ClareLynn

Hello I am new to this group. I am having the DS on April 4, 2023. I am starting my 2 week diet today.

I found everyone's posts about which procedure and surgeon they went with to be really helpful when I was struggling to find the right surgeon so I thought I'd start a thread for mine too. I've lost over 170lbs total and am currently 16 months out from my surgery, and at a stable weight for over 3 months.
I just scheduled an extended Tummy Tuck for this August with Dr. John YS Kim in Chicago at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. There will just be a single scar, and even though I do have a bunch of extra skin above the belly button too, he said I didn't need a Fluer de Lis which is great.
I had also seen Dr. Shifrin who had recommended a circumferential lower body lift to get all my extra backside skin too, with "auto-augmentation" to make it rounder. Dr. Kim recommended to not try to do that at the same time since the recovery would be quite difficult with both front and back worked on at the same time. I was having a hard time understanding how I would even recover when it would hurt to be on my back, front and sides so it wasn't hard to convince me.
I was really unsure of if I was "at weight" or not and as long as I was standing there naked in front of him, I asked if I had more weight to lose or not, or if it was just skin. I find it impossible to tell. He said that I actually don't have much fat, just some on my pubis and above belly button which he'd remove with liposuction at the same time. It's nice to just focus on being a stable weight and not wondering if I'm getting it done too soon.
The surgery should take 4 hours, and I would go home the same day, and then see him once a week for the next 4-6 weeks. There will be 2 drains in place and removed 2 weeks later as well. Plus a binder/compression garments for 3 months.
The surgeon fee was $16,000 with a non-refundable 10% down when I scheduled and the remainder due 3 weeks before the surgery. With hospital and anesthesiologist fees it came to $20,800. If I change my surgery date, I lose the the deposit so I can't chicken out. 😅 There was another surgeon there, Dr. Galiano, whose fee was $10k less which was tempting, since it was still a great doctor at Northwestern hospital, but I really liked Dr. Kim and kind of wanted "the best". Dr. Shifrin who performs the surgery in an outpatient surgical center at his office would have cost $22k. I didn't feel comfortable doing these surgeries outside of a hospital so that helped narrow down my choices too.
I have BCBS and only one of the surgeons was willing to try to document skin irritation so that insurance would pay for some of the procedure. Everyone else was just like "lol no it's cosmetic" and that was the end of it. I get infections from time to time but they do respond to medication and don't happen all the time so I felt like it was really unlikely that I could go that route. Insurance said that if your pannus was below your public line AND you have infections that don't clear up, then they would pay for just the Panniculectomy.
The entire experience really convinced me that you have to see multiple surgeons because prices are ALL OVER the place, even within the same practice/hospital, and everyone had a different idea of what work I should do, the combination of it, pain management, etc. After the first consultation, I learned that I suck at asking questions while in a paper gown, and gave the surgeon a printed copy of my questions and asked him to walk through each one with me, which also was a great way to way to feel out their personality and willingness to work with me.
My plan is to also get a breast, arm and inner thigh lift but none of the doctors wanted to talk about surgeries that wouldn't happen for maybe a year or longer out. Once I'm recovered from the Tummy Tuck, then we'd discuss the next area to focus on which for me would be arm/breast combo. So this process is going to take a while, with having to save up all of my vacation for the entire year for each surgery.

Mine looked fine on the ultrasound and then had to quickly be removed within a month (I had to wait a bit longer but it was seriously bad). I am unsure if sludge actually shows up on ultrasound? That's what I had and in retrospect, some intermittent pains I had attributed to heartburn were actually my gallbladder before the surgery causing trouble.
If I could do it over again, I would have had it removed at the same time just to avoid a second surgery.
I occasionally feel uncomfortable when I eat very fatty meats, like carnitas or a ribeye but otherwise don't notice that I'm missing it.

I had one of my consultations with Dr. Shifrin. He's very well-known, that's probably why his prices are a little higher. Although Chicago prices in general are going to run high. I had the full lower body lift and none of my three consults would do more than that in one surgery. There are a lot of surgeons who don't like having patients under anesthesia for more than six hours, and you can't really do both a lower body lift and something else in that amount of time (I figured a Tummy Tuck wouldn't take as long as a lower body lift, since with the latter they do front and back, but i think my LBL was also about four hours). I had my breast and arm lift in a second surgery, and then about 18 months ago (long after my other surgeries) I had a face and neck lift by a different surgeon (one who specializes in facial plastic surgery)
P.S. I also didn't like the fact that Dr. Shifrin did his surgeries in his office suite - or one other place in the area (can't remember where it was - somewhere in the Loop, though). He said I could stay at the hotel across the street (I was an out-of-town patient), but I really wanted to be monitored that first night, *just in case* something happened. That was the deal breaker for me.

Zero regrets. My second best medical decision, just behind my VSG. I had a Tummy Tuck with muscle repair, breast lift and augmentation, and arm lift.

I was in the hospital one night. Checked in at 5:45am the day of surgery. It lasted @ 7 hours. I was feeling good the next day.Physical therapy walked with me & I had relatively little pain. After Dr. LoMonaco checked me out, I was discharged @ 3pm. Pain levels are very individual but mine really never went above a 4.5/5 and I have walked 3 times per day for 15 minutes with little discomfort since leaving the hospital. I wanted to have an inner thigh lift at the same time but Dr. said it would be too much so I may do that later. Good luck!

I had a lower body lift, arm lift and breast revision on January 25, 2023. My Surgeon implants a pain pump (a medical device he invented) in the abdominal area that lasts about 3 days after surgery so I really had much less pain than anticipated. I feel pretty good so I constantly have to remind myself not to do too much and jeopardize my recovery. My main area of soreness are my arms. The itching is the most difficult issue I'm having. My Plastic Surgeon, Dr. John LoMonaco in Houston, TX, co-wrote a book on plastic surgery specifically for bariatric patients. "Bariatric Plastic Surgery: A Guide to Cosmetic Surgery after Weight Loss". I found it on Amazon/Thrift books and it's a great resource! If you're researching Surgeons, I highly suggest you check him out. He is a truly gifted Surgeon who specializes in Bariatric Patients, and in addition is an excellent human being! Best of Luck!

recovery was much harder and longer than it was from my RNY, but I would say the three months you mentioned is an exaggeration. Well, I may have had some discomfort for that long, but I could have worked. I retired before I had my plastic surgeries so I don't know exactly how many weeks it took, but I was pain or had some pretty significant discomfort for probably three or four weeks - at least with the lower body lift. Arm/breast lift wasn't as bad - but you're not supposed to reach for things for awhile after having an arm lift, so it could be a problem if you have to reach for things at work (this was hard to do - I caught myself reaching a few times when I shouldn't have been....). I didn't have a thigh lift, so I can't address that one...

I had my surgery (tummy tuck w/muscle repair, breast lift & augmentation and arm lift) all done in one surgery. I took three weeks off work and I work as a nurse. I still had some minor discomfort when I went back, but nothing that Tylenol didn’t help with. I was on light duty though-no heavy lifting for 6 weeks due to the arm lift.

My abdominoplasty and associated recovery were both ridiculously and significantly rougher than my RNY, which was open. I had heard this was the case but I didn't believe it would be as rough as it was.
I had the abdominoplasty at UCLA and spent two weeks there before going home to Las Vegas. I went back about 3 weeks later to get the staples and drains removed. I didn't really work in that period, though I did some remote stuff for a couple important problems. After the staples and drains were removed I improved dramatically and quickly.
That is the short, sanitized version. The long version really only applies to me and would scare the carp out of anyone contemplating this.
Good luck,
Tek

I would like to get extensive body contouring now that I've lost 170lbs and seem to be in a stable spot in my weight. What I'm most concerned about is how long I would need to take off from work though. I would like to get an arm lift, breast lift, Tummy Tuck and thigh lift, which I believe would be 3 separate surgeries (combining the arm lift with the breast lift).
The recovery time sounds a LOT longer and rougher than the actual weight loss surgery so I'm having a hard time gauging how long I'll be needing lots of help at home, when I could go back to doing my WFH office job, and when I would actually feel better after surgery.
I went to real self and they said
* Tummy Tuck - 2 weeks until back to work, but ideally give yourself more time and 6 weeks to fully recover
* Arm Lift - 2 weeks but really it sounds like 4-8 before the incisions are mostly healed
* Thigh Lift - 2 weeks until back to work and 6 weeks until fully recovered
I am not a fast healer and have chronic pain/disability from other illness, so it took me 5 weeks to get back to work from my SADI.
I'm worried that this would be like 3 months of time off work total and I'd have to split it up a year for each surgery just to get the time off. Am I looking at this all wrong or are these surgeries just that brutal to recover from? 😬 I don't even know how to start explaining that much time off to my boss either.

Thanks, it helps to hear someone else say that these are a big deal.

I would like to get extensive body contouring now that I've lost 170lbs and seem to be in a stable spot in my weight. What I'm most concerned about is how long I would need to take off from work though. I would like to get an arm lift, breast lift, Tummy Tuck and thigh lift, which I believe would be 3 separate surgeries (combining the arm lift with the breast lift).
The recovery time sounds a LOT longer and rougher than the actual weight loss surgery so I'm having a hard time gauging how long I'll be needing lots of help at home, when I could go back to doing my WFH office job, and when I would actually feel better after surgery.
I went to real self and they said
* Tummy Tuck - 2 weeks until back to work, but ideally give yourself more time and 6 weeks to fully recover
* Arm Lift - 2 weeks but really it sounds like 4-8 before the incisions are mostly healed
* Thigh Lift - 2 weeks until back to work and 6 weeks until fully recovered
I am not a fast healer and have chronic pain/disability from other illness, so it took me 5 weeks to get back to work from my SADI.
I'm worried that this would be like 3 months of time off work total and I'd have to split it up a year for each surgery just to get the time off. Am I looking at this all wrong or are these surgeries just that brutal to recover from? 😬 I don't even know how to start explaining that much time off to my boss either.

IMO they are.
However, everyone's different. I had lower bodylift and was in no way "recovered" after 4 weeks. I went back to work, yes, but I wouldn't have called that "recovered". Should have stayed home for another week.

So someone dug out this thread: https://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/434528-i-am-a-food-addict-and-bypass-isnt-a-cure/
I saw several users wishing for more discussion on this. However, we don't have these discussions. If a thread like this pops up it gets some traffic and then gets buried under other threads until someone might dig it up again.
So... what in your opinion is the reason we're not talking (a bit more) about this? Are people talking about these issues elsewhere? Are we too scared? Ashamed? Do we not really care? Or are we all cured after all?

I'm 10 months out and still blitz my pills in a coffee grinder and mix it into a tablespoon of applesauce. I used to be able to shotgun 10 pills at a time, and now post op I still feel super sick when I swallow just a single pill. 🤷‍♀️

Clarelynn, I had the sleeve and my doctor fixed the hiatal hernia before doing the sleeve on the same day. It was a very delicate surgery.

My doctor never gave me goals or macros, beyond "eat Protein first, stop when you aren't hungry anymore, don't eat on a schedule, eat only when hungry". That's been working well for me. I've lost 170lbs total, 120 of which is post surgery, and I'm still slowly losing.
Most days I get 700-900 calories a day, though I don't track unless I hit a 3+ week stall.
I'm not sure what to do when I get to maintenance but then again I'm not sure when I should stop losing anyway. I'm 5'7" at at 161lbs (large frame) and while I look fine in clothes, when I see myself naked with all the extra skin, I can't decide if I am still overweight, too skinny or what since I'm bony all over but also comically saggy and wrinkled.
I don't like stressing out about it though so I'll just keep doing this until either my surgeon tells me to eat more or I get hungry enough to naturally go into maintenance I guess?

My doctor never gave me goals or macros, beyond "eat Protein first, stop when you aren't hungry anymore, don't eat on a schedule, eat only when hungry". That's been working well for me. I've lost 170lbs total, 120 of which is post surgery, and I'm still slowly losing.
Most days I get 700-900 calories a day, though I don't track unless I hit a 3+ week stall.
I'm not sure what to do when I get to maintenance but then again I'm not sure when I should stop losing anyway. I'm 5'7" at at 161lbs (large frame) and while I look fine in clothes, when I see myself naked with all the extra skin, I can't decide if I am still overweight, too skinny or what since I'm bony all over but also comically saggy and wrinkled.
I don't like stressing out about it though so I'll just keep doing this until either my surgeon tells me to eat more or I get hungry enough to naturally go into maintenance I guess?

I had frequent persistent hiccups for like 9 months. It wasn’t related to being full or eating fast. For me they were triggered when I stood up or sat down. I went from 20 a day to less than 1 a day but it took a long time.

My blood pressure is all over the map. This morning low, yesterday high, varying up and down through the day. It's hard to know when/if to take the meds.

I just read that some surgeons can do it endoscopically now. I always research it because I am always worried some day I will have a hiatal hernia because so many people I know have had that problem. Also worried about gallbladder but that's another story.

As the title says!

I had my gallbladder out and it was a very easy surgery to recover from. I took just 3 days off work and felt great immediately after surgery because my gallbladder wasn’t bothering me anymore.
Well the hernia is still there so I will be scheduling the hernia repair soon. Thank goodness With everything I have hit my deductible!

Recovery is close to the same as after WLS.
Limited liquid/soft diet etc. Usually not as long or "strict". Same little incisions but sometimes 1 up a little higher.
I actually had a MAJOR HH but had it fixed during my bypass surgery.
I only know the details because my surgeon discussed them with me during an appointment.