Hi Tammy,

My hightest 'known' weight was just shy of 270 and I'm about 5'5" tall now... I've shrunk a bit ;-)

At any rate, while I absolutely do have some excess skin, to be honest no one would know it when I'm dressed. I don't have 'great genes' as it relates to skin elasticity goes. I do have my own little 'zoo' I carry with me... 'bat wings,' 'turkey neck,' 'elephant thighs,' and a wobbly tummy. That said, I have learned to work on looking at myself more gently and realize that there are others that never packed around the excess weight I did, are about my age and look about the same or even worse sometimes. I will never see these things as badges of honor... though I know that some do and I applaud them... but, with time, I'm not as harsh with myself as I once was. There are some ways to get insurance to cover removal of the pannus, if you have one... We can tell you what you need to do to document the 'necessity' if it comes to that. Honestly, I don't have enough to warrant a surgical solution, from an insurance perspective. 

You are welcome to look at my before and after photos. I realize that there is about a 50 lb difference. You'll need to wait and see. You will be able use some reasonably comfortable shape-wear if you want to, but I must admit that I only wear it if the outfit dictates. It is very unlikely that I will ever be able to afford any plastics, so some shapewear is the closest I'm going to get.

I honestly think that, for me, the excess skin took some time to come to terms with. It was the outward, visible manifestation of the damage I had done to myself. I remember when I first lost the weight and people would say how 'wonderful' I looked... and I would say, 'not if you could see me undressed'... I think this is because even though I looked pretty good in clothes, I almost felt 1) a fraud... like I would wake in the morning and be big again.... and 2) grief at the damage I had caused myself. The skin for me, was the tangible, outward sign of the years of damage I wrecked on my body and even though part of me was looking better, the 'real' me, unclothed showed the signs of my excess weight. Time has generally allowed me some peace with this. I wore a beautiful sleeveless gown to my son's wedding last year and took the jacket off and danced the night fantastic. No one thought I looked like I was about to levitate. Everyone thought I looked lovely. I guess, I'm saying that with time comes some forgiveness. Also, this is something that I work on daily. Each morning after I am dressed, I look in the mirror and find something that I 'like' about myself. Sometimes it is my smile, my hair, etc... this morning, it was my lovely decolatage... I never thought I would have a lovely decolatage! I do this each day because I was focusing so on what distressed me about my excess skin that I wasn't seeing what was lovely... We are so much more gentle and forgiving of others than we are of ourselves. This exercise each day helps me appreciate the positives. 

I guess I'm trying say that the excess skin is not something to 'dismiss' if it's a concern for you, but with time I have found a way to find balance even though I'll likely never be able to have the damage I created surgically corrected.