My fear about the gastric sleeve with DS

[Junebuggirl5]

Hi everyone,

I have just begun my journey. I learned that my insurance will cover the procedure and now I am just waiting to get everything tested and approved so it may take about six months. I need to loose between 100-120 pounds. I know that its a lot of weight. I know I can loose the weight. I just worry about what I am going to look like once I have lost a lot of the weight. I am 48 years old and I fear that I will have all this excess skin hanging and what is my chest going to look like after this. I have always had a rounded full figured body and I like that I have a more than ample size chest. What happens if I loose all this weight and then instead of having nice breasts I having just sagging sacks of skin. Some of you make think I am being really silly but this is a real concern for myself. Now I know why I need to loose the weight, I want to be around a long time to see my children and future grandchildren and have a good life for myself. Has anyone else had these concerns?

[LoriC]

Of course!! That's not silly at all. After all, one of the reasons we want to lose the weight is to LOOK GOOD I would recommend a few things, one is that you should wear a supportive uplifting bra while you lose the weight, and then wait and see! I have had augmentation surgery before the sleeve so I lost 70 lbs and my cup size never changed and I would have been upset if it had. My point, wait and see and if you don't get the results you want, get a boob job!! Losing the weight and your health is #1 of course, but hell yeah you have the right to worry about your girls <3

[Junebuggirl5]

Thanks for the encouragement. I need to take one step at a time, hope reconstruction afterwards will be covered.

[Stacey03]

June, I have always been on the large chesed size and I am hoping they bugger off to to be honest! I think exercise is the one thing that will make the heap of difference to your body as a whole after the surgery. I think if you just do it without exercise you can end up looking like a deflated balloon, but with exercise you can look pretty good. You might have a bit of lose skin but thats what good underwear was made for :-)

[sraebaer]

Being over 100 pounds overweight looks a whole lot worse than some saggy skin that will probably hide under small sized clothes. So to me it does sound silly. Exercise will tone your skin and genetics plays a part. Some people use creams, others compression garments, and some have plastic surgery. Totally your call, but any of those choices are better than being obese.

I exercise and have some saggy skin around my middle, but my arms and legs look pretty good. Under pants or a dress my stomach looks flat. I guess if I wanted to wear a bikini I would have a tummy tuck, but I'm perfectly happy with how things are. (I'm way too old for a bikini.) I don't even do the compression garments as those I've tried are so uncomfortable. I went from about a 42C to a 34B bra, and I think I look much better with the 34B. I'm in proportion with the rest of my new body.

[Stacey03]

Being over 100 pounds overweight looks a whole lot worse than some saggy skin that will probably hide under small sized clothes. So to me it does sound silly. Exercise will tone your skin and genetics plays a part. Some people use creams, others compression garments, and some have plastic surgery. Totally your call, but any of those choices are better than being obese.

I exercise and have some saggy skin around my middle, but my arms and legs look pretty good. Under pants or a dress my stomach looks flat. I guess if I wanted to wear a bikini I would have a tummy tuck, but I'm perfectly happy with how things are. (I'm way too old for a bikini.) I don't even do the compression garments as those I've tried are so uncomfortable. I went from about a 42C to a 34B bra, and I think I look much better with the 34B. I'm in proportion with the rest of my new body.

I'm with you sraebaur, I don't think I would ever bother having plastic surgery, plus I favour gorgeous 1950s style one pieces :-)
Best of luck June, I'm sure you won't regret a second :-)

[sraebaer]

I'm with you sraebaur, I don't think I would ever bother having plastic surgery, plus I favour gorgeous 1950s style one pieces :-)
Best of luck June, I'm sure you won't regret a second :-)

We've had plastic surgeons speak at support group at least twice, and that incision scares me to death! Not to mention I think I look better than their after photos. Talk about risk for infection being sliced from hip to hip! I'm happy covering my little bit of flabby skin with clothes.

[Stacey03]

We've had plastic surgeons speak at support group at least twice, and that incision scares me to death! Not to mention I think I look better than their after photos. Talk about risk for infection being sliced from hip to hip! I'm happy covering my little bit of flabby skin with clothes.

Me too!

[DHB]

I'm at the beginning of this journey but one of my early joys is not having my bra dig into my flesh so much. I haven't lost much weight but I'm definitely losing inches everywhere and I'm already feeling like my boobs look more defined instead of just being part of my rolls of fat. I'm also 64 so have given up any thoughts of wearing bikinis.

[DCGirl]

This is real. I'm the same age as you and have pale, thin, sensitive skin. I lost 112 pounds a few years ago (gained it all back, that's why I'm here) and I went from a 42H to a 36D, only really I had nothing. I joked that I rolled 'em up to stuff them in my bra. It's different for everyone - I think if you have denser breasts you might fare better - but I will be seriously considering a breast lift/augmentation when/if I get to that point again. I had saggy skin everywhere but my arms and breasts bothered me the most. Now I will say that I didn't keep the weight off long enough to see if it got any better on its own - that will be an experiment for my current journey!

[Kimsterama]

I've lost 49 lbs in a little over 2.5 months. My skin around my waist has shrunk with the weight lost so far. My breasts have gone from a 42DDD to a 38DD. So that is not bad. Still in the D's! I don't mind losing weight there either. They were just too large with all the weight gained. I do not plan on doing plastics whatsoever regardless of how my body reformed after the weight lost. I still have 41 lbs to go to my goal! Best decision ever by the way! It's the only way that the weight came off. I tried dieting for years! :-)

[Christie13]

I am 4'11", 44, and have lost 99 lbs. I used to wear a 34 DD (sometimes they would overflow). I have some hangy skin. Not too bad and it continues to get less noticeable with time and exercise/strength training. My boobs look fine in a bra but are a bit saggy without one. I don't care, though. I still look way better than I did when I was a 41.8 BMI. I may consider a boob job down the line. As for skin surgery, not needed in my opinion. And on top of that, I am so much happier and healthier. I do things now that I could not do before. And I love my sleeved life.