Moving Right Along

I saw my surgeon again a few days ago, and we set a date for my next surgery. It will be on the third anniversary of my gastric bypass surgery: December 14, 2007. My surgeon, Dr. Javaheri, Initially told me we would try to aim for a summer date, but his schedule filled up quickly, and given that he’s the only plastic surgeon at my hospital, I’m not surprised. Anyway, December works well for me, since I’ll be out of school again for winter break long enough to recover again. Dr. Javaheri and I talked about my next surgery several weeks ago.

I was hoping to get my thighs done second, but he recommends that I go for the arms and breasts next, so that I can work on losing more weight first. He suggested I lose another 25 to 30 lbs. before we work on my thighs, since I’ll need to have liposuction done as well. There’s still a lot of fat there, along with the loose skin, and the procedure will be more effective. He also suggested I lose some more weight before having my arms and breasts done. It’s May now, and I’ve decided that between now and December, I want to aim for losing 30 lbs. It’s seven months, and I don’t think that should be too difficult. I hope to be able to get approved for this surgery in December, and then apply and get approved for the third and (hopefully) final surgery, on my thighs, next summer when I’m out of school again.

There’s always the possibility that once I lose more weight, since I’ve lost all the elasticity in my skin, I’ll end up with a lot more sagging around my torso by the time these procedures have all been accomplished. If that’s the case, and I’m not happy with it, Dr. Javaheri wants to go back and do more work on my torso, this time going either up both sides or straight up the middle of my body and pulling in from there. I’m just going to play it by ear on that one - I don’t want to do anything more than I have to, but I’m not against it completely either. I’ve started going back to the gym, as I mentioned last time. My workout buddy and I are aiming to go to the gym three times a week. So far, we’ve gone once last week and once this week. Next week we’ll go at least twice, if not all three times. When we went today, I had to keep reminding myself to go slowly so that I wouldn’t hurt too much. I even used less weight than I’m used to. I’m considering going to the gym on my own an extra day each week, on Friday before I have to be at work at noon.

The gym I go to is offering five meetings with a personal trainer for $99.00, and I think it would be a good investment in order to learn how to use some of the weight machines more effectively in order to trim down the areas on my body that need it most. I had already been thinking about it, and the idea was reinforced today. I was using one of the weight machines, and this guy came up to me and started giving me some pointers/corrections on what I was doing. I appreciated the help, and he mentioned that he was one of the trainers there, though he wasn’t working at the time. It’s help like that, along with advice on which machines would be the most effective for my specific needs that make me consider paying the extra money for someone’s help. As it stands, here are the areas of my body that I want to improve. I’d like to tone up my back, and tighten up the muscles in my abdomen. My calve have always been big, both fat and muscle, but I don’t think I can do much for that beyond the weight loss - I guess carrying around 300 lbs. really caused those suckers to bulge. My breasts are saggy, and there’s a lot of extra skin and some fat around the sides.

There’s even more on one side than the other, and this area in generally will need surgical improvement to make any difference. My upper arms are really heavy, and combined with the fullness of my breasts, makes me much more top heavy than I’ve ever been before. I used to be disproportionate with a bigger midsection than chest, now it’s exactly the opposite. Now I understand why my mom wanted a breast reduction! Finally, I hope that losing more weight will make a difference in the results of surgery on my thighs. They’re very full and heavy, and while I have no problem with the roundness and fullness of my hips and rear end, I do want the legs to be a little shapelier, and a lot less flabby. My concern, and Dr. Javaheri’s, is that my arms and breasts surgery wont be seen as a medical necessity, the way my abdomen was. There’s a lot of work to be done there, and I do have problems that would necessitate such a procedure (such as back pain from the saggy breasts, for starters), but you never know what insurance companies will do.

I’ll just have to wait until it’s closer to the surgery to see what happens. If they turn me down, I’ll appeal, and we’ll see what happens in the end. I’m very persistent. I’m so very pleased with the results of my circumferential panniculectomy, and I can’t wait to see how I will develop in the future. In the end though, I think the most important thing that I can do for myself throughout the duration of these procedures is continue seeing a counselor. I’m lucky that I found one who is both good at what he does, and whom I like. That’s not easy. I know that all of these changes I’ve gone through, am going through, and will go through, will solve nothing if I don’t learn how to accept myself inside and out. I can’t emphasize the importance of this enough. If you decide to undergo a procedure that will majorly change your physical appearance, put in a little extra effort on your internal self too - you’ll be the better for it,