The reason I had reconstructive surgery had nothing to do with how my skin looked, so I can't tell you what I'd do in your body just from looking at you. My reason was that my excess skin was preventing me from doing the things I wanted to do where exercise was concerned. No compression gear in the world would let me do jumping jacks, for example. The skin made exercise uncomfortable - it would bounce when I ran, the skin on my arms and legs increased fatigue, some yoga poses were challenging, etc. Since I lost weight so that my weight wouldn't keep me from doing what I wanted to do, it was annoying to me that I was STILL prevented from doing the things I wanted to do by my skin. So it had to go!

If I lived in your body, and your skin prevented me from doing the things I wanted to do, I'd pursue reconstructive surgery.

I love all the questions you asked,I actually had the same ones.I am seriously considering surgery with Dr Sauceda also. I am new to all of this including the posting,so I hope I am doing it correctly. Did you have your surgery and how was it? Thank you!

I know nothing about NYC geography, but a number of people here like Capella. NYCMom did consults with a number of plastic surgeons in the area too. (Although she ultimately went with Dr. Michaels in Maryland/DC.)

Good luck! For me, recovery was a huge pain due to the muscle tightening, so just be really aware of what your lifting restrictions will be post-op. And, hopefully, you have help at home!

Hey all! So I am hoping to start doing some plastics this year-aiming to go in for my first (potentially a LBL with fleur di lis) this fall. I have to go get some bloodwork done to see if I am in good shape to do so, I suspect that I am. I had a consultation with Dr. Sterry on the UES of Manhattan-he was great. I was provided with an overwhelming amount of information, as well as lots of his before/after work which was quite impressive, to say the least.

I am wondering if you guys have anyone else in the Manhattan area that you would recommend (some other consultations can't hurt, right?), or if you have any personal experiences with Dr. Sterry, OR if you have any before/afters of yourself you could provide to give me a more realistic expectation of what I might look like myself.

I am equally excited as I am terrified. I have a 2.5 year old, so he will be 3 at the time of surgery, and I am hoping that we can BOTH make it through such a major recovery!

TIA :)

For what it's worth - Dr. Michaels removes drains at your first pre-op appointment which is ~8 days post-op. (And, for my legs when my second drain wasn't quite ready to come out at that point, he showed me how to do it myself so I could remove it at home instead of needing to come back in.) He also does video consults, which can help with the long distance thing!

But, yeah, I totally get it. Planning to do recovery away from home is definitely not optimal!