question for the veterans of RNY

Hello,

I am about 53 days into my surgery and doing well. I have wondered this for a while now and I wanted to ask some of you who have had the surgery for a while. Loose skin does it get really bad after the rapid weight loss. How many of you had to have skin tighten. I know it depends on the person and how your body is made but I am just wondering. I have always been a hard or solid women even being big but I am notice some looseness around my stomach now.

Thanks for your response

Here's the deal.  I always say that we spent a lot of years covering up our obesity so covering some loose skin is very easy to hide.  The amount depends on your age, your skin elasticity and lots of stuff.  Sometimes it even gets a little better later.  I think since you have a young daughter you are probably a lot younger than I am so you will probably do better.  I'm going to show you a picture.  I have had plastic surgery now but I did not have it in this picture.  If I didn't have a bra on it would have looked a lot different.  Now you might be saying...."what about dating and loose skin?"  I met the man I married with tons of loose skin.  He also fixed it for me. 


You can't worry about the skin....at least not now.  It is far into the future and you can take it one day at a time.  Don't start worrying yourself into next year.  Also know that every day you lose a little more you are getting healthier and you're going to live for your daughter.  She won't even remember you as an obese woman!  How great is that?

Just remember that we all start off this journey believing that if we can just get skinny that life will be perfect.  It's never perfect but it definitely gets better if you follow your program and remember to be super grateful for each gift you receive.  Instead of worrying about how much you lose, be thankful for how much better it is today than yesterday.  At some point we will level out and if we don't train ourselves to be grateful for what we have we will get to a place where we are looking for something else to make us feel "high".  We came from food making us high to the honeymoon period which makes us high.  We have to level out, feel good about where we are each day or we will always feel empty and look for something else to make us feel good.  I hope that makes some sense and if it doesn't right now it might make sense later.  Please feel free to ask anything OK?  Thank you for being here!!
hugs, Y
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Thanks for your response,

I get where you are coming from, I am just curious as to what people have gone through. I have seen so many different results some people get too skin and others never get to their goal.I am not sure where I will end up at cause it is very early still.

Believe me I have no false expectations on my life becoming some fair tale because I am skinny when I get there. I have friends of all shapes and sizes with a variety of experiences in life. I am a little young but not young enough to be unrealistic, life is what you make it. Hard work and effort are the main ingredients to achieve what you want out of it. I am excited and thankful to be losing weight.

BTW your picture pre tightening does not look that bad maybe because you are leaning back which elongates the body. I don't even see any hang in your arms either.

Yep you will see all kinds of results.  I was very lucky with my arms.  They basically went back to pretty much normal.  And you're right about leaning back and how that helped in the picture.  I pretty much wore that bra 24/7 but it looked OK when I had it on so I was grateful.

You are very smart...noticing that your friends are all sizes and still have a variety of experiences.  Life is life.  I have seen so many post-ops expect their lives to be perfect.  I also have a blog post about when doctors and some people say don't have unrealistic expectations but it's sort of the opposite in a way.  I want people to expect themselves to be able to do a lot of things.  I am 2 pounds over the lowest weight I ever got to in my adult life.  I was told not to even think I could do that.  If you don't believe you can do something, you won't be able to.  We have to find some good middle ground but just getting healthy is a great start.

I'm so happy for you...you so sound like you've got a great outlook and I think you're going to do really well.  And...it's perfectly OK to ask anything you want! 
hugs, Y

I am still pre op and don't have any experience to give you...but I realized today...loose skin is a given for me...but the last time I was thin I was in my early 20's ....so in my mind thin and young  go together... I am worried that I am going to be shocked by who much older I look now...

the only thing to compare it to is when I decided to go back to my natural hair color and let all the color grow off...only to discover my natural color is blah (that's why I changed it in the first place) and that I seem to have gotten gray hairs from somewhere.....thank GOD I had plenty of blond hair color to correct that mess...

Oh God...I haven't seen my real hair color in a billion years but I know how much gray there is and there would be a huge, big Elvira streak right in the front.   Thin and young used to go together for me and in a way it still does because I am so young in my mind!
hugs, Y

From what I have observed, the older we are when we have the surgery-the less elastic our skin is. I know what you are going thru, I have been really bothered about my hanging skin on my neck! I have always wanted to have a skinny face/neck because I have carried my weight there and was extremely fat there. I always said I had the neck of a 500 lb woman-not kidding-and you just can't hide it-it is right out front for everyone to see. But it is gradually getting better and the thing is like Y said: You are gonna look tons better than you did before no matter how much loose skin you have and if you exercise that really helps a lot! So just enjoy it and don't stress too much over it! I remember when I first started losing that my skin started feeling spongy but a OH friend told me that that is because our fat is getting less dense and that is a wonderful thing! Look for the positives babe! You are doing great! Hope I helped~

Thanks for the feedback

Hey Annette,
I always say to dress to assessorize the things that help.  Have you considered wearing pretty scarves around your neck?  I am the queen of doing that stuff!  I also believe that if something bothers you a whole lot that you should check out your options whether it's one of those thread lift things to an actual facelift.  And no you're not too old.  I also say that  plastic surgery is an investment and it's pretty much forever.  I would have driven a lesser car or worked an extra job to pay off a plastic surgery bill.  (Hope I didn't get too personal)  I just don't want anyone to think "Well, I'm too old for that stuff".  You have to realize that when someone is 50 years old they are middle aged when it used to be 40.  We will live a lot longer and since I started my second childhood I'm making up for some lost years! 

I had to laugh the other day when I went in the store.  A girl said "You must be an artist".  I laughed and said "yes".  I am also living out the career I would have had as a fashion designer if I hadn't been obese for all those years!  Woooooo HOOOOOOOOOO
hugs, Y