documenting my abdominoplasty surgery

[saint808]

well last thursday i underwent a mini abdominoplasty. basically the doc did no lipo and didn't have to re-stitch the fascia on my abdominal wall. I was all belly before i lost my weight and no matter how lean i would get my stomach would still look terrible and flabby... i gave it 2 years since the original weightloss and also one year of HGH treatment. Still the skin remained... abdominoplasty was my only choice.


thursday 6:30 AM : I went and checked in at the hospital and soon thereafter was given my IV and my doc came in to make some markings. He told me to bring posing trunks so that he could make my scars fit under them. He also informed me he would make 2 small incinsions right above mr happy for drainage tubes to be worn after surgery for a few days.

1PM: I awoke from the anethesia with a catheter in and some guy giving me a shot of demerol into my IV. He took out my catheter and it hurt like hell... hoestly the worst part by far of this whole ordeal. I also had a compression garment around my waist.

1:30 PM: I was wheeled out to the parking lot and i walked to my friend's car who gave me a ride home.


3:00 PM : Emptied my drainage balls and took my first urination after having the catheter removed...GOOD GOD ALLMIGHTY!!!! it fucking hurt. This was by far worse than any of the other pain.

I remained up and walkin around for quite a bit of the day and had to go in the following day for them to inspect me.

Friday: 10:00 AM They inspect the stitches and such and say that they have never seen anyone bleed as little as i did and that my scar should heal up super nicely. I didn't get to see myself yet as they didn't keep the compression garments off.

My next appointment was for wednesday to take the drainage tubes out.

wed 1:30 PM: Anytime a doctor tells you that you should take a few lortab before you come in you kind of expect pain. Basically i was to take a deep breath and then as i exhaled he was gonna yank the tubes out one at a time. It burned but was bearable. I did this twice and both tubes were removed. IT is sore now but just from being an open wound for a few days. I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time with the bandages off. My stomach was swollen but flat, and the skin looked very tight. It is also very weird because they essentially make you a new belly buton for aesthetic reasons and when the skin is pulled back down and stitched the nerve endings re-route themselves and your whole stomach is almost numb minus the stitchline. he poked at me and said it appears to be healing well but i could feel pressure and very lil of anything else.

i'll keep updating this as well as have before and after photos

 

[PHIL HERNON]

AWESOME

Keep us informed!!!

 

[saint808]

one of the more interesting things i discussed with my doc today was injecting subq. Since the nerve endings have to basically reroute themselves he was wondering if an injection around the belly button would even be effective.

 

[NubianBeauty]

Wow! This is good! Thx saint!

 

[WeirdAl]

Awesome, bro. I'm stepping on stage for the first time ever in 7 weeks, and my biggest concern is the loose skin from when my waist was nearly 50" (I lost 110 lbs in 36 weeks). I guess the contest, and how much I enjoy it, will help me decide whether to opt for the surgery.

So you know I'll be anxiously awaiting your results! Congrats so far, and good luck! Oh, if you don't mind telling, what'd this cost, and did insurance pick up any of it?

 

[saint808]

Awesome, bro. I'm stepping on stage for the first time ever in 7 weeks, and my biggest concern is the loose skin from when my waist was nearly 50" (I lost 110 lbs in 36 weeks). I guess the contest, and how much I enjoy it, will help me decide whether to opt for the surgery.

So you know I'll be anxiously awaiting your results! Congrats so far, and good luck! Oh, if you don't mind telling, what'd this cost, and did insurance pick up any of it?

do you have pics? my waist was 44 inches at it's max but was over a long period of time.


The cost expected was $7-10k, but since he didn't have to lipo and didn't have to restitch the fascia around the ab wall he said he would base it on the same time frame as a mini abdominoplasty and therefore i was charged $4800 roughly and that is from the best guy in town (according to everyone i asked) fairly reasonable all things considered. Insurance wouldn't cover any of it, well maybe scripts depending on who your carrier is.

 

[WeirdAl]

Yep, here are some pics of my transformation in this thread:

**broken link removed**

And current pics (8 weeks out) - you can really see the loose skin and stretch marks, even though my shorts aren't terribly low:

**broken link removed**

I didn't measure my waist at it's max, but I wore 46 waist pants, with the stretchy side, and they weren't loose. I got that big over about 7 years, but had been over 250 (285 when I started dropping) for probably 4 years. Not sure what I topped out at, probably close to 300.

 

[stackdizzy]

Weirdal that is one of the best transformations I have ever seen keepo up the good work dude your pics are truley inspirering

Saint can you post some pics when its all said and done

 

[saint808]

i gotta agree that is one hell of a transformation... believe it or not you skin looks better than mine did. I waited 2 years before i had my surgery to see if the skin would go away so i suggest you wait the same... also the younger you are the better the chances of it going away.

 

[WeirdAl]

Thanks, guys. It's been 2 years pretty much to the month since my final picture in my transformation series. I'm 31 right now. None of the pics show really low on my abs, like just above my pelvic bone, which is where most of the loose skin is. Posing trunks are going to show it all too well, I'm afraid! I did see someone on stage at the last competition I was at that had the same thing going, and it was quite obvious, unfortunately!

 

[saint808]

Thanks, guys. It's been 2 years pretty much to the month since my final picture in my transformation series. I'm 31 right now. None of the pics show really low on my abs, like just above my pelvic bone, which is where most of the loose skin is. Posing trunks are going to show it all too well, I'm afraid! I did see someone on stage at the last competition I was at that had the same thing going, and it was quite obvious, unfortunately!

sounds like we went down the same road to some extent as i am 31 now as well

 

[saint808]

6 days out... my first shower since the surgery... thank god... sink baths are not fun

 

[saint808]

second shot

 

[saint808]

keep in mind that i have a huge amount of swelling all over and am bloated as fuck right now due to massive amounts of painkillers and such. also i am wearing a compression garment that is why the love handle area looks funky. The strip of tape you see is my scar but it will be smaller than you think since it is a plastic surgeon scar... long but not thick.

 

[saint808]

went back to the doctor today evidently i am healing super fast and i got clearance to do some very light bicep work this week as well as start walking on the treadmill around a 20 minute mile pace.... said i should start with a mile a day because i will prolly tire out sooner than i think.

he did drain 70 cc's of fluid from my stomach which was awesome because i got to watch and i couldn't feel it yet because the nerve endings haven't repaired themselves.... so he sticks this 18 g neelde right into my stomach and drains off 70cc's... it was awesome to see.

oh i forgot my doc said the funniest thing... he wants me to show him ab exercises because he said underneath my skin when he had it pulled up my abs looked great.... that made me laugh.

 

[ShawnRay]

Wow.

i have been waiting for someone to tell there story on this. I too had lost an enormous amount of fat about 5 years ago. I have already competed but, I had to lose a lot of extra muscle to get that skin to look flat. after the diuretics and all of the other bullshit i looked good for PJ. soon as I ate a little though you could kinda tell at the night show. I have had Gyno surgery done but, it was from being a fat ass kid and smoking to much pot for so many yeras. So, the surgery is only a little of my worries.Im now doing the GH but, I was told to shoot it away from the stomach area do to the GH being down graded. Now I am not saying that is right but, I trust the source and you all would too if I mentioned his name. With that being said i guess it makes it hard to spot reduce or tighten. So I was told to do it in that little bit of skin above the knee. I have noticed a great deal from the Gh but, im unsure about my skin until i do my next show....Im happy for you guy for having that done it looks like I will be joining you in the future if this GH try doesnt work.....Regards, Shawn

 

[Mark]

How long is the normal recovery period?

 

[saint808]

How long is the normal recovery period?

6 weeks of wearing compression garments... i go in about once a week and have them check on me... so far so good and like i said i can do some bicep work and some tredmill and only 9 days out from surgery...

my advice is get as lean as possible before getting the surgery because you can bounce back quicker.

 

[saint808]

Re: Wow.

i have been waiting for someone to tell there story on this. I too had lost an enormous amount of fat about 5 years ago. I have already competed but, I had to lose a lot of extra muscle to get that skin to look flat. after the diuretics and all of the other bullshit i looked good for PJ. soon as I ate a little though you could kinda tell at the night show. I have had Gyno surgery done but, it was from being a fat ass kid and smoking to much pot for so many yeras. So, the surgery is only a little of my worries.Im now doing the GH but, I was told to shoot it away from the stomach area do to the GH being down graded. Now I am not saying that is right but, I trust the source and you all would too if I mentioned his name. With that being said i guess it makes it hard to spot reduce or tighten. So I was told to do it in that little bit of skin above the knee. I have noticed a great deal from the Gh but, im unsure about my skin until i do my next show....Im happy for you guy for having that done it looks like I will be joining you in the future if this GH try doesnt work.....Regards, Shawn

yeah i figured i would dcoument the whole ordeal so that people would not be afraid to get this done if they neede it.... so far so good and i anm already liking the results... i can only imagine what 6 months will bring.

 

[JETHRO TULL]

Saint.........that was a great post!

Please continue to keep us all informed of your progress.