The importance of a surgeon who specializes in body contouring (pics included)

Hi OH people,

Trying this again since the site deleted my original post for showing a nipple (on a plastic surgery board, I know).  The purpose of this post is that recently I have seen some sensationalized tv shows that feature people having plastic surgery after losing hundreds of pounds.  The experience of these people (recovering for months, drains for months) as well as their results, are nothing like my experience or results.  I think if I had seen these shows before my plastic surgery, I would have been freaked out to the point of possibly not having surgery.  So I wanted to share my experience in case you are on the fence.

The surgeons on these shows appear to be either general plastic surgeons or, even worse, bariatric surgeons who do skin removal.  I felt it was important to go to a plastic surgeon who specialized in body contouring after massive weight loss and did his fellowship in that area.  Obviously, results will vary due to your age, starting weight, ending weight, procedures, skin elasticity, and more.  But you can improve your results by going to someone who specializes in the work that we require for our bodies.  

I chose an incredible Doctor in DC named Dr. Joseph Michaels.  He had an excellent bedside manner, spent a lot of time consulting with me, showed me before and after photos of people who had lost a similar amount of weight, and was always available to me via email or on the phone.  I felt very comfortable with the way he split my procedures, and my recovery was surprisingly easy.  My procedure details and before/after pics are below.

I had a slight revision two weeks ago to remove skin where I have "bra bulge" which is why those incision lines are darker.  But notice that you almost can't see my waistline or breast scars in the front, and I am not even one year post-op!  

If you are on the fence about having plastics, don't let a television show sway you!  I decided I wanted to do it to feel better about myself and to hopefully "insure" that I don't gain back a ton of weight.  It's not for everyone, but just ask your doctor about his/her experience with patients who have lost a lot of weight, and ask to see comparable before/after pictures.

Dr. Michael's website: Website

Highest ever weight (July 2013): 369

RNY weight (Dec 2013): 351

PS weight (Mar 2015): 165

Procedure 1 (Mar 2015): Lower body lift with mons lift and buttock augmentation (with my own tissue), breast lift and no implants; 2 drains for a week; only pain was in stomach muscle tightening on first night home when pain meds wore off while I was sleeping!

Procedure 2 (Oct 2015): Arm lift; no drains, almost no pain

Thank you for posting! I've got about another 30 pounds to go before I feel comfortable doing any reconstructive surgery, but that doesn't mean I'm not educating myself about it. 

Regarding pain, how would you compare your WLS pain to your plastic surgery pain?

And when were you allowed to go back to the gym/workout?

It's a great idea to educate yourself even if you are just in the beginning stages of thinking about it :)  Also, it can be a great motivator to lose those last 30 lbs :)

Here is my post about my plastics: My plastics journey

So I am a big baby about pain, but I have been fortunate.  I had almost no pain after my RNY - I was mostly tired and rested.  I took a week off of work but didn't need it.  I ended up just hanging on the couch that week.  For my plastics, I was in such great shape and so mentally excited (yet scared) that I recovered really well.  Aside from SERIOUS pain where my stomach muscles were tightened on my first night home, the pain was manageable.  I never felt any pain along my back incision or my breasts.  My stomach was definitely sore, and so I tell people to set an alarm for 4 hours after they go to bed to take the pain pills!  I work from home in Marketing so after my LBL and breast lift on a Friday, I went back to working from home on Wednesday but was still pretty lazy and not active.  I was not cleared to work out for six weeks, but I believe after one week I was working on getting my 10,000 steps in per day.

My arms were SO easy.  It was outpatient on a Thursday, so I had surgery at 2 pm and was home by 9 pm. I took Friday off, but had friends over for lunch.  I was not in pain.  Saturday I got my 10,000 steps in and went to a bonfire that night.  Sunday I went to a birthday party.  I had wraps on my arms, and no drains.  I was not cleared to work out my arms for six weeks.

I hope this helps!

Thank you for posting this.  I was just telling my husband that I was getting turned off to plastics while watching Skin Tight on TV, but your photos are turning my thinking around.  I've been doing lots of research on different PS in our area, and look forward to starting my visits with them when I get to goal after losing another 10 pounds.  

My 59th birthday was on Feb. 6th, and am hoping to get my plastics for my 60th birthday.  It was be the best gift I could give myself.  

That would be an awesome birthday present to yourself!

I hear you Girl I was on sight tight no walk in the park, its totally different than reality 

I'm just going to piggy back off of this and agree with everything DCgirl just said.  In fact, we've definitely spent time telling each other "OMG, did you see how unfortunate those results looked on XYZ episode?!"

For those *****ally want to get plastics, the best results are generally going to be those from a surgeon who specializes and had lots of experience.  That's the key!  There are quite a few surgeons that get raved about over and over on this board.  But if none of them work, just make sure you ask whatever surgeons that you're looking into about their experience.

I also went to Dr. Michaels and my before and after pics are viable on my profile to those who send me a friend request.  I also have detailed my experience here on this forum.

Please don't let some botched jobs on TV discouraging you from pursuing something that you want!

Thank you so much for posting your pics!  I am not at goal yet, but I think looking at these are helping me to decide that I WILL want plastics when the time comes.  About another year and a half and I'll start looking.  For now, I'm slowly putting money away in preparation.

As we discussed last week, I completely agree with you! I hope lots of people see this post and realize that working with a body that has gone through massive weight loss is definitely not the same as a tummy tuck or lift after having children or losing a smaller amount of weight. It truly is worth the time, effort, and/or money to find someone you trust that has this kind of experience!!

yes thats the key when i was on other plastic site no one looked like my before