Yay! Pants!
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A little background on me. Back in November of 2009, my sister-in-law (brother's wife) died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 41. She and my brother had gotten married when I was in the 5th grade and she had lived with us before that, so I honestly couldn't remember a time when she wasn't my "sister". I loved her dearly and she was a huge part of my life. Her death was devastating to my entire family. I can't even put into words....
Anyway, she had been overweight/obese as long as I'd known her, which was maybe from her junior year in high school? It was pretty obvious that her weight had contributed to the blood clot that killed her. And after seeing what her death did to my family, I was determined not to put them through that again. So I really committed to losing weight (I was 270 at the time). Throughout all of 2010 and most of 2011, I worked to lose weight and maintain that loss. I got down to 176. In August of 2011, I had surgery to remove my excess skin and improve my body shape. I had an extended tummy tuck with muscle repair, breast lift with augmentation, and lipo all over.
Complications from the tummy tuck had me pretty much bed-bound for months. I had accumulation of Fluid in my lower back that was very painful and meant I could not sit or stand for any period of time. The only relief I got was when lying on my side. Needless to say, I didn't do much exercise. I was very depressed and miserable. And I turned to my old friend, food!
Between my plastic surgery in 2011 and this past summer, I gained and re-lost and gained and re-lost and gained to the point that I was back up to 260 pounds. Only 10 pounds under the weight I'd been at when Becky died. I was determined to lose the weight again, but I didn't want to fail the way I had in the past, so I opted to have VSG and I am SO GLAD I made that decision. I know that this time is the real deal and I will be able to lose the weight and keep it off, thanks to my new tool.
Anyway, now that you have all that background, let's get to the subject of my post! This weekend I was talking with my husband about my potential need to buy some new clothes for work, now that I'm down almost 70 pounds again (24 pre-op and 43 post-op). I went into my closet to try on some of my old dress pants for work. I was THRILLED to discover that I could fit into the same pants I'd been wearing when I went back to work after my plastic surgery (size 16s) and I was even able to squeeze into some of the pants I'd been wearing before my plastic surgery (size 14s). I added the 16s into my normal rotation and I fully expect to be wearing those 14s regularly in a couple of months.
I am so happy about this. In the months before my plastic surgery I was in the best shape of my life! I felt great. I was confident and active. The realization that I am *this close* to being back to that version of myself (but even better because I don't have that loose skin anymore), has me super excited!
PS: I hope my story doesn't turn any of you off from plastic surgery. Despite my complications early on, now that I am 3.5 years out, I have NO regrets. My tummy tuck held up incredibly well through my weight fluctuations. Now that I'm getting thinner and started doing strength training again, I'm even starting to see a little ab definition. I think that once I am at goal, it will look amazing! And while it's a little backward to have skin removal surgery BEFORE WLS, I think the end results for me will be very similar and I'll be grateful to not be having surgery right away again once I get to my goal the way many WLS patients choose to.