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Did you see big changes after 3 months?



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I am at 3 months post brachio and revised Tummy Tuck (skin only not muscle). I had a 3 month follow up and he pointed to a few areas like by my elbows and on one side on my stomach and said it still a little swollen.

I know it takes a year to see more of a final result but I kind of assumed that once the initial swelling was gone after 2-3 months any changes after would be very subtle.

My waist is measuring 31 inches. I don't feel swollen but has anyone else really seen a big difference this far out. Could I go down a whole inch from here?

I think he will need to go back in another 6 months to fix some bagginess and skin laxity still near my armpit and he agreed. I also have 2 areas with a tiny fold or pucker of the skin at the incision line.

I asked about my scars that are still red and was given the 1 year answer but I am hopeful that in the next few months it will start to fade some.

He wanted me to continue silicone tape or cream or even coconut cream but said to NOT use Bio oil. He said it is not good for post surgical scars.

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At 3 months, I was still swollen...I had the 3-month-pregnant look down pat.

Now (5 months post-plastics), I look like I had a big meal, lol. Though there are still days that I get especially swollen/bloated and look pregnant again. My lower abdomen is quite hard and firm still from the swelling. Its not so bad when you look at me straight on, but from the side you can def see the bump. Like your surgeon, mine told me that I should see the final result in about a year. A year!

As far as going down more inches at the waistline, I guess that depends if your current swelling is located there. My swelling is much lower, it starts a couple inches below my (new) belly button. In the first month post, my waistline measured 5.5 inches LARGER than the day of surgery. Around the 6 week mark, it went back the original size. As of today, it's 1 inch smaller than day of surgery (though I'm not sure if the decrease is because of the surgery or because of the crunches I do, lol). Mind you, I apparently didn't get alot of fat taken off...my doc said it was mostly just skin and the total weight of skin/tissue removed was a measly 400g across the THREE procedures he preformed.

My scars are still pretty red. The arm scars are the worst of them, and have widened is certain areas. I knew this was a possibility, as I historically tend to scar badly. I was supposed to go in for some "scar maintenance" back March, but then Covid happened. It was/is supposed to be a combination of excising scar tissue and steroid shots. I'm not too keen about more cutting as I figure I may just scar again...we'll see.

I've had silicone tape on pretty much 24/7 after all my wounds healed...dunno if it's working, but I like having them on because it keeps the itchiness at bay!

Do you know if your surgeon is going to cut off existing scar tissue to address the folds/puckering? Will you be under general or local anesthesia?

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I still have swelling at 5 months post. My surgeon said WLS/massive weight loss patients tend to have a different time line for healing.

My puckering was resolved with diligent silicone tape usage. I also used a rx retinoid on it to resurface the skin (This was not in my instructions but I already used it for my face and knew what it could do)

Compression seems to help people with swelling and waist training is touted to help lose inches

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On 6/4/2020 at 10:18 PM, ms.sss said:

At 3 months, I was still swollen...I had the 3-month-pregnant look down pat.

Now (5 months post-plastics), I look like I had a big meal, lol. Though there are still days that I get especially swollen/bloated and look pregnant again. My lower abdomen is quite hard and firm still from the swelling. Its not so bad when you look at me straight on, but from the side you can def see the bump. Like your surgeon, mine told me that I should see the final result in about a year. A year!

As far as going down more inches at the waistline, I guess that depends if your current swelling is located there. My swelling is much lower, it starts a couple inches below my (new) belly button. In the first month post, my waistline measured 5.5 inches LARGER than the day of surgery. Around the 6 week mark, it went back the original size. As of today, it's 1 inch smaller than day of surgery (though I'm not sure if the decrease is because of the surgery or because of the crunches I do, lol). Mind you, I apparently didn't get alot of fat taken off...my doc said it was mostly just skin and the total weight of skin/tissue removed was a measly 400g across the THREE procedures he preformed.

My scars are still pretty red. The arm scars are the worst of them, and have widened is certain areas. I knew this was a possibility, as I historically tend to scar badly. I was supposed to go in for some "scar maintenance" back March, but then Covid happened. It was/is supposed to be a combination of excising scar tissue and steroid shots. I'm not too keen about more cutting as I figure I may just scar again...we'll see.

I've had silicone tape on pretty much 24/7 after all my wounds healed...dunno if it's working, but I like having them on because it keeps the itchiness at bay!

Do you know if your surgeon is going to cut off existing scar tissue to address the folds/puckering? Will you be under general or local anesthesia?

He said he can do the fix of the tiny skin fold area under local and I think even the armpit area. It would probably be a half an inch at the skin fold area if that and maybe 2 inches at the armpit area. The tiny skin fold area is almost like a wrinkle and could smooth out on it's own. My armpit looks like some people on here that have lost weight and have a little bit of wobbly loose skin just at the armpit extending an inch down. So it's much better than pre op but if I paid all of the $$ I want all of the wobbly excess skin gone. you can only see the wobble part when I hold my arm straight out.

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I'm 7 months post op from my lower body lift and still have significant swelling on my stomach :( I'm the same as @ms.sss "Its not so bad when you look at me straight on, but from the side you can def see the bump" I've had no issues with skin folds or puckering though, so unsure how those will resolve.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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