nina874

Hi Losing - Its funny you should ask about DH, we have just had a phone conversation about it , cos I have just found out that the kids are on half term that week so my dad would just implode!!LOL I will be fine without him, Paddy and Jenny (my TT buddies) will be there with me and I will probably out of it any way. Neal - that is fantastic news, its nice to see that some PS's still care! NOT LONG NOW!!! Hah I am getting so excited! Hah so you got your ass kicked! I bet you loved it really Respect on the running hon, I bet that has really spurred you on, you must be buzzing!I KNEW you could do it!! Hope you enjoyed lunch. Love and hugs Nina x

That kit sounds cool Karey!!! Well done on the weight loss as well, flippin heck you are going to melt away! I would go for it with the implants - I know I am going to!! Losing - it just isnt fair is it hon? It hacks me off that as soon as you get one part of the body to start playing ball, another bit starts collapsing!!! Nina x

Oh julie I am so sorry that you are still having to deal with this, you arec normally so upbeat, it is awful to hear you down ((((((hug)))))) Does your dad have any idea why it isnt clearing up? I hope that this lot of treatment does the trick hon and that you can start to see the end of the road soon. Love and a HUGE (((((hug)))) Nina x

LOL I know it i stressing me quite a bit, but I cannot see a way around it!! I had a real turn up for the books last night when the girl that dropped out of having the TT before Christmas and didnt go on the pre-op visit decided that she was coming with us after all!!! Geraldine has had to shift things around a bit for her but she has managed to fit everything in for her! Now I dont know whether to tell DH to stay in England, as he was going to be coming out with me, her DH isnt going with her and she has said that she will go down with me. I hate change!!LOL I am feeling very pleased with myself this morning cos I have lost 3lb , I know that it isnt a lot, but it takes me within a whisker on the 11's and I think it will be such a motivation to me to see that number at the start of the weight!!! I know it sounds daft but I just know it will spur me on, and it takes me nearer to my mini goal of losing 7lb before the sx. Me me me I know!! How are you my honeybun? Did your personal trainer catch up with you?? :hurray: I know that I keep on saying it but you have so much determination hon, I have not a doubt in my mind that you will pick yourself up and dust yourself off and just get back to it ((hug)) Oh and I checked my flights and I fly out in 13 days time!!!! OMG!!!! I am flying out a day early to spend some time with my sis in Machester before I fly out for the op, but I WILL take my laptop with me :frown: NIna x

Hi Karey, If you are having the lift anyway I would say have a look at it, especially if you have breast fed at any stage! Go ont www.makemeheal.com and look in their breastlift forum there will be loads of people there who have pictures on their signatures, I would say that well over 50% have augmentation at the same time. I know that when I spoke to Pascal he actually folded my boob to show me what they do in the lift, and showed me that the top still wouldnt be full - yup that was enough for me!!! I am not under any illusions , I know that after 6 kids and lots of cake (and I mean LOTS!!) I am never going to get my body perfect, but I am going to do everything that I can to get it as close as possible!!! And just as a WOOOO HOOOO to me , from me, I have lost another 3lb since I got back from France I am now a smidgen away from the 11's!!!!!! I havent been under 12 for about 4 years and I havent been in the 10's since I had my 4th munchkin!! I can do this , I can do this!!!!! Nina xx

Hi Ellen :frown: The reason that I chose France was exactly that! I couldnt find anyone near me who used that technique, so the logical thought pattern that I followed was that if I have got to travel anyway, then I may as well travel to one of the best! I was on Dr Pascals site yesterday Docteur PASCAL - LYON - FRANCE and I was looking at one of his publications (from what I can gather when they develop a new technique they write a paper on it and publish it so that all the other PS can see the technique) called abdominoplasty 2007. His breakthrough was that he doesnt in any way damage the lymphatic system. If you dont do that then you dont cause all the seromas and Fluid build up therefore you dont need to use drains! He is ALL about patient saftey, to the point where I was arguing with him about waist size *blush* as in I wanted him to pull it in more and he wasnt prepared to risk too much puckering/tension! I think that reason that he can remove that much lipo safely is that he keeps you in hospital for a week, he warned us at our pre-op that with that much being removed it is about 50/50 that you may need a blood transfusion. The absolute minimum time that he will allow you to stay in france is the week in hospital.The reason that I am staying longer is that he sends his nurse out every day to check that the wound is healing, I dont want to leave until the scar has closed up, I am worried that if I come back and there IS a problem ( though his complication rate is sooo low) then I would have to fly out again to get it sorted! He will try and talk you into getting to goal and holding it there before you schedule surgery, he normally waits til you have had the band in for a year, I wouldnt take no for an answer, but that is manily because of my dream holiday in September - well that and the fact that I hate people saying no :hurray: Go on his website and have a look at his work, then get his number and ring Geraldine his secratary. She is lovely and speaks fluent english. Remember when you are costing out that you will have to travel there twice before the operation, once for the consult and once for the pre-op and it does add up! Hope that this helps! Nina xx

Working on it babes, as far as I can tell I cant get one in the hospital!!! The hotel room will be ok though I know we can get one there, sooo it looks like I will be offline for about 9 days with the travelling to and all that, how on earth will I cope???????? Will pm you later hon, got the kids crawling all over me at the moment! Hugs NIna x

Ousooner - thats a bugger, it is as if you get no reward for making yourself a damn sight lower an insurance risk!!! Just think how much you would have cost them over the years if you hadnt lost the weight!! Write your letter hon it will make you feel better, and then just look forwards to the surgery and the new slim you!! Tami - have you decided yet what to do about your mum? I havent come up with any miracle answers I am afraid. How are you feeling anyway my little action woman? I was prescribed arnica and I have bought bromelain I also have to take Iron, after the op I am on all that plus clexane injections to stop blood clots. Harley- Glad to see that the girls are looking good and not too small, I have to say that perky BIG boobs is my idea of the ideal!! Have you seen the PS about the little stitch yet. Glad that your tummy is feeling better and the drain are out that must be a release! Its strange what different advise we have all been given! I have been told under no circumstances am I to massage the lipo'd areas for at least 1 month post op so that the skin has chance to rebond with the fascia? Glad that I have that pre-op advice, much prefer the sound of it to yours!!LOL Losing - how are you doing chick? 2 weeks tomorrow I fly on the first leg out to France!!!!! OMG!!! I cant wait now, really looking forwards to it!!! :0) :0) Nina x

Hi Harley, are you happy with the size of the puppies? What did you opt for in the end? Glad to hear that you are being a good girl post-op:wink2: You sound so thrilled and so chipper, do yo ufeel like a new woman now,or are you still recovering? I told you it would!! It wont be long now before we are both walking into the hospital, thinking ARRRRRgggghh!!LOL Nope totally deaf in one ear! Cant decide if it is a blessing or a curse, sure cuts out a lot of the kids bitching at each other! Nightmare situation with your mum though, do you have any siblings that could pick up the slack? I see what you mean about the bringing her to live with you, how able is she, is she fully compus? It could do her a world of good to look after her baby for a bit! But if you are locked into the care-givers role it might be hard for you both to adapt to the switch. I will ponder on it. Do you have 'meals on wheels' over there? Hope that everyone else is chugging along quite happily, take care all of you! Nina x

Hi Neal, I didnt realise that you were getting worried hon, sorry! It seems to have all worked out well though, you know the hospital and like it, and the pre-op sounds really comprehensive! Neal it is only 5 days til your pre-op!!!! Does that make it more real for you???? I am in this comfortable la la land at the moment where all I am thinking about is the end result, the how I am going to get there is barely registering in my conscious mind!!LOL How about you? Nina x

I dont know anything about insurance as I live in the UK, but I know that it is a crappy position to be in ((hug)) I am lucky that I can self fund, but I am sure that some of the US members will be able to answer your insurance questions. I am sure that there are certain criteria that you have to meet to get a TT if they do cover it, like a history of skin rashes caused by the folds of skin etc,one women did point out that if you dont rinse the soap off properly rashes do develop......... :wink2: Sorry I cant be more help. NIna x

Oh that would get my goat too Karey, I hear lots of people making negative comments about it, and some of them I know for a fact would - if someone else were to foot the bill - jump at the chance to do it themselves. I suppose the one who had the surgery was too frightened to speak up? My surgeon said to me ' I can achieve almost anything that you want but in order for me to do that, you must have 3 things.... time, money and courage' just because people are lacking in one of the three doesnt give them the right to critisise! There are some people who even if they had all 3 wouldnt do it, but then I have no desire to take up quad biking/skydiving/free basing , but I wouldnt critisise someone who does! Ahhhhh Bloody people! Dont worry about it hon, you dont strike me as the most conventional of people, I am sure that you wont give a stuff what they think, and quite right too you worked your ass off to get there!!

I would say that Dr Reath has the least amount of problematic patients, looking at his befores even the LBL patient didnt look that bad before, I didnt see anyone on his site with MAJOR loose skin. It seems as well that LBL is a fairly new thing at his practice.I doubt that there are many on there who has ever been more than 14lb over weight! I would say that most of his patients are post pregnancy.I know there is one lady and he does get good results......oh I dont know I think I am biased because so may of them were skinny minnies to start with!! Ignore my predjudices!Ask to see some more pictures of weightloss patients. Melinda and Mary at least have a fair amount of LBL pictures and their patients to have loose skin/excess round the middle, even though some of the results arent perfect, they have far more difficult cases. Lois Wagstrom for me gets the best results, she has people with a lot of excess and her belt abdominoplasty pictures show a massive improvement for the patients, if it were me I would go with her! Just my thoughts hon! Nina x

Losingjusme is using one of the best surgeons in the US for the high tension tummy tuck technique, he also uses quilting stitches to reattach the skin to the fascia ( in fact I think that he pioneered some of the techniques) ask her for his full details. If I was in the US that is who I would be using! My PS is wonderful and the aftercare in France is blissful compared to anywhere else, 1 week in hospital and then a nurse coming to you daily to check your dressings and wound, that was what sold it to me in the end - that and the fact that he said he would make sure that I will ' drive my husband wild with desire'...... I would look around, look at examples of their work on the net, see how many before and afters feature people who actually NEED the surgery, I was shocked by how many of them were just operating on people who only needed a little tweak - if that! I would say have a high lateral tension tummy tuck, it is the rolls royce of TT, read up on it on the net so you understand how it works, I was sold on it immediately! HTH Nina x

Ok this is completely off topic, but how on earth do you manage to put quotes from everyone in one post????? I can quote one person but loads of different ones from different posts:confused::rolleyes2::confused: Ok newbie question I know, but I have tried eveything I can think of and it drives me mad that I cant do it! Any help will be gratefully received! Nina x

The thing that really gets me is that most PS's wouldnt dare have that attitude with anyone who was a bmi of 25 so what makes them think that we have any lower an expectation from the surgery? We are going through the same amount of pain, why should we not expect the same results! I dont just want good, I want it to make me feel fan-friggin-tastic!!!! Everyones perception of where that is is individual, but we should all come away feeling thrilled! Nina x

Hi Luluc, Thanks for answering! Just wanted to say congratulations on the impending arrival of your little fella, I did 3 rounds of IVF too and it is fairly harrowing isnt it. I was torn with what to do if I had any in the freezer (ah the innocence when you are starting out), no such luck I barely had enough to transfer each time! So sorry that your treatment failed ((hug)) but now you have a little bundle to look forwards to, maybe that was what the fates had planned for you all along! Anyhoo just wanted to say hello from one IVF survivor to another! Nina x

Karey, I read a very moving article the other day from a woman whose breast cancer was discovered quicker because she had augmented her breasts.It meant that her own tissue was pushed forwrads nearer to the front so she felt the lump sooner then she would have. I am still all over the place regarding the puppies, i am very fond of them... I know that if I do have a lift I want then augmanting though cos I told my PS that I didnt just want them perky I wanted fullness at the top and he said the only way that I would get that is with them being augmented too. Ultimately you have to think about what will make you happy, I have always had BIG puppies and as a consequence my waist has always looked smaller than it is, I dont want to lose that definition, but I have friends that dont like having big bazookas, its horses for courses really. What do you think will give you the result that you will be thrilled with? I think if you are going to do it go the whole hog

Mine look like pessaries, much to my dismay I seem to be able to swallow them no problems at all, hmmmm I need a fill I think!!LOL

Oh Babes ((((hug)))) I am sorry I didn't mean to open any wounds. For what it is worth I think that you are going to be absolutely thrilled with your PS's work I have read up on him, he is the dogs danglies, I dont think that he would compromise his work by giving you something that is just 'ok' I think he is going to make you look goddam fantastic!! In fact I may even go so far to admit that he may be slightly (only slightly mind) more qualified than my PS..... As for the stretch marks I actually only have one friend that doesnt have them!! They aren't something that bothers me, if he doesnt get rid of them all I can honestly say I wont be arsed, but I do want it to not stick out!! Each new picture that you post you look happier and happier, after the surgery I hope that you will start to believe that you are beautiful too! Consider yourself told off!

I spend most of my time confused..... I find it is easier if you dont fight it.

Yay Harley!! You sound like you feel much better hon!!! How come you are on antbiotics? I am glad that hubby was there to help you it must have been much less traumatic!! I would say try to keep the areas that have been lipo'd as tight as possible, they have separated the skin from the fascia and you want it to knit back nice and tight without any ripples, that normally takes about 1 month, it will be worth it to get the best results. How are the puppies doing?Are you pleased with the size of them after all the last minute panics? I acnt belive you have been pill free for that long!! And ghere I am moaning about my ear!!LOL I am planning to still be on morphine at that stage! Do you have any idea when the drains are coming out? What do you think of the results so far!!??

Just out of interest for the pro-lifers, what is your position on embryos used for IVF treatment? Many times there are embryos left over after successful treatments and they are sometimes thawed and allowed to perish? What is your standpoint on those potential children? Just curious.......

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. One of my favorite quotes, I try to live by it!

What a fantastic ethos! I may have found a branch of Christianity that I agree with! Thanks Kago :wink2: