SunnyD
Member
I have an incisional hernia where some fatty tissue is poking through. My surgeon says it’s right in the area where they insert the camera for laparoscopic procedures. I’ve had 3 surgeries in the last 10 years, so it’s not a shock.
While I was there he asked if I’d been thinking about skin removal. He cheered on my overall fitness, particularly the core muscle development. And I think he was surprised when I said I’d thought a lot about it, but no, I’m not interested.
On the car ride home I was trying to figure out why the idea of skin removal bothered me. Part of it is definitely fear. I’ve always gained the weight back, so until I can prove to myself I won’t stretch out the skin again with weight gain, what is the point? But I honestly don’t hate my sagging. I just tuck it in and go on with my day.
The other part had more to do with some uncomfortable moments I’ve had in a local support group, where folks who hated their bodies got the surgery thinking they’d love themselves better thin, but everything sagged, so each month when I see them in Zoom it’s plastic surgery plan after plastic surgery plan, “And then I’ll be done because I’ll finally have the right body.” Sentences like that make red alarm bells go off in my head.
I know there are a wealth of reasons why people chose WLS. And I want people to love themselves and feel comfortable in their bodies.
The surgeon wasn’t asking out of malice. It’s a common thing to have done when you do surgery regularly for people who lose over 100 lbs quickly. But I guess I feel like I put my body through so much trauma changing so much over the past 13 months, that I just want to let her be herself for a while.
It probably didn’t help that I was already annoyed about needing to get the hernia fixed during Covid 19...
While I was there he asked if I’d been thinking about skin removal. He cheered on my overall fitness, particularly the core muscle development. And I think he was surprised when I said I’d thought a lot about it, but no, I’m not interested.
On the car ride home I was trying to figure out why the idea of skin removal bothered me. Part of it is definitely fear. I’ve always gained the weight back, so until I can prove to myself I won’t stretch out the skin again with weight gain, what is the point? But I honestly don’t hate my sagging. I just tuck it in and go on with my day.
The other part had more to do with some uncomfortable moments I’ve had in a local support group, where folks who hated their bodies got the surgery thinking they’d love themselves better thin, but everything sagged, so each month when I see them in Zoom it’s plastic surgery plan after plastic surgery plan, “And then I’ll be done because I’ll finally have the right body.” Sentences like that make red alarm bells go off in my head.
I know there are a wealth of reasons why people chose WLS. And I want people to love themselves and feel comfortable in their bodies.
The surgeon wasn’t asking out of malice. It’s a common thing to have done when you do surgery regularly for people who lose over 100 lbs quickly. But I guess I feel like I put my body through so much trauma changing so much over the past 13 months, that I just want to let her be herself for a while.
It probably didn’t help that I was already annoyed about needing to get the hernia fixed during Covid 19...
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