Our changing bodies and what's left...

Thanks!

I posted to Kat first:
You know what you, Tammy and Julie have said makes so much sense.  I need to look at my arms as my "battle scars" so to speak.  A triumph over the battle WON.  See this is why I love my friends so much.  Sometimes all you need to do is hear another outlook to open your eyes. 

***I'm going to copy this to Tammy and Julie too, so I make sure they see I responded.  :)***

For me, it's all about finding humor in it too. In fact, for my birthday this year, Pete got me a card that featured some granny-looking women on the front, riding in a convertible and waving for all they were worth. Inside the card was some kind of joke about their flapping arms. I took absolutely NO offense to this, because I am the first one to make fun of my "flaps". In fact, back when I was more newly post-op, I took great delight in holding up a piece of skin and releasing it with some sort of sound effect. He thought I was insane at first, but these days he mostly laughs and shakes his head.

As far as sleeveless shirts, etc? Eh, I would NOT wear them under ANY cir****tances when I was SMO. Now, I don't care as much. My flaps are my battle scars, and not nearly as embarassing as the huge arms were.

My ONLY issue has become not rashes, etc from the skin, but numbness along the backside of my left arm (and more recently, numbness and PAIN in the top of my right thigh). I have asked my PCP, I have asked my surgeon, I asked one of the plastic surgeons at the conference in May. They all tell me that there is no cure for it, except plastic surgery. Apparently it's the weight of the skin pulling on the nerves. I recently noticed that I cross my left leg over my right, and it's got to be true, because I noticed that my leg was pulling the skin, and that's exactly where that pain is. It sucks because it hurts most when I get up from sitting for a long time (such as at work). I'm trying to remember to not cross my legs, too. It's hard, because I have only been able to do this for about a year. 

Anyhow, I think for me to be able to fill out the extra skin in my arms with exercise, I'd have to be some gigantic body builder lady, and those ladies scare me, so no thanks.

Julie

Thanks!

I posted to Kat first:
You know what you, Tammy and Julie have said makes so much sense.  I need to look at my arms as my "battle scars" so to speak.  A triumph over the battle WON.  See this is why I love my friends so much.  Sometimes all you need to do is hear another outlook to open your eyes. 

***I'm going to copy this to Tammy and Julie too, so I make sure they see I responded.  :)***

You are such a beautiful person, inside and out! Just wanted to say that because I enjoyed seeing you on Saturday. I know that arm work did help with the sagging skin quite a bit...I don't have severe batwings, but I did notice a big difference when I started to do arm work because it seemed to pull the skin up as the muscles developed. I probably work my arms more than any other part of my body. I do lots of pushups, arm curls, tricep extensions, etc etc and I think it really does help.