I wanted to know if anyone knows when you are given the green light by your Dr. for panni surgery? I've read that it's a year after VSG, and then some say two years. How do you know when you've reached your goal in order to have the panni surgery? Is it a goal your PCP or surgeon sets? I live in Los Angeles, and I have Kaiser, but I'm so confused on what happens once you're approaching a year from your VSG surgery date. I've lost over a 100lbs since I began my Options prep classes, but I still have 19lbs to lose before reaching a 100lbs from my surgery date.

From what I've read, the body is still doing it's thing for quite a while after you lose weight. Personally, I am going to wait 2 years AFTER I reach goal weight before I even consider plastics. Some skin can bounce back a bit (of course not all of it..), and I figure the less they have to do, the better.

The typical advice is 1-2 years after your weight stabilizes to get the best results. There can be some skin bounce back (hopefully,) and there is some redistribution of muscle mass and remaining fat as the body adjusts to its new size. My wife had most of her reconstruction (LBL, thighs) done 2-3 years after stability and that went well and is now looking at finishing things up with her arms a couple of years later. I have a consult with him next week, which is only about 10 months after stability, but I have a convenient hernia that needs to be repaired, so there are some decisions as to whether or not it makes sense to coordinate the two jobs and the timing of them.