Hello everyone, I'm, scheduled for Jan 4th. If this Covid stuff doesn't cause a cancellation. I would be lieing, if I, said I wasn't scared! I am very concerned about the post-op and the sagging skin. Any advice would be great.

Hi there,

Full disclosure: I had the sleeve, not the bypass. The Post-op really wasn't that bad for me. I had some post-op pain but my surgeon worked with me to find the right medication dose to deal with that and I felt better quickly. At no time did I go for any extended period with out of control pain. Those first few days can be uncomfortable and I remember I didn't want to move much, LOL. But I did get up and walk with the nurses the same day as my surgery. I didn't suffer with gas pains as some people do, but walking is supposed to help a lot with that. I had ZERO hunger right after surgery, which was good because I was unable to do anything more than drink water for a while. But my surgeon said that's not uncommon and he wasn't worried. I spent one night in the hospital and was discharged. My sister stayed with me for 3 days just to make sure I was okay and then she went home. I was fine, able to get up, go to the kitchen and/or bathroom, etc. As surgeries go, the post-op was fine.

As far as sagging skin, for a lot of us, it's a fact of life when we lose a massive amount of weight. However, most of the extra skin I have is on my tummy and when I'm dressed it's not obvious to anyone else. And I wouldn't take back the 120 pounds I've lost to have the tight, but huge tummy I had before ?. I feel so much better in every way at this weight that it's more than worth it to have the extra skin. At some point, I plan to have a tummy tuck but until then, I'm not walking around showing my tummy anyway so it's okay, LOL. I've never met a single person who lost a lot of weight with weight loss surgery and said they would prefer to have the extra weight back rather than the sagging skin. There may be someone out there who feels that way but I think it's pretty rare.

I hope that helps! This is a pretty awesome journey you're embarking on. ?

Thank you so much! This is very helpful. I'm extremely excited to start this journey. I have been heavy the majority of my child bearing years. I am now 45 with many different health issues. I can't wait to be active and not feel exhausted. Play with my grandbabies. Most of all, love myself when I look in the mirror. What about exercise to help with the loose skin?

post-op pain is all across the board, but just from my observations from hanging out on this and other forums for the last six years, it seems most WLS patients have little to no pain from this surgery. Uncomfortableness for a few days, yes - but most experience little or no true pain. And if you're one of the unfortunate ones who do, you'll undoubtedly be sent home with pain meds, so just keep on top of them. It's pretty manageable if you keep on top of it.

It seems like almost everyone worries about sagging skin. I worked with my clinic for three years prior to COVID, co-leading one of the pre-op classes (1-2 per month). In every class, people asked about sagging skin. I worried about it as well when I was pre-op and early post-op. But I can tell you that almost all of us who are a ways out will tell you that we wonder why we wasted any brain matter worrying about it. In the grand scheme of things, it's really a minor issue, and for most of us, it's very easy to hide and you're the only one who'll know it's there. And there's always plastic surgery if it bothers you. I eventually had mine removed, but that was for me - it was easy to hide from the world. I just tucked it into my jeans or leggings and wore slightly oversized, longish tops to hide it. Ta da! No more loose skin. Here's a picture of me BEFORE I had plastic surgery. I lost over 200 lbs, so I had a LOT of it. As you can see in this photo, it's not noticeable at all when I had clothes on (oh - and I agree with the above poster - I would take my sagging skin any day over weighing 373 lbs again. ANY DAY!!!)

Edited December 14, 20205 yr by catwoman7

4 minutes ago, Sassyd said:

What about exercise to help with the loose skin?

depends on how much you have. Weight training might firm things up in some areas if you don't have much loose skin there, but if you lose a lot of weight, you're likely to have a lot of loose skin. Not much you can do about it...

For me, doing the sleeve, the post-op was a dream. Other than the first 24 hours in the hospital being so nauseous from the anesthesia, I never had a second of pain or gas or problems. Walk a lot during your post-op. Sip, sip, sip that water. Don't worry about the skin thing until down the road. If you lose slowly and tone as you go it might not be a problem.

2 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

It seems like almost everyone worries about sagging skin.

I am noticing this too. It seemed to always come up on here but lately the number of posts of people with the excess skin concern in increasing.

To the OP: like most, I would rather the excess skin the the excess body. Note that I did have plastics to address some areas, but other areas (i.e., my butt, and to a lesser degree my inner thighs) are still pretty saggy/soft looking. Of which I would still rather have any day of the week vs firm skin that is filled with fat.

You will get alot of responses about creams, exercises, and slower weight loss to ensure skin elasticity. The truth is you won't know how you will fare until you lose the weight. So many things will factor into your end result, as many of the above have stated. The only sure fire way to ensure you don't have loose skin is to NOT lose weight. Though even then, age will eventually catch up to you and there will be loose skin anyway. And fat.

It's probably best if expectations are managed and assume that one WILL have loose skin, and there isn't, its just a lovely bonus. The goal here is to lose weight, not to be a bikini model.

Apologies to those who DO aim to be bikini models! ?❤️

2 hours ago, ms.sss said:

like most, I would rather the excess skin the the excess body.

Correction: I would rather the excess skin vs. the excess body.

The only person who knows I have saggy skin is my hubby! I look pretty awesome in clothes if I do say so myself! LOL!!! When I was morbidly obese, the whole world knew I was fat. I'd rather be secretly saggy than obviously fat! ha ha!

Besides, that's what plastic surgery is for, if you so desire (and I desire!!!!)

You can’t predict how much loose skin you’ll end up with but you can guarantee you’ll have some.

I feel like I’ve earned my loose skin. And, for good or bad, a part of me thinks I deserve it too - I put on the weight & stretched out my skin. No one else did it to me or made me do it.

I don’t have a lot of sagging skin but it’s there. It doesn’t really hinder anything I wear. I never wore a bikini when I was slim & younger so there’s no way I would now so no loss. I also have no desire to wear shorty shorts or mini skirts so no one will see the saggy bits on my inner thighs. And to hide my bat wings, I just don’t wave my arms in the air & don’t wear anything very strappy or strapless.

Honestly, I had minimal pain after surgery. By day 4, I didn’t need any pain meds & I didn’t have any gas pain at all. My only problem was my back which went into spasm on day 2 but it really didn’t have anything to do with the surgery as such. I had quite a bit of swelling which caused me difficulty swallowing to begin but it was gone by day 4. I had no trouble sleeping on my side from day 1 & healed very well. But we’re all different. You can’t predict how you’ll respond to the surgery. Just be realistic & be aware of the possible side effects, but don’t let something that may not happen or is easily managed scare you from having the surgery. Stress is never good for healing or recovery.

Good luck with your surgery & on your journey.

I got some and my surgeon has me using palmers on it because I have "baby skin". Ask your surgeon if they can recommend anything to help your skin during the weightloss, everybody has variations to skin and he/she can actually see yours.

Thank you for the information!

Thank you to everyone! For the advice and what to look forward to.