Visit to Plastic Surgeon After 278 Lbs. Lost on GLP-1s (w/ pics)

This post is dedicated to my daughter Aimee, who made be feel beautiful.

I went to the Plastic Surgeon a few days ago to discuss the removal of my pannis (hanging belly). She is actually a Reconstructive Surgeon since the amount of work I would need to have done is more than just a nose or breasts. 

How Did I Get Here?

In April 2022, I weighed 405 lbs. at 5’1″. This is a picture of me in May 2020, only weighing about 380 lbs.

I’ve been super fat my entire life. I was put on Black Beauties… amphetamines… prescribed by a military doctor when I was 10 years old. They were supposed to help me lose weight. They did not.

During the 10 years prior to 2022, I was bedridden, having to use a walker in the house and electric wheelchairs whenever I went out. I ate Uber Eats twice a day, eating almost continuously, day and night. I was in so much pain… from every part of my body… that three times a week (or so), I would order a bottle of amaretto and finish that in a night. The 750 ml bottle. 1800 calories. 250 grams of sugar… that’s 60 teaspoons of sugar! Three times a week. On top of Uber Eats. It’s no wonder I was so fat and lying in bed for years. And no wonder my HbA1c was 9.0.

For those who might be blaming me for being so fat because of how much I ate and drank, I am here to tell you, this fat thing is a sickness. A serious chronic condition called Obesity. A topic oft discussed by scientists and, for me, a discussion for another day.

“You’ve Deflated Really Well!”

“You’ve deflated really well! Not many people can deflate this well!” the Reconstructive Surgeon exclaimed.

Deflated?

This is the word she used as she gently poked at my belly, thighs, and upper arms. I laughed at the word, but it was completely descriptive of what my body looks like. In fact, after losing 278 lbs., so much fat has disappeared I struggle to find a place with fat in which to give my Mounjaro shot. Apparently, that is what deflating is.

50-75 lbs. ago, I thought getting a panniculectomy would remove a great deal of the giant roll below my belly button. In fact, two doctors told me that I had between 20-25 lbs. of skin hanging down from my entire body. Below is a pic from the time I saw those doctors. Further down, you will see pics of how “deflated” my belly is now.

The surgeon I recently saw laughed and said, “No. You have maybe 10-12 lbs.of skin all over your body.” That’s a big difference! She said my belly alone was probably two pounds max. Cool! At 127 lbs. now, if we remove 12 lbs. of skin, that would make me 115 lbs. with a BMI of 21.7, which is “normal weight.” The weight chart people have used for decades say I should weigh between 100 and 127 lbs. I would be right in that range. What’s bizarre is those charts have long looked absurd. I couldn’t have thought I would be in that range ever ever. Yet, here I am!

When that surgeon gave me the odd compliment, I felt a wonderful boost to understanding the massive amount of hanging, dangling, sagging, and ruched skin I have all over my body.

Daring to Share

It’s taken awhile, and not just these past few days, to consider sharing my body pics with the outer world. I am not in a relationship, nor do I desire one in the future. If I wanted to, I could just show my body to medical folks and cover up for everyone else. 

But there’s a part of me… that Obesity Activist part… that wants to demystify what a post-GLP-1 body can look like after losing almost 300 lbs. I believe that in sharing these with you, dear Reader, I might be able to help you give your own mid-and-post-GLP-1-body some grace for all that you see different in the mirror. 

It was the surgeon who gave me the final nudge to share because she spent time with me looking in that mirror, showing me what I could not “see” about my new body. The following pictures point out what she showed me. That amazing woman gave me the ammunition I would need to protect myself from the haters or people who would be “grossed out” by my changed outer shell. 

I am proud of what I have done, and will continue doing, to make myself stronger, even healthier and more mobile, than I have ever been in my life.

And this next one is as I look in the mirror at the skin that has helped cover me for almost 64 years. Stretched out from all the fat I accumulated, stretched even more for the three 10-lb. babies I birthed… losing weight, regaining, losing, regaining (several times), and now, showing me what is left of that woman after losing 278 lbs.

I am proud of what my body has tolerated, held onto and is no longer needed, but will be a part of me forever.

Confusing Feelings

From being proud of my super-sized body for 30 years after hating it for 20 before, to struggling to grasp what has happened to my body over the last not-quite three years; this is all quite baffling.

I was a Fat Activist starting in the late 1980’s, speaking out about how amazing our fat bodies were. I became an advocate, especially in the medical community, then later in the birth community when I became a midwife. I consider myself an Obesity Activist all these years later. Making a Weight-Friendly Medical Office is but one of the posts I’ve written in this talking about how I do this.

I watch others on GLP-1s bemoan the fact that they have flabby arms and make plans, even before losing one pound, to have brachioplasty (sagging skin removed from the arms) or a complicated combination of surgeries (aka “Mommy Makeover“). All while knowing I will probably never get any of these procedures, including the panniculectomy, done with my body looking like this. Not only because they are cost prohibitive, but because I don’t want to stop physically moving after a lifetime of being so sedentary that I eventually got myself to over 400 lbs. When the surgeon told me it would take 4-6 weeks before I would be able to walk my usual miles a day, and six months plus to be back to normal, that was when I closed the idea of having reconstructive surgery. 

This body is going to be a rest-of-my-life addition to my weight loss and health gain excursion.

My Hope

I hope that, in sharing this with you all, you too, might look at your body a little differently. It won’t just be sagging skin, but it is the house that your amazing body created just for you… covering you, keeping your insides protected from the outside world, stretching around you like a coat when you needed it. Even if you can’t easily toss off that coat of skin, perhaps, even if you do want plastic surgery (which I 100% respect and support!), you can look at what you have now with a tiny bit less hate and a lot more wonder at how miraculous our skin… our bodies… are.

Oh, and one more realization, I will never have to wear Shapewear again because my stomach is so flat! That alone is worth the “Deflated” belly!