ShinerGirl
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Everything posted by ShinerGirl
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You can definitely get an abbreviated arm lift, where the scar does not run all the way to the elbow, but it really depends on the amount of excess skin you're dealing with. I just had mine done at the beginning of June, and I'm relatively happy with it, but I can see why people would opt for the full procedure. I may have some flabbiness remaining at the elbow that will annoy me; I have a ways to go before I see finished results though. To have the shorter scar, you need a surgeon who has done the procedure before, since it's not the same as just shortening the full brachioplasty. I didn't have as much excess skin in the upper arm area as some people, but it bothered me enough psychologically and in terms of how my clothes fit to change it surgically. Also, I've had a number of procedures in the last four years (TT, lower lift, breast lift), and this one is probably on the bottom of my list in terms of recovery. Hope this helps.
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...how one procedure looks before tackling something else...which is actually a good thing according to the professionals. It's just frustrating on this end of it!!! Very few people understand our viewpoint on this, how the excess skin affects us. Another thing is that he's very realistic with expectations. That took me some time to "hear" and still does...the results also take a while to really emerge. As in months. But I can say, the scars from my previous surgeries are barely visible, and the overall contouring is impressive. I'm a gigantic pain in the neck as a patient, and my pain threshold is very low. He handles all of that well, and that's the reason I've done this for the 4th summer in a row. I hope this will be my last for excess skin removal. It is not easy. I hope some of this info has helped. Right now, I'm not sure if I'd have done the arms again...ask me in a few months.
Sorry for rambling!!!
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Part of it is because it's impossible to predict the exact time on some of the surgeries because each person is different. The only surgery that required a hospital stay (one overnight at Waterbury Hospital) was the lower body lift, and that was a flat rate, since the surgery was done there. The other surgeries have all been done at Naugatuck Valley Surgical Center and I've gone home the same day. The arm lift and thigh lift/revision were $3200 paid to Sureddi, and about $2000 EACH to NVSC and the anesthesiologist...and as I said, I'm being billed more on those two. I will pull my records on the other surgeries if you like to give you the exact prices, but they may have changed a bit. Sureddi is conservative...so if you want to do more procedures at once to save money (like I did), he is likely to not do that. This is because he likes to see...
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You are probably wondering about prices/cost. Dr. Sureddi is very fair, I have to say. The only other surgeon in CT that I considered was Paula Moynahan but her prices were OUTRAGEOUS....easily twice what Sureddi charged. His experience with bariatric patients was also extensive and I just liked him. With each surgery, you have the surgeon's fee, the facility fee, and the anesthesiologist's fee. To be honest, the latter two are usually the steepest. Dr. Sureddi charges one fee for the procedure, and that doesn't go up. It's the other two that charge BY THE HOUR and if the surgery runs long (with him it does), you get a bill for that. The anesthesiologist is $500/hour, to give you an idea. It's ridiculous. The surgery I just had was supposed to be 4 hours. It ended up being 6.5...so you can imagine the bills. This has happened every time. Part of that is because Sureddi is a perfectionist. More coming...
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OK...the TT in 2007...It was easily the hardest in terms of recovery, because the abdominal muscles are involved. I had a lower body lift last summer, and that one is supposed to be the roughest, but it wasn't, in my opinion. The summer in between (2008) I had a breast lift. With all of these surgeries was miscellaneous liposuction, except with my TT when he also did a scar revision for something unrelated to my weight loss. A few weeks ago I had an arm lift (shorter scar) and a revision to the medial thigh lift from last year. I'm still pretty swollen from that, and the arm lift is not a pleasant surgery for recovery. The scars are ugly right now and my arms look thinner but they are nowhere near their end result. Same with the thighs. I go through this every time...I have a post from the past on the Dr. Schulman thread on this site where you can see my anxiety!! More to come...
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Hi there. Congrats on your weight loss...that's quite an accomplishment! I'm not sure what procedures you're interested in having done. I know health insurance generally covers a panniculectomy and that's about it; a tummy tuck is not covered. None of my procedures were covered by insurance; I was self-pay for everything. I am in grad school, so money isn't plentiful, but the excess skin was really bothering me. My surgeon is Prasad Sureddi and he has offices in Waterbury and Southbury. My first surgery with him was abdominoplasty/tummy tuck. That area had by far the most excess skin so I wanted to tackle that first, and that surgery was in the summer of 2007. We are having a thunderstorm right now so I think I will send this off to you and then send another one with more info.
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Looking for PS in Connecticut
ShinerGirl replied to StarsZie's topic in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Hi. I replied to your brachioplasty thread also. I haven't been on here in a long while, but decided to check in since I am actually recovering from a cosmetic procedure. :biggrin: PM me if you wish and I can fill you in on my experiences with my CT surgeon. -
Considering Brachioplasty - advice?
ShinerGirl replied to StarsZie's topic in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Hi. I'm in CT and I just had this procedure done at the beginning of June. It's the fourth summer of post-Band cosmetic "work" for excess skin removal after losing 100 pounds since 2003. I undertook none of this lightly. 2007 was a TT, 2008 was a breast lift, 2009 was a thigh lift, and this time was brachioplasty with a thigh revision. I used the same CT surgeon for all of the procedures. I am a major whiner and right now I'm still whining about this one. :biggrin: But in general I've been pleased with the results from my other procedures and I hope for similar results with this one. Right now, it's still a little rough going. If you would like more details, and more specifics on the surgeon (facility, costs, etc.), please PM me. -
Hi Targa...Well, trust me, I was surprised I had the excess skin as well, given the relatively lesser amount of weight I had to lose. (Isn't it amazing how 90 lbs. is considered "not that much" weight?) I think part of it in my case is that I have always carried most of my weight in my stomach/abdomen, and that I have always been at least overweight since childhood. So by the time I had the band surgery and lost the weight, I was 33, which is still relatively young, but my abdominal skin already had stretch marks and was probably worse for wear than people who haven't been through extremes of weight. As for your questions, I am a pale natural redhead, so I do not and have not ever tanned, because I don't like to sunburn! During the year (actually 9 months) that I was actively losing weight with the band, I did both weight training and used my elliptical machine, for at least an hour a day every day. I thought that would help with toning the skin, and I think it did, but it was evident that I was going to need some cosmetic assistance in some areas. Again, relative to most other WLS patients, I didn't have that much excess skin but it was enough to bother me and affect me emotionally. My main reason for having the TT (and for my BL and lipo next week) is that I wanted to be more proportionate and have my clothes fit better; after my weight loss it was apparent that I was a much bigger size on top than on the bottom. I was wearing a size 6 or 8 in jeans, to accommodate my larger waist, but the legs/thigh/butt areas of the jeans were falling off of me. Conversely, I was wearing between a 10/12/14 on top for shirts, so finding a dress or professional attire to fit me across the top and bottom sizes was very difficult. Mostly though, I just felt like the excess skin was a symbol of the "old" me and I wanted to not be reminded of that every day...I wanted to look forward, and for once in my life I wanted to have a waist and no rolls. I've never in my life been able to sit down and not have a roll around my waist, from childhood on. So now, even after the TT, I have some excess folds in the waist, abdomen, and axillary (side where the bra line is) areas, which are why I'm having lipo. The TT did a great deal in terms of tightening the skin and the underlying muscles (which were considerably stretched even though I've never had a child), but it seems that a lot of cosmetic procedures that WLS patients have just need some "tweaking" afterward because it's very hard to predict how our skin will respond to the weight loss, and to the cosmetic surgery as well. I will say that there are probably a lot of people who would not have had surgery to correct the amount of excess skin I had; I had enough for three different cosmetic surgeons to tell me certain procedures (like the TT and BL) would make a dramatic change in my appearance, while other areas (arms, legs/thighs) would not benefit me as much and the scarring would not be worth it. A body lift was not an option for me because I didn't have enough excess skin to justify that procedure, but I had enough for some others. I can say that the TT definitely changed my overall shape, and I hope the BL and lipo will have similar results. Even with this additional cosmetic surgery, which I didn't realize I'd need before the band surgery, I'd still have chosen the band since it has given me my life back. Now...you may have a completely different situation than me in terms of excess skin, and you may not require even the breast lift you expect. I truly hope that is the case, but working out consistently and tweaking your diet will certainly give you better results than not doing so. I hope this (wordy!!) explanation helps, and I wish you much luck on your journey.
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Thank you, Dr. Schulman, for your quick and detailed response to my Vaser/Brachioplasty questions. I may look you up (I'm in CT, relatively close to NYC) when the time comes for the "short scar" arm procedure. Thanks again.
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If 50 pounds lost do you have excess skin?
ShinerGirl replied to Ravenesqued's topic in LAP-BAND Surgery Forums
Hi. My view is to assume you will have some loose skin when you reach your target weight, even if that target weight is after losing 50 or 75 lbs. I was banded in 2002 and reached my goal by the end of 2003 (loss of about 90 lbs.), when I was 33. I have maintained a loss of 80-90 lbs. since then. At the time of banding, I had been morbidly obese for about 5 years, overweight most of my life prior to that. I exercised a lot in the first year after banding, and still ended up with loose skin, particularly in the tummy and breast area. I think a lot of this depends on where you carry your weight the most. I was definitely an "apple" shape, so it doesn't surprise me that I had excess skin in the abdomen. I had a TT about a year ago (July 2007) which took off about 5 pounds of skin. I'm having a BL and some back lipo next week, mostly to take care of boob sagging and tweaking the abdominal area and torso. I do not need really need an arm lift but I have some there too, and my thighs could use some work. As others have suggested, just focus on losing the weight and see where you end up after your weight has stabilized for about six months. You'll have a better idea then; every body is different and so many variables determine the excess skin issue that it's hard to predict the outcome! Good Luck! -
Hi. I'm a new user/poster to this site. I posted this message in another thread on this site but wanted to start a new thread to reach more people. I've had my band since 2002; it was placed by Dr. Roberto Rumbaut in Mexico. I reached my goal weight in about a year (end of 2003), and overall haven't had many problems (beyond PBing on occasion and one bout of reflux that a slight unfill remedied). I came here to see if anyone else has experienced this pain in the left shoulder (some type of referred pain probably), esp. this far out from surgery? It feels exactly like the gas pain in the same spot that I had for a couple of days after the surgery itself. I'm wondering if it's occurring because I'm eating or drinking too much or too fast and if anyone else has any ideas on how to prevent it. I've taken Gas X and sometimes it's worked, sometimes not. Every doctor I've asked (several) here in CT has no idea what the deal is and I think some of them think I'm hallucinating. (I wish!) It's gotten so bad a couple of times that it kept me up all night. If anyone has any experience with this, I'm all ears. Thank you.
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Hi. I'm a new user/poster to this site. I've had my band since 2002; it was placed by Dr. Roberto Rumbaut in Mexico. I reached my goal weight in about a year (2003), and overall have had few problems (beyond PBing on occasion and one bout of reflux that a slight unfill remedied). I came here to see if anyone else has experienced this pain in the left shoulder (some type of referred pain probably), esp. this far out from surgery? It feels exactly like the gas pain in the same spot that I had for a couple of days after the surgery itself. I'm wondering if it's occurring because I'm eating or drinking too much or too fast and if anyone else has any ideas on how to prevent it. I've taken Gas X and sometimes it's worked, sometimes not. Every doctor I've asked (several) here in CT has no idea what the deal is and I think some of them think I'm hallucinating. (I wish!) It's gotten so bad a couple of times that it kept me up all night. If anyone has any experience with this, I'm all ears. Thank you.
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Hi. I'm a new user/poster to this site and came upon this thread due to the PS I'm continuing with. I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I was banded in 2002 and reached my goal weight within 9 months. I'm now 38. I was relatively "light" compared to some WLS patients (238 lbs. to 150 lbs. at 5' 6") but I still have loose skin issues. Unfortunately (sort of), it seems like I have just enough loose skin in some areas to need something done, but not enough to benefit from many of these procedures relative to the scarring they would leave. I consulted with three plastic surgeons and none of them would do any type of body lift on me. So, I had a TT one year ago (July) that was quite successful, but as expected I still have love handles and jiggle in places that seems more notice-able now that the front abdominal skin was tightened. I am scheduled for a BL and back lipo next week. My upper abdomen still has some fatty areas (at the bra line in front and on the sides) which hopefully will be rectified with mild lipo and the BL. I may need implants (I'm only a C cup now) down the road, along with an arm lift. So finally, here are my questions. My surgeon (highly regarded) here in CT uses Vaser Liposuction often, and since I won't be having skin tightening with this surgery, I'm curious about how well it may contract. I know it will still be looser than I want, but he was hesitant to do any "cutting" without seeing what lipo alone would do. He doesn't want to leave scars when this might work "enough" to make significant improvements. I wanted to see what your opinion was about Vaser, since my understanding is that it's different than SmartLipo, and what you think the chances are for any type of skin contraction after this. Is Vaser still considered tumescent lipo? Also, is an arm lift ever done leaving half a scar and not a full scar to the elbow? I was told it was possible in my case because I don't have that much to take off, but I've never seen any evidence of that "shorter" scar online. It took me a long while to realize that a lot of these procedures seem to need "tweaking" after the initial surgeries and that this will be a longer process than we might realize. It very much is about shedding that skin of our "former" selves and moving on. I'm not sure a lot of people realize that unless they've lived it. So, thank you for all of your thorough information. It has helped me tremendously reading the last 11 pages of posts. If you have any thoughts or suggestions about Vaser vs. anything else, and the abbreviated brachioplasty, please let me know. Thank you again.