AvaFern

Very normal. I don't do spinning very often because it takes awhile to get used to the pain. When I do do it, I bring along one of those gel seats that you can slide over the spinning bike and that minimizes the misery. I don't tend to feel pain in my groin as much as my tailbone. I avoid sitting too far forward, which places a lot more pressure on the groin area, and my position is more where the pressure is placed on the middle of my butt. Nonetheless, it hurts for awhile, but you do eventually get used to it.

I can also appreciate how you feel. Like CowgirlJane I took pictures throughout the process so I could see the difference that I don't see in the mirror. Actually just this month I took another set of pictures since I did it at every 10 pounds and I felt much better when I looked at the comparison as opposed to just the current picture. In the current picture and in the mirror I see a girl with thick legs, kind of a duck shape, and nothing special, but then I compare her to the girl 110 pounds ago and I think, woohoo, look at that difference. Suddenly my shoulders look strong, my collarbones look sexy, my feet look like feet instead of balloons, and I am reminded that even though I still see ugly and fat when I look in the mirror, cameras don't lie. I try to hold onto that.

All of my plastics procedures have been outpatient. I had an abdominoplasty done at the same time as lipo on my legs, thighs, and back and a breast lift/ augment. I went into surgery at 7:30 and I was back home by 4:30. This was my first surgery so I had a friend stay with me for a few days and her job was primarily to go get me more to drink and to periodically find the remote when I managed to lose it somewhere in my giant stack of pillows or on the floor. I had two other plastics procedures where I had no one at home with me and I was just fine, so recovery is not bad at all. The first 24-48 hours are actually the best because you still have a lot of numbness and the drugs are good. You basically just sit, watch tv, and zone out, periodically taking naps. I stopped the drugs at 72 hours each time and I was fine without any other form of pain medication. The first week is the worst because you can't move freely, so you're hunched over, you can't reach things, twisting the wrong way hurts, getting up in bed is a challenge, and you're cranky. After that though it's smooth sailing and I'm sure you will love your new stomach! It is probably my favorite of the results I have had.

I use a Fitbit. It syncs with my phone and with MyFitnessPal. I chose the version that has the display on the wrist because I like having it as a watch and so I can see my steps quickly, but the non-display version is about $20 cheaper. It has a vibrating alarm in the mornings, which I like because I can turn it off without rolling over and it only wakes me up. It does a good job of tracking my steps and gives me an idea of how much I move on some days compared to others.

I had my sleeve surgery last year on 9/9/13 and I have lost 79 pounds since. I am now about 29 pounds away from my goal and today I scheduled a breast augmentation and lift, a tummy tuck and lipo for my flanks, lower back, and inner thighs. Until this week I had never heard the words mastoplexy and abdominoplasty before, so I added two words to my vocabulary by just visiting the plastic surgeon. I had hoped for only a regular boob job (aka: just a minor augmentation) but apparently, they also require a bit of a lift too. The extra scar concerned me a bit, but I suppose I can either have a scar or droopy girls, so the scar it is! I had also originally only wanted lipo on my lower stomach, but my surgeon felt that the full tummy tuck would give me more the results I was looking for. He nixed my idea for lipo on my knees (apparently they aren't as fat as I think they look) but agreed with lipo on my inner thighs, flanks, and lower back/ upper bum area. I was also pleased to find out that he only recommends wearing the compression garment for 2-4 weeks as opposed to another place that required it for 2 months. I had originally intended to have the lipo done at a dermatology office, but they required each area be done on a different day and I couldn't imagine drawing out my misery that long, plus an additional surgery with the plastics guy. My only bummer in this situation (outside of the lift requirement issue) was that my arms can't be fixed without either doing some serious lifting or with a brachioplasty. I've always had biggish arms so I'm hoping that with a little work in the gym I can tame the flabbiness a bit without having any surgery on them. Anyone had success with that? I decided to wait 2 months so that I could be within the 15% of weight loss goal that is recommended before having cosmetic surgery. Everything is scheduled for the same six hour surgery on August 20! I paid my deposit and this time 8 weeks from now I will be quite miserably in pain, lol. My questions for you all would be... Has anyone else had this particular combination of surgeries done at the same time or even individually? How horrible was the pain? I feel like I have a generally high tolerance level, but reading the descriptions of the surgeries and watching them online makes me cringe in anticipation of what looks roughly equivalent to being chewed on by a shark. For those of you who have had procedures done, what was your recovery time like...both mentally and physically? I can do my job laying in bed if neccessary, but I'd rather not be working while I'm high on pain medication. How long until you could switch to basic Tylenol or something that didn't make you loopy? Also, how long until you could walk like you didn't just have your skin cut off? Ladies...what cc size did you have placed? My surgeon feels confident we've chosen the right size, but I'm still nervous about waking up and looking like I have two cantaloupes on my chest. Overall...if you did have any of these surgeries done, are you happy with the results? Is there anything I need to absolutely have with me or at home after surgery? Like before the sleeve I had my gas-x strips and a heating pad...things I would never have thought of without reading through all the posts on here! Any experiences anyone wants to share would be greatly appreciated! Thank-you!

Walking into the OR is empowering because it is you clearly taking the situation by the horns and handling business. I did not know they generally knock you out on valium or some form of sedative before they wheel you into the OR for this surgery or my first plastics procedure, but my last two plastics surgeries I insisted on being fully non-drugged when they put me to sleep. Generally they don't make you walk because they have to have the bed with you and roll your IV, EKG leads, and monitor with you and it's more hassle than it's worth, but I say enjoy the experience. You know how you walked down the aisle at your wedding? Ready for a whole new life? Look at this situation exactly like this. Get your head up, march your butt into that OR, and own it. Also, the drugs they give you to knock you out are about 10 seconds of the best high ever. This way you get to enjoy that too.

Yay! Congrats on getting your insurance to cover it! My doctor only required I wear the abdominal binder, but I bought two compression garments from Amazon. I used the one at the link below, which now says it is unavailable but you can find it other places as well. I also used this garment after my posterior body lift and for my thigh lift, which you may never have, but over the course of 3 surgeries I must have washed it at least a hundred times and both of my garments are still in perfect, tight, shape. I liked them because they made me feel much more secure while walking around and while sleeping. Of everything, it is the single most important thing I bought before surgery that wasn't recommended. While I had one in the wash, I wore the other one, and they were well worth the cost. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017SMMDC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I also don't really do nightgowns, so I just wore loose pajama pants the entire time with a loose tank top or pajama shirt. The pain after the surgery is minimal in the sense that you don't actually feel like someone cut off your stomach. The most annoying part is when they stitch your abs together (which gives you a great result) because you can't actually use your abs very well for the first few weeks. Sitting up in bed is SUCH a pain. Also, remember to set up your couch and bed so that it is like you are sitting in a lawn chair. Pillows under your shoulders and head and pillows under your knees. This ensures that while you're sleeping you don't accidentally straighten out your posture and rip anything the first week or so. In terms of preparation, you can't stand up straight, so put everything you might need at waist or chest level. The most useful thing I found was to use one of those bright LED nightlights that you can stick on things and attach it to your night stand. When you can't physically sit yourself up and you're high on drugs, it is really nice to flop your arm over to the side, smack that light, and have more than enough light to safely get to the bathroom or find your medications, or just actually sit up in bed without falling out of it or hurting anything. I've had a lot of plastics and my stomach is by far my favorite. The recovery isn't fun, but it really is not bad at all compared to what you might read about online. The end result is more than worth it and I'm sure you will love your new stomach as much as the rest of us do. Good luck!

Commando! Haha, but past that, the cami trick was always helpful to me. I didn't tuck it in, but just wore it as a longer shirt over my jeans and then a cute matching top on top of it, but in hindsight, tucking it in also works. As a note, you will def go down sizes after an abdominoplasty. I started plastics in a 10 and I'm now in a 2-4 largely as a result of skin removal over 8 months.

Have you tried taking Benadryl and using lotion? I just had a plastics procedure and my incisions drove me nuts with as much as they itched, however I started slathering myself with lotion, which should be safe now on your incisions as long as there is the glue over them and I took Benadryl and Zyrtec at one point to make the itching stop. Part of my issue was that I was allergic to an antibiotic they gave me before surgery and then had a nice reaction to Percocet, so Benadryl and Zyrtec tend to only work when you take them in pill form for an actual allergy. Dry skin can be fixed with lotion. If you are potentially allergic to the glue, maybe try some topical Benadryl or Cortisone cream.

I enjoyed this post! Ideally I can get to a point where you are where you can just relax and know you're doing the right thing. I am obsessive about the scale. I hit goal on April 1, but now I revised it to 10 pounds less because that was my old goal. I do well with quantitative goals...I don't care if my pants are loose- I need that number to show up on the scale! I feel like the scale gives me a lot of control. I have a regular scale that I had since the start of surgery so that is the one I base my official weight loss off of, but I also have an Aria scale because I thought it was cool that it syncs to MyFitnessPal. Of course the Aria scale is always a bit higher than my regular scale, so I record both the numbers. Sometimes the difference is a few points, while sometimes it's over a pound. Using both scales keeps me feeling confident that I am on the right track and maintaining and it leaves me less time to stress out over whether or not I may have gained from enjoying a bite of cookie or a glass of wine. Also, when the day goes badly at work or otherwise, I look at that number on the scale and I say, well, I'm 128 pounds and 2 years ago I was 230-ish...the day could really be going much worse than it is. So...I am jealous that you are so laid back! I wouldn't mind being like that.

I have had a breast lift/ augment, abdominoplasty, thigh lift, lipo in a variety of areas, brachioplasty, and posterior body lift with auto augment of the butt. My first surgery was boobs, stomach and lipo on my hips, thighs, and back. I expected the pain to be excruciating and there was barely any. The most pain I experienced was during my last surgery which was the posterior part of the body lift, probably because unlike the other procedures you are laying on the part of your body that just had surgery done on it. Even then though, I was on Percocet for 3 days which is what I did for the prior two surgeries and I didn't even need Tylenol after that. I could have probably skipped the Percocet after the first day or two, but it helps you to recover better when you aren't tensing up every time you move because you think it's going to hurt. So, in terms of pain, plastic surgery isn't pleasant, but it's not actually painful as much as irritating. Sometimes you move a little bit in the wrong way and you get a bit of a stab of pain, or you go to reach for something and realize your stomach or back is too tight that you can't quite get where you wanted to go. The pain is easy, the first week where your mobility is limited is the annoying part. Also, the drains the first week are annoying, and for me I ended up with a seroma after the abdominoplasty and wound separation after the posterior body lift, so those two things just added to my annoyance. Not painful or scary, just irritating. I had my procedures broken into three procedures because I had them done in the States with an awesome doctor who uses an outpatient policy for plastics. I was capped at 6 hours in surgery, so they did the boobs and tummy first, brachioplasty and groin incision thigh lift second, and then the posterior body lift, auto augment, and a re-do of my thighs in the third procedure. My doctor has a policy that you wait 3 months between procedures, so the first one I had done in August of 2014 and the last one I had done in March of 2015. Much as I would have preferred to have it all done at once, I live alone and while you can easily handle recovery for a few procedures, having all of this done at once would have not only put me at a greater risk for issues because I had to have some mobility, but recovery would have been hell. You can compensate for things when you have the surgeries broken up. For example, when I couldn't use my ab muscles, I relied heavily on my legs. When I couldn't use my arms very much I relied more on my abs (sitting up in bed as an example, you need either arms or abs). I'm sure you can get everything done at once, but my surgeon didn't allow it and I was ok with that.

In California they will do 8 hours n a surgery center under general anesthesia and I don't think it is a law bc in my recent consults the docs have mentioned it as an " I don't do..." Rather than "I can't do..." And two said 8 hours and one said 6. @@jess9395 Interesting! I wondered if it was a law or not because it was an issue on all of my surgeries. My doctor said that they start getting cranky when they go over 6 hours and they don't like to let outpatients leave when surgeries run long. Since they do a lot of reconstruction patients in much longer surgeries, I assumed this rule only applied to those of us who leave the facility the same day.

You do not physically or emotionally NEED any support. I imagine it would be nice to have, but you will be just fine doing it entirely on your own. As the others have mentioned, this is a great place to ask questions, find new friends, and get emotional support. In terms of physically caring for yourself, you do not need anyone once you have been sent home. I drove myself to the hospital and home and I had no one at home with me for the entirety of my recovery. If you want it, you can have it, and you don't need anyone! Good luck!

I'm sorry about your mom. I will keep you in my thoughts. Congrats on the NSV, although I wish it had come at a less sad time.

I've had my hair done every 6 weeks since before I got my sleeve and throughout the entire time I've had it. I have thin, easily breakable hair, and even though probably 1/3 of it fell out last year, it is now growing back in and I have my old level of thickness to about the tops of my ears. I have not noticed that my usual color or the foils I have done every 3 months made any difference in the fragility of my hair and I wasn't willing to have ugly roots just to find out.

I had to go to a work dinner, which was actually for me so I couldn't skip it, at 4 weeks post-op. I was cleared for soft food then and I politely had a a few bites over the course of the evening, took a sip of champagne and brought a doggy bag home, which I didn't end up eating. So, technically, if you're careful and eat slowly you can test the waters fairly soon after surgery. That being said, if you don't have a real desire to eat out and there is no special occasion, eat in. It's healthier and you are closer to the bathroom in the event some form of food doesn't agree with your stomach. I am 1 year and 7 months out and I am still extremely careful eating out because my stomach likes to barf a lot.

I think a lot of us have gone through this and like Canyonbaby said, you are not alone. You will miss your old friend food for some time. Even when you're at goal, when you've had a bad day, you will miss being able to bury yourself and your tears in some ice cream and brownies in front of the TV. The rest of the time though you will feel healthy, empowered, happy, and you will find new ways to cope with emotional challenges. The hard part is over- you made the decision to have WLS and you did it. Now you just need to keep believing in yourself, keep working toward goal, and remember that everything gets better from here.

Google "cut weight like a wrestler". Keep in mind I feel like I have to put the disclaimer that this isn't healthy, but wrestlers and pro fighters who are already lean and generally in shape drop 5,10, sometimes 20 pounds a few days before a fight or a match and then put it right back on after weigh-ins. If you only need to lose 5 pounds, you can easily cut that in 1-2 days, go weigh in, then as soon as that is done, start drinking fluids. Again, this isn't a long term solution, but it gets done what you need to get done before important weigh-ins.

So, TMI question, but is it your time of the month? That can often lead to not only additional Fluid, but also fluid retention. Also I find that if I eat Soup, popcorn, or something extra salty, it has a lot of sodium which inevitably causes me to gain at least a pound or two the day after. Also, if I do a heavy lifting session, my muscles are swollen and I gain weight the next day purely from Water, as opposed to having actually gained any muscle weight. This is why I weigh myself every single day because I know exactly where my weight should be and if for some reason I gain, I can immediately start on the path to fixing it. I also can look back (I have written my weight down everyday) and I can see that, ok I gained 3 pounds one day, but it was gone a few days later, or ooh that was a long stall but not nearly as long as I thought. Don't freak out over a weight gain if it only lasts a day or two- sometimes our bodies inexplicably retain water and naturally process it out.

My surgeon was in Florida, so that probably won't be a help to you, but I had all of the surgeries you are looking at. In terms of recovery, 6-8 weeks is the amount of time they suggest you not be working out for- not the actual recovery time. I was walking 5-10 miles a day at the 10 day mark on my abdominoplasty and breast lift/ augment (which I don't suggest since I ended up giving myself a seroma), but I felt physically fine at that point. My arms (and thighs) were a separate surgery and physically I was capable of doing everything that I usually do in a day (walking around, grocery shopping, etc) at about a week out, although my arms twinged with pain for almost 3 months after that surgery. If you have a sedentary job, a week off is about all you need. I was back to working 12 hour days at my computer by the 5th day on all three of my surgeries. If you have a physical job, eh, I have less of an experience level with recovery at that. My procedures were all outpatient, so the first one I had a friend stay with me for a few days, and the second two I just had someone drive me home and I was completely fine by myself the day of surgery. Physically, the pain is minimal and you are easily able to completely take care of yourself the day of surgery and onward, but if you have the option to have someone take care of you or stay in a recovery clinic- that sounds like it would be WAY easier! Some people have all of their procedures done at once, especially in Mexico, but I'm not sure if it's US law or FL law but they cap you at 6 hours for an outpatient plastic surgery here. As a result, I had multiple surgeries instead of all at once. The first was lipo of my hips, flanks, lower back, and thighs, breast lift and augment, and abdominoplasty. My second was a brachioplasty and groin incision thigh lift. My third was a posterior body lift with auto augment of the buttocks and a re-do of the thigh lift (because I am picky and my surgeon is awesome- he redid that one for me for free). As for your question about weight, generally the guideline is to be within 15% of your goal before plastics. I started my first plastics procedure at 153 and I am now 128 and everything still looks exactly like it should, so you should be fine where you are. Good luck! Plastics are awesome!

You're fine. It sounds likely that the drug helped relax you and you temporarily forgot that you were supposed to be stressed out about the sleeve. I felt tight the first few weeks and Water felt like swallowing bricks. The first time I actually drank an entire cup of juice it was because I had forgotten to remove the straw, which really helped my Fluid intake, and because I was preoccupied with something else at the time. I forgot that I was supposed to be feeling restriction and suddenly I felt way better. The drug goes into your lungs and then into your blood stream, which bypasses your stomach. You'd have to use a much stronger drug with a different absorption route to really cause any damage and that would take a lot of effort in itself.

I have never heard of this. The person likely had significant underlying health issues first. Technically removing your stomach has nothing to do with your lungs and you are generally only placed on 02 during surgery obviously and for a bit after surgery to make sure your O2 saturation levels stay in the 98-99 range. If for some reason someone is on oxygen for a much longer time after that, there is another problem that very likely has nothing to do with the sleeve.

I was 29 when I had my sleeve surgery and I didn't really think about saggy skin all that much initially. Your comment that you're too fat to do anything reminds of things I used to say to myself. I yo-yo dieted so I would go down to about 138, then up to 200, down to 140, up to 210, until the last time I was down at 137 and then went up to 237, which is when I decided on the sleeve. I was too fat to be seen in public and if in hindsight if I had known how my saggy skin would look, I still would have lost the weight. You can hide saggy skin, but you can't hide fat. Also, a few hours in the OR with a good plastic surgeon, and most of the flab can be fixed. Then you can be healthy and hot, but if you aren't willing to lose weight because you might be saggy, that's like saying you aren't going to swim to shore off of a sinking ship because you might get wet. Yes, you're going to have some sag...but if in the end you are exponentially better off than now which seems like a fair trade to me. On another note, from a medical perspective I would encourage you to reconsider the medications, at least the hypertension one. If you are borderline diabetic, it seems quite a few people have had this problem resolved with the sleeve procedure and weight loss. Cholesterol can be resolved ideally by changing the way you eat, although it can also be genetic in that no matter how you eat you will still have high cholesterol which will hurt you in the long run. I had hypertension when I was fat and figured losing weight would fix it so I didn't take the drugs. I am now 128 and this month I finally went on beta blockers because being thin and in shape did not change the fact that my bp continues to be through the roof. Of all of those issues, I would take the hypertension medications and carefully monitor your diet for at least 6 weeks before having a fasting glucose and cholesterol test done again. I ate a big meal the night before a cholesterol test once and I went from my usual very low number to ridiculously high, so there are things that can skew that result. As someone who has hypertension, I was mad that I had to take drugs, but I feel SO much better now that my bp is managed. If you end up losing weight, you can always stop the drugs, but the damage you are doing now, especially with a high bp isn't something that is worth dealing with purely because you don't want to be on fat people medications.

I'm sorry she said that to you. A nurse in the hospital the day after my surgery told me that I had "such a pretty face" so when I lost all that weight I would just be gorgeous. I took it as a compliment, but the "such a pretty face, if only you were thin" comment has been something I had heard before. Be like Taylor Swift and shake it off, haters gonna hate.

It gets much better...I promise. Just tell yourself that one way or another, time passes, and you've already gotten through the worst part. You could have spent this time doing nothing for your health and be worse off than you are now in a year or you can spend this time being miserable, gradually improving, and be like most of the rest of us, completely exuberant a year from now about how much life has changed. Nothing stinks forever....or well I suppose somethings do, but this is not one of them. Chin up, buttercup, you've got this.