Out of TT & BA and Pissed

I warn you know, this is an unhappy post.

 

I have really wanted a TT.  Ever since I was 9 or so, I started getting stretchmarks over my tummy.  With weight gain and extreme weightloss, I got more stretchmarks and a little bit of bread-doughy skin.  After losing 126lbs I was lucky that my stomach was almost entirely concealable under the clothing.  I was in my bra and panties or bikinis that my skin, and moreover my stretchmarks, haunted me.  After all that I've been through, I wanted to wear a bikini without stretchmarks or scars.  I'm only 26!  I hated going to swim parties with people larger than me and seeing their eyes dart back and forth to my riddled skin.  So when I started consulting with surgeons, my PRIMARY concern was my scar and most of all the stretchmarks and to what extent they could be eradicated.  The extra skin wasn't so much a problem if I can't bear if anyway.  

 

I was first concerned when I didn't feel like I had to hunch over so much as I'd read about--just exactly how much skin did she remove.  She had told me originally that, since I had some stretchmarks just over (like maybe 1") my belly button, those would not be removed, but that they would move because the skin would be pulled down.

 

NOw, the first time seeing it, much to my shock and HORROR my stomach appears to have the same old stretchmarks.  I don't even understand how this is physically possible.  But it is extremely distressing to see a roadmap stomach again.  Sure, it's flatter, but who gives a crap if I can still only wear what I could wear before.  To make matters worse, I now have a scar.  Bleep Bleep Bleep.  What's the point??!!  All this money, risk, recovery.  My goal was a bikini.  NOw that's not possible.  So basically it was a big fat waste.  Wish I could say this is just the effect of swelling, but I cannot see how stretchmarks disappear after the swelling goes down.  I'm so pissed I could spit in her eye.  I'm getting the feeling now she's more of a boobs dr. and didn't really listen to much I said.  :( :( :(

I'm sorry you did not get the results you expected. Where is your incision line? Mine is very low and I could easily hide it with a bikini, but my legs are bad so I do not wear one. I had an 8" wide strip of skin removed and all of my stretch marks were in that strip.

Hopefully you will feel better about your results as more time goes by.

Unfortunately the only stretch marks that can be removed with a TT are the ones that are on the skin that is cut off. It seems your expectations are too high. I'm sorry you are not happy with your results at his point. I hope in time you will be happy and be able to accept your body.

So sorry you're not seeing the results you wanted.

Don't feel cheated by not being hunched over.  All it means is that your muscle repair wasn't as extensive/you didn't have as much separation as others.  Nothing wrong with that.

Stretch marks - as has already been said, they only removed the ones that are on the skin that gets cut off.  Tightening the skin doesn't do **** for them.  Having said that, someone on the board had stretchmarks magically appear immediately after the tuck due to swelling, and they faded/disappeared as the swelling went down.  So, do give it some time before you totally give up.

And, in the end, you're obsessing about your stretch marks more than anyone who might notice them will.  So wear that bikini!

I don't think you guys understood what I' talking about.  I knew that my surgeon would be cuting out the area between my belly button and pubic bone and that all those stretchmarks would be gone, and anything above my belly button would remain.  HOWEVER I was told that the stretchmarks that now exist 1" above my belly button would be repositioned by virtue of the tummy tuck to slightly above my new incision.  I had no expectation that they would essentially stay in the same place and honestly I don't understand how that's physically possible.  Additionally I went over ad nauseum my desire to wear a bikini and how essential it was to have a low bikini line.  Sure I can wear a bikini if I wear a granny bikini that goes up to my belly button, but I wanted to wear the bathing suits typical of my 26 year old peers!!!  I didn't have much skin.  The goal of this surgery was to get rid of what skin I did have, but primarily to remove as many stretchmarks as possible to get my body bikini ready.  Now, if anything, it's less bikini ready, having the same old stretchmarks in the same old place, and I exchanged some loose skin for a high scar.  

Okay, got it.  Did the doc relocate your bellybutton?  Because I don't see how the BB could have been moved up and you'd still have the same stretch marks above the BB.  Doesn't make sense.  I know the little scars from my WLS moved from above my BB to way below - right above the incision line...which is what you expected to happen with your tuck and the stretch marks.

Yeah same here.  That's why I was disappointed and confused.  Because I was under the impression that any stretchmarks that I did have would be gone or lower.  Yes, the belly button was reconfigured.  Well I guess it's too late to worry.  But I am disappointed.  So I'm just hoping things will get better.

Did you take before and after photos?  That seems to help most folks really see where they were before and after PS.

Did you pay for a TT or a Panni removal?  There is a difference.  My stretch marks were removed with the skin and my scar is so low that I could easily wear a bikini if I wanted.  Some have taken bikini's to their mark ups to show the surgeon exactly where they wanted their incision to be made. I guess it is too late now, but it's unfortunate.  It's difficult to understand how skin could be removed but the stretch marks stay.  I would ask her send you pictures of your skin that she removed. Most surgeons take pictures of the skin after removal.  You could get some idea of what was removed.  Also did she tell you how much she removed, weight wise?  I have to say this and I know it will sound bad and I am sorry for that, but I think we have tortured our bodies by the weight gain that we really need to understand that wearing a bikini is most likely something that many of us will never do.  It's just the punishment for overeating for so many years.  I take that punishment and accept it.  I'm healthy now and no longer overweight.  If I never wear a bikini I'm okay with that, I am just happy to no longer be fat. 

Not only does that sound bad, it's shocking and appalling  to me that someone who has lived through obesity could "blame the victim."  From my own past I can tell you that my parents didn't have sweets in the house, only diet sodas, and I started my first official diet at 9.  Moreover, every single one of my friends ate more, and of the bad kind, than I ever did.