Hi

First of all I am so sorry for all you have been through.

I think this may help you.... If you are going to go through all that plastic surgery entails, you want to get the best results possible. We have a conference coming this fall and always feature plastic surgeons and they provide "free" plastic surgery consults. Here is one of the surgeons' criteria before they want to see someone. Not being mean, just their experience tells them this is what you need to get the best results....

* Criteria for post-bariatric/weight loss body contouring procedures: ***

• BMI ? under 30 is preferred, however, there can be some variables to this on a case-by-case basis
• Stable weight for a minimum of 3 (three) months
• Within 20-30lbs of their goal weight preferred
• If post-bariatric surgery, it has been 6 months since your final bariatric surgery procedure
• All patients must be nicotine free for a minimum of six weeks prior to and after any elective surgical procedure
• Typically three to six months to allow for recovery and healing between staged cases

Hang in there and we are all here for you

Sorry for the late reply, got so busy with the holiday "weekend"

Thank you for the advice though, it has been super helpful!

My surgery was on March 20th. I did great for a month. At that point a 2 inch area on my incision opened and it required a wound vac for six weeks. I am still wearing a dressing on the would but have returned back to work. I am happy with my results and I would do it again, however there are a few things I would do differently. I would plan to be off a minimum of 4-6 weeks. I went back to work @ 2 and we believe that is what caused my problem, and after the would vac for 6 weeks I got pneumonia and was in the hospital for a week. So all in all I was off work approx 8 weeks. I would also insist that my surgeon send me home with drains, I did not have drains and I had fluid build up which again I contribute to going back to work to soon ( office admin ). For me, the most important thing is I would have scheduled to be off work at the very least 8 weeks.

Thank you, Laura!

I so agree, Liz! Some people seem to have such and easy time of it and others like me seem to end up with every complication in the book even if we do everything the surgeon asks of us.