sillykitty

That's exciting! I'm having a really hard time picturing what side boob area was snipped away in office? Even google has failed me, it just suggests lipo for side boob. Do you have a pic, or diagram you'd be willing to share? I'm curious!

Thanks for the feedback everyone! @FluffyChix I've decided against doing an arm lift at this point. They just don't bother me enough to be worth the scar, and additional recovery time. I figure as I age they will get worse, so maybe I'll reconsider in 10 years or so.

Heading out for dinner & drinks w a friend

Glad to hear it went well!

I think I decided on a surgeon!! I had a phone consult last week with another out of state surgeon, calling him Dr. N. I instantly liked him, and he was the easiest to talk to out of all the surgeons. His approach is a little bit different than others I had consulted with. My wish list was LBL with lipo, fat transfer to butt & inner (crescent) thigh lift. Well, he doesn't do inner (crescent) thigh lifts, because of the high complication rate, seriousness of complications and often unsatisfactory results. But he does believe I will have significant improvement to my inner thighs with the LBL alone. His gallery online does bear that out. His results are particularity lean and taunt. He also doesn't do buttocks fat transfer, also due to risk factors, and low survival rate of transferred fat. So I will be left with a flatter butt that I would prefer. Finally, he doesn't believe I will need lipo. He will remove the fat on my stomach with the LBL. He wouldn't recommend lipo-ing my thighs unless I was doing a medial thigh lift. Removing fat will exacerbate the sag. And overall he thinks I'm relatively lean, and my figure wouldn't benefit from lipo. I got off the phone and took sometime to process, and scroll through the gallery again. Not having an inner thigh lift is a bit of a relief. The risks and complications are no joke scary. I also don't need perfect thighs, just greatly improved would be trade off. I was and am still disappointed knowing that my butt will be flattened out by the procedure. I realize though a lot of my butt volume currently is excess skin, which isn't attractive outside of spanx, you know? The benefit of going with a simpler operation is less expense and recovery time. Recovery time and pain is especially an issue, since I'll be going out of state, and will be alone. So realizing this would only be a 3 hour operation, I reached back out and asked if a BA/BL could be done at the same time. Answer was YES! So I sent off pics and had a second phone consult. We talked extensively about the result I wanted, natural, tear drop & full. With that he said my breasts still had a good enough shape, and since my nipples point outwards, vs. down, I would most likely be satisfied with a BA only. I could skip the pain, recovery and scars of a BL. So I am going to think on it over the weekend, but most likely I will go with a LBL & BA with Dr. N! Here's where my thoughts are right now Cons Flattened butt without a fat transfer Inner thigh improvement will be more subtle than with a lift Breasts won't be as perky without a lift Pros Get my top 3 priorities, tummy, boobs, thighs resolved in 1 surgery Easier recovery & less risk of complications, especially since I'll be far from home Cost, this will be SIGNIFICANTLY less expensive than any other quote I received. (even the care facility is 1/3rd the cost per night!) Right now I'm strongly leaning towards to pros outweighing the cons and booking it! Here are pics from Dr. N's gallery, where the patient has the most similar thigh or breast type to mine. Input appreciated!

Finally got to a scale. No idea how, but I'm actually down from when I last weighed in, 10 days ago. I know I'm dehydrated, so that's a big part of it I'm sure. I'm at 126.6 Walked a mile +, 4 days out of 5 Plan a healthy meal. Well I'll meal prep for the BF, he's getting BBQ Chicken salad, plus something else I need to figure out. Then I'll cook us dinner on Sunday night, I'm thinking pork tenderloin, a grain salad, and veggies.

@Sheribear68 🤣 @GreenTealael & @FluffyChix are old hands at this game. It is so much easier now days then when I had my "real" restriction

You can't target weight loss with exercise, sorry!

Silicone tape! Silicone is the only clinically proven treatment for scars. It was originally used on burn patients. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4486716/ Inexpensive on Amazon https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VE9AL8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hangover Food

Look at this as a golden opportunity. Use this time to focus on pure nutrition. Get the protein and fiber you need, for the fewest calories. You can maximize your weight loss during this phase. There will be a point that food starts tasting good again & cravings return. At that point it will be harder to eat completely on plan.

I don’t have arthritis myself, but know several people who have found significant relief from CBD, both orally and topically. It is legal in all 50 states. Even national chains like CVS now carry CBD products

I had my first mammogram just prior to WLS and I was a DD. I was surprised because they weren’t squished at all like I was expecting. The tech told me that the new technology doesn’t require much pressure, and the breast doesn’t need to be particularly flat, so no squishing

So strange, BP thinks H M O is a curse word??

Good to know! I read some horror stories about complications insurance refused to cover. I'm thinking that is more common with an ***, or even more common with a closed *** like Kaiser, rather than a PPO.

I have an iron sleeve, nothing has really bothered it. Up until a few months ago, too much sugar made me nauseated & my heart race (light dumping I suppose). But even that hasn’t happened for a while now I’m good with not having any off limit foods. It was one of the reasons I went with a VSG. It was important to me to be able to be flexible with my diet.

Yes! I have so much more suitcase room these days 😂

Some days early on I had an urge to eat. I wasn’t physically hunger, I just wanted to eat! If I couldn’t push past it with fluids, then I ate, but made sure all my decision were good ones. I ate cucumbers with vinegar, carrots w ranch made from yogurt, jerky, lean meats, etc.

Checking in 1. Posting your personal goal - Stay below 130, and walk 1+ miles a majority of days 2. Add your surgery type, status (pre/post op, losing/maintenance) - 18 months post VSG, in maintenance 3. Weight and BMI (not necessary but encouraged) - 130ish (not near a scale) last weigh in was 128.8, but have spent the last week binge-ing. BMI 23 4. Choose between the easy or advance squat routine - easy 5. Tell us your favorite flaw - I have an incredibly flexible palate. I can happily eat a gas station hot dog for lunch and then dinner at a 5 star restaurant B-sides - I loathe exercise, but love walking. My skin is no better or worse post WLS

I started out buying the same style in different sizes. Some clothes I literally purchased in a 20 > 16 > 12 > 8. Wrap dresses were my absolute go to. I still have some in my closet in my current size, but I really don't wear them often. As I got close to goal, and being really happy with my figure, I started to branch out to styles I always admired on others. I started out with pencil skirts, sheath dresses tucked in shirts/bodysuits, white pants etc. I sent pics to trusted friends and asked ... "Is my tummy too round for this" etc. Once I started getting positive feedback (and got to/below goal), I felt like hot sh*t honestly. The next steps was exploring less form fitting outfits. In the past flow-y type cloths always made me feel even bigger. So I've since branched out to rompers, boho skirts, t-shirt dresses, palazzo pants etc. So I guess it was a two stage process. First I needed to truly see my figure, with form fitting dresses etc. Once I accepted that I now looked like a normal thin person, I felt comfortable wearing all the clothes that normal thin people wear. Funny thing is, my bf thinks I'm a very conservative dresser. I feel like I've gone absolutely wild. I can't imagine what he would have thought of my wardrobe pre WLS. 😂

Thanks everyone for the compliments. Finally getting a chance to catch up. Everyone on here looks fab, sailors and praire chicks alike 😂! For anyone who complimented the boho skirt, it is a bit of a grab bag situation, but a total bargain https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01L8UPFA0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Great insight, thank you! Was your surgeon Dr. Michaels? (If you'r more comfortable pm-ing me, then please do)

Actually the phone consult Doc was the most unintentionally brutal to date. "Oh, all that excess skin must be so uncomfortable." "Your skin just drapes and hangs there" "I can get rid of those bannan rolls over your hips" "Your butt has no shape left at all" I'm hoping my luck holds. I have had no medical issues in my life, and my VSG recovery was extremely easy. Also, with local traffic, most (all?) qualified surgeons are over an hour away. It took me nearly 3 hrs to get home after my second consult, which was about 30 miles away. I can definitely see how that can happen. None of my consults were pushy. But if I was less certain about what I want and what I don't want, it would be easy to get swayed by the possibilities. Honestly, I could use a complete overhaul. But I know that I want at most 1 major, and one minor surgery. I also don't want extensive scarring. Finally, I can't afford a whole body procedure, even if I wanted one. So even though I don't love my arms, or my knees, I can deal with those problem areas, because I'd rather fix my tummy, thighs, boobs and butt. My first out of state consult addressed this concern without me even asking. He said he had local associates he trained, or he trained under, that would do follow ups and treat any complications.

Had my first phone consult the other night. This surgeon also specializes in post bariatrics, and uses some different techniques, such as a flankplasty vs a LBL. He publishes about these techniques extensively as well. I loved what he told me he could do to my body. He talked a lot about body contouring, narrowing my waist, creating a shelf booty, etc. Hr then sent me the quote, and it was on the lower end. I was excited.... Then I went back and took a good look at his photos. Everything he talked about did not show in his pics. He actually had a lot of outcomes that I wasn't impressed with at all. I'm feeling a little like Goldilocks right now. I think there are several surgeon out there who can give me a flat stomach and improved thighs. But finding surgeons who excel at body contouring in addition to skin removal, are few and far between. I don't want to make this investment of money, time and pain, and then be unhappy with a boxy figure and flat butt Here's where I'm at on consults Dr. NB - The only surgeon so far I'm confident can give me the figure I want, but pricing was astronomical. Benefit of being local Dr. B - Local, probably the front runner so far. He wasn't enthused about doing any butt contouring/fat augmentation. Need a revised quote, but more reasonable then the other local surgeon Dr. P - Not at all impressed with his result pics, out of the running Dr. N - Phone consult later this week. I'm very impressed by how lean and taunt his results are, but all results have a flat butt Dr. B2 - Local consult next week. Need to look at photos more closely Still need to look at and potentially schedule consults with a few of the other surgeons mentioned on this thread.

Fancy hot dog 🌭