The Time Has Come

I have been extremely absent from blogging lately and I apologize. I will not make excuses but I will say this past year has brought about many changes in my daily life and has attributed a good amount to said absence.

That being said, let me do a recap from start until now to catch everyone up.

My highest weight in November 2018 was 336 pounds.

My surgery day (17May2019) weight was 307 pounds.

I lost over 170 pounds and in June 2020, hit my goal weight of 165 pounds.

I started to stabilize at around 150 pounds which brought my total weight loss to a whopping 186 pounds!!

Today, 24Feb2021, I weigh 152 pounds and I am currently scheduled for skin removal surgery next month.

Now, to discuss matters a bit further.. around December 2020, I spoke to my surgeon and my PCM regarding excess skin removal and they both agreed I was a great candidate and sent through the referral to the Plastic Surgery Clinic. I met with the plastic surgeon in mid December and started the consultations and discussion about what we needed to do first. The abdominal skin removal (panniculectomy) is considered "medically necessary" and is covered by my insurance so the first thought was to get that taken care of. As my surgeon and I were discussing my needs, we also discussed the possibility of combining that abdominal procedure with a Thighplasty to remove excess skin from my inner thighs. At first, it wasn't something she wanted to consider being since the panniculectomy in itself is tough to recover from and the thighplasty is even worse.. but after discussing the previous surgeries I've had and considering how well I healed and recovered from them as well as the fact that I have never had any serious underlying medical conditions, she decided she would combine the 2 procedures if I decided I was prepared for that.

After discussing the possibility with my husband, we decided that was the best decision. Especially since I got a huge discount on the thighplasty for combining it with a medically necessary procedure. The SuperBill was sent up to get me a total, the invoice came in and in early February, PAID! Once the invoice was paid in full, the receipt was turned into my surgeon's office and my amazing nurse called me a few day later with a surgery date.

22 March 2021 is when I'll be having the surgery (fingers crossed). I have a few appointments before then; I have a pre-op with the surgeon to go over specific instructions, a phone appt with anesthesia to go over expectations and instructions, I also have to get COVID tested a few days before and then quarantine until surgery day.

I am a lot excited, a little nervous, and very overwhelmed with all of this happening so fast. I am very blessed to have so much support and so many people going along with me on this ride. I will be thoroughly documenting this journey as well as the last, to include the good and the bad! I will be posting pictures (nothing revealing) on my Facebook page and sharing these blogs on there as well. If you are interested in following, please do. I am an open book for questions, comments, concerns, etc.

I don't know very much so far as to exactly to expect during recovery. I do know that it will be very difficult for me to move around given the location of the incisions. I also know that I will not be able to stand up completely straight for at least 3 weeks. I'm hoping to find out some more info as I go to these few appointments in the days leading up to my surgery day.

My mother-in-law is also coming to visit on the 8th of March and she is willing to stay until the week after my surgery, so that will be super helpful for my husband to be able to help take care of me in the days after surgery. That will also give the kids something to do besides worry about me all the time. I'm very excited to visit with her and have her get to spend time with the kids, Also, another perk of homeschooling...I moved the kids' Spring Break week to the week after she gets here so they have a full week with her without having to do school the whole time. I'm pretty excited about that.

That's about all for now I guess. I'll keep everything updated as best as I can. I'll at least try to write some notes down to enter in here at a later date depending on how I'm feeling the first few days. As I said, I'm not sure really what to expect so we shall see!!

Much love y'all!

Until next time,

Kay