Having been inspired by JulieNYC, Puddin, and TheGhost, I decided to start a thread to chronicle the brachioplasty I will hopefully be having soon. I started at 218 lbs and had my lap-band surgery on 1/17/07 by Dr. Spivak in Houston. As of today, I'm at 144 lbs. I still have 26 more to lose.

On Friday, Oct 26th, I went to see Dr. Lior Heller about having a brachioplasty (my weight was 148 on that day). My plan was to see him for the consultation and schedule the surgery for late December. I figured I'd be within 10-15 lbs of my goal weight by then. Well, Dr. Heller is doing a TV show for a local news channel and told me if I could lose 10 lbs in 2 weeks, he would waive his surgical fee and use me for the TV show. I've lost 3.5 lbs since last Friday. I'm eating between 400-500 calories and walking 4-6 miles every day. Keep your fingers crossed that I meet the goal.

If I don't make it on the TV show, the brachioplasty will cost me a little over $5,000. If I'm on the TV show, I only have to pay $3,000 for the OR and anesthesiologist. I'm also planning to have a breast lift, tummy tuck, and thigh lift next year, so I need to save as much money as I can. I planned to do the brachioplasty soon because I don't think much more fat will come off my arms. All the excess weight seems to be in my stomach, hips, and thighs now. Although I'm not at goal yet, I wanted to have the brachioplasty this winter in order to be healed enough to wear sleeveless tops in the summer. And in Houston, summer starts in March.

These are my most recent before and after pics. I take some pictures of my naked arms soon.

Yeah Enterprise01 ~

Look how TINY your arms look !!!!! :whoo:

So glad to hear you're home and doing okay - I have been waiting to hear from you.

OMG - the DRAINS !!!!! :omg:

Please keep us posted, and maybe I'll see you soon at Dr. Spivak's office . . .

Thanks, Lynn.

Forgot to mention that the pain isn't that bad. I'm taking 100 mg Darvocet every 4 hours and that's keeping it under control. There's more discomfort than pain.

I'm so glad to hear from you. You look really good to me, and your arms are so thin. I can tell your fingers look puffy from the fluids, but that will go away.

Let your mom help in everyway you need. I'm glad the darvocet is taking care of pain.

Keep us posted. I've been thinking of you.

glad you came out well!

are they going to put the procedure on youtube that you know of? would be interesting!

your arms DO look so small - even with the bandages. hope you get tubes out soon.

Aw, glad to hear you are feeling OK. Your arms look awesome even in bandages.

Continued healing and rest those arms.

hugs

Thanks, Lynn.

Forgot to mention that the pain isn't that bad. I'm taking 100 mg Darvocet every 4 hours and that's keeping it under control. There's more discomfort than pain.

Okay honey - it's time for a little update . . . How are you feeling? What's up with the 'drains', etc. . . . ???

I hope you are feeling much better and are getting really excited that this is behind you. You skinny-minny you!

Your arms already look smaller. Congratulations. I'm sure you're going to be pleased.

I'm sitting here looking at your pics and I'm feeling scared SH***LESS for this surgery in a couple of months. I remember the drains all too well from my TT and how awful it was when they were pulled out. You look GREAT, it will all be so worth it in the end. I think I'm going to have to ship my kids to my parents' house for a few days after surgery. Do you feel like you were good to go home the same day? I'm having breast augmentation at the same time and it's a day surgery. I have no clue what the breast augmentation will be like, I'm not having a lift so it shouldn't be too bad, I believe the implants will be placed over the muscle so the recovery won't be as bad (or so I've heard anyway). When do the full length arm bandages come off?

Hang in there!!

The worst is behind you! I can't wait to hear that your drains have come out and that they've put you in a more comfortable garment so you can bend your arms. You're in the downhill run now!

I'm so sick of these drains. They are very annoying. I saw the doc on Friday and he wanted to leave the drains in over the weekend - better safe than sorry. He took all the gauze off and wrapped me in a plain ace bandage, so I've had better use of my arms since then. I cannot lift my arms all the way up or put them all the way down, though. My appt on Monday is at 2:30 and the drains will come out out then. Yay! They will also put me in the compression garment then. The worst part of all of this is not being able to shower. Julie, I'm sure you can relate. My mom washed my hair in the kitchen sink for me this morning and I felt a lot better after that. The other problem is that because of the location of the drains, I cannot wear my bra up as high as I normally do. The breasts are sitting down low and that's getting uncomfortable. The pain has not been bad. Darvocet every 4 hours is quite sufficient. I'm also taking 10mg of Ambien to help me sleep at night.

Buffie - I did feel well enough to come home the day of surgery, but I needed a lot of help. Thank god for my mom. When you have your brachioplasty and breast augmentation, make sure you have someone there to help you. I really don't think I could have managed without my mom.

Here are a couple more pics. Lynn, don't let the picture of the drain deter you. For some reason, it looks much more gnarly in the photo than it does in real life. You can tell from that picture that Dr. Heller removed all the fat I had in my underarms. That fat would push up and hang out over my bra, so good riddance.

Amazing! I am so HAPPY For you! Those drains were a real pain coming out for me on my TT but at least it is over quickly. (Small comfort I know) How long will you have to wear the compression garments? And when will we be seing some unwrapped pics?

wow! your arms look tiny! even being wrapped and swollen. I think you are going to love your new arms! congrats

OK, here are some pics of my unwrapped arms. Be warned - it's graphic. The left arm has a lot more swelling then the right. And there's a pocket of fluid on the inside of each elbow, with the left being worse.

Here's the left arm:

Here's the right arm:

Amazing!! They are going to be SO SWEET once youv'e healed up. Do I see a little black dress in the future?