New Member - Considering Bariatric Surgery

Funny! It's amazing how different we all are eh?!

Barb

Oh the skin! Everyone asks me about the skin. I stand 5 foot tall and at this point I have lost 75 lbs (seven months post surgery) I started out at 226 which was an incredible crazy amount of weight to carry at my height. The skin is weird looking but it doesn't actually bother me, it may someday but not this day.... I am so grateful to have been given this gift. BEST decision I ever made!

Hi,

Thanks for the reply!

I will not be going out shirtless, that's just not me but I've seen pictures of sagging skin and it scares the heck out of me. I guess I'm very self-conscious about how I look in front of a mirror.

M

I have a harder time now getting naked in front of someone or going sleeveless than I did 115 lbs ago. My skin sags a lot... arms, belly, thighs... even a chin waddle. My boobs have always sagged!! They are worse now too.

But... I would do this all over in a heartbeat. I have been seeing a guy, and we were intimate just the other day. I definitely thought about my body and skin. And we're open enough that I have talked about it a bit (before and after). He doesn't seem to care. I was still self conscious though. A bit. I get over myself quickly. My last bf didn't either, although I had only lost about 70 lbs then and things didn't really sag yet. He wouldn't have cared though.

Anyway, all that to say skin is a real consideration. Only you can decide for you what's right.

Any real guy who cares about you would be happy you got naked with him.. they often don't care about the skin. Unless they are shallow and superficial. They show their colors rather fast. that is good so we don't waste our time.

I wish I had a "love" button instead of just like!!!

I used to worry incessantly about saggy skin when I was pre-op. I am here to tell you that I would take my loose, saggy skin any day over weighing 372 lbs. ANY DAY!! I am SO much happier now, even with my saggy skin! After you lose that weight, you will probably wonder why you were so fixated on loose skin. If it really bothers you, there's always plastic surgery...

I let the fear of saggy skin keep me from being truly successful with weight loss my entire life... until I got over it and realized my health and mobility were far more important than what may be jiggling under my clothes.

Getting sleeved gave me a future I'm excited about. The aesthetics are secondary, once you get past the second year or so.

Do it for your health and your future self. It's worth all the bumps along the way.

So I finally got the "courage" to talk to my doctor about it, of course that was after speaking with my wife and seeing what her thoughts were. She is concerned, of course but given that I'm spending around $400.00/mo on medication and the long-term use of many of the medications I am on as a Type 2 Diabetic lead to cancer it was a no-brainer. I also failed to state that there are issues with my right eye, which could lead to blindness and the best way to prevent that is of course to lower my A1C and ensure my daily blood sugar tests are within a normal range...

My doctor is in agreement with me but as I'm also seeing an endocrinologist he wants me to see her first then proceed. In the meantime I've been checking out the doctors in BC that offer the surgery and doing whatever I can in advance so that when I meet with them, I'm ready to go. One of the items that they are asking for is food diary. So I'm trying to diligently record everything that I eat...

When I spoke to my doctor and said that it appears that most people opting for bariatric surgery are in their late 40's and over he said that the age is actually dropping since the surgery is more well known and there are fewer risks. He figures within 5 or 10-years they will also include skin removal as part of the package but because there are fewer studies looking at the health & psychological impact of excess skin health authorities are not willing to include that as a publicly funded option.

He also said that not everyone will have loose skin (back to the old skin issue).

So hopefully when I see my endo next, I get the go-ahead (and most importantly referral) to the doctor in Richmond, BC so I can go down this path.

In the meantime, will keep reading the posts and learning from all of you that have gone through the process or are about to go through it.

Thanks!

M

PS Posting here as the BC forum is v-e-r-y slow. :-)