Hi everyone,
First time posting on reddit,
I am a 26 year old male, 5 foot 8, 145 pounds. I was obese most of my teenage years and my highest weight was 225lbs at age 17. Lost 50 pounds by diet and exercise at age 18, another 30-35 pounds over the next year or two through going to the gym and eating even less. So about 80 to 85 pounds total weight loss.
I have kept the weight off for EIGHT years, I've been 145-155 lbs since about age 18 and I'm now almost 27. I don't even want to use the word "maintained" because my lifestyle is vastly different than my teenage years. I eat probably 1/3 the calories I used to, actually exercise at the gym and have a very active and strenuous job (server/supervisor at an large, busy restaurant) instead of just sitting on the couch and sleeping all day unemployed in high school, stuffing my face like in my dark, depressed, and unhealthy teenage years.
I've wanted surgery for skin removal since about age 19 but I knew it was horribly expensive, and I was a broke college student from a working class family with no more than a $3,000-$4,000 in my account until about age 23. Now that I'm four years out of college working 50+ hours a week in my restaurant my savings reached over $40,000 at age 26 so I decided to look into it.
I found the best plastic surgeon in the metro area based on reviews and recommendation by my primary care doctor. Unfortunately for a 360 abdominal lift (basically a muffin-top removal lol) and the liposuction on my chest/breasts it came out to over $14,000. Quite a lot but it's literally my dream surgery because my loose skin has given me severe self esteem and depression issues all through my 20s. I figured it would be an investment in my physical and mental health. My family is judging a lot but I'm trying to remind myself this is for me, not them.
I got the surgery 10 days ago and I'm really suffering mentally post recovery. The results look amazing in terms of the skin loss - I cried of happiness when I first saw my body post OP, it's truly incredible. However, I feel like I wasn't prepared for how long this process would take and how long I might have to be off work and I don't have paid time off. I can only just now walk again or drive a car again and I'm hunched over forward quite a bit from the 360 degree incision around my waist. The pain is down immensely and I'm off narcotics, but what bothers me is that I can't stand up totally straight or walk very well. I can drive and go the store but I feel like everyone is staring because I'm this healthy looking young guy shuffling around all hunched over. The doctor told me it would be weeks and months before I felt normal again but I'm just impatient and I keep having catastrophic thoughts like "will I ever wait tables again?", "will I ever go back to work?", "will I deplete all my savings and go bankrupt after spending all this money?", "did the doctor lie to me about the recovery time so he would get my money?", "will I lose my job?". I know I need to be more positive and let myself heal but I can't get these thoughts out of my brain as I've suffered from severe anxiety and depression pretty much my whole life and I've never gotten surgery on anything. My family (who has never been obese btw) is telling me I made a mistake and that plastic surgery is for shallow rich people and I should have just "loved myself" instead of getting this surgery. Not helping and I feel so alone.
Has anyone gone through this experience with a body lift surgery? When did you feel like your posture was ok again and you could walk normally and just felt right again? I just want to go back to work SO BADLY waiting tables and being active but I can't go in there like he Hunchback of Notre Dame. It's only been 10 days so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, because I was in immense pain on narcotics and could barely walk to the bathroom 4 days ago. Whenever I ask the surgeon a question I get that vibe of "just chill out you're being a little wussy give it time". I really just need support through this hard time and any response would be appreciated from someone who has been through this.
Please not this was NOT a "tummy tuck" it was a full 360 body lift which is a much more intense and invasive procedure which I assume has a longer recovery time.
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