What was the best question you asked during consults?

[loridee11 510]

I'm getting ready to start having consults for a full body lift and arm lift. I will probably try for a June date (I am hoping to hit goal in January) but finding a surgeon and then coordinating time with work will take some time. I have a good start for what I want to ask during consults, but thought I'd check with the veterans.

• What question did you ask that really helped you get an insight into your surgeon and helped you select?
• Maybe you didn't ask, but one surgeon volunteered something you wish you'd thought to ask?
• Anything you didn't ask that you wished you had?

Thanks in advance!

Lori

[Guest]

After having read several posts, June maybe a bit soon. I think those who have had PS post WLS suggest waiting at least 1 year. I had PS 20+ years ago and would stress that you don't have unrealistic expectations. Don't expect profection because it rarely is achieved, if ever.

[catwoman7 10,845]

I mostly just listened to their thoughts and ideas, but I would plan on doing 3-5 consults if you can, because you may hear different ideas on how to do things from different surgeons. I did four consults - one with a well-known surgeon in Mexico (but I decided to have it done stateside instead, even though it was a lot more expensive), and three in my region. The first two in my region whom I talked to had such different ideas on how to approach it that I decided to get another consult to see if it was a tie breaker. So I went to a guy who's known to be pretty expensive, but is nationally known in working with massive weight loss patients. Before going, I really never seriously planned to go with him because of the cost, but I knew I would respect his opinion. Well, his opinion was the same as surgeon #2, so I knew that was probably the way to go - but I ended up going with the expensive expert anyway, because his estimate wasn't really that much more than the other two (and most of the extra cost was due to the fact that he'll only do his in a regular hospital, whereas the others do them at outpatient surgical centers, and he also makes you spend the night at the hospital to make sure you're OK to go home, whereas the other two send you home at the end of the day. I preferred to spend the night in the hospital, *just in case*).

I don't know if there's anything I would necessarily ask each one about - although questions did come up at each consult (not always the same questions), but check pictures if they have them - and if they don't have them at their office, check their Web sites for pictures (but keep in mind they're only likely to post their best work). With the body lift pictures, be sure to notice belly buttons. Belly buttons are supposedly tough to get right, so if the person does good belly buttons, that's often a good sign.

as someone else implied, some surgeons will recommend you to wait 6-12 months after your weight is stabilized to have plastic surgery. It's probably not a bad idea because unfortunately, a majority of us seem to have a 10-20 lb rebound after we hit our lowest weight. Although I did spend that time doing a lot of research on surgeries and surgeons, and creating my "short list" of surgeons I wanted to do my consults with...

Edited December 19, 2020 by catwoman7

[Kris77 1,506]

You also want to make sure they do their own closures. A lot of surgeons have their assistants help close. In my opinion if you’re paying a PS for surgery then you should get a PS closure. The one I went with does his own Closures and on the really long cases if he has help it’s one of his PS doctors he works in the group with.

[loridee11 510]

Thanks All.

I spoke with the coordinator at one surgeon this week. Surgeon works on mostly weight loss patients which I like. One thing that concerned me is they don't do the Tummy Tuck that includes the vertical scar. For those of you who lost significant weight and had a LBL or tummy tuck which just the horizonal scar, how are your results? I have a lot of laxity up my entire abdomen and am worried just pulling down won't actually solve for it.

I'll be talking to other surgeons of course - just curious to hear from those who've done this.

[catwoman7 10,845]

2 hours ago, loridee11 said:

Thanks All.

I spoke with the coordinator at one surgeon this week. Surgeon works on mostly weight loss patients which I like. One thing that concerned me is they don't do the Tummy Tuck that includes the vertical scar. For those of you who lost significant weight and had a LBL or Tummy Tuck which just the horizonal scar, how are your results? I have a lot of laxity up my entire abdomen and am worried just pulling down won't actually solve for it.

I'll be talking to other surgeons of course - just curious to hear from those who've done this.

I originally thought I wanted/needed a fleur-de-lis (that vertical incision). One surgeon said he'd do it. The other two said I was sort of borderline - they thought they could do it with just the standard horizontal scar. They added that if it turned out I needed the vertical incision, they could do it when I came back for my breast lift and arm lift. I was a little disappointed because I wanted it, but I was OK with waiting, since I knew I'd end up having the second surgery anyway. My traditional LBL turned out fine, though, so I didn't do it. I do have a little excess skin really high up just under my ribs that he wasn't able to get to, but you can't see it if you look at it. It does hang down a little when I'm exercising, though (like doing pushups or something - I can see it if I look down at it through the neck of shirt). However, I can't see it when I'm standing up. Plus I'm always wearing clothes, so... I wasn't sure it was worth the extra money to have him "fix" it, plus then I'd just be trading some mostly unnoticeable skin for a big scar up my middle. Six of one half dozen of the other. If my remaining skin had been really noticeable, though, I probably would have done it.

[loridee11 510]

Thanks Catwoman! That's my concern, I have a lot of loose skin up near my breasts and then down through my abdomen and it hangs down when I exercise. I'm fairly lucky I don't look too bad standing up, I really don't have folds horizontally, but when bent over - its really really bad.