Plastics consultation right around the corner

[Djmohr 6,965]

I am excited to say that I am finally at a place where I am considering plastic surgery. I know that I want to have it done here, near my home. I have found 3 board certified plastic surgeons with excellent patient reviews and have scheduled consultations with them. I am very excited about one of them and hope that she is as good as her reviews.

I plan to focus on my upper body because it bothers me the most. I have lost 151lbs, nearly half my body weight. I am 53 years old so I don't have great elasticity in my skin. I feel fairly lucky that my weight was pretty much everywhere and I lost everywhere. My arms are the worst though. It is probably one of two spots where I still have some fat but large bat wings that make me crazy trying to cover them up, especially in the summer. As most of you know, when your arms are bigger it is harder to find clothing that fits right. I am in a size 8 pants but a 12 on top because of my arms. Of course the sleeves are always tight and everything else looks baggy. Ugh!

I plan to have a brachioplasty, Abdominalplasty and breast lift with augmentation. The girls are lookin sad and empty and they are no longer where they belong.

I am trying to gather a list of questions that I would discuss during the consultations. I got the basics down but am wondering if those of you who have had surgery might have some questions that I have not thought about.

Did you wish you would have asked something that you didn't? If so, would you mind sharing them with me as I prep for my meetings. They begin on July 7th.

Thanks so much for your help!

[CharlotteKat 90]

Great topic! I would love to see what people have to say about this as well. I would also like to see the price range on this.

[Valentina 2,642]

Great posting!

I, too am heading for plastics --this summer. I have already been approved and have my pre-op app'tment next week to set a surgery date.

I've had a knee replaced, which I've heard is the most painful surgery, but I am more anxious about having plastic surgery.

Just the thought of all of those drains----yuck.

I will be following your thread with great interest. Thank you again for posting it.

I wish you well with your plastic surgery and getting "everything" back to "where it (they) belong.

[AvaFern 3,516]

I had all of those procedures done and I love the results. Check out realself.com for a lot of information.

As for the brachioplasty, I would suggest going for the scar that is further back than the traditional scar. Many surgeons still use the scar that runs along the inside of your arm so that whenever you move your arms people see it. I had my surgeon place the scar further back so that when my arms are down or facing forward no one can see it. I am SO happy I did it that way because while my scars healed very well, the brachioplasty is the one thing that people can tell I had done with normal clothing on and having the scars only visible from the back at certain angles has made me fall less self conscious. My surgeon did a perfect job of scar placement and the only time you can see my scar is if I lift my arms over my head and turn my hands backward or from the back of I bend my elbows.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

@@Djmohr

You will find so much information at realself.com

You can search for people in your age range, area, etc. There are a lot of search options that make it easy to find very specific people to follow and see their experience. You can learn what questions to ask by their success and failures.

[Djmohr 6,965]

@@AvaFern

That is a great point on the arm scars! It is honestly the one part of my body that I am most self conscious about because my bat wings are awful. I have lost a lot of weight there but I still have fat at the bottom of those wings. I really don't want to lose any more weight because i like the way I look now and I am at a healthy bmi. For the last 3 weeks I have lost nearly 10lbs which has not happened for me since I was probably 9 months post op. I wish I would lose it in my arms and tummy. LOL. I swear it just comes off my face and butt. I don't have a butt anymore to lose!

I think I have been on real self no less than 20 hours over the last couple of weeks. I plan to take some tips from @elode. I read every step of her journey and she had a ton of learnings from her experience that I plan to steal.

I will be bringing pictures of what i do want and what I don't want hoping we can get close. I am older and honestly never plan to wear a bikini or anything like that but I really didn't realize you could end up with a brown belly button if you are not careful. Who knew?

I am looking forward to a flat tummy, normal arms (I am prepared for the scars) and boobs that don't have to be stuffed in a bra. LOL.

I have always been a full C and have been trying on Bs lately. I would not be happy with just a lift knowing it would make me much smaller than I want to be and I think hubby would literally cry. So, a full D would be better which means a lift and augmentation is probably more likely.

Thanks again for your feedback.

[WLSResources/ClothingExch 3,444]

@@Djmohr -- I have no experience to share, but I have heard only that you want a surgeon who has plenty of experience with reconstructive surgery for people who've lost oodles of weight. This stuff truly is reconstructive far more than plastic/cosmetic.

@@AvaFern -- The last I've seen on people who've had brachioplasty were incisions that actually were "V's" and the length depended on how much of the arm an individual wanted taken in. I can't tell from your description whether the procedure has been changed so that the incision no longer is a "V?" Would love to know what the latest is.

Edited June 27, 2016 by WLSResources/ClothingExch

[AvaFern 3,516]

@@WLSResources/ClothingExch

There is the minimal incision brachioplasty, which doesn't run the scar down your whole arm, and then to my knowledge the full brachioplasty does sort of look like a v except you end up with single line running from your elbow to your armpit. That line for most people runs along the inside of their arm between where the bicep and tricep muscle split. For me, I had him place the scar more toward the back of my arm so that it runs along the inside of my elbow to my armpit, but runs along what almost works out to be right in the middle of my tricep. This way when my arms are at my side, you can't see the scar from the back or the front and when I lift my arms up like if you would extend your arms to hug someone, the interior of my arm doesn't have a scar either. I'm having a hard time describing it without using anatomical terms, lol, so below are pictures.

This is the normal version:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.locateadoc.com%2Fpictures%2Fgallery%2Farm-lifts-brachioplasty-after-fullsize-36617-72054.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.locateadoc.com%2Fpictures%2Farm-lifts-brachioplasty-c36617&docid=1-slqCzrmDZHnM&tbnid=jxIMNwfFhHIBkM%3A&w=1600&h=1075&bih=727&biw=1588&ved=0ahUKEwiGjf7pu8nNAhULpx4KHcAACiIQMwiVAShhMGE&iact=mrc&uact=8

This is the version of the scar that I have which comes with a video and an explanation instead of just letting me only paste the picture link:

http://www.theplasticsurgerychannel.com/2013/03/27/brachioplasty/

[Daisee68 2,493]

My Doctor (Dr. Peter Fisher) will be doing a what he calls a "J Lift" for the arm lift scar. It curves around towards the breast (like a J) to pick up some of the laxity of the "side boob". I will be doing a breast lift / augmentation in a separate procedure from the arm lift (doing LBL at same time as arm lift and the Breasts and inner thigh about 3 or 4 months later). He also says he does the arm scar on the back because he feels the one that runs down the bicep (anterior) while less visible can result in more scarring and harder to maintain long-term results.

All to say, I agree with @@WLSResources/ClothingExch that picking someone who has experience with WLS patients can really make a big difference - depending upon how much skin you have to remove I suppose. Mine is pretty extensive, so I am traveling out of town for surgery (though only a 5 hour drive or 1ish hour flight from home). In the end, I was most comfortable with results of pictures of his patients (including a few on BP site which is where I originally found his name) and thrilled with the reviews of his bedside manner which is extremely important to me. After my consultation with him, my sister commented that I should get at least 1 more opinion. I did more research (real self and actual dr websites) and still was most satisfied with Dr. Fisher's results and reviews and felt it unnecessary to see anyone else. Admittedly, I did not ask a ton of questions about his procedures. I figured he is the dr and expert and I will trust him (and again his results speak to his expertise). I know I will have a lot of questions as the surgery date gets closer but mostly about logistics. Excited that I get to do this and excited for you too @@Djmohr!!

Oh - also I have started a "surgery tips" document on my computer where I am copying and pasting ideas I have read on here and on RealSelf that I hope will help when my day gets here!

[Djmohr 6,965]

Thanks guys for the feedback and tips.

I found another plastic surgeon late this evening. Completed a request and got a call back at 7pm from her. She is providing a free consultation because I told her that I saw her and her reviews on real self.

She of course wants to see me but even after spending 30 minutes on the phone, she gets what I am looking for and asked that I bring in some pictures of breast lifts that look a little too big and a little too small. She said believe it or not, it helps her assess exactly where I will want to be.

She is pretty confident I will be able to get all 3 done at the same time and I am ecstatic about that. Of course she said she needs to spend time with me on my medical history and how much work she needs to do for each procedure but I might be looking at one long operation. I personally would prefer that over several small ones but whatever.

She also provide a ballpark cost of about 21,000 for all 3 components to get done. That includes a night in the hospital. My head was somewhere much higher so I feel ok about that.

Thanks for all the suggestions, they are helping to make my list. I want to make sure we discuss all my worries up front.

[WLSResources/ClothingExch 3,444]

@@AvaFern and @@Daisee68,

Thanks for the info and the links. They're good to have for future reference (please, please, please!). Your description, Daisee, reminds me that I had been told about a procedure newer than the V.

Edited June 28, 2016 by WLSResources/ClothingExch