Brandi7920

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I had a LBL, Medial Thigh Lift and Lipo of outer thighs on June 4th with Dr. Micheal Hueneke in Nashville, TN. I've read these forums for the past 2 years, gathering information while saving money for my surgery. I'd like to pay it forward by sharing my experience and pictures.

I chose my PS after being referred to him by both my gastric bypass doctor and my gyno who knows him personally both as a patient and a friend.I went to 5 consults, weighed my options and made my choice. Dr. Hueneke has been fantastic, so I definitely made the right choice.

I went to the hospital at 5:30am on Thursday, June 4th. I was quckly admitted and set up and sent to the pre-op room where I was IV'd, but not cocktailed yet. My veins were a little thin from not being able to have anything to eat or drink since midnight the night before. PS came in and I stood up so he could mark all over me. I was then wheeled into OR, drugged up and then woke up in Recovery. I was happy, well drugged, and recall joking around with the nurses. I was then taken to my room to be greeted by my dear boyfriend and best friend with a happy reunion.

I slept alot, and remember my drains being drained very often after getting to my room. Around 11pm, I was due to get up and walk for the first time but my nurse was concerned about the color of one of my drains (very dark) and how often quickly it kept filling up. She decided to call my PS who arrived at the hopstial about 15 minutes later. He felt that there must be a spurting vein and immediately sent me back to OR. It was a random fluke thing that very, very rarely happens. A sneaky little vein had ducked below the muscle and after I was sown up it poked out and started spurting. My PS reopened one side and then the other looking for the sucker and luckily found it and coterized the vein. I was rolled back to my room around 5:30am. I was given a unit of blood as well as some plasma. My PS was great. I was never concerned, I just knew he'd fix whatever needed fixing.

The next morning my PS came by to see us and stayed for a while . We talked about the incident and he assured me that it would not set back my recovery at all - and it hasn't. He said that when he lifted my abdominal skin, my stomach muscles were perfectly flat and well toned..nice to hear that my hard work at the gym was paying off, whether I could see it or not. I stayed an extra night in the hospital, to make sure everything was ok. Didn't have much trouble getting out of the bed, which was a pleasant surprise. I did feel rather unsteady and teensy bit nauseous sitting in a chair. The binder took some getting used to since it rests right over my pouch.

I got home on Saturday, not too uncomfortable with the ride home, pretty drugged. lol I slept alot, on the couch with back propped up and pillows under knees. I was allowed to take a shower the day after I returned home, which was nice. It was exhausting but I felt so gooood to be clean!

Each day has been a bit better than the one before. I rest alot, but pace around the house a few times every 1-2 hours or as needed. It's so odd to look down and not see this mound of skin piled up on my lap - and I love it.

I'm now only take extra-strength tylenol every 4 hours with Percocet as needed at night to sleep. The most difficult thing for me with this surgery after day 5 or 6 has been sleeping. My back incision feels sore and bruised from laying on it so much - so I'm not getting much sleep at this point. I'm also a side/belly sleeper, so that doesn't help any. I bought a new matress topper for my bed yesterday and switched from the couch to the bed. I'm able to lay on my sides for a little while - but not quite long enuogh to actually fall asleep. Still I propped myself up alot with pillows and finally slept off and on for a little while last night in my bed - which was nice. I'm hoping that the sleep issue will resolve soon.

I should get one of my drains out Monday, it's hardly putting anything out and the other is putting out less and less each day, so I'm hopeful that I won't have it for much more than a week longer.

My appetite has greatly decreased, as I expected - so I have been pushing proteins. 2-3 shakes a day plus 2 all protein meals (baked chicken, cheeses).

I'm over 5 years out from WLS and I started out at 351 lb, 5'3. I lost 189 lbs. I had a 27 lb bounce up - mostly due to depression over body image. 189lbs morning of surgery, 20 lb of tissue removed with PS. My scale is down to 170 already and I know I'm very swollen - so I guess we will see where thies leads me. I know I'm eager to get back to the gym - as I'm excited that I'll actually be able to SEE results now! (but I realize it'll be a few weeks before released to light exercising)

I turn 30 on Wednesday, June 17th - I'd say this is a great birthday present to myself!

I'm thrilled to say that after 6 consults in the US and 2 consults via email/ phone with MX doctors, I have FINALLY scheduled my first round of plastic surgery.  I will be having a LBL and Thigh lift with Dr. Hueneke. My surgery is scheduled for June 4, 2009. Almost exactly 3 months away. OMG - I can not wait!!

I rec'd a phone call from Dr. Fleming's office yesterday morning. My insurance company, UHC, approved the panniculectomy portion of my lower body lift (i.e. just the skin removal). I'm completely floored. This will save me approx. $2k off of the $14k bill. It's better than nothing. There is a measure of relief in knowing that now, if I were to have any complications from the procedure - then any after care would be covered since insurance agreed to the medical necessity. 

I have struggled with this issue of excess skin very much. It keeps me awake at night, thinking-thinking-thinking. I had finally decided after my last consult that I would wait until the summer of 2009, so that I would have more vacation time saved up, and more time to save money. I never even considered that my insurance company would pay for anything, inspite of my massive 'double panni'. I had heard horror stories about UHC, so expected a flat out denial.

This has been such an emotional rollercoaster, and I hear that it gets worse. lol I've gone from excitedment, to extreme depression, to acceptance, to disbelief, to more depression, to more excitement. My food control is completely out of whack. I'm seriously struggling to keep everything under control. I've done the 5 day pouch test twice...I think I'm about ready to give it another go, again. lol I'm glad that my support group meeting is next week. I need to be in the same room with people like me again -soon. I'm also thinking that I need to go wear the fat-suit at my wls office to help put my body image back in perspective. 

Well, now I'm just waiting for Dr. Fleming's office to get the approval in official writing, and also to find out the expiration date of the approval. I'm guessing the exp. date is May 1st since that when my company's renewal is every year. I'll post more as I learn more....

I went to see Dr. Philip Fleming on Friday. It was a great consult! I loved the office staff, and Dr. Fleming was really great. I was most interested in Dr. Fleming from the beginning, but I am glad that I went to the other consults - if for no other reason than peace of mind and knowing that I have found the right doctor for me. He has a lot of experience with massive weight loss patients - and of the 3 consults, he is the only PS that talked about the issues that we face with healing, etc. I was at the office for over 2 hours going over everything, and looking at pics of people around my age and with my skin issues. 

He said that with as much skin as I have, and the issues that I deal with, that he doesn't see how insurance could deny me...but I have UHC - and they have never seen UHC approve even a pannus removal. He is going to submit all of my documentation and pics to my insurance company...but I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime, he is going to send me quotes for the TT with muscle tightening and anchor incision and also the LBL with muscle tightening and anchor incision - both with insurance covering some of the cost and without. I've already decided that I'm going to finance this and have the LBL with muscle tightening and anchor incision done, regardless of insurance coverage.

I want this skin GONE. I'm tired of back pain from the constant pull of this huge double pannus. I'm sick of air getting trapped under my pannus and making random loud farting noises...so freaking embarassing. I want to be able to run and jump with out my stomach slapping my thighs. And it sure would be interesting to actually see my pubis without having to lift my apron. 

I have a cruise scheduled for mid-June. I'm planning to either have my LBL in mid-March (spring break, SO is a teacher, so he'll be home to help me) or after the cruise, this summer. I'm really hoping for March though. The PS did say that 3 months would be plenty of time to be well healed for the cruise...and wouldn't it be nice to put on a bathing suite with out worrying about my massive pannus. Granted I'll still have the saggy inner thighs, arms and breasts - but I can deal with that for a little while longer. :P

I had a consult with a PS today. I went to see Dr. James Madden, since he is in my network. I hadn't heard much about him, so really was just going to check him out and see what kind of experience he has with massive weight loss patients, and see if he is a good fit for me. He was a nice guy, and very informative...but I just didn't feel comfortable with him being my surgeon. I didn't agree with the procedure that he wanted to do, nor the time away from work, and hospital stay. He wanted to just do a TT with Anchor incision, rather than a LBL. I realize that insurance won't pay for the back, but I'd rather have that and pay the leftover bit out of pocket. He said that I would be in the hospital for 4-5 days, and out of work for 4 weeks (even though I have a desk job, no lifting, etc). He was very nice, but not the surgeon for me. 

One thing that Dr. Madden said that I did like is that "you have such a large pannus that insurance should definitely cover this". He also said I have "2 pannus" - 1 above the bellybutton and 1 below. So I guess I will definitely need the 'T' incision to get rid of my 'upper pannus'.

Dr. Philip Fleming has been my top choice of PS, but he is not in my network. Well, when I left the consult today, I decided to just go ahead and schedule the consult with Dr. Fleming. Hell, if I'm going to have to finance the back of a LBL and inner thighs, then I'll just have to get a little extra to cover the out of network costs.  I'm already really impressed with his office staff, after talking to them for several minutes today. My consult with Dr. Fleming is scheduled for Jan. 25 at 11am. Yay! 

Hopefully the 3rd surgeon will be the charm for me. My first consult was verrry discouraging, the second was informative and nice - but not for me. I am hopeful with Dr. Fleming, as I know that he has had a lot of experience with Bariatric patients. He's even scheduled to come speak at my support group meeting next month. 

I'll post more about PS after my consult with Dr. Fleming next Friday!!!

Wow - it's been a long time since I've updated my profile. I'm too lazy to archive 2 years worth of posts, so I'll just start adding new entries in blog form from now on. :P

That being said, I'm going to back date to last Thanksgiving for a bit of a fill in on my life - since this is my story. :) 

It was the week before Thanksgiving (2006), slow cooked Italian Roast beef was for dinner. I had 3 bites of this yummy dinner and then felt an intense stabbing pain in my upper abdomen, just at my pouch. I was terribly sick all night long, intense pain and lots of frothy vomiting. I thought that some beef had gotten hung in my pouch though I always chew very well. I called Dr. Olsen first thing in the morning and explained the situation. He told me that if it doesn't pass soon then to go to the ER and he would meet me there. I endured 2.5 more days of intense pain, dry heaving (I had nothing else to bring up), and now diarrhea added to the fun. I could take it no more, and had my dear boyfriend take me to the ER (he wanted to take me way earlier and afterward vowed that he would never let me be so stubborn again, lol). I was sent for a CT scan and told that my intestines were essentially tied into a big knot. I was admitted for emergency surgery and into the OR fast. The next day my doctor told me that I wouldn't have lived through the night, had I not come to the ER when I did. (holy crap) My intestines were all tied up and there was section that had 2 liters of built up bile blocked up. Pretty gross, I'm lucky that intestines didn't burst from the pressure. 

Dr. Olsen told me that at the time that my RNY was done, it was not standard practice to 'glue' or stitch intestines in place during the surgery - which is now frequently done because we lose weight so quickly that the intestines can easily get tangled. Yuck. 

As scary and painful as that experience was, I've felt wonderful since then. Prior to the big tie off, I used to frequently have intense bloaty gas pain where my intestines would kink in and then kink out. I used to eat Gas-ex chew tablets like candy. I don't have the problem now and I am SO grateful.

Aside from that, things are good. I still exercise like crazy and struggle daily with my food demons. I've got 15 lbs that I fool around with, still...grr. I've discovered the 5 day pouch reset and I'm looking forward to getting into that just after the new year. 

Josh and I are going on a 7 day cruise to Cozumel, Belize, Honduras and the Bahamas in June (for both of our birthdays) - we can't wait! It'll be our first big vacation together - and our first time outside of the country.

I'm recently gotten up the nerve to start really researching plastic surgery. I'm not getting my hopes up that insurance will actually pay for anything. I am just gathering info and laying out my options should I be denied by my insurance. My policy states that it doesn't cover cosmetic surgery, but it does cover reconstruction....we'll see what happens. Their definition of reconstruction may be vastly different from my own. lol

My plan is to call my PCP tomorrow and request that she refer me to a Plastic surgeon. I've got the name of one that I'm interested if she doesn't know of any. lol So that's the first step - referral and consult.

I'll post more after the consult. :)