Plastic surgery after huge weight loss?

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Forum -> Health & Wellness -> Healthy Lifestyle/ Weight Loss/ Exercise

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amother

Mon, Apr 26 2010, 12:39 pm

I have lost about 40 pounds now and hope to lose another 60-70. The thing is, even though I am thrilled to finally be losing weight, the more I lose, the grosser I look in terms of loose skin hanging everywhere. I am wondering if anyone had a huge weight loss and needed to have surgeries to put everything back together again. Do you have to wait til you lose everything first? I can't take all this saggy skin and I know it will just get worse as I lose. What did you have done? How painful? How happy are you with results. Were you at goal weight when you went for surgery? Does insurance ever pay for any of it?

louche

Mon, Apr 26 2010, 12:47 pm

You should wait till you've reached your goal and kept the weight off for about a year before going for plastic surgery. First of all you want to see how much your skin will shrink by itself, plus you want to make sure what you have is skin and not flabby muscles. AND you want to make sure your weight is stable, b/c you don't want to have your tummy tuck or whatever and then gain weight back. That will stretch your skin even further...not something you want to do to skin that's already stretched out.

I doubt that insurance will pay for anything unless it's "medically necessary". A plastic surgeon will be able to tell you under what circumstances it may be considered so.

life'sgreat

Mon, Apr 26 2010, 12:50 pm

It is very very highly unlikely for insurance to ever pay for plastic surgery (which is considered cosmetic). The only way they'll cover it is if you can prove that it is a risk to your skin (such as getting terrible heat rashes from the amount of hanging skin), or that you have very bad backaches because of the extra hanging skin.

You should definitely wait until you have lost all the weight and IMO, if you still plan on being pregnant, I'd hold off as well. It's just not worth the money, pain and ache only for you to get pregnant and get sagging skin again.

amother

Mon, Apr 26 2010, 2:11 pm

I hadn't even thought about pregnancy. I am in my late 30's and very much hoping there is still another baby in my future, though with my history it might not happen.
Does skin that is already hanging really shrink back ever? IS there anything I can do to facilitate that as much as possible?

louche

Mon, Apr 26 2010, 2:29 pm

The chances are very slim, no pun intended. Exercising will firm up flabby muscles, which will help, but if you really have a lot of excess skin, the collagen has broken down and nothing is going to make it shrink back. It's exactly like stretching out the elastic in your waistband. If the skin were going to shrink. it would have done so while you lost the weight. I wish it weren't so, but...

geemum

Mon, Apr 26 2010, 3:23 pm

OP please PM me for personal story, if you want Smile

amother

Tue, Apr 27 2010, 10:58 pm

It is very important that you do toning exercises like weights while you're losing the weight. (not just doing it with diet and cardio alone). This will help some of the loose skin tighten up as you go along. But if you lose all the weight it will be too late and will only come off if you cut it off (surgery).
GL!

amother

Wed, Apr 28 2010, 8:36 am

I asked my doctor this question and he suggested supplementation of collagen and elastin, in order to repair your damaged skin. You could heal and your skin will shrink.

groisamomma

Fri, Apr 30 2010, 3:58 am

geemum wrote:

OP please PM me for personal story, if you want Smile

Can you post as amother? I've also considered ps and am curious to hear what someone else went through doing so...

eaglewings

Tue, May 25 2010, 9:21 am

I am also interested. I have lost 30 kilos (with no problems so far), but since I intend to loose another 45-50, I I sure that this will become a problem. I heard that if one is getting skin infections, the health funds will pay for surgery, but I would really rather do without.
How does one get collegen/ elastin? Doctor's prescription? health food store? Pharmacy?

life'sgreat

Tue, May 25 2010, 10:09 am

amother wrote:

I asked my doctor this question and he suggested supplementation of collagen and elastin, in order to repair your damaged skin. You could heal and your skin will shrink.

Is this proven or just a good suggestion/theory?

eaglewings

Tue, May 25 2010, 11:52 am

I have the same question as life's great, and am trying to research this.....

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