One thing you should know, should you ever venture down the weight loss surgery path like I did two years ago, is that the after effects of losing a lot of weight are not so pretty.
I mean, it's a great thing that I decided to do and I'd do it again in a heartbeat (gastric bypass, in case you were wondering.)
But having lots of saggy skin that no amount of dieting or sit-ups (OK, I don't actually do sit-ups, but you know what I mean) will get rid of are not pretty.
Which led me to plastic surgery.
During my two-year weight loss journey I'd followed along with online discussion groups at Thinner Times to see actually losing the weight is only half the battle.
The finishing touches – at least in my case – were going to require some plastic surgery.
So I asked for a referral to a plastic surgeon. He took more than an hour with me during the consult answering questions; he also asked lots of questions about my kids and horses (which of course made me like him even more). The nurse practitioner who recommended him said his work was beautiful and thoughtful, just like his patient conversations.
I thought about whether I wanted the surgery – which is essentially an extended tummy tuck/body lift – for several weeks. It's not the easiest thing to recover from, seeing as how the doctor makes a circumferential incision to remove skin and fat and tighten muscles (and please forgive my less than scientific explanations, this is just my public journal of my plastic surgery experience.)
I won't be able to drive for 2-3 weeks and I won't be able to even sit on my horse for at least 6 weeks (which means I'll have to turn my awesome horse over to my teenagers to keep him ridden, which – for you non-horse people – is the equivalent of letting your 16-year-old borrow your Porsche.)
I hear that the freakiest part of the tummy tuck surgery is that you can't stand up straight for weeks because the skin is so tight. Um. OK. I will definitely let you know how that turns out.
I'll post more info after the surgery to let you know how it goes (Good guess: it's gonna hurt like the devil.)
Until then: wish me luck!
More from my Plastic Surgery Journal: