Over 160 Lbs Lost!! Surgery 1 of 3 -- Fleur-de-lis Circumferential Abdominoplasty

After losing the first 100 of the 150+ (155 as of this review - more to come before surgery!), my skin was clearly done rebounding. I started having to wear shapewear 24/7 just to keep the jiggles at bay. When people tell me how good I look, it's hard to agree with them because only I know what is under all the clothes. I keep telling people I look like "the red woman without her necklace" (which is make sense only if you watch Game of Thrones). Basically from the neck down I look 300 years old. It's hard to be proud that I've come so far when I'm smothered in all this skin. If I had a list of hobbies, playing with my skin would be at the top! haha
After Dr. Daniel Bortnick did such an amazing job on my brachioplasty (arm lift - see other review), I knew exactly who to go to to fix this! I saw him on January 12, 2018 for a consultation for a lower body lift, thigh lift and breast lift. At that time I was still 230 lbs - he wanted me within 20% of my (then) 165 lb goal (190s). Today I am 203 and still have 7 weeks before surgery to lose more. I'm expecting to lose another 15, but I'm secretly hoping for 25 which would put me at 179 with just 20 more to lose after the surgery (I lowered my goal weight to 158 based on my body fat goal of 24%). Dr. Bortnick was willing to combine two of the surgeries into one, but due to financial constraints (still paying down my gastric sleeve surgery) I will only be able to do the fleur-de-lis circumferential abdominoplasty. It hits the areas that bother me most, and I still have a lot of weight in my legs, so it's just as well we are waiting until 2019 for breasts and thighs! He's going to lipo the inner thighs at this first surgery (I assume so I'll be able to wear pants that fit my new waist - EEK!!)
We determined that I would prefer the vertical scar over the skin laxity that would still exist without repairing the lateral excess skin as well (fleur-de-lis) Scars fade! I am more likely to wear something tight than go topless, so it will rarely be seen in the meantime! And no more shapewear to reign in the jiggle!
I'm attaching some before photos that show me performing my nightly routine of pulling and tugging on my loose skin ;) The time is going to fly so I'm hard at work burning as much of the fat out as possible! Dr. B didn't think having 20-30 lbs left to lose after surgery would affect our results, so that is the goal! 15-25 more pounds pre-op! Let's go!

So last year when I had the arm surgery, I submitted the receipt from the surgeon to my FSA provider and POOF they sent me the money!! The new company my employer is using this year just not only denied my attempt to pre-pay for services, but they have said that without a Letter of Medical Necessity, they will not allow me to use ANY of my funds for ANY part of it! Not the surgery center portion, not the anesthesiologist... To get a LoMN I would have to let the skin get infected and provide documentation of infection, dr visits, and treatments to prove it's affecting my health over the course of 6 months... If I had THAT, then I could bill insurance! I refuse to suffer like that just to save a buck. The really frustrating part is that I contributed the maximum to my FSA fund believing it was an eligible expense! To me it's not "cosmetic" - it's "reconstructive"... I wonder if I could get my psychologist to write a LoMN saying it's affecting my mental health... I have to try something or there will be no surgery for me :(
I can afford ONE of the smaller surgeries (thighs, neck or breasts) but I still have so much weight to lose in my thighs, I worry it's too early and I might ruin them when I lose the rest of the weight. My breasts honestly don't bother me THAT much - that's what bras are for! My turkey neck bothers me, but I'm not sure it's worth $6K. My saddlebags, butt, tummy and mons are the parts that are really hindering me... I'm not sure I can swing the payments with $2600 additional to be financed. My HR dept is trying to see if they can intervene on my behalf, but there are no guarantees. Naturally it all went down on a Friday so I have the whole weekend to sit and fret over it. #firstworldproblems (I know, I know - my life is SSOOOO hard... lol) I'm a VERY lucky girl to have all that I have. I'm grateful. Just disappointed.

They say "all's well that ends well" and I suppose that's the case here. To make a long story short, the FSA claim should never have been denied. A supervisor contacted me today to apologize for the representative that didn't mention that if I had had weight loss surgery, then that makes skin removal an eligible expense... so I went through all of that mess and stress for nothing. She said they'd use it as a training opportunity. Yeah. Do that.

If I weren't so relieved, I'd be furious. I immediately used the FSA card and paid the full amount to the anesthesiologist and paid the rest to the surgeon before they could change their minds! The rest of the surgeons fees are due on 6/5 at my pre-op appointment. I've got to say, I was slightly miffed when (before I found out that the FSA funds were okay) I called the surgeon's office and asked them to write me a prescription or Letter of Medical Necessity for the required compression garment. I was still going to get it through them, but this would have allowed me to use the FSA funds for it, and they flat refused. Not their problem I guess... still it would have been nice...

Oh well. Hopefully the excitement I was feeling last week returns. At the moment there's only some lingering stress and exhaustion. At least now I can get back to focusing on losing weight and not lose any more sleep about the money.