Cosmetic Surgery Anybody doing it?

Good morning, I am curious for my people that are post op, have you had any cosmetic surgery done and any pointers you can give?  I am a consult this morning and I'm anxious but nervous at the same time.  What are some questions that I should go in?  I am looking at having a thigh lift. I can live with my stomach, but I really want my legs done since this is where I carried most of my weight. I want to one day be able to wear a mini skirt. Any input and recommendations would be greatly appreciated. 

You have not said how long you have been at this nor whether you are at goal. I have heard that you should not consider plastics until you have maintained your weight for at least 2 years.

My surgery was two years ago. I have been at the same weight for the past 5 months. In looking at my legs my doctor agreed that I have pretty much lost all that I can.  My legs is what is holding me back at this point.  After they removed the excess skin from my legs, I will be finished.  So I definitely waited until I leveled out. 

well then, good luck TT. Hope all goes well for you and Congratulations on all your hard work!!

thanks so much! i will keep you posted on how it goes!

Lots of us have done it. I've had brachioplasty, a lower body lift, and breast lift. Best part of the journey so far. It's like the icing on the cake.

There is a plastics forum here on OH:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/plasticsurgery/a,messageboard/board_id,4861/

Thanks so much for sharing Laura!  How long was your recovery time?  Did you do each procedure separately? 

Thighs are notorious for having then incisions breaking down and turning nercrotic.  Be sure to ask the surgeon how he would evaluate the quality of your skin and whether or not he thinks you are at risk (even if he says he thinks it will be ok, know that it may happen anyway... and it takes necrotic incisions a long time to heal as you have to wait for the removed dead tissue (and the surgeon may have to do several roiunbds of removal of dead tissue and skin) to heal from the inside out before the skin can start to grow back... and you will end up with scars that look more like burn scars than a clean incision scar).  My tummy tick incision turned necrotic and I cannot even imagine having that happen on the insides of my thighs (so I will continue to just cover my thighs up)!

Ask to see BEFORE and AFTER pics of thigh lifts he has done, and pay particular attention to the "before" pics that look like YOUR thighs, because often people are not very happy with the end result and then admit that they did not see many (or any) pics or that the "before" pics they saw were of people whose thighs looked different than theirs did.  If they look siugnificantly different going into surgery they will likely have results that look very different.

Don't mean to scare you... some people are very happy with thigh lifts, but some are not.  I wouls post something on the plastic surgery forum and ask people about their experiences.

Lora

this is the kind of feedback that I was looking for!  Thanks so much! I am printing this and taking it with me. 

I've pretty much had it all done. LBL, Brachio, BL/BA and thighs. I combined procedures to lessen time off from work and reduce the cost since only had to pay for the OR room & anesthesia 2 times instead of 4.

The thighs are probably the most painful of the plastics you'll have done IMO. As Lora said there is the possiblity of having issues w/ the incisions espcially where your legs meet since that's where all the incisions come together. I had a spot on each thigh at the junction that took longer to close but didn't have any issue w/ necrotic tissue.

Another thing to consider is how do you scar. I see by your avatar that you are African American so keloids tend to be more of an issue with us. Are you going to be trading in the extra skin for big ugly scars as the thigh lift scar can go all the way to your knee depending on what you do. If your plan is to wear mini skirts would the scars deter you from doing so. Also are you going to have the Dr. do lipo along w/ the thigh lift. I had big thighs and had a lot of extra skin removed but still have some issues. Would have like to have the results be a little better and more lipo might have gotten me there but I'm still satisfied.

I was back to work after 10 days w/ the thigh lift. Would have taken longer if I could have but didn't have that much vacation left. I was back to normal activity at 3 weeks but had swelling in my legs for a good 6 months post op.