Well, I was so excited after talking to the surgeon.
First off, the surgeon says you don't have the surgery until you are within about 10 pounds of your goal. The goal you chose should be one where you don't expect to lose more than ten pounds or gain ten pounds in your lifetime
giving you a 20 pound window for your weight to fluctuate. This is so you don't end up with more saggy skin, or put stretch on the scars after surgery.
However you need to realize that with surgery depending on the amount of loose skin they are dealing with you can lose anywhere from 10-25 pounds with the surgery alone.
The doctor asked me what my goal weight was. I told him that in my entire adult life I have never gotten below 150 pounds, and the two times I got to that weight it only lasted a few weeks before I started to regain the weight.
For this reason I did not know if getting below that was realistic. For my height the doctors scales would shoot for 130.
He told me that with me being 51 years old that the 150 goal was more appropriate.
With my weight being around 168 right now, he said I was only 18 pounds from goal weight, and that with the amount of weight that I would lose on average with the surgery, I was already at a weight that I could schedule the surgery. He said whenever I decided I was ready.
I was really excited to hear this because I was afraid that he would tell me that I needed to lose another 40 or 50 pounds first.
Then he told me that for me to impact my figure with weight loss alone I would have to lose 40+ pounds, and would still be dealing with the loose skin issues. My abdomen is the only area I still have fat. He said this area is very resistant to weight loss, and exercise, and deposits there are determined much by genetics.
He said that before surgery your weight should be stable for about 6 months, meaning you are not gaining back your losses. I told him about my 6 month stall last summer, and how I have lost about ten pounds since the stall broke, however the weight loss is very slow, with me eating like a premaintenance/maintenance person.
Interestingly, when he has patients that need to lose weight, he said her recommends Atkins, and learning your carbohydrate threshold. Talk about endorsement of low carb Eating!
He had me undress to naked, and his female assistant came in and took pictures from all angles. This was truly a humiliating but necessary thing.
Standing fully naked in front of a blue felt screen and have someone snap pictures of your naked saggy body is something you have to experience to understand. Then she took a polaroid of my buttocks. That is the one view none of us truly see.
The doctor came in after I put the gown on, and used to polaroid to describe what would be done to the behind. Then he had me undrape portions of my body at a time while I stood in front of the mirror to show me what would be done. Amazingly when the remove the excess skin from your abdomen it tightens your lateral thighs.
You need to accept the trade off of a visible scar for the loss of saggy skin.
I am not a bikini kind of girl so the scar is something that won't be seen by anyone but my husband.
last we sat down with the financial person who also schedules surgery and went over the bottom line. The surgery on the arms is about $4800. The total body lift, is around $12,500. My husband was expecting a $30,000 bill so it was about half of what he was expecting to hear. He could tell how excited I was about having this done. He told me that he thinks I am beautiful saggy skin and all, but that if it would make me happy it was ok with him.
I told Michael I wanted to do it bad enough to sell all my diamonds to pay for it. Michael said that would not be necessary, we would just sell one of our investments.
So, I went ahead and scheduled the arm surgery for April 28, and plan to do the body lift in July. I am volunteering at girl scout day camp and cub scout day camp in June, and wanted to wait until that is over. The recovery is six weeks. That gives me six weeks to recover from the first surgery before day camp starts.
I was like a little kid all day, basking in the excitement.
So ladies, what do you think?
Karen
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Great idea Judy!
) and it sounds like you were happy with what he had to say. With your arms - are they doing lipo or removing the skin? Just curious.....
I have given up my shakes/bars for Lent and I honestly think that has put a spark back into my weight loss. 
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