Shocked - but it's not bad

You are not alone in worrying about insurance going forward. I too am sure that I may be without it next year.

Same here.

I have read many comments here about waiting a year after you reach goal for plastics. However neither surgeon I consulted with or my husband, who happens to be a reconstructive hand surgeon, seem to think this is always necessary.

In my case, at age 64, the consensus is that my skin isn't going to shrink or tone up on its own. My upper arms are already so loose and flabby that I can't shave under my arms standing in the shower. I can't think of a single reason to wait.

It is reasonable to worry about the post op pain. I know I am. But I also know that I can't live with my arms and thighs flapping around the way they do. I plan on having my arms done in late September and my lower body repaired as soon as I am down to 160lbs.

The suggestion to maintain for a year isn't about hoping the skin will snap back, which rarely happens for those of us with so much excess weight to lose. The suggestion is about ensuring you can maintain the weight loss before spending a tremendous amount of your money or your insurance company's money on plastic surgery.

There's nothing more sad than seeing someone gain weight back after having plastics. Undoing the hard work of you and your surgeon is a devastating thought.

I was only maintaining a steady weight for 6 months when I had plastics and even that was a bit earlier than what should be standard.

Exactly, Nikke!

I think this is one of the reasons why my WLS surgeon and my plastic surgeon weren't super worried about my timeline for plastics. While I am still losing, I am also 3-3.5 years post-op and effectively maintained my weight for my entire second year post-op through my dad's cancer and subsequent death. I think there are definitely exceptions to every rule - but proving to oneself (and one's surgeons) that they can maintain their loss is key.

in addition - our body changes - most of us call it fat redistribution. some area gets too thin while other remains more fatty - as the time goes - the very thin part can get cover in fat wile the "fat area" - get thinner.

That happen to me even recently- I lost too much weight and upper part of my body was just skin and bones while the legs still had some fat. within 6 months- my back does not look like "skin and bones", and I dropped an inch in my hips. My weight is steady. I no longer feel like i need to gain weight. I look healthy.

I hear you on the redistribution. I've started lifting weights and while I haven't seen a consistent result on the scale yet, I've noticed that my face looks thinner. I asked my husband about it and he said he'd noticed it too and even commented on it to me, but I was probably reading and just went "Uh huh," because I don't remember! :D

Jen

The suggestion to maintain for a year isn't about hoping the skin will snap back, which rarely happens for those of us with so much excess weight to lose. The suggestion is about ensuring you can maintain the weight loss before spending a tremendous amount of your money or your insurance company's money on plastic surgery.

Thewere's nothing more sad than seeing someone gain weight back after having plastics. Undoing the hard work of you and your surgeon is a devastating thought.

I was only maintaining a steady weight for 6 months when I had plastics and even that was a bit earlier than what should be standard.

Why would a bariatric patient regaining weight after plastic surgery be any sadder that anyone regaining?

Both my primary and my bariatric surgeons feel that I'm ready and sent plastic surgery referrals to my insurance company.

My husband is a reconstructive surgeon, so at his urging I spent a great deal of time researching surgeons before I made my consult appointments. All four plastic surgeons I have consulted agree that my muscle tone and size is great and that I barely have any arm fat left so I can be scheduled for upper arm surgery (and breast reconstruction) this fall.

Hopefully at least one of these doctor (Portland, Oregon) is (as someone else said) "good".

The "6 month" rule is BS. It's insurance company propaganda that is often spread by the very people it targets. Insurance companies hope that bariatric patients, once refused, will passively disappear and not pursue medically necessary treatment that insurance prefer to insist is 'elective'. I refuse to prove myself to a for profit insurance company that is more concerned about their bottom line that patient needs.

I might regained some (or all) of my weight. Last I read about 75% of us will regain half of our weight loss in five years. Yet we (in record numbers) have the surgery anyway. Why should plastics be any different.

The long-term regain stat I've seen cited hundreds of times is that roughly half of all WLS patients regain 50% or more of the weight they lost after WLS, and the other half of WLS patients maintain all their weight lost or gain no more than 50% of the weight they lost.

For one, I didn't say it was sadder. But, now that you are mentioning it... it is. Because, you have spent more time recuperating, more money, and have been through more pain when you go further to have plastic surgery. So, to me, that makes it "extra sad" to see someone gain back the weight. Especially when you may have paid out of pocket for plastics, like I did. Maintaining for 6-12 months before having plastic surgery is the same kind of "can these behaviors be sustained" sort of test that a six month supervised diet prior to WLS is, in my opinion.

I never said anything about you in particular. You do whatever you want, IDGAF. Like I said, I got plastics earlier than is recommended and I'm doing just fine. I have no comment on your insurance rant. My insurance didn't cover skin removal and I don't think they should have been required to because the removal was elective. I could have lived the rest of my life just fine without plastic surgery, I just didn't want to. It wasn't medically necessary. I wasn't going to die from having excess skin. I'm the one that ate myself to 444 lbs in the first place.

And, a large amount of people may gain back some, most, or all of their weight but we shouldn't have the mindset that it's a given or inevitable. Those people gain back their weight because they go back to their old habits. We can and should expect to do better than the statistic.