The Part of Weight Loss That No One Wants to Really Talk About: Extra Skin Everywhere! - La Mesa, CA

My journey has been long and arduous, and far from over in many ways. Surgicaly, the journey has some end in sight, with some compromises being left for the moment. As can be seen in my previous review for Dr. Pousti, I recently underwent an extended abdominoplasty which truly transformed me and cemented the foundation for my success and my life to come! I have lost an incredible amount of skin, and am slowly building confidence as I see new results unfold each day!
This procedure, the Arm Lift, I had wanted done with my abdominoplasty, however, it was just not safe for me personally because of my history of complications. Dr. Pousti took excellent care of me and because of how great his work, demeanor, his skill/talent, and his wonderful staff, I was able to let myself trust their advice and suggestions and postpone this procedure and pair it with my much needed breast reduction/lift and schedule it after enough recovery from my first procedure. The time has come! I had my margins done last night and Monday morning, as light spreads across a star studded, summer sky, I will be once again drifting away as Dr. Pousti works his magic.
I experienced rapid weight loss, more than 100lbs in less than 3 months, and proceeded to nurture a pregnancy but fathered weightless and maintained for over 2 years. Unfortunately, my skin elasticity is just not present and my arm skin never seemed to shrink, in fact, looking at my pre op photos, I feel like they may have stretched more! The skin makes it difficult to buy appropriate sized shirts to compliment my weight loss, or to correctly fit in bras. I feel extremely self conscious and it contributes negatively to my poor self image that I have struggled with. Surgery can't fix the mental aspects of body image, but it seems to help, and that is what matters to me. I will be sure to let anyone know if the procedure is worth it, what to expect from recovery, and how the results start to look, as soon as I am able! I am extremely confident in my outcome as Dr. Pousti continues to prove his wonder!

So far this operation is much more painful than my extended abdominoplasty/pubic lift. I did have a breast reduction and lift with auto augmentation. My pain meds are always hard on me bedside I have severe allergic reactions to most, so I am on Percocet with Benedryl as its the one I can tolerate for the most part. My previous surgery, on April 27, 2016, I was only taking the meds 4-6 hours apart and weaned off in about a weak, down to one each night to help me sleep through any pain flares. This surgery I was up all night and my pain meds do not fully mask the pain. I can feel everything while medicated, even though it is dulled down, in comparison to when the meds wear off, which is about every 2 hours before it becomes intolerable (and I have a high pain tolerance). I can't really move my arms much but I seem to be gaining range of motion, however slow. I'm sure my results will be great but I hate life right now!

Day 0-4 I thought I would die. The pain was excruciating and I went into detail on my breast reduction review (procedure was done together!)
I'm happy to say with wonderful attention from my surgeon, Dr. Pousti, and his staff, and a needed med change, have me feeling more confident and in much less pain! This will be amazing, I'm sure! I can't wait to see!

Had some problems with my incisions inside my arm pit area but after getting over that hurdle this process isn't so bad. Got my stitches out this past week and besides some ones that his below new skin and are working themselves out, it's starting to be much better. I don't have much sensation around the incision lines. They are discretely placed and fading nicely already! Currently I'm working on rehabilitation for my range of motion and a few areas are still rebuilding new skin tissue. The Z in the arm pit incision provides better range of motion so it might look awkward now, but I prefer to have better motion :)

Arm infection is finally gone (didn't seem surgically related, my skin is so tight and caused incision to split from a little bit of movement), and I'm healed up pretty well. My scar tissue hurts a lot and impairs normal range of motion but I have started self manipulation of the scar tissue to hopefully massage a break down of unnatural tissue deep inside.
Scars don't look terrible, the most noticeable ones are actually in my arm pits.