I lost over 100 lbs and I'm feeling and looking deflated
March 13, 2015 1:18 AM Subscribe
For those who have lost over 100 lbs and had a breast lift, abdominoplasty, or a lower body lift: Would you mind sharing your experience with me?
What are your tips for finding a good plastic surgeon and how do you know when you've found "the one"? What was the recovery and aftercare like? Did you get used to the scars, and are they less noticeable now? How do people respond when they see your scars?
For those of you who had abdominoplasty and had thick, wrinkly, puffy-looking stretch marks above the navel: Did the surgery smooth/flatten the stretch marks out a little? Or do they pretty much look the same?
Background: I recently lost 125 lbs and I'm less comfortable with my body now than I was back before I lost the weight. I'm female, 28 years old, 5'4", 110 lbs and... my body looks like my 60 year old mother's body, except she has the excuse of living longer and having 2 children. My breasts in particular are in god-awful condition. I don't mean saggy. Saggy, I can live with. I mean they're empty-looking and wrinkled. I also have some loose skin on my upper inner thighs (which I can live with) and my stomach. I plan to maintain my weight for a year and strength train and hope some of the skin snaps back into place. (I can tell there's no hope for my breasts though.) This should give me enough time to save up for a breast lift and abdominoplasty, do as much research as possible before my first consultation, and most importantly, figure out if this is something I really want to do.
What are your tips for finding a good plastic surgeon and how do you know when you've found "the one"? What was the recovery and aftercare like? Did you get used to the scars, and are they less noticeable now? How do people respond when they see your scars?
For those of you who had abdominoplasty and had thick, wrinkly, puffy-looking stretch marks above the navel: Did the surgery smooth/flatten the stretch marks out a little? Or do they pretty much look the same?
Background: I recently lost 125 lbs and I'm less comfortable with my body now than I was back before I lost the weight. I'm female, 28 years old, 5'4", 110 lbs and... my body looks like my 60 year old mother's body, except she has the excuse of living longer and having 2 children. My breasts in particular are in god-awful condition. I don't mean saggy. Saggy, I can live with. I mean they're empty-looking and wrinkled. I also have some loose skin on my upper inner thighs (which I can live with) and my stomach. I plan to maintain my weight for a year and strength train and hope some of the skin snaps back into place. (I can tell there's no hope for my breasts though.) This should give me enough time to save up for a breast lift and abdominoplasty, do as much research as possible before my first consultation, and most importantly, figure out if this is something I really want to do.
I haven't had the surgery but I did lose 175 pounds around 8 years ago. My stretch marks above the navel faded and flattened out over time on their own. I mean, they're still stretch marks, but they did fade alot without any intervention.
posted by cabingirl at 5:46 AM on March 13, 2015
posted by cabingirl at 5:46 AM on March 13, 2015
Best answer: I haven't had that surgery, but I did have weight loss surgery and lost over 100 pounds. I frequent a forum called "Thinner Times" that is quite active and well-moderated. There are two sub-forums that might be of interest to you. The first one is called "Ask a Plastic Surgeon" and the other is "Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery".
Congratulations on your loss!
posted by elmay at 6:37 AM on March 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
Congratulations on your loss!
posted by elmay at 6:37 AM on March 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
Best answer: I have lost significant weight (not as much as you, congrats!), and am quite a bit older, so the skin takes longer to adjust. From what I understand, your skin will bounce back a bit, but probably not as much as you would like. I would give it a couple of years to make sure you let your body fix itself to the extent that it will do so.
As for the scarring, I have had a breast reduction (25 years ago) and the scars are still pretty obvious. However, that is really a function of my own propensity to scar. If you have had any sort of surgeries, or even bad scrapes or cuts, how you healed from those will give you a good idea of how well your body heals. Are the scars thick, raised, or red, or have they faded to invisibility? Of course, the more invasive the procedure, the more aggressive the scarring can be, so take that into account.
There are several methods of reducing scarring that you can investigate with your surgeon prior to any surgery. My latest surgery, on my hand, included a lot of work with a physical therapist afterwards to keep pressure on the incision and break up any developing scar tissue. It worked quite well, and I am very happy with the results.
Good luck and great job on the weight loss!
posted by blurker at 10:54 AM on March 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
As for the scarring, I have had a breast reduction (25 years ago) and the scars are still pretty obvious. However, that is really a function of my own propensity to scar. If you have had any sort of surgeries, or even bad scrapes or cuts, how you healed from those will give you a good idea of how well your body heals. Are the scars thick, raised, or red, or have they faded to invisibility? Of course, the more invasive the procedure, the more aggressive the scarring can be, so take that into account.
There are several methods of reducing scarring that you can investigate with your surgeon prior to any surgery. My latest surgery, on my hand, included a lot of work with a physical therapist afterwards to keep pressure on the incision and break up any developing scar tissue. It worked quite well, and I am very happy with the results.
Good luck and great job on the weight loss!
posted by blurker at 10:54 AM on March 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
Give it time, wear support hose. Exercise to tone, wear close fitting, supportive clothes when you can so the underlying muscle can get in touch with skin. Stay covered for a while. Often people who carry extra weight do so cor camouflage. Give some time for recovery and rebirth. Stay away from plastic surgery really. Lors of people lose weight, come out of their cocoons and go right back in.
posted by Oyéah at 8:10 PM on March 13, 2015
posted by Oyéah at 8:10 PM on March 13, 2015
Best answer: I'm sure you've already heard of real self -- a website where people post pictures of various types of plastic surgery and reviews of who did the surgery. If you don't want to join to look at pics/reviews, just go to one of those password websites like bugmenot.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 2:49 AM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 2:49 AM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by tamitang at 5:38 AM on March 13, 2015 [1 favorite]