The good, the bad and the ugly - what a day I had yesterday
(deactivated member)
on 6/25/10 4:07 am
on 6/25/10 4:07 am
This is a cross post with the plastic surgery forum.
Yesterday I went for my consult for plastic surgery. The good news is I have a hernia so I don't need to bother fighting about getting panni removal since the hernia makes the same difference in savings for the plastics. While I have a nice panni, I have not had any issues whatsoever and was struggling to get my PCP to help me document problems for BC BS. And now I know why part of my stomach is so tender and really hurts when the cats walk on me sometimes. Even better news is the plastic surgeon only wants me to shed 5 more pounds and definitely not more than 10 pounds before surgery and he will operate after I'm stable for 2 weeks - this is because while shedding the weight I always ate well and have no nutritional deficiencies like someone with WLS typically have. Because I didn't have surgery I never had a period in time where I wasn't eating much food or struggling to get nutrients. I'm going to have to change my weight tracker to reflect this. I will have plenty of breast tissue left so I don't need an implant and he will be able to auto augment my butt.
Bad news, because I used to weight so much and have lost so much, some of my scars are going to be much longer than what I've typically seen on the OH Plastics board. My brachioplasty scars will have to go past my elbow about 1-2 inches into my forearms. I also have a fatty tumor near my elbow to be removed in that area which complicates things a little. He explained that there is so much excess skin on my legs that I will end up with remaining slack above the knee cap but hopefully that will be minor. Luckily for my back, it's minor and he will be able to elongate the scar from my brachioplasty to go down the outer side of my breast to pull that extra skin in.
Ugly news - who knew walking in the mall was so dangerous. I tripped, well DH walked unexpectedly in front of me and my shoe caught on his and I fell and bumped my head. What is really bad is I cut my forehead right near my eye brow - 2 inches, and required 10 stitches. The scar looks neat but I really didn't want an ugly scar on my face. The people in the mall were wonderful and so sweet. OTOH, the people in the local emergency room were very nice but made me hang out there for 2 whole boring hours so it was so late by the time I came home. Tonight I'm attending a fundraiser and will be seeing lots of people I haven't seen in awhile and the last thing I wanted was for them to see this line of purple sutures sticking out of my forehead. I will try to cover as best with my hair but it doesn't completely cover it. I hope they will be focused on my weight loss and don't notice my scar.
Yesterday I went for my consult for plastic surgery. The good news is I have a hernia so I don't need to bother fighting about getting panni removal since the hernia makes the same difference in savings for the plastics. While I have a nice panni, I have not had any issues whatsoever and was struggling to get my PCP to help me document problems for BC BS. And now I know why part of my stomach is so tender and really hurts when the cats walk on me sometimes. Even better news is the plastic surgeon only wants me to shed 5 more pounds and definitely not more than 10 pounds before surgery and he will operate after I'm stable for 2 weeks - this is because while shedding the weight I always ate well and have no nutritional deficiencies like someone with WLS typically have. Because I didn't have surgery I never had a period in time where I wasn't eating much food or struggling to get nutrients. I'm going to have to change my weight tracker to reflect this. I will have plenty of breast tissue left so I don't need an implant and he will be able to auto augment my butt.
Bad news, because I used to weight so much and have lost so much, some of my scars are going to be much longer than what I've typically seen on the OH Plastics board. My brachioplasty scars will have to go past my elbow about 1-2 inches into my forearms. I also have a fatty tumor near my elbow to be removed in that area which complicates things a little. He explained that there is so much excess skin on my legs that I will end up with remaining slack above the knee cap but hopefully that will be minor. Luckily for my back, it's minor and he will be able to elongate the scar from my brachioplasty to go down the outer side of my breast to pull that extra skin in.
Ugly news - who knew walking in the mall was so dangerous. I tripped, well DH walked unexpectedly in front of me and my shoe caught on his and I fell and bumped my head. What is really bad is I cut my forehead right near my eye brow - 2 inches, and required 10 stitches. The scar looks neat but I really didn't want an ugly scar on my face. The people in the mall were wonderful and so sweet. OTOH, the people in the local emergency room were very nice but made me hang out there for 2 whole boring hours so it was so late by the time I came home. Tonight I'm attending a fundraiser and will be seeing lots of people I haven't seen in awhile and the last thing I wanted was for them to see this line of purple sutures sticking out of my forehead. I will try to cover as best with my hair but it doesn't completely cover it. I hope they will be focused on my weight loss and don't notice my scar.
Sorry about your "owie" sounds like a painful one! but hopefully all that good news from your consult should help take your mind off the pain, and hopefully it will not scar as bad as you think it might! So is this the surgeon you will stick with then? only 5 more pounds!!! how awesome is that?? Keep us posted!! i'm excited for you!
Michelle Hendrickson Holistic Health Coach http://www.gracioushealth.net
Why does that always happen? Just when we want to look our best we end up with a zit or stitches or a black eye. }:-) Sometimes, life just ain't fair. I hope you had a good time and that you ended up knocking their socks
That hernia situation really is a good news/bad news thang! Yay, insurance is going to pay for your panniculectomy. I don't want to be a downer but from what I remember being on the plastics board is that the hernia repairs were painful. I never had any pain with my incisions because my doc deadened everything during surgery and the incisions were not below the muscle. With the hernia repair, they do cut into you so you may want to ask your doc what he can do to minimize the pain. It never hurts to ask, no? ;-)
Glad to hear that you have enough tissue left so you don't need implants. Ooo la la, you have a butt augmentation in your future. Girl, you gonna have T & A at YOUR age!!! You're gonna love it.
LOL, yes we are different from WLS patients. We don't need tons of extra protein after surgery, although upping a little helps with healing. We also usually don't have the issues with low iron that they do.
I hope your bobo has healed by now and congratulations on finding a surgeon who sounds like he knows what he's doing. I'm so excited for you, Girlee!
Mary
(deactivated member)
on 7/1/10 11:48 am
on 7/1/10 11:48 am
Hi Mary - ooooh, now you have me scared about the hernia repair - but it has to be done and I'll just have to get through it. I would imagine that muscle tightening is just as painful? Didn't you have your muscles tightened with your tummy tuck?
I'm don't want to get my hopes up too high but I'm excited at the prospect of having good boobs and a good butt LOL. I keep pointing out to DH that I'm doing it all for him but the truth is I can't wait to have a nice shapely body. I'm thrilled that I don't need any implants - the idea of having to committ to future surgeries with implants made me nervous.
My boo boo is healed and I got the sutures out yesterday - it''s looking good. I was able to keep my bangs overy that eye so no one noticed - thankfully. Oh and some people were joking that I was DH's trophy wife and how good I looked so I was thrilled.
I'm don't want to get my hopes up too high but I'm excited at the prospect of having good boobs and a good butt LOL. I keep pointing out to DH that I'm doing it all for him but the truth is I can't wait to have a nice shapely body. I'm thrilled that I don't need any implants - the idea of having to committ to future surgeries with implants made me nervous.
My boo boo is healed and I got the sutures out yesterday - it''s looking good. I was able to keep my bangs overy that eye so no one noticed - thankfully. Oh and some people were joking that I was DH's trophy wife and how good I looked so I was thrilled.
Hey Trophy Wife, glad to hear you rocked your event!
Girl, my doc has those abdominal muscles so tight you can feel them under my skin! I had the lower body lift so I was cut all the way around, I just knew I was going to be in horrible horrible pain. I woke up in the hospital bed, looked down and couldn't believe that body belonged to me! Then I got to thinking, shouldn't I be in pain, so I laid there and waited for the pain...it never came. I would have sailed through it except for them leaving collard greens in my room while I was asleep. They stunk so bad they made me nauseous and I threw up my Sprite. Getting out of the bed was hard at first but that was because I was more afraid than I needed to be. Work out those arm muscles Sister, I used my upper body strength to get me up a lot.
So you say alla this is for the hubs, huh? Of course it is, trophy wives are high maintenance don'tcha know!
Did you lose the five pounds, yet? LOL. Go sit in a sauna all day and then call your doc's office! Well, it's an option. ;-)
Is your doc going to use stitches or glue to put you back together? Mine used glue and my incisions are hardly visible. I tried to take a picture of them the other day to send to one of my old plastics board friends and they wouldn't show up on the camera...gotta love dat!
Mary
Girl, my doc has those abdominal muscles so tight you can feel them under my skin! I had the lower body lift so I was cut all the way around, I just knew I was going to be in horrible horrible pain. I woke up in the hospital bed, looked down and couldn't believe that body belonged to me! Then I got to thinking, shouldn't I be in pain, so I laid there and waited for the pain...it never came. I would have sailed through it except for them leaving collard greens in my room while I was asleep. They stunk so bad they made me nauseous and I threw up my Sprite. Getting out of the bed was hard at first but that was because I was more afraid than I needed to be. Work out those arm muscles Sister, I used my upper body strength to get me up a lot.
So you say alla this is for the hubs, huh? Of course it is, trophy wives are high maintenance don'tcha know!
Did you lose the five pounds, yet? LOL. Go sit in a sauna all day and then call your doc's office! Well, it's an option. ;-)
Is your doc going to use stitches or glue to put you back together? Mine used glue and my incisions are hardly visible. I tried to take a picture of them the other day to send to one of my old plastics board friends and they wouldn't show up on the camera...gotta love dat!
Mary
(deactivated member)
on 7/2/10 2:10 am
on 7/2/10 2:10 am
LOL Collard greens - I eat tons of veggies, but I can't stomach collard greens either - I know that smell you're talking about when they've been cooked way too long. I hope I'm lucky like you were and don't have too much pain. I will be taking everything they give me for pain, at least early on. I'm going to have to work on my arms - LOL they are weak.
Yeah, I'm enjoying being a trophy wife now. It feels so good - I'm sure you're feeling the same way.
As for shedding weight - I'm just going to stick to what I'm doing and let it happen naturally - so I haven't lost those 5 pounds yet - but I have lost 1.5 which is good. Then I ate something really salty and gained water weight back LOL.
He mentioned stitches inside and glue outside - at least I think that's what he said. I hope mine turn out like yours - that's wonderful that you can't see them in photos. I am a little scared and working through those fears - this is huge scary surgery. I was too scared for WLS - and now I'm having to have much, much worse LOL.
Yeah, I'm enjoying being a trophy wife now. It feels so good - I'm sure you're feeling the same way.
As for shedding weight - I'm just going to stick to what I'm doing and let it happen naturally - so I haven't lost those 5 pounds yet - but I have lost 1.5 which is good. Then I ate something really salty and gained water weight back LOL.
He mentioned stitches inside and glue outside - at least I think that's what he said. I hope mine turn out like yours - that's wonderful that you can't see them in photos. I am a little scared and working through those fears - this is huge scary surgery. I was too scared for WLS - and now I'm having to have much, much worse LOL.
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