So…I just got back from my visit with the plastic surgeon.
The least surprising bit of news that came from my discussion with him is that I am definitely a candidate for surgery. I can’t remember off the top of my head the exact procedure he mentioned, but it wasn’t abdominoplaty. The skin that is hanging from my waist is indeed not going to go away, and he said he could remove quite a bit of it. He also said that I had great muscle definition in my abdomen! You just can’t see it.
Hrmm…maybe I’ll end up with a six pack some day after all.
What I also learned from him is that, at the current time, I’m not really ready for it. He told me that he could certainly do the operation, but that if I continued to lose weight I would likely end up with more sagging skin and need to have another operation. He suggested that I get back down to the 225 range and go back to see him again. From what I gather most people lose about 10 pounds after having this kind of surgery, which would put me down around 215 when it was all said and done. Weight Watchers has my goal weight set at 195, but considering the fact that I know for a fact I’ve been building muscle over the course of the last (almost) two years I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that I’ll be happy in the 205-215 range.
The total cost for the operation will be in the area of six thousand dollars. He said he’d be able to give me a much more firm number when we started the planning. Consultations with him are free, and I can go see him as often as I want if I have any other questions about the procedure. He also plans all of his operations so that they do not conflict with any vacations he has so that he is always available during the recovery period (he predicts it will take me two to three weeks to fully recover at most, due to the fact that I’m in pretty good shape). He emphasized that nobody would work on me other than him, up to and including changing my dressings after the operation. All told, he made me feel VERY comfortable and I’m fairly certain I will go with him.
I now have a new sense of motivation to get off the next 28 pounds!