This is an interesting topic for me. I can't remember if you were on my friendslist when I was getting my surgeries, but if you weren't, and didn't know, I've had two pretty major plastic surgeries for removing excess skin due to my weight loss. The first one was a belt lipectomy (body lift), about 11 hours under, and the second was to re-section the hips from the first, and an inner thigh lift (remove excess skin) while they were at it (about 6 hours under). It took me a while to talk myself into it because while having 12+ inches of excess skin was unsightly and annoying, getting it removed wasn't a medical necessity. Vain? Maybe. Depends on your definition and I could go either way on that. Having gone back recently and looked at the before and after pictures that the surgeon took, I can say now that the before was MUCH WORSE than I thought it was at the time.
All that being said, though, I don't think I would go in for an "improvement". I don't consider what I had "improvements" in the sense that if you consider normal-fitting skin to be a baseline, I was simply returning my body to a baseline status after shedding ~200 pounds. However, something I noticed once I got to my goal weight is that the wrinkles on my face, particularly the ones that frame my mouth, are deeper than anybody else my age. The skin on my face stretched while the rest of me did too. And while sometimes I idly ponder getting a facelift, at this point I don't think that I ever would, because I earned those lines, every one. They are a map of my life and path, and to remove them seems a sign of disrespect for the passage and lessons learned.
I don't know if I'll still feel this way in 10 or 20 years, but it's how I've felt the last 5, once I realized why they were so deep. Sometimes they bother me and I know that I can look pretty "stern" when I'm not smiling because of them, but I think I'll keep them.
Interesting aside: The first person I ever knew who'd admitted to having plastic surgery (a tummy tuck) was a co-worker when I was working for your employer, in the RegAffairs department, in the late 90s.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 04:51 pm (UTC)It took me a while to talk myself into it because while having 12+ inches of excess skin was unsightly and annoying, getting it removed wasn't a medical necessity. Vain? Maybe. Depends on your definition and I could go either way on that. Having gone back recently and looked at the before and after pictures that the surgeon took, I can say now that the before was MUCH WORSE than I thought it was at the time.
All that being said, though, I don't think I would go in for an "improvement". I don't consider what I had "improvements" in the sense that if you consider normal-fitting skin to be a baseline, I was simply returning my body to a baseline status after shedding ~200 pounds. However, something I noticed once I got to my goal weight is that the wrinkles on my face, particularly the ones that frame my mouth, are deeper than anybody else my age. The skin on my face stretched while the rest of me did too. And while sometimes I idly ponder getting a facelift, at this point I don't think that I ever would, because I earned those lines, every one. They are a map of my life and path, and to remove them seems a sign of disrespect for the passage and lessons learned.
I don't know if I'll still feel this way in 10 or 20 years, but it's how I've felt the last 5, once I realized why they were so deep. Sometimes they bother me and I know that I can look pretty "stern" when I'm not smiling because of them, but I think I'll keep them.
Interesting aside: The first person I ever knew who'd admitted to having plastic surgery (a tummy tuck) was a co-worker when I was working for your employer, in the RegAffairs department, in the late 90s.