Should I schedule consults now?

Hey everyone, this Friday is my two year anniversary (holy crap). I have been doing research into local plastic surgeons, and I'm just debating on whether or not I should schedule consults at this point yet. I've been stuck at the same weight for almost a year now. I hit a plateau around a year ago and in the time since hitting that plateau we have had multiple deaths in the family. This year alone I lost my 14 year old dog in January and my dad passed unexpectedly in April. I suffer from binge eating disorder and have issues with emotional eating, so these two deaths in particular have really caused me to relapse in my healthy habits.

(rambling over I promise ) Anyway, at my current weight I am around 90-100 lbs. over what I would ideally like to be at, but after speaking with both my bariatrician at my 18 month follow-up in February and my primary doctor in May, both of them have said given my history, 50 lbs. is more realistic for me to lose. So I'm just wondering if I should lose that 50 before going in for consults, or if I should just schedule them now and get them out of the way while I keep working at weight loss.

Just curious as to what others have done. I don't know how long it usually takes from consult to surgery date.

I would wait until you are closer to your goal. Also a lot of plastic surgeons want you to be at your goal weight for at least a year before they will consider doing surgery.

As for timing, I had mine scheduled within 2 months of my consult but then again I'm in the mid-west not a major city.

Of the 4 PS that I consulted with, 2 said be at goal or stable weight for 6 months, 1 said a year and the other said 2 years. No problem with researching surgeons and surgeries, but a surgeon's evaluation will definitely be based on what you look like when you are at a stable weight, not what you might look like.

All the best on your journey!

I definitely don't recommend scheduling consults now.

I have a similar history - my dad died two years post-op for me and 3 months after that I was diagnosed with BED. Looking back on that time period, I can say with 100% certainty that pursuing plastics would have been a really bad decision, even though I had reached my bariatric surgeon's goal for weight loss (not my own goal).

I recommend that you spend this time working on your mental health. Hopefully you're being treated for BED and working with a therapist to address the emotional eating and to regain your healthy habits. You won't want to relapse after you have reconstructive surgery.

Consults now, if you're still going to lose 50-100 pounds, will be pretty useless for you anyway since you really have no idea what your final reconstructive needs will be yet. For example, there are people who have awesome breasts after losing 100 pounds and then, BAM, in the next 20 pounds their breasts totally disappear.

Definitely wait until you reach a weight that a) you're happy with and b) you can maintain. Then schedule consults. :)

As for time between surgery and consult.. I had my consult in February and the first surgery in June - I could have done surgery sooner, but I needed it to fit into my class schedule since I'm a full time student.

A consult may only be "good" for a set period of time. If you need to wait quite a while before actual surgery, you will likely have to be re-evaluated by the PS. If your first consult was free, the second one likely won't be. A small consideration, but one to add to the "con" column if you think you'll end up waiting a while for surgery.

Sorry for the late reply, got so busy with the holiday "weekend"

Thank you for the advice though, it has been super helpful!

Hi

First of all I am so sorry for all you have been through.

I think this may help you.... If you are going to go through all that plastic surgery entails, you want to get the best results possible. We have a conference coming this fall and always feature plastic surgeons and they provide "free" plastic surgery consults. Here is one of the surgeons' criteria before they want to see someone. Not being mean, just their experience tells them this is what you need to get the best results....

* Criteria for post-bariatric/weight loss body contouring procedures: ***

• BMI ? under 30 is preferred, however, there can be some variables to this on a case-by-case basis
• Stable weight for a minimum of 3 (three) months
• Within 20-30lbs of their goal weight preferred
• If post-bariatric surgery, it has been 6 months since your final bariatric surgery procedure
• All patients must be nicotine free for a minimum of six weeks prior to and after any elective surgical procedure
• Typically three to six months to allow for recovery and healing between staged cases

Hang in there and we are all here for you

I think Kathy meant "free"!

Yes Cecily, thanks for catching that

I was 30lbs heavier than I am now when I went for my first consults and no one told me I wasn't ready. I was still losing but very slowly at that point usually 1-2lbs a month. BMI under 30, is desirable but again as Cathy said but there are always exceptions, especially if it is effecting your quality of life. I went on 5 consults and found them all to be very educational and helped me make my decision in the long run.

A good surgeon will also be willing to tell you how much you really need to go back and lose. We can't always tell what is fat and what is skin. They can.