Question:
Has anyone had severe bat wings before having surgery?

I have not had surgery yet, nor lost any weight, and I already have very severely grotesque bat wings under my arms. They hang down a good 3 inches. I am so embarrassed of my arms. I always have to wear long sleeves or 3/4 length sleeves because of this. I am wondering if anyone out there also had very bad sagging skin on the underarms before having WLS? And if so how did it affect them? Did you find that they got WORSE? Or did they seem to improve with the weight loss?    — Shrinking-Violet (posted on February 27, 2004)

February 27, 2004
Angela... I started out at 390lbs and now at 8mos out, I've lost 155lbs and have HORRIBLE batwings!! I had them bad before I had surgery and now they are REALLY bad! I know I'll have to have plastics to take care of them. Luckily my insurance does cover this. I wish you the best! Amy
   — Amy G.

February 28, 2004
I started at 276 with some pretty bad bat wings. I'm down to 182 and they're still bad but surprisingly don't seem to be as bad as they were at 276. I'm still planning to have them removed because right now, I could wear a medium top but have to get a large because of the arms. That's probably the only PS I'll have though.
   —  SCbabe B.

February 28, 2004
Before surgery, I had big arms without bat wings. Now that I have lost 98 pounds, I have incredibly droopy bat wings!! My son asks me to do my "birdie" impersonation...that's where I flap my arms as if they were wings!! LOL!! I'm not going to worry about them. I'll eventually have that extra skin removed.
   — Terri G.

February 28, 2004
I had and still have bay wings, but I'm only 32 and I do two things that I see are helping some. One I work my arm with small hand weights and two I moisturize with lotion twice a day. Good luck
   — Jodie S.