Excess skin

Hello. Newbie here. I'm hoping to have vertical sleeve gastrectomy but I haven't gone through the process yet. I go to the seminar this Thursday. My biggest concern/fear is the huge amount of excess skin I'm going to have. I know Medicare will pay for a panniculectomy if it's medically necessary but nothing else. I live on disability and have no savings to pay for plastic surgery. My credit history isn't the greatest so financing is probably out. I weigh 383 lbs. and I already have saggy skin. Especially my arms. It's genetic. I'm scared of having to try to move around with so much skin and how hideous I'm going to look. I'm determined to have this surgery, though. I don't want to die because of my weight. 

How do you deal with the excess skin if you can't have plastic surgery? I really need some encouragement.

Thanks

There is not much you can do but grin and bare it. Fast weight loss does not allow your skin to shrink as it does with slow weight loss. This is one of the drawbacks of weight loss surgery. With lots of loose skin you can develop skin infections and other problem, such as odor if you don't keep all the areas clean. I would think with these kinds of problems Medicare may cover your surgery, but best to find out for sure. You would also need your doctor to say that it is necessary for your health. But right now your main focus should be that WLS will most likely save your life. The other you can face when that time comes.

It has nothing to do with speed of weight loss. The excess skin is already there. If it takes one year or ten to lose the weight, the skin will still be there. Rate of loss will not change it.

Once in a while people will try to lose slower, hoping to minimize extra skin. They end up losing very little, and are much worse off.

Excercise, creams, lotions, rate of loss, these are all myths when it comes to excess skin. The only things that matter are genetics, age, and how long you have carried the excess weight. The only thing we can do to minimize excess skin is to lose the weight sooner, and have plastic surgery.

I won't be having plastics unless I win the lottery -- and I never play the lottery. But believe me, excess skin is far, far, far better than all that excess fat.

I have to disagree with you. The skin can shrink when you lose weight slowly.  Just look at the tabloids about chunky movie stars who lose weight and have no loose skin at all. And not just stars, but people in Weigh****chers who have before and after pics and they don't have skin hanging off them because they lost weight slowly. 

You can diaagree, but you'd still be wrong. Movie stars gain and lose weight quickly, so their skin can bounce back. They haven't been morbidly obese most of their lives, as the majority of us have. As I wrote above, how long you have been morbidly obese makes a difference.

As for weigh****chers, they are in business to make money. Their ads are not going to show success stories that have a pannus hanging to their knees. 

Movie stars have access to very good plastic surgeons.  I've even heard of some actresses who had a tummy tuck when they had a c-section.

Did you see that picture of Kim K's ass?  Tell me that wasn't made from plastic.  Her real ass would be sagging to the ground by now without heavy lifting.

Strongly disagree.  It's a medical fact that someone who has been morbidly obese for a long period of time has actually grown EXTRA skin to cover their girth.  This skin will not "shrink", it will not "snap back" and it certainly doesn't disappear with slow weight loss.  Once the fat is gone it will hang.  

Those people without hanging skin weren't morbidly obese or morbidly obese for dozens of years. You can't compare someone who lost 50 lbs. with Weigh****chers to someone who lost 150 lbs. after weight loss surgery.  

 - Right on Grim!

Thread hijack. So you're ten or so years out, I think you said? I notice you just joined. Are you a new old-timer and just came back after a long absence? It's always good when our long timers stick around or boomerang back.

I'm an old member who couldn't find his old user name or password so I just started a new profile.