash under hanging pannus-my cesarian scar looked like triple-layered chapped lips that rotation of creams and numerous showering did nothing to alleviate. Originally the Medical Review denied me.I appealed and won.
My Plastics of TT was August ,2011. As i wrote above, I went in weighing 83K. The PS removed 3K. I now weigh 77K. I do not officially exercise-it is "against" my religion,lol. But when I am out walking, now thst there is no hanging belly anymore flap-flapping against my still-fat thighs, I can walk quicker without this need to stop for breath or rest along the way.
My scars heal uglily( keloid and hypertropic). I also suffer very much with the rashes under my hanging pendulous breasts. I asked my PS to add me to the roster of surgeries for Breast Lift (Mastopexy) and Scar Revision. He added me and I was given a date.I went thru another Excess Skin Removal medical review
and, but of course they denied me. I appealed to the Ministry of Health (high up in the hierarchy) and I WON.
At my pre-op, I was told that my surgery was being bumped due to several melanoma cases (cancer takes precedence). This was May 10. I am eagerly awaiting a new surgery date which I was lead to believe would be in June.
Good luck on your weight-loss journey and Plastics research. Now is the time for PS consults- options on body regions,prices and how comfortable you feel with whom you are talking to.
Bring any medical documentation (Xray and orthopedist, skin doc if rashes and
letter from GP. All will hopefully help you to get what you deserve. Check your HMO insurance claim and its wording for Plastics procedures. What you need/want is NOT COSMETIC but medically necessary for your day-to-day existence and living functionally.
Sorry for my rambling. I should be asleep but sleep eludes me.
Mikimi in Israel
pagek77
on 5/26/12 2:26 pm, edited 5/26/12 2:55 pm
 I think you'll get a variety of answers. I know many on OH waited until they had maintained a stable weight for a year or two. I was 7 months out from RNY and 7lbs from "my" goal which still puts me in the overweight category. I think my BMI is around 27 but I think if I lost much more weight, I would start too look sickly.

Anyway, because I was so close to goal, I had two consults. I'm in my 30s and don't have any health issues. That combined wirh being so close to goal and unlikely to lose much more from my large, saggy boobs and equally saggy flabby gut, both PS felt I could have surgery whenever I wanted.

I know you can regain after RNY but I'm committed and feel like this "tool" will help me keep my weight off so I had PS at only 7 months out and I am SO happy I did it! For the last 20 years, I feel like my life has been on hold because I was always going to do something or buy something once I got down to a healthy weight, but it didn't happen! I've lost about 76lbs (I'm only 4'11") and went from a BMI of 42 to 27ish. I didn't want to wait a year or two for PS. I still felt awful about my body because I badly needed a BR and TT so I decided it was time to stop putting my life on hold and just go for it :).

However, if either PS had recommended I wait, I probably would have taken their advice. But they both felt that having RNY made the odds of regain unlikely, I was so close to goal and healthy so they both thought now was fine and safe.

ETA: My neck, shoulders and lower back were hurting for a long time and getting worse as i was becoming mote active (luke jogging) which is also why I was anxious to have my BR & TT sooner than later.
Laura in Texas
on 5/26/12 10:25 pm
I know for those of us who have had malapsorptive procedules like the RNY and DS, our nutrition is a big factor. If we have surgery too early out, healing properly can be a huge issue. But for those of you who have had lap-band or the sleeve, I don't think it is a problem.

Laura in Texas

53 years old; 5'7" tall; HW: 339 (BMI=53); GW: 140 CW: 170 (BMI=27)

RNY: 09-17-08 Dr. Garth Davis

brachioplasty: 12-18-09 Dr. Wainwright; lbl/bl: 06-28-11 Dr. LoMonaco

"May your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears."

Sara M.
on 5/26/12 10:39 pm - CA
VSG on 03/06/12
Thank you everyone for your advice!

   
Consult: 270   Surgery: 256   1 Month: 237    2 Mos: 223   3 Mos: 208    4 Mos: 198
5 Mos: 188    6 Mos:178     7 Mos: 169
Jujuvee
on 5/27/12 4:50 am
After becoming half the woman I use to be and 3 years out from lapband I decided I was done and wanted to get rid of the skin. I was over 400 at my heighest and 203 on surgery day. I had a circumferential and brachioplasty. 16.3 pounds of yuck was removed but due to some of that being fluid that the body replinishes, I showed a loss of 10. Due to an old school gallbaldder scar my surgeon informed me that there would be a revision.

So I am now 192 and headed in to phase 2 plastics in November. Since we are doing a revision my surgeon ok'd me to lose a bit more if I wanted and If I do great but if I don't great. It's ben a long journey and i am very happy where i am.

phase 2 will be a revision of the stomach and arms to take off more skin as my surgeon sees room for improvement and at that time I will be having a thighplasty and a breast lift.

My Point.... If you are paying then you can go in whenever you are ready!

HW 405- Pre op weight 374- Plastics weight 203 Current weight 194

Circumferential lift/Brachioplasty November 8, 2011

16.3 pounds removed.

Revisions + Thighplasty  October 23, 2012

Breast lift- Spring 2013
 

Mary B.
on 5/29/12 1:09 am - Southern, MD
I cant seem to get past a bmi of 33-34. meds, trainers, doctors,  two different wls surgeries. I stopped losing at 7 months post op with my rny. I see a trainer 4 days a week at the gym and my nut...tracking food. My body is just obviously finished. Im so tired of the mind games with the scale. Im 5'8-5'9 and 228lbs.

Im saving for plastics now and crossing my fingers, praying, doing what ever I can to have them by January. I just want to be happy in my body. If I can get some of my muffin top gone, a little something on my back rolls and my arms, I think I'll be perfectly content being 'curvy'. I havent had any consulations though. Hopefully I dont get just a flat out NO because of my bmi.
    Banded Feb 23, 2009 / Revision to RNY Aug 25, 2010
 
pagek77
on 5/30/12 1:20 am
 I'm sure that is frustrating. You really might have a lot of muscle weight if you workout with a trainer so frequently. Have you had your trainer do one of those fat % tests on you? They're not super accurate depending if you're dehydrated or maybe retaining more water than usual. But if you just eat normally a couple days before the test and don't get tested right before/during that TOM, it'll give you a good starting point of your body fat %. Another poster on a different thread gave great advice about focusing more on your body fat % than BMI. The BMI charts seem outdated since they don't account for body frame, size, etc. 

When I did this intensive weight loss program at my gym a couple years ago that included appts w/ doctors, dietitians, personal trainers, etc., the doctor was hesitant to give me an "ideal" weight. I pressed him on the issue because I wanted to know and I think it was something which I thought was ridiculously low. I'm short but I don't have a petite frame and my bust has always been large for my frame so I couldn't imagine supposed to be like 110 when I felt great at 150. I said maybe I would try for 140 and he said that would be fine but I should focus on getting my body fat % to 25% or below and he thought that might be possible at 140 for me considering my frame, etc.

The most accurate way to get your body scan is to get a DEXA scan of your body, but you'd probably have to pay for that. Anyway I didn't mean to write this long post ;). I'd seriously be surprised if any PS said no so don't worry. You sound like you're in good shape but like many of us need PS to get rid of the muffin top, etc :).
            
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