LisaS
The Final Frontier and a look back at where I have come from
Mar 24, 2010
MY posts from now on are pulled from my posts at tummytucktalk.ning.com, but I wanted to make sure the the full story is held in one place.I am excited to have a place to keep my thoughts and experiences in a written form that has to do with what is currently going on in my life. Just the other day I went back and re-read my blog on Obesit Help and couldn't believe all the stuff that I had forgotten about in the 4 years since I have had gastric bypass surgery. What a relief to know that it is written down as proof that it happened!
So a little background, All my life I have been overweight (although when looking back at the few pics I let be taken when I was a teen, I wondered what I was thinking!) within varying degrees. I suppose it is all a matter of perspective. Ironically, my goal dress for my weight loss was my homecoming dress from when I was a Sophmore in high school (jr size 14) but took me til I was down to a small size 10 before it would fit!
When I got married at 19 I weighed 223lbs and was preggers with my first baby, Sabrina (who is now 14). Fast forward 4 years and I then had our second child, Kailen (now 10).
You know, being comfortable in your relationship can be dangerous for your weight, so I gained a few lbs here and there, meh. Then before you know it, WHAM! you find that sex is more trouble that it is worth, looking good for your man is second to just about anything else and...does it really matter if you wear your pajama bottom pants to Walmart? It's after 10pm, isn't there a rule or something that says I can do that?
I was in a bad place and knew that I needed to do something to fix it or I was going to end up being "that mom" that goes to the school functions (when she feels up to it) and knocks over things with her ass or has to stand in the back because there is no way that she will fit in any chair in the room. I didn't want to be the mom that the other kids made fun of to my kids. Is that vain? maybe. To be honest, I want to be the mom in the song "Stacy's Mom". I am sure that is wrong on a level or two, but who wouldn't like to walk into their kids school and have the kids think, wow, Sabrina's mom looks hot as opposed to, Wow, I feel so sorry for Sabrina or damn, Sabrinas mom is disgusting.
One of the best moments about a year after my gastric bypass was when I decided to go have lunch with my daughter at school and I had several kids come up to me to tell me where Sabrina was and tell me that they could tell I was Sabrina's mom. NEVER would I have been recognized for my beautiful daughters mom when my face was fat. She was so proud to introduce me to her classmates, it made every workout, dumping episode, seroma and food getting stuck worth it. Every bit.
So fast forward about 3 years. Hubby and I have gotten our finances in order and with the help of the Dave Ramsey program (www.daveramsey.com) have managed to pay off all of our debt with the exception of our mortgage, have an emergency fund, paid-for cars, and things are going very nicely. I am ready to start saving for plastic surgery!
So I make a few consultations in the Springfield area and find that I do not care for the scar lines of the drs that I go see and the prices are way out of my league! Since we are debit free, my hubby REFUSES to finance any plastic surgery or anything else, so I am looking at at least a year to save up enough money to get plastics. As a research girl, I start considering going outside the United States for my plastics. Thailand is at the top of the running list, but I am concerned because I cannot get a surgeon to tell me if they can do what I want done and they also will not send me before and after pics of their patients due to privacy issues.
I go to visit my bypass surgeon with my best friend Janis because she is going to be getting her bypass this year and end up discussing my skin issues and that I am considering going out of the USA. Dr. Gorospe is concerned and recommends that I go consult with his friend in Tulsa before I do anything rash.
So Janis is on my ass for weeks to call and make an appointment for when she has to go back to Tulsa (3 hours from where we live) so we can go together. The consult is free (a relief as a couple of the others here in town were not!) and I make the appointment. 7:15AM!! Who is up at that hour?!?!? Let alone in the office! Crazy! But I (Janis) drag my butt out of bed and we make it to the appointment on time.
Can I just say that as far as offices go, his is really impressive!! Grecian Columns, beautiful pictures, a few sculptures here and there, marble countertops, comfy chairs, beautiful people behind the desk, wow! I am thinking that there is no way that I will be able to afford this guy.
So I get my papers from the incredibly beautiful, perky lady at the front desk and we have a seat in the comfy chairs, surriptiously looking around at the other people in the waiting room while filling out the first ream of papers due before being allowed access to the inner halls of beauty. I find myself fixated on the boobs, belly and faces of all the other people in the room, wondering who is there for what and at what stage they are at. Its a little disconcerting knowing that they are probably doing the same thing to me and thinking, wow, they need to get her in soon! LOL!
The most amazing Dr Visit EVER:
So the ream is filled out and less than 5 minutes later we are wisked into the office of the Dr and invited to review photo books that are categorized for boobs, TT and faces. I go for the boobs as Janis has already snatched the TT book and we are given less than 5 minutes to admire the handywork of the Dr before he himself appears and we begin talking about things I want done. I really wanted to do a whole lower body lift, belt thingy where the scar would go all the way around. But he patiently explained why he doesn't do that due to the pressure on the back stitches. He bends you on the table to pull you absolutely tight as possible and the pressure on the back stitches would be too much, but he can go back and do a butt lift later once the front has healled if I still wanted to do that. *sigh* makes perfect sense to me dammit.
So we go to the exam room and I get all undressed except for undies and socks (there is always that moment of indecision of socks on or off) and am absolutely mortified to realize that It has been 3 days since I have shaved my legs. I can't believe that I didn't even think of that! *sigh* there goes my good first naked impression.
He comes in and we talk about the skin and boob size and type and all that good stuff. Sounds amazing! and expensive, but its a free consultation, right? May as well dream a bit. So We get all done and I am shocked to see that this free consultation has eaten up an hour of this Dr's day and am still impressed with the dr and staff.
So I get dressed and we go to another beautifully appointed room with a nice desk and Jenna is holding the paper that will tell me how much out of my price range the services of their offices are. Now Janis and I have made a bet as to the price that is quoted to us, to see who is closer. She actually wins, but who's counting?
So back to the paper in Jenna hand. She says, "Here is the quote for the proceedures that we have talked about today, but it includes a proposition for you if you are open to it". I'm thinking, proposition? Okaaaaay, I'm listening... So this Dr is a teaching Dr. he teaches other surgeons how to do surgeries and once a year he puts on a seminar for 50 drs that come to Tulsa (Tulsa!) to learn from this Dr. The drs are part of a lottery to see who gets to come to the seminar. The Dr does live surgeries in front of the audience of 50 surgeons but no one except him will do the surgeries. He had already had everyone picked for the seminar patients but just that morning, one of the ladies had called to cancel because of schedule conflicts and the Dr would like to use me for the seminar. As compensation for being a part of the seminar and having all these drs watch the proceedures live, he will deduct 40% from my surgery cost. HOLY SHIT!!!! OMG, is she serious? The catch? She needs to know ASAP! Seminar is April 9th to the 11th. OMG!!!
So I take the paper and tell her that I will let her know once I talk to my DH.Janis and I get into my car and let out a huge scream of OMGs and eeeeeeeeekkkkkk!!! Holy shit! Is this really happening? So I find an amazing dr and office staff, LOVE his work, get a discount to make the price of the surgeries the same as if I were going outside the country and now I just needed to figure out how I was going to pay for it.
I just need to say that Janis is the most amazing logical thinker I will ever meet. She comes up with solutions that are pure genious and I am absolutely blessed to have her in my life. As we are rushing to her next dr appt (remember, she is getting GBS in Tulsa too, my appt was a bonus we were really there for her) she comes up with several ways that we can get the $$$ without taking out a loan or put it on a credit card. She is brilliant! Fortunately for me, I have worked at the same place for 14 years and have been smart with my retirement savings. If I borrow the $$$ from my 401K, it is not really borrowing the money, right? So I call the HR area while she is in her appt and get all the details and figure I will sweeten the pot for my DH by taking enough to pay off our taxes too.
So I take some deep breaths and practice what I am going to say to my DH with Janis. The call was actually a bit anticlimatic. I expected more of a fight from him, but I tell you, the call took less than 4 minutes and ended with him saying, "ok, go ahead and do it." OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
So Janis calls Jenna and gives her the green light and orders up a prescription of Chantix so that I can get to work on quiting smoking. (I am on week 2 of no cigarettes by the way).
So now I enter the world of comression garments and scar treatments and trying to find pics or video of people that have gone before me and can tell me what is coming. YouTube is a beautiful thing and is how I came to find this website. I will be posting what I wanted to see from other people as it is only fair to give back what I take.
