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The best thing would be an antihistamine tablet and some unscented lotion for the dry skin 3 weeks out the wounds are closed on top. so as long as you don't pick at them all will be well.

Body changes really ARE so challenging to process! I'm down 199 lbs and have already had 1 round of plastics (second in October) but it doesn't solve all the problems. It definitely helps, but I know rather than the copious amounts of loose skin to make me feel uncomfortable and remind me of how large I was, I'll have a TON of scars literally all over my body as a reminder. I am very thankful to be where I am, but it's very hard to see what I've done to my body.

Off to another doctor's appointment. I know the clothes are baggy, but I'm supposed to wear loose clothes today 😉 It's such a treat to HAVE loose clothes to choose from! Ok, really only the bottom needs to be loose, so I changed

Yup yup yup! I was the lady who other women looked at in horror whenever I gleefully announced I was getting a bilateral breast reduction for free because of the breast cancer the year before. I happily trotted into the surgery center that day and went from a G cup down to a B cup in a single morning. The first time I ran after healing and didn’t have to wear 3 workout bras to keep from getting black eyes, I broke down and cried with joy. The other day I was in Pilates and doing side plank and almost fell over because the wrinkled skin on my inner arms was that distracting. Lol, even at an underweight size 4 in my early 20’s I had cellulite and thunder thighs so I’m not noticing the inner thigh wrinkles, but my butt is another story. I refer to it as “bari-booty”. It’s essentially a series of winkles that starts around my sacrum and ends up ending in the fat rolls of my upper thighs. Yeah.... need to find a procedure that moves all the thigh fat up to my booty when this is done.

Here's the one I use. It's readily available in my grocery (HEB), or online on Amazon or Vitacost. It's the whole psyllium husks. If I need powder (which I rarely use), then I grind them in the coffee grinder. I have a crap ton of bread analogues on Fluffy Chix that use a combination of: pork rinds crumbs oat fiber coconut flour psyllium husks whey protein They make a magical "bake mix" that you can do sooo much with--everything from "white bread" to biscuits, fluffy pancakes, tortillas, corn bread...so so much. So filling. I love pork skins for breading with parmesan cheese! So good. Also love them as croutons!

I relate to this the most. I always had that "ideal" hourglass shape and very large breasts. I was much curvier than ALL of my friends, but a very healthy weight. But since I was curvy, I equated that to being fat. I wanted to be a stick. Even to this day I tell my trainer that I always wanted to be stick straight with zero curves and no booty or breasts or hips because my brain just equates that to being obese. I feel like I still want that, but that's simply not my body shape. He thinks it's bizarre because many women *pay* to have hips and a butt and that figure that I just can't stand on myself. As far as plastics, I know I need my tummy and arms done. I tried doing some forearm stands in yoga yesterday and the skin bunched up so badly and pinched. But I find myself looking at my inner thighs and seeing those little wrinkles of loose skin that probably don't warrant surgery but I know I am going to obsess over them indefinitely.

Hi there, Lovin the pics of everyone loosing, isn't it a great feeling. This summer I went to UK with my son for my nieces wedding, my son brought up a pic from July of last year and I could see a "slight" difference lol Id taken photos through out the past 10 months but nothing compares to this one. Its been a long journey and my weight loss is slowing down to a crawl but still loosing! 150lb loss has blown me and my surgeon away, from a 32 to a 14 right now is so cool. I would like to get to a 12 then I can comfortably stop looking at the scale lol Hope you guys are doing ok, would love to see more pics of everyone!

Yes! Like crazy. It's most likely just the skin healing, though

Hey everybody. Just found and joined this forum tonight (Awesome Group🤩👍). I'm curious to know how you handled your incisions. I had my surgery 8/19/19 and my surgeon used this blue-colored "second skin" bandage on top of the stitches. It's starting to peel off (more like flake off) and I don't want them to come off too soon, because moisture helps tremendously with healing. What have you all done for yours?

Suffering from BD definitely helped me get to the state I was in prior to surgery. When I was 22, I graduated college at 5”7 and 132 pounds. I was fit because I worked out all of the time because I always felt fat. I was always heavier and thicker than my mother and my sisters. And a few of my cousins. The truth was that I’m naturally curvy. I had 36DDDs at that weight (boobs have been removed since then due to breast cancer in ‘09.) I had hips and thighs and a teeny waist, but all I could see was how short and curvy I looked alongside my long and lean relatives. The only cousin who had my body type was MO and that’s what I identified as. At the weight of 132 pounds and a size 4/6. Ridiculously isn’t it? I remember being 13 years old when I went on my first diet. And that was back in the early 80’s when nobody had a lick of sense at all about those kinds of things. By the time I gave birth to my daughter at the age of 28 in 1997, I’d gained 90 pounds, had suffered gestational diabetes and was hopelessly screwed metabolically. I’ve spent the last 22 years as a MO person, ranging from 209 pounds (oh how sweet it was to be sooooo close to ONEderland) up to my all-time HW of 272 in ‘08. I probably spent time on every single pound in-between and sometimes would yo-yo 40-50 pounds in a single year. For 22 freaking years! Now I’ve lost down to 167 and I’m residing in size 12 clothes and I’m 8 pounds away from what I weighed when I became pregnant almost 23 years ago. I take selfies almost every day for the OOTD thread because I need that reminder of how far I’ve come and how great I’m looking now compared to 7 short months ago. There are days even now when I cringe upon seeing a fat roll or some pudge in those photos that the mirror seems to have magically hidden. Do I still see some of the “trouble” spots that haunted me over half my lifetime ago? I wish I could say that time, lessons learned and maturity have made me able to forgive those, but I still struggle. I tell myself that I still have 15-25 pounds til goal—maybe my body still has room to magically morph into something I’ll like better. Honestly though, I know that while I’ll be smaller, those trouble spots will still be there, and will also be there with some extra skin. And yes.... it will still bother me. I’m thinking there’s a better than 50/50 I’ll do plastics before this is over, but I’m also giving myself time to get used to this new new body. I’m making an effort to appreciate not being in constant pain and discomfort. I want to spend time living the new me and figuring out where all of this is going to settle before I make any decisions on how to “fix” problem areas. I also need to make sure that my head has time to catch up with my body.

Completely understand. I still struggle with it from time to time at almost 23 months out, but it gets better. When I maintained and finally got over how much smaller the clothes were that I was wearing my focus then went to my belly area that absolutely no one else could see and that loose skin made me look at myself as fat. Go figure. 🤷‍♂️ What helps is reminding myself where I started and how far I've come. Learning to love me and knowing I'm good enough no matter what. I also recently was able to do my TT which has helped immensely. It may be somewhat of a lifelong struggle by creeping up from time to time and when it does I'll continue to know it's not the truth and try to focus on positive things - Like, dang, I can really rock a slim fit suit now or some skinny jeans and a clingy shirt and be super confident!!! Not too mention all the activities I can do now and how much healthier I am!! I think, that's how we overcome it. HW = 360 SW = 292 GW = 220 reached 3/7/18 CW = 210 @ 6'5" 150 pounds lost! [emoji106]

Hey everyone! I am 37 days post-op sleeve...I am shaped pretty thick and know I will definitely have loose skin (breasts are 44Gs)... Saw this video: https://www.sleeveacademy.com/skin What are your thoughts? What have you learned? Encountered? I have uploaded a picture pre-op in pink (not that much different now in dress lol)

I have a BMI of 36. I have not had surgery yet but I am getting the sleeve done in September. I lost 48 pounds on my own. I had many doubts but I had to take in account want I wanted for my future. I have 3 kids that I want to be around for them and possible future grandchildren. The longer you are over weight the more stress your body is in. I don't want life long troubles with diabetes or heart disease. Someone told me to think of the surgery as one tool added to your other methods of lossing weight. Even if you have the surgery your still putting in all the work needed to loose the weight. You still choose what you eat and you still have to exercise. I have not had a life long struggle with weight. I had some health issues that brought on some weight. In 2016 I had a complete hysterectomy. I went to 135lbs. Then I went to 165lbs when my daughter was admitted to the hospital for 3 months. I got down to 150 lbs until April 2018 when I broke my ankle. I went up to 238 lbs. I am now down to 193 lbs. I have injures, I am not as young so my metabolism is not what it use to be. I need an assist. I choose surgery. My primary doctor did not know much about weight loss surgery when I asked for a referral. I saw him today for my 3 month A1C. He said he started looking into the surgeries and agreed with me that the sleeve was a good option due to my diabetes, sleep apnea, and high cholesterol. My bariatric doctor told me people with a BMI as low as 30, in other countries are getting weight loss surgery ( mostly gastric bypass) to treat diabetes. My bariatric doctor asked me if I had cancer would I get chemotherapy or radiation? I said yes. I have decided on getting the VGS. This surgery reduces the size of my stomach, removes the part of the stomach that controls hunger hormones and cravings among other things. On the emotional relationship for food, I believe we all have an emotional relationship with food on some degree. If you want to be well educated and get the best result out of surgery I would suggest seeing a therapist. Even if you don't have surgery see a therapist. You need to know what triggers you to eat and learn alternate and positive coping techniques. You can read any story anyone shares on this sight and the biggest reason they choose surgery is to be at a healthier weight regardless of what their BMI number started at. I hope this helps you. I find out my surgery date this Friday. So my date will be some time this September. Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app

I was in the same situation.I eated probably between 500-800 after 6 months of my surgery.When I was probably 8 months out,I stopped loosing weight.My bariatric nurse told me that I might in my perfect weight(I was so upset,because I was still overweight).I increased my calories to 1000,and my weight started to go down.Now I eat about 1400 calories(most of the days though I am OK with 1200). I exercise 5 times per week(only cardio) and try to do 10000 steps per day. Sent from my LGMP260 using BariatricPal mobile app

I have body dysmorphia. Hence the whole backstory of me thinking I was gigantic at 140lbs and having lipo and then gaining 150lbs from the lipo "not working" and me shoveling food into my face because "I was fat anyways". ANYWAYS, I am basically at the weight I was when I had lipo a few years ago, and I find myself nitpicking again. I'm like "ugh, my calves are so thick and fat and ugh my inner thighs are fat". But I *know* I am not fat... I just see that little bit I can pinch and it drives me CRAZY. I'm having my skin removal in 3 months (which is actually legitimate) and I feel like it will be a temporary fix and right after I will find more things I am not happy with... and, just like the lipo, have unnecessary plastic surgeries in the attempt to achieve some misguided form of perfection. I've talked to lots of therapists and I know what "caused" the body dysmorphia, but nothing's been helpful. I am very unreceptive and argumentative to therapy; it's my pessimistic nature, lol. I bought a self-image self-help workbook and I am putting my personal trainer certification on hold until I can work out some of my self-esteem issues. I also see people out and about that are very heavy and I either a) see myself as being that size or b) get really judgmental and disgusted, even though I was JUST that size a few months ago. It makes me feel like a terrible person. Not really sure I have a point here LOL but while I *know* I've done well, I can't fully appreciate it because I still see so many imperfections. I am constantly critiquing every inch of me saying "oh, that needs to be smaller" "this needs to be toned" "I am so huge". I hope that I don't become one of those crazy people that spends 100k on plastics and ends up with a mask-face from endless Botox or something. 😖 Does anyone else struggle from body dysmorphia? How did you overcome it or if you haven't, how do you deal? How do you learn to love yourself after hating yourself since you were 8 years old?? I kinda' thought I had overcome all this, but the smaller I get... the more judgmental I am becoming of myself again. Like nothing will be good enough.

@ms.sss thank you for the support! My proportions are still off for me to go down another size just yet...I dont know if its excess skin, some remaining stubborn belly fat or a combination of the two but I have a hard time getting smaller jeans to comfortably button and zip around my lower abdomen. (I call it my baby poosh because it only became a real problem after I had my kids but that obviously isn't a medical thing. Lol) it's smaller than it was but its still pretty prominent in some photos. (You can see it in the gray tank top I'm wearing in my recently posted pic)

@sillykitty This is the surgeon I am looking into in Boise. He has package rates and lists the prices. Are his prices comparable to your consults? I have other surgeons for options. He seems to have the most experience. Package deal #1 After massive weight loss https://deansorensenmd.com/Procedures/Body/After-Weight-Loss-Surgery-Boise-ID Upper body (Liposuction, breast lift, tummy tuck, arm lift) Lower body (Liposuction, butt lift, thigh lift, lower body lift) The cost for a combination surgery to remove skin following a massive weight loss will vary. Certain factors such as the number of procedures performed (abdominoplasty, liposuction, thigh lift, etc.), combined with the number of surgical settings, hospital stay, anesthesia, etc., will play a role in determining the final cost. On average, patients can expect to pay at least $10,000-$15,000 or higher. Package deal # 2 Mommy Makeover: https://deansorensenmd.com/Procedures/Body/Mommy-Makeover-Boise-ID BREAST Conditions caused by pregnancy: Loss of volume and/or breast tissue, sagging and/or drooping, excess skin (ptosis), breasts that have become too large Surgeries to consider: Breast augmentation with implants, breast lift, breast augmentation with a lift, breast reduction surgery ABDOMEN Conditions caused by pregnancy: Excess fat and/or persistent bulge in the abdomen, sagging and loose skin, stretch marks and other unsightly skin irregularities Surgeries to consider: Tummy tuck (abdominoplasty), liposuction of the abdomen LOWER BODY Conditions caused by pregnancy: Sagging skin and excess fat in the buttocks, hips and thighs Surgeries to consider: Lower body lift including liposuction and skin tightening of the buttocks, hips and thighs Mommy makeover procedures will vary in cost depending how many surgeries were combined and how many surgery sessions are needed. At a minimum, if a breast lift with augmentation is performed along with a tummy tuck, the cost could range from $8,500-$17,000

You are not the only one. So glad to hear you are cancer free. I can understand your concerns about bleeding out on previous surgeries. You can talk with a plastic surgeon about this issue. IDK if there is anything besides surgery and loving yourself to deal with body issues. Counseling is an option. I was more than thankful to have my health back. I felt my skin was livable. My husband and my Dr. are the only people that see it up close and personal. *smile* I’ve waited five years after surgery to investigate plastics. Wish you the best in whatever you decide.

Has anyone have a BMI of 35-36? What made you all decide to go with the surgery rather then to just do it on your own? I'm at BMI of 36 and cw 203. I have already lost 47 lbs. I just having a hard time loosing more. I just have to think if its worth it to go with the surgery or keep trying on my own. Which is why I wanted to ask for those that did have the surgery at a low BMI. How much have you lost since surgery? Was it worth it to you to go ahead with surgery? My surgeon told me he wants me on their program pre-op diet and to maintain the weight I am at for 1 to 2 months. He will do the surgery, if I do decide to go ahead with it. The psychiatrist said that she is fine with me going ahead with the surgery. She also mentioned I should fix or face what emotional issues I have so that I don't gain the weight back in the future. I would love to hear about your journey. I want to make a good educated decision and not just go for it without all the details and research!

Before I was diagnosed with plantar fascitis I actually lost over 100lb with diet and much much excerise. I had saggy skin and had a lower body lift, a back lift a arm lift, a breast reduced with lift with liposuction. My plastic surgeon actually lipoed my mons public because it was sticking out Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app

I weep for your poor boobies! But you can have some of mine. I have the opposite problem: lost everywhere except my boobies. This has made me the delight of many a strange male eye where I live, lol... but it makes bra buying the same hassle it always was and kind of distorts me into a Barbie doll or porn star. Imagine a poor librarian looking like this. I compensate by always wearing loose tops. Keep at it... your boobies might return. Me, I'm hoping for a bit of reduction magic to maybe happen... I am not the girl these fellas think I am after surgery

Sooo, I did two consults last week. I went with the two first that didn't charge consultation fees. Even regardless of the fees, they were my top 2 choices from pics and reviews online. The good news is they both had nearly identical recommendations. They were both kind and professional, and I felt like they really listened to what I want. In speaking to the surgeons, here is my revised wants list Lower Body Lift - this would include tummy tuck, lipo, outer and front of thigh lift, monsplasty, and fat transfer for butt lift. Inner Thigh Lift - could be combined with LBL & would be a good compromise to have a concealed scar vs the more extensive scar of a medial thigh lift. Breast Lift & Augmentation - both surgeons said this would have to be a separate procedure, unable to combine with the LBL due to time under anesthesia & surgeon fatigue. Both did not recommend the teardrop gummy bear. They said it works better in theory than IRL, and I can get more natural results with traditional round silicone implant. Both said recovery time would only be 2 weeks of no traveling. So that makes it possible to just slip this surgery in sometime next year. But I will probably look for a plastic surgeon that specialized in BA/BL vs one who specializes in massive weight loss. BL/BA's are so common & i don't think my breasts are significantly different than a women's who had children & breastfed, I could find a more convenient and potentially less expensive option. The bad news is, surgeon #1's quote was INSANELY high. Like I could buy a small house in Kansas for that kind of money. Surgeon #2's quote was significantly less crazy, but still a big chunk of change. The more I look at surgeon's #2 pics, and after the consult, I'm leaning away from going with him. He only does weight loss patients. Therefore he does a lot of My 600 lb Life type stuff. He seems more focused on removing skin and fat, then true body contouring, if that makes sense? I just don't know if I would be aesthetically happy with my body afterwards. Contrast that with surgeon #1's extreme focus on aesthetics. I am confident I'd get the best results with surgeon #1, but the cost seems unreasonable. So I'm broadening my search to other surgeons in the country that specialize in massive weight loss. The LBL & thigh lift are not very common outside of post bariatrics, so I want a specialist for those. I contacted my #1 out of state choice for a consultation, and learned he is retiring and not scheduling any new surgeries The pressure is on to book a procedure. Understandably my December time frame is very popular, and I absolutely need to have my procedure done in a pretty small window due to wok commitments. I'm a little disheartened by the process right now

I agree that the scale jumps around a lot. My weight has been within the same 1-2 pounds for the past few weeks but I just took measurements and I am down 1/4-3/4 of an inch so obviously I am building up muscle and loosing fat and my body shape is changing. My jeans and shorts (and bra unfortunately) are also suddenly looser at the same weight.

Just got back from my postop! 6 pounds of skin removed which is hard to imagine. I get an "A" from the surgeon on how well I'm doing. I saw my belly button for the first time and he removed the stitches from it. I go back Thursday to have my drains out. I stopped pain meds Saturday and have been talking tylenol as needed. I've been able to go out for little walks, etc. So happy that I had this done!! I can't believe how good it feels to not have the skin there!! [emoji4] HW = 360 SW = 292 GW = 220 reached 3/7/18 CW = 210 @ 6'5" 150 pounds lost! [emoji106]

Mine doesn't stick out at all, I am below my weight loss goal leaving me with a sort of "dust flap." I am eligible for the skin surgery however last year I was diagnosed with reproductive cancer and opted out of skin surgery at the time because I was more up to fight for a hysterectomy instead. I am nearly a month post op from my hysterectomy now and with the tumors gone I can now see my own thunder from under and it's not a pleasant site however I am grateful to be alive. About two weeks ago I ended hemorrhaging which almost ended my life in almost 15 minutes flat which leads me to this realization: I have nearly bled to death while recovering from my last 3 operations. So I guess you could say I am extremely paranoid to have the skin done. Oh well, I either learn to live with it or chop it off Sent from my moto g(7) power using BariatricPal mobile app