VSG - 100 Pounds Lost with Dr. Pleatman - 1 Year Later! - Bloomfield Hills, MI

I'm not a photo-posting person and this surgery has been kept a secret from pretty much everyone in my life minus my mom, best friend, and my husband. I never realized how obese I was until my 1-year post-op appointment with Dr. Pleatman looking back at my photos - wondering if that was really me.

You feel like you can never be that skinny girl, you can never fit into certain clothes or feel like a cute, young girl. That's how I always felt. I was always the fat friend... and it sucked. I don't know how I got into thinking about bariatric surgery because it wasn't ever on my radar. But when I finally did, I looked into the lapband surgery because it was not really going to manipulate my intestines or anything weird. I was highly interested until I kept seeing revision videos on Youtube and on surgeons sites - meaning it was failing on a lot of people. Then I saw the stats... only 30% success rate?! Heck no. I knew I didn't want a gastric bypass because I'm too young so I just gave up.

Eventually I browsed around Realself for before/afters and I found out about the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy surgery. I had never heard of it before. I continued to watch videos after videos and read and learn about the process... then I found Dr. Pleatman. He's on here a lot, he answers a lot of people's questions, and he's active in providing information for people searching for it. I went on my usual "review rampage" - looking all over the internet on as many sites as I could to find reviews on him, and the vast majority were amazing. People saying they wish they went to him sooner.

That's when I sent him a message, to which he immediately replied. We went back and forth as I asked him questions and then he sent me his personal cell phone number. He called me several times (I'm bad at answering) and we spoke finally. Out of his own time, after office hours, he was there to answer more questions. What else do you want out of a doctor??

Now don't let that fool you into thinking he's a very lovey-dovey, friendly doctor who is always going to hold your hand and be there for you. He's not. After surgery, I hardly saw him. I struggled a lot with pain... there were other people who did the surgery with me who I met at the meeting with the nutritionist before surgery who were doing great within a couple days. I don't know why I wasn't. But the good thing was I could call the office any time I had any severe pain and they would take me in, without an appointment, so that Dr. Pleatman could take a look at me.

Honestly, he's a blunt, kind of dry guy. But his skills in surgery were outstanding. I can say that because I had no leaks - and it worked. I mean it really worked...

Here I am a year later, and I know it's bad, but I can go grab some Taco Bell late at night with my husband, and eat a small taco and be STUFFED. One. I used to eat like... 9 of those and still be hungry. It's important to still eat healthy and watch weight - and I work out now because I have some unfortunate loose skin and I really really want to tone up.

But the way the world looks at me now is so different.... I'm not the fat friend anymore, in some cases, I'm smaller than a lot of my friends who have kids now or are pregnant. I'm the tiny girl. I don't remember being this small since elementary school (in terms of weight). But I'm not a stick! I'm a size Small up top, and Medium on the bottom.

Now that my once giant DDD boobs are deflated into a B :( I am looking into a breast augmentation... so any tips on local Michigan doctors would be great!!! I'll be making a new post on that journey and hopefully be more active in posting there.

Some other things I'm interested in (if I was a millionare :( or at least once I can save up for a year or so...):
* Breast Augmentation with smooth, round saline implants (as I said above)
* Arm Lift to get rid of my insane batwings
* Brazilian Butt Lift with Liposuction of abdomen and added hip extension and butt extension