FatboySkin

Sure, I went to Dr. Alex Earle.

May I ask who your surgeon is?

That's an interesting idea, but the surgeon I'm thinking about, told me that if I were to split things up he'd wait four months between surgeries. I do know if you do any facial work he'll do that as a separate surgery a few day after your body surgery. Another surgeon I'm looking at requires six months between procedures. I haven't done a consult yet, but with her I'd expect three surgeries. If I had the subsequent surgeries at exactly six month intervals, it'd probably be 15 months before I'm completely done and healed after the first surgery. I haven't made any decisions yet, but it's really hard to justify stretching things out that long unless I'm convinced the results or safety is a dramatic enough difference to justify it. My current impression is that it would be SLIGHTLY safer and the results would be SLIGHTLY better to spread it out, but I **think** both are small differences. Everyone I'm looking at has a great reputation and legions of adoring patients, so I'm fairly optimistic that things will work out pretty well no matter what I do.

That's an interesting idea, but the surgeon I'm thinking about, told me that if I were to split things up he'd wait four months between surgeries. I do know if you do any facial work he'll do that as a separate surgery a few day after your body surgery. Another surgeon I'm looking at requires six months between procedures. I haven't done a consult yet, but with her I'd expect three surgeries. If I had the subsequent surgeries at exactly six month intervals, it'd probably be 15 months before I'm completely done and healed after the first surgery. I haven't made any decisions yet, but it's really hard to justify stretching things out that long unless I'm convinced the results or safety is a dramatic enough difference to justify it. My current impression is that it would be SLIGHTLY safer and the results would be SLIGHTLY better to spread it out, but I **think** both are small differences. Everyone I'm looking at has a great reputation and legions of adoring patients, so I'm fairly optimistic that things will work out pretty well no matter what I do.

@sillykitty your thought process is similar to my own. I've been corresponding with the surgeon I'll go with if I go down the road of a MASSIVE surgery and he's very honest that the absolute best results would be having a surgery for each procedure. If I got "the works" he doubts I'd even recognize where the compromises were, but he said he'd know and they'd be noticeable to HIM. So I think there IS a difference, but don't think it's a radical difference. If I were to spread things out then I think I'd probably wind up doing three surgeries over the course of a year and, in theory, that would provide the best results, but that is SO MUCH time when I can't exercise and I worry about losing progress that I've made and I worry about regain with that much down time. Let's be honest, I'd also like to get this behind me so I can get on with my life. That would probably wind up being 18 months of time that I spend doing some combination of preparing for surgery and recovering from surgery.
I'm not convinced that the risks involved in the massive surgery are much, if any greater than spreading things out once you do the math of comparing a lesser risk three times versus a greater risk one time. I crunched some numbers based on some figures I was given by a couple of surgeons and it looked like a wash to me (I have to take it on faith the numbers I was given are accurate).
I'm really torn, but I'm certainly leaning toward the massive surgery. The whole thing is a bit terrifying and I'll eventually have to make a decision and take a leap of faith. On the positive side, I think the surgeons I'm looking at are pretty terrific based on everything I've read. I'm hoping if I stick with one of them that there isn't a "wrong" decision.

This touches on one of my concerns. I'd stay locally for an extended period of time after the surgery and I'd have some nursing assistance, so I wouldn't be completely on my own. I think I can handle the extra misery, but I am concerned that I'm more likely to rip stitches or cause some other complication because of my inability to compensate with my legs or arms. I have thought about splitting the difference and having two surgeries.
I've looked at this every which way and I think you're exactly right about compromises. Decisions, decisions...
Thanks for your input!

None of this is cheap - The person I utilized had a 4 day minimum - I had 5 days at 6 hours at 750.00. For a city with a minimum wage is $15 an hour I really thought this was good. I paid under the table and direct - LPN Also my spouse was with me during the night It was really really really really marvelous for him not to have some of the care responsibilities... as I stated I wish I would’ve done this for my two previous procedures. The Private Duty picked me up from the hospital brought me home and got me situated, Plus helped me with bathing and brought me to a follow up appointment The days were not consecutive.

I hope I'm not fooling myself, but I keep telling myself that pain and misery I can handle. Complications, however, scare me quite a bit. No matter where I go I'll be flying, so at some point I'll return home and I want to do everything in my power to make sure I have no complications, particularly once I've returned home.
If I can get results similar to some of the results I've seen, it looks like a game changer. It's a bit like bariatric surgery all over again. It's a little terrifying, but even more exciting. Bariatric surgery was absolutely a game changer and I have high hopes for plastics.
Thanks for weighing in!

I hope I'm not fooling myself, but I keep telling myself that pain and misery I can handle. Complications, however, scare me quite a bit. No matter where I go I'll be flying, so at some point I'll return home and I want to do everything in my power to make sure I have no complications, particularly once I've returned home.
If I can get results similar to some of the results I've seen, it looks like a game changer. It's a bit like bariatric surgery all over again. It's a little terrifying, but even more exciting. Bariatric surgery was absolutely a game changer and I have high hopes for plastics.
Thanks for weighing in!

I'm in southern Wisconsin - so about two hours away from Chicago. There wasn't anyone in my area who specializes in massive weight loss patients - or even someone who doesn't necessarily specialize but who does boatloads of body contouring on weight loss patients (first option was my preference - but second option would have been acceptable).

I know you didn't direct this question at me, but some surgeons have a limit as to how many hours they'll spend on a surgery. I know Dr. Zachary doesn't like to operate for more than about six hours - and some surgeons are good for more or less than that. So I had my procedures done in two separate surgeries. I was OK with that as I didn't want some tired guy with a knife cutting on me. But yes - some surgeons are willing to operate for several hours. Someone on this or another bariatric site said she was under the knife for eleven hours with Dr. Sauceda. But you're right - his safety record is good, so he's evidently good to go for that long.
btw: Dr. Sauceda was the only one of my consults who said he'd do everything in one day. Dr. Zachary and Dr. Shifrin both said they'd do my LBL in one surgery, and my breast lift and arm lift in a second surgery. I had one other consult in Chicago - the surgeon's name escapes me at the moment, but he was also going to split it into two surgeries (I think he was going to do them in different combinations and/or in a different order than the other two, but still - two surgeries)

My surgeon is Dr. Dana Goldberg in Jupiter, Florida. I believe her to be outstanding, articulate and professional. Her skills in removing ample skin with fluer de lis Tummy Tuck and breast lift were commendable especially, given my petite frame. The results have been phenomenal! She will be doing my brachioplasty this September. I recommend her wholeheartedly. I actually preferred working with a generalist and not necessarily a bariatric patient plastic surgeon. She possessed nuances I liked in moving away from that fat persona toward a slim and fit woman. Her on site surgery center and staff were excellent. I had no qualms, and now given the COVID environment + risk - She can enlist tighter control and protocol than in a hospital setting. I felt safer and more comfortable at home recovering the day of surgery. However, highly ranked Jupiter Medical Center is close by should an emergency arise. She performs wonderful work on men and woman with varied needs. Dr. Goldberg is a nice balance of experience yet with a younger cutting edge (no pun intended) expertise. I interviewed five regional surgeons. I cannot speak to their fee structures here in contrast to other states or regions. Do keep us posted and many best wishes on your research and final decision! No doubt, you will be so pleased to shed the weighty extra skin. I'm so excited for you!

Dr. Ritu Chopra did a fantastic job on my fluer de lis Tummy Tuck and brachioplasty

yea - some don't have much - if anything - on realself. Part of it with Dr. Zachary might be that he was a big name in that subfield a few years ago - might have been before realself was started - but I'm not sure. I thought he was great, though. The thing I really liked about him was that he's on the faculty of the University of Chicago (the med school faculty, of course), so he's salaried. He gets the same salary regardless of how many surgeries he does and which procedures he does - so I felt he was really honest with me. As in no upselling. I also liked the fact that he'll only do surgeries in a hospital and he makes you stay in the hospital for observation overnight. The other surgeons I talked to (other than Dr. Sauceda) use those outpatient surgical centers - and one sends his patients home after the surgery. Yikes. I wasn't comfortable with that. The other one who used an outpatient surgical center does have you spend the night at the center - with a nurse on duty - which was acceptable. Not the same as a hospital, but acceptable.
btw - in case you ever look at Dr. Zachary further, he does his self-pay surgeries at Weiss Hospital (and insurance-covered ones at the Univ of Chicago hospital). It's because the facility fees are lower at Weiss, so it's cheaper for the patient (which is a good thing, because he's kind of expensive. Although part of it is probably due to the fact that he does the surgery in a hospital and has you stay overnight there, so those two things add to the cost)

the ones you mentioned are all internationally known and specialize in plastic surgery for massive weight loss patients - they're very well-known in the bariatric community. Any of those choices would be great. I went to Lawrence Zachary in Chicago who also specializes in plastic surgery for massive weight loss patients. He used to be quite well-known in the bariatric community as well, but you don't hear his name much anymore - probably because there are more specialists in that subfield now (also, he's pretty pricey - he'd be more expensive than Cardenas, Sauceda, and Capella for sure - not sure about the other two). Peter Fisher in San Antonio used to always be on many people's short list, but I'm pretty sure he's retired now.
some of those plastic surgeons (maybe all?) do virtual consultations - and Dr. Sauceda does email ones (I did a consult with him), so get a few - maybe 3-5. You'll find different surgeons will have different ideas on how they'd approach it. I found my consultations very informative.
P.S. I'm not aware of any plastic surgeons in Florida who are in this category (internationally-known and specialize in bariatric plastic surgery), but supposedly the prices are more affordable there, and I'm sure there are some very good plastic surgeons there (I know some people on here have gone to them and been very happy with the results). You'll find affordable prices in Mexico, too. Sauceda and Cardenas are both extremely well-known.

I've been researching plastic surgery for several weeks. I've built a list of surgeons that I'm interested in (Sauceda, Cardenas, Galvez, Katzen, Michaels, Agha, Capella), but I'm still looking around. One of the big problems I'm running into is a lack of male before and after photos from all surgeons. From what I gather, roughly 95% of skin removal surgeries are for women. I guess a lot of the guys don't care as much about their loose skin, but THIS guy does. A lot of women have INCREDIBLE results, but obviously I want my body to have a masculine shape. The photos of men are much harder to find and I've seen far fewer amazing male results.
Are there any surgeons that specialize in reconstruction after massive weight loss that have a reputation of doing incredible work on male patients? I think I'm pretty comfortable with all the surgeons I've listed, but I suspect I have several months to continue researching before I commit to anything and I might as well use them to find the best possible surgeon.
Thanks!

the only surgeon on your last I'm not familiar with is Galvez. The rest are internationally known and have outstanding reputations.
I think the issue is, as you said, most men don't have plastic surgery. But I'm sure any of those surgeons would be a fantastic choice. And they probably all have before=after pictures of male patients - just ask when you do your consults.