trina4ufl

Hi all! Hope everyone is doing well! I just had a TT and breast reduction covered by insurance and am just over a month out. I'm now 133 pounds down total from when I started this journey. I am so much happier. I will say the biggest things that helped were regular fills and follow up appointments, and going to the gym at least 3 days per week, sometimes every day. This has really changed my life!!!

My insurance paid 100% for a breast reduction and TT after I had lost 120 pounds with the lap band. I went to the consult and the plastic surgeon took pictures and submitted it. It really depends on your insurance company and how well your plastic surgeon's office writes it up. If you don't have luck with one plastic surgeon, you should try one who will aggressively try to get your insurance to pay for it. The more documentation you have, the better, but I didn't have to provide anything. The plastic surgeon's office handled everything. Good luck!

I have lost 133 pounds so far. The LAP-BAND® works if you work it. Get regular fills and go to your follow up appointments religiously. Follow the rules and make working out and regular exercise a part of your daily routine. I love the LAP-BAND®! Good luck! If you are curious, check out my blog.

Your body will change drastically! I would definitely wait. I am almost to goal and just had a TT and breast reduction paid 100% by my insurance and my lap band surgeon still thought I was doing it too early. If you lose more weight, your breasts will sag. Get a 2nd opinion.

So plastics recovery is going well. My weight went up about 8 pounds but then went down 10 in one week. I think I was having major swelling. I went to the lap band doc and got a fill and am now super tight. I weighed myself and I am at 197.6. Onederland!!!!!! First time since I was a teenager. My stomach is looking much better. It's lumpy when I sit down, but looks good standing up. My breasts look awesome. They are still healing though and I can't wear any underwire bras for another month. It's really hard to find bras with no underwire. I'm pretty happy with how I look when I'm in clothes right now. I have alot more confidence and when people see me, they say WOW you look awesome! I am now in a large size in tops or shirts and still a 14 in pants. I'm not sure if that will change when the swelling goes down all the way or not. I am 5'9"/5'10" so that's not bad for my height. I would need to lose another 20 pounds to reach my overall goal. I've started back at the gym but taking is slowly due to the swelling I've had and the belly button issues. I go back to work next week :scared2: I've really enjoyed the time off. Things are going well though. I'm really happy about the results of my surgery!

I had a follow up appt. today at the plastic surgeon's office and one of the drains on my hips came out. They think the other one can come out on Monday. It's still outputting quite a bit of fluid. It has to be below 30 ccs output in a 24 hour period before it can come out. I am ready for it to be gone but I understand that it greatly reduces the amount of painful swelling. My left side has been hurting and I'm not really sure why. My new belly button was leaking some fluid and the Dr.'s office thinks that some of the fluid from the belly button may be going to my left side. They stated everything looks really good though and that i shouldn't be worried. I no longer have to put bandages on my incisions. I can just wear the surgical bra and the compression garmet. After 2 weeks, which is Tuesday, I only have to wear the compression garmet during the day, not at night. I have to wear the bra 24/7 for 6 weeks total. My breasts are starting to look really good and the Nurse Practitioner mentioned how they seem much rounder and I agree. My stomach is also starting to look flatter. I asked her if it was going to be totally tight and flat and she said that they pulled it tight and flat during the surgery, but that because of the swelling, it is lumpy and swollen. She said that it will get flatter and tighter, but that because the skin has been stretched from gaining and losing alot of weight that it loses the elasticity so it may not be as tight as it was in the surgery. I'm hoping that wearing these compression garmets will help it get tighter. I don't know if I mentioned this before but originally the surgeon said that he'd have to do free nippple grafts for my breast reduction because of the length of my breasts. In this scenario I would definitely lose all sensation in my breasts. I wasn't happy with this so he said that he would try to do the normal way which is moving the entire nipple and the attachments, but that he may have to switch mid surgery if the tissue wasn't getting blood supply. Well, he was able to do the normal one and I have full sensation in my nipples! This is a big deal for me and I am super happy about it. I definitely credit his surgical skills because I read alot about how if your nipples are a certain length from where they need to go that they have to do the free nipple graft--which is taking them off completely and reposiitioning them which guarantees a complete loss of sensation in the nipple and they will not get erect and you cannot breast feed. But, yay, that is not the case for me! He had also talked about the possibility of having to do a vertical incision to get the stomach tight which would have meant a long vertical scar. However, he did not have to do this either, so everything went really well. I'm feeling better every day and the office staff was so nice. They said I am a very easy patient. I'm super excited because I wore a shirt tonight that I have saved since I was 15 years old (I'm 31 now). It has been too small since I was 15, but it was my favorite shirt ever. I tried it on tonight and it fits perfectly!!!:thumbup:

Thanks!!!!!!!

I had a full abdominoplasty and the first 2 days it hurt alot but they gave great pain meds and you get through it and then it's smooth sailing. I still have 2 drains in and have the okay to shower. I have surgical glue for my incisions and I think that makes a difference. Good luck, you'll do great and it is soo worth it!!!