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Tummy tuck done on Wed. I'm actually feeling really well - no pain meds as of today but of course still taking it very easy. I had skin only fleur tummy tuck as most of my extra skin was vertical. I have an incision from just below my breasts down to my mons, and a small horizontal incision, maybe 5 inches. Overall things look really good, especially for 3 days out. I'm swollen of course, but my belly button area is already 1.5 inches smaller than before (every place else is up due to swelling still) I tried the garment today and I'm still too swollen (I bought a stage 2) so I'll try again after the drain comes out on Tuesday. My only concern is how it will fit on my thights --- while the measurement was right I have a lot of loose skin there but we shall see. I'll try to take some after pics once the drain comes out.

Thank you everyone who responded, I needed that logical thinking and reassurance. @Fred in Pa i really appreciate the recommendations around exercise before and after. I’m going to try that. Also thanks for sharing your pizza moment. It makes me feel less the villain of myself and more human. @summerseeker I’ve been following along with your posts since I came here back in February and am always given a level head after reading your responses. You’re right that I shouldn’t make food the enemy; I just want to eat less overall while taking in good stuff. @summerset my team has me on 90 protein, 40 carbs and around 25-35 fat per day. I have been given the goal of keeping all of that within 800 calories until my fifth month I believe. I’m not perfect, I often go slightly over or under the 800. When I started adding exercise, my routine blew up because of the hunger Fred mentioned. I’ve been struggling to modify my intake to support exercise without exceeding the limits until I speak with my dietician again next month. I will email her today and ask if I should adjust these limits given my added activity. @learn2cook you’re so right about therapy. I do have a therapist I’ve been seeing for many years. I didn’t realize I had disordered eating until I started this process, but now I realize it has been there since I was a kid…. And she knew it too… I need to journal again. That’s a great idea. It helps calm that voice that torments me in my head, the one that simplifies food to “good” or “bad” and attempts to label me the same way. @catwoman7 great thoughts around starting weight and loss rate. It’s so hard not to compare myself. On the one hand I know losing slower will help with skin elasticity, but I also feel like I’m failing or doing something wrong until a friend like you reminds me of the reality. Thanks for that 🙏

Like the others have shared, your weight is lower so loosing will be slower. My program doesn’t count carbs either, but I only give them side eye because they might make me dump. Food isn’t evil, it nourishes us and keeps us healthy and alive. Diet culture encourages this good/bad thinking. If you’re feeling stuck in rewind over fears and anxiety about eating and falling into old habits, it will only help you to seek a therapist who specializes in disordered eating. Like old me used to wake up in the middle of the night to eat 1-2 lbs of M&M’s in secret. Then I would run 4-6 miles for two weeks everyday to even out the calories. Newer me says, let’s do some yoga to get the feeling out of my body, then journal to explore the feelings that are honestly bothering me. That’s how therapy helps you to differentiate and evolve. Are you throwing all your energy and attention into making pizza, milk and a few candies into a monumental experience of all your life efforts? Or is pizza just pizza? Only you know.

This surgey was not something I took lightly. I prayed about it and prepared for 8 months before I got the call for Dec 19, 2022. I made this decision purely for my health as I’m sure most of you did as well. I was starting to have heart problems and my knees would hurt as I walked down the stairs. I was told it would be life changing and when it came to the weight loss it has been, but the complications that have bombarded me has me questioning if it was worth it. I don’t want to scare anyone off, because ninety-nine percent get through their gastric sleeve and adapt after the initial healing, but I have always been the one percent. You see I was the one percent with my pain management as well because I took steroid shots to my back after giving birth to my daughter. This went on for 10 years and then I developed adrenal insufficiency because my body became dependent on the hormone. It could no longer produce its own cortisol so I was then on the precipice of dying if I didn’t start a steroid regimen immediately among my diagnosis. I literally was down to that one percent of cortisol in my body. For five years I suffered unimaginable low energy, adrenal crisis when my body was to stressed, countless hospital visits and of course massive weight gain from cushions disease. I thought nothing would ever be as bad as that time in my life when I finally recovered after those five years and stopped my steroids. But the damage was done and I was severely obese at my heaviest of 270 and on top of that my thyroid suffered in the process so I could never get the weight off. Thats what led me to the only solution my doctor had and the realization that their are things worse than Addisons disease, at least for me. Since my surgery I have not been able to keep any food down. I have had to be admitted to the hospital for days on end where I would go back to the liquid diets. A few weeks ago I had a little tuna and my body rejected it with a fury sending me to the hospital for five days where I had two emergency surgeries. The doctor couldn’t believe what he was seeing on my mri. Somehow so much scar tissue has devolved that it was causing my sleeve to be pulled by my gallbladder and they were attached so we thought that was the reason I couldn’t keep any food down. After I came out of that surgery I felt relief and I wanted to cry because another thing I forgot to mention is that I had been nauseous 24/7 since my sleeve surgery, but for those five hours after waking up from the anesthesia and pain meds I felt normal. The nausea was gone. But the next day it was back with a vengeance and more imaging found that my gallbladder was infected and had to come out immediately. So under I went for the 3rd time in 6 months reentering the same wounds that still hadn’t healed. And again for a while I wanted to cry out that it’s a miracle, it’s all better, but as soon as all the meds wore off I was right back were I started. I also had to have a drain put in because their had been blood pooling around my sleeve since the first surgery. All they could do was prescribe me 3 medications to control the vomiting. I lost 7 pounds during that hospital stay. When I got home after being on a liquid diet for a few more days I slowly eased into the soft foods, but to this day after every meal or healthy snack I make my way to that porcelain hell were I retch until the nausea calms. I then take my nausea medications and Valium to relax my stomach muscles. It usually takes about three hours and then I do it all again because I’m only eating twice a day to avoid being sick morning, noon, and night. The only thing that has changed is the constant nausea, it’s now only after I eat something. I’m literally living off of soft cheese and fruit, but more than a few bites and all hell breaks loose. I can tell how malnourished I am because my hair is falling out in clumps and my skin is dry. I’m drinking as much liquid as I can, but dehydration is always around the corner. My doctor says I’m loosing more weight than he anticipated so I always thought hearing those words would bring me joy, but I’m so depressed and have no energy for my family so I have to ask myself daily was it worth it? Will it get better with more time? Again, I don’t want to scare anyone because their are more good stories on here than bad. I simply want to share my story because there is no other like it and that scares me. My daughter is always asking if I could die, she did this when I was sick with addisons too? I tell her if things get better before I reach my healthy weight of 130 then I’ll be ok because right now even though i’m not getting the calories I need my body still has enough fat storage to feed off of, but at the rate I’m loosing- a pound every other day, I will be severely malnourished if it gets to that point. Most people say the surgery is a blessing, but for me it may still be, but a blessing in disguise. I have spoken with my doctor and he doesn’t have the answers. I have scoured medical journals and comment boards also with no answers. If there is anyone on here that is going through the same thing please reach out and if you prefer to talk in private my email is marsgirl22@gmail.com. I know this was truly a long post, but my journey has been just as long and I hope that my story can help someone else to get the answers that seem to allude me. Oh and just for clarification of how rapidly I am losing I started at 260 pounds two weeks before my surgery and now I am 175 pounds and counting down. Bless you all for taking the time to read my story and I sincerely hope you want hesitate to help me if you can.

if your goal is to lose 150 lbs (I just checked your stats), plastic surgery is going to be the only way to get rid of it. I don't know anything about red light therapy (but color me skeptical), but there's no way something like that is going to get rid of the amount of excess skin you could have after a 150 lb loss. I'd say save your money - or maybe use it toward plastics.

I’m in the same boat and I’m 6 months post op. I eat about three bites of something protein or really anything, veggies too and then I immediately throw up. Doctor has me on multiple medications for this and Valium to relax the muscles in my stomach. I also had to have two emergency surgery’s 2 weeks ago because my sleeve was stuck to my gallbladder with so much scar tissue so they thought that was it, but then a day after that surgery they saw that my gallbladder was bad and they had to remove it immediately. Still no change and I feel so sick all the time because I’m barely getting 300 calories in daily. I loose a pound every other day. I know for 99 percent it’s a miracle and worth it, but I have always been the 1 percent when it comes to my health. I have lost 80 pounds since Dec 19, 2022, but I feel like it wasn’t the right way and I’m worried I’m loosing way to fast. Anyone else suffering like this because my doctor says it’s unusual and I can’t find anything on the internet. Thanks for all the helpful replies in advance. If anyone out there understands my pain feel free to reach out to me through email- marsgirl22@gmail.com

I remember wanting that smooth flawless skin when I was a teen. I had to live with it till I sought treatment in my 20's. And yes, I remember the smell being not so good. I'm glad that you found something for your daughter that is working for her. I never stuck with it like I should have, Now I'm counting on my WLS to see results. Fingers crossed

But I want to believe that my facial/neck skin will snap back as if I was just like a teenage girl.... hahaaha! Nah... I'm a realist. And glad to hear that the needling is working for you. I still haven't heard back from my Bariatric team on the safety of using the infrared sauna or the RLT at 7 weeks. 🤔

My daughter suffered with Pilaris Keratosis from a young age. Fortunately I found Amlactin, resulting in her achieving smooth, flawless skin! It smells like sour milk (it is lactic acid) but the smell dissipates after about 20 minutes. Because of the smell, we applied it at night before bed.

I moisturized and exfoliated till the cows came home but it didn't get rid of it. The only thing that seemed to help was suntanning. But I stopped that years ago. I developed a bad skin picking obsession too. That trapped hair follicle always had a plug of pure white keratin surrounding it. If only we could bottle it and sell it. xD A skin doctor confirmed what I had and prescribed some sort of hydroxy acid but even that was only minimally helpful and a pain in the ass to use consistently. It was easier to just go lay out in the sun. My Mama had it and called it chicken skin so I know it's hereditary. She also had the most beautiful skin besides the bumps which most people really don't notice except for the one who has it. Whenever I took her into the doctor, the nurses would always comment on how great her skin looked for her age. It healed quickly too after surgeries etc. That was one of the reasons I put off having WLS for so long. I knew a few people who have had it and thought they didn't look well. Maybe they weren't taking their vitamins??? But then again, if people knew you as overweight, then see you thin, they immediately think you must be sick. But I know that losing weight can cause fat loss in the face. Kinda like what some people are now calling Ozempic face. My GP also has a skin clinic. So when she approved my decision for WLS she told me if I needed help with botox etc I would know where to go. I'm trying to stay optimistic in that my skin won't fail me now and it will snap back for me without plastics or fillers and that those tiny bumps will somehow save me. LOL But in the end, I had my surgery to hopefully heal my body of comorbidities. That trumps everything else.

Healthy skeptics isn’t a bad thing these days. I tried the light therapy on my face for several sessions with my beauty therapist. Didn’t really see any improvement. Sad thing is there’s never going to be enough light therapy to tighten the amount of loose skin & facial laxity we usually end up with. It may help a small amount for normal aging laxity. I always laugh because to promote it they usually use a woman who is barely out of her teens. I mean what laxity do they have. And they never tell you want other treatments are being used. But if it makes you feel good I say go for it. I also did RF (radio frequency) & did it for a while simply because it felt good - I enjoyed the tingly vibrations. Though I love the results I’m getting from my dermal needling/RF treatments. Still have laxity along my jaw & my old lady chin though 😆😆.

I thought one of the treatments for pillaris is regularly applying heavy moisturisers as dry skin & pillaris tend to go hand in hand?? Also thought it’s not always caused by excess keratin but from inflammation from twisted hair follicles. As for looking older, for a period after your weight loss you may look older or tired - drawn. Much of this is temporary until your body resettles. My uncle told my mum I looked like death after my weight loss. Not nice but a few months later he was telling her I was looking so great. The other thing to remember is you may end up with skin laxity on your face from the loss of fat & your wrinkles won’t be plumped out any more. ☹️ The benefit of the loss of facial fat though is the appearance of your cheekbones, a longer neck, a jaw line, etc. Even my hooded eyelids went as I lost the fat that caused them. I have some skin laxity but haven’t gone down the face lift route. I am also almost 58 so it is to be expected. But I get some Dysport (Botox), had a little filler just in front of my ears where I had no fat at all, & have done micro needling/RF (mainly fur acne scars) Even before I started those treatments, I was told I look younger than my age. I do take care of my skin but genetics play a big role.

Anyone familiar with Red Light Therapy? It claims to help tighten skin, increase Collagen production, repair cells and improve overall appearance of skin. Planet Fitness has a machine called Total Body Enhancement that claims to do all that. Just wondered if anyone here has tried it and saw any kind of noticeable improvements from using it? And if so... if it's worth paying extra for that level of membership. Seems a bit gimmicky to me. Also, I'm wondering if Infrared Saunas are OK to use? I have free access to one and this is different from a dry or steam sauna like I used in the past. It heats you up from the inside out. Somehow that doesn't sound safe after surgery, no matter how much I hydrate. It also touts multiple benefits. I've contacted my Bariatric team for advice and have yet to hear back from them. Seems this newer technology is a big question mark.

I really co-sign both of these! I'm fortunately more addicted to thrifting clothes than buying new, but I still have to stop myself and consider if I really really need yet another pair of jeans (I absolutely don't!). And #5 - oh boy, yep. I love how I look in clothes and in turn, how clothes look on me (I had no idea that under all that fat was a pretty good "coat hanger" body), but out of clothes is another matter entirely. The loose skin isn't super bad, but it's enough that I'm self-conscious, and I'm now also conscious of how bony I am. I suspect I'm on the cusp of being told I'm too thin, despite still being in a normal BMI. I've basically swapped one body insecurity for another.

I was able to break a lot of bad habits after WLS but I've developed new ones along the way. I'll share some of mine and I'm keen to hear yours too. Some of the Bad habits before WLS: 1. Spending a lot of money on junk food (fast food, potatoes chips, chocolate etc) specially when I'm at work. 2. Procrastination when it comes to exercising and doing something about my weight. I've reached a stage where I've decided to just let myself go and do nothing about it 3. Avoiding social gatherings if I knew that photos will taken or if it involves any sort of physical activity 4. Eating before going to bed and while watching TV I'm glad to report that I've broken all of the above and I couldn't be happier. Bad (not necessarily) habits after WLS 1. Spending a lot of money on new clothes. I can't resist buying new clothes if it fits or I know it will fit me in a month time or so. Yesterday I went to the mall to buy tomatoes from the supermarket and ended up buying 2 polo shirts, 1 shirt and new jeans 🤣. I got the tomatoes of course. 2. I hate looking at old photos of me and I really don't like the way I looked in those. I didn't have this feeling before. 3. I take a lot of selfies and photos of myself now haha. I guess I'm making up for past time 4. I'm not telling people the whole truth when asked how I lost the weight. I only tell them about diet and exercise and even show them my latest cycling records but nothing about the WLS. If only told a handful of people about my WLS because I thought they could benefit from one. One of my friends is planning his WLS next month. 5. I don't like how certain parts of my body look after losing a lot of weight (I don't hate tho) like my armpits which have turned into caves, the loose skins on my belly, my scars. I guess I'm a bit self conscious about those.

So since we aren't producing the excess Keratin anymore, how has that affected your skin after 2 years? Besides curing the Pillaris. Since extra keratin helped preserve moisture in the skin and prevented wrinkles etc. Are we exchanging the bumps for looking older?

I felt like my skin got itchy after my weight loss kicked back into gear, it almost makes me wonder if the process of my skin retracting makes it itch.

Sure sounds like an allergic reaction to something, but I'm no doctor. Any recent changes to laundry detergent? Heat rash? Or maybe the fat you are losing is releasing stored toxins through the skin. Hope it clears for you.

Could it be dry skin, since showering is helping? I sleeved in 2019, and I've noticed that I have to use lotion quite a bit more than I used to before the surgery.

We all had different diets to follow and some are very extreme, others less so. In the end we all get to the same point and we are cut off from our teams. Mine will be two years after surgery. My point being we all have to go it alone and do the best we can. What we eat or don't eat is down to us. We will do our own policing and sink or swim that will be that. On this site there are real achievers who have kept their weight off and others who reappear for a brief time asking for help to loose their gained weight. We don't know the whole story, did they eat carbs? Or did they eat greasy foods? Did they eat chocolate and biscuits? I am not denied carbs, I just can not eat them. 1 tablespoon of potato, pasta or bread fills my stomach for hours and oh boy does it feel heavy. I used to love pasta and noodles but I don't really miss them now. It just restricts my restaurant choices when away from home. I think I will be a scale watcher and a calorie counter in the future. You will work it out. Give yourself time to relearn everything you ever knew about food and your stomach. Sent from my Lenovo TB-J606F using BariatricPal mobile app

For excersice: I got the Adidas Adizero SL Running shoes & they're 10/10. They're weightless! A Fitbit. Hitting my daily goals on there is my #1 motivation Compression shin sleeves are wonderful for preventing pain from walking/running/stair climbing etc A fanny pack makes life VERY easy at the gym/on your walks Look up cooling towels you can drape around your neck or tie around your wrist when you work out, they're fantastic. Lip balm. Sometimes we get dry skin after surgery & a lot of breathing during working out can cause lip dryness. Trust me, keep one in your fanny pack & you will use it A LOT.

Are you telling me surgery may cure my Pillaris? O joy! Is this what you had @Arabesque? I've been plagued with it since a young teen. Drives me nuts. This condition develops when the skin produces too much of a protein called keratin, which can block hair follicles and cause bumps to develop. The bumps are usually on the arms, thighs, cheeks, and buttocks. They're white, sometimes red, and typically don't hurt or itch.

No problem Carla. The plan advises if you experience cramps, bloating and loose stool, move on to the soy milk or lactose free. I experienced that later today and i have moved to soy. I can generally tolerate milk but perhaps not in that quantity. I'm drinking the sugar free soy - not as nice as milk but ok I think; I can tolerate it. I might also try the lactose free. I'm trying to use this opportunity to re-set my taste buds. I don't have a headache and am feeling ok. Almost at the end of day 2 😊

I can't help but laugh.....you live in Colorado (as do I), of course it is normal! Dry skin is an epidemic in Colorado. Is it more common after surgery? I think that would depend on your water intake. One thing I have discovered through years of extreme dieting, the less food you take in, the more rapidly your body eliminates the fluid. The more rapidly it is expelled, the less the fluid circulates through your body. Food acts as an absorber of liquid and keeps the fluid from running through you too quickly. The less food you consume, the more you need to drink to maintain adequate fluid levels to keep you hydrated so that the fluid can spread through your system including the extremities of your skin. In dry climates such as Colorado, lotions and creams are necessary to provide a barrier or the dry atmosphere will just suck the moisture out of your skin.

Few days from 6 months and literally less than 3lbs from being in onederland!!! I had my 6 month follow up, have to cut down on my B12, was double the highest amount. My cholesterol was exactly 200 I thought it was bad but the RN told me that because I'm loosing fat my body has to metabolize it so it may show higher the first year or so but not to worry and have it checked again at 1yr. We went over goal weight and she said to aim to be at a BMI below 30 which is somewhere I want to be. Originally my goal was 180 then I changed it to 160 to see how far I will go. Off to vacation next week, hoping I can come back and be surprised with being at least 199.9 lol