omg, it bought tears to my eyes. I did cop a little bit of holier than thou judgement from several people, not least my usually lovely lapband surgeon, because i didnt have a big flappy tummy. The before pics i took were on my phone and dont really show clearly what a mess my belly was, but oh, my, has it been cleaned up!!! I feel like the evidence of my brush with cancer has been erased, gone are the hernias, the ileostomy scar, the misshapen almost hernia behind the ileostomy, the ruined bellybutton, the adsortment of at least a dozen scars and punctures, the weird curtain of skin on my upper belly. The flatness of my new tummy is a bonus, at present with swelling, im about the same measurement as i was before, so my midsection is going to be very slender, unfortunately my ass is still the same size, lol. But without going into detail why did nobody tell ne how much better my, ah, bits would look? DH's eyes nearly popped out of his head! And my inner thighs are so smooth! Wowzers.

So...... Gone are all signs of one of the darkest periods of my life and in their place, one lovely smile on my tummy to remind me how lucky I am to be here and to be healthy. I didnt quite realise I would feel tjis way about it, and Ive been off the drugs for days, lol

Wow...I am so happy about your results. I am scheduled for lower body lift in June...You just made me even more super excited about getting it done!! So, by getting your tummy tuck it helped your thighs too?? I need major help on my thighs...as, they are still large and lumpy to me. I am also getting inner thigh lift with lipo. So, hopefully I will get amazing results. I can't wait to see your pics. I remember seeing the before ones!! post soon

Quite an amazing effect on my thighs! However, like I said, i had very minimal loose skin and have been warned that i am uber tightly pulled in as a result.

I always get so impatient for people to post pics but now i realise, its all under dressings, swollen to double normal size and i cant stand straight anyway, add to that that my before pics are hardly terrible in the first place and a photo right now is not going to show anything.

Jacqui:

So glad you're happy with the results. You've always been so helpful to many of the lapband talkers. You deserve the best.

Take care, and remember that resting now will give you the best healing results.

Sue

Before and after pics don't really matter. What matters is that you are sooo happy! I am so excited for you. Your enthusiasm is wonderful! Congtatulations!!!

I am so very pleased for you, i know u have have gone through quite a bit recently and this is now your reward.. keep healing well and looking forward to seeing your new pics

I am so glad that you are happy, you deserve to be.

So glad for you, you have been through so much. Bless you and your recovery. Post pics when you are ready. Karen

I saw your before pics and posts about this happening. I am happy all went well and you are so pleased with the results.

Jachut how are you doing today? I've been thinking of you a lot today. I guess it was because I spent most of the day in the pool imaginng how I would feel after the tt and breast reduction!!! lol

I'm so happy for you Jacqui ! It's so nice to hear about a surgery that has gone as well as this one sounds!

Jacqui, as someone who would consider the same surgery, what is involved? What areas are cut? If you don't mind, how much does this kind of surgery cost (if you don't want to say I would understand). How long is your recovery? Are you in a lot of pain?

Yay jacqui! I am so happy you had a surgery you WANTED! Cannot wait until all is healed and we see the after pics.

Congrats!! i think you looked great in your before picture, can only hope I can ever look half as good as you did. I am sure you are going to look amazing now!! So happy for you!

Jacqui, as someone who would consider the same surgery, what is involved? What areas are cut? If you don't mind, how much does this kind of surgery cost (if you don't want to say I would understand). How long is your recovery? Are you in a lot of pain?

Im in Australia so the financing is a bit different but in my case, ths was reconstructive rather than cosmetic. Even though my two previous bowel surgeries were laparascopic, they did involve an ileostomy which weakened my abdominal wall a fair bit, and I also had steadily worsening inguinal hernias. As such, because it was a medically warranted surgery, it had an item number and was covered by our public health system. My private health insurance allows me to choose my surgeon and date of surgery and covers theatre fees and hospital stay. Because no doctor ever charges the scheduled fee, I had an out of pocket expense of $5000 which covers my aftrcare too. As a cosmetic procedure, this surgery with this surgeon in this hospital would have been over $15000, so I had a very lucky opportunity.

Basically, i have been openend from hip to hip with a smile shaped incision. My intestines have been poked back wher they belong (without actually opening my abdomen as the weakened holes were already there). The Abdominal muscles which run from chest to pelvis habe been pulled in at the centre and sewn tight, i have three bits of mesh over the weak bits at groin and behind where my ileostomy was, my port has been moved to directly by my bellybutton, with the back taken off to lower the profile. Then as the final step they remove a crescent shaped piece of skin from pubic line to the navel (removing all of my old scarring) and pull the belly button through a new opening and stitch you all back together.

Yes, i now have a hip to hip scar, but my belly looked like a lumpy patchwork quialt before, even though it was flat, so a fair tradeoff for me.

Hope that explains it all a bit.

Oh and its not awfully panful, more frustrating that this time I really still cant be completely healeqd after a week, its going to take a long time to run again, etc