BariatricEating.com Health & Nutrition
Rant - Extreme Makeovers... Cheap!
This was a thread posted on our BeforeAndAfterHelp.com message board...
'I went into surgery knowing that when all was said and done, I wanted to have the skin removal after. The majority of my excess weight has been lost, and I'm left with lots of sagging, hanging skin -especially around my stomach area, and I still have a way to go! I know I want all of the excess removed. Recently, though, I've been hearing horrible stories about skin removal surgeries. There is a lady that I know personally from work who just had her's done. She bled out in surgery and almost died. I've spoken to a few other people who have had similar complications. In fact, I've been told on more than one occasion "If you can live with the saggy skin, don't do it cuz it isn't worth it." What's the deal? I thought that re-routing our internal organs would be much more dangerous than some lousy skin removal!'
Skin removal is NOT more dangerous than gastric bypass surgery... the glamour of Extreme Makeovers and television just makes it all look so damn easy to have a top to bottom plastic surgery extravaganza, that people don't do proper research and are not prepared for what can happen. Paired with the fact that plastic surgery is such a hot commodity right now, good doctors who are not formally trained in plastic surgery are jumping into the arena and the public is too uneducated (read that as stupid) to know the difference.
Any doctor can decide to do Botox starting next Monday... they can then proceed to doing minor facelift procedures or breast implants or tummy tucks as they get bolder and their next patient would have no idea unless they are savvy. A dermatologist can’t start inserting heart stents next week, but he can start to do plastic surgery procedures.
Plastic surgery is a specific and very rigorous specialty, requiring years of training. Ask your potential plastic surgeon about his or her training, they should be proud to talk about it! Residency in plastic surgery consists of three to five years of training in general surgery followed by a two to three year residency in plastic surgery. An Integrated Residency is also available with applicants applying to start immediately following graduation from medical school and receiving either five or six years of training under the leadership of the program director of plastic surgery. Additional years of training are required to practice in one of the subspecialties.
We tend to judge a doctor by his face, friendliness, and 'good feeling we get' rather than by his credentials and track record. I can’t tell you how many times I have asked a bariatric post op scheduled for a plastic surgery procedure, 'has this surgeon done serious skin removal on gastric bypass patients before?' and they totally skirt my question to tell me what a great job he did on their aunts breast implants or sisters nose. Arrrrggggh!
I persist and ask how many other arm lifts has he done before? and get the answer that 'he said he has done them before'. HOW MANY??? ... 'I don’t know' but my aunts breasts look fantastic.
Is his medical degree in PLASTIC SURGERY and RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY... what are his credentials? 'Ummmm... don’t know but he did my aunt, and the girl I work with and they turned out great.'
Did you see photos of how his arm lifts turn out? 'No, he didn’t have any photos of arm lifts in his book but he is very nice, and seems to really care about me.'
You can’t tell the level of a surgeon’s expertise in a specific procedure from his smile or how he makes small talk with you! I don’t care if the surgeon is loud, or quiet, or is short with me, or has zero personality if he or she earned their MD at Yale, completed their internship and residency at Johns Hopkins and openly tells me exactly how many brachioplasty 'arm lifts' he has done and why he chooses to do the smaller armpit incision for my amount of skin and why he feels that I DON'T need a full lower body lift. A plastic surgeon should be willing to directly answer 'numbers' questions, and actually be practiced in performing the exact surgery I am requesting... practice does make perfect and we get just one shot at getting this right. You want it to turn out good!
We get so caught up in the excitement of plastic surgery; we check our brain at the door. Horrible things can happen when you choose the wrong plastic surgeon. I have a girlfriend whose life was ruined by the wrong choice of plastic surgeons. She chose a doctor that performed her mother’s post breast cancer reconstruction that didn’t turn out well, but he redid it for free . WHAT??? I couldn’t talk any sense into her that a doctor that does mastectomy reconstructions has a different specialty than post gastric bypass abdominoplasty and asked if she asked questions regarding his level of experience in removal of LARGE panni's or skin flaps?
She didn’t dare ask questions, assumed he would do a good job and when 8 inches of her belly incision burst open three days after her procedure because of tissue necrosis, a condition where the skin does not reconnect to the blood source, turns black and dies , it began an unfortunate journey for her that resulted in two years of her life searching for a qualified surgeon willing to fix another surgeons mess.
This expert (and angel) of a reconstructive surgeon who revised the area told us off the record that her original surgeon left pulled her too tight, was much too aggressive, and was not used to massive skin removal.
Even more amazing is when I discovered that another friend was going to the same plastic surgeon, nothing I could tell her would dissuade her from her scheduled appointment as he was 'trying to get her insurance approval'.
We put blinders on for plastic surgery. We make choices based on price, and kid ourselves that they are at least willing to try to get insurance coverage for us. My take on this is that with the current plastic surgery boom, the good surgeons have people lined up with their checkbooks in their hand - why would a doctor want to take the $2000 an insurance company is willing to pay for a covered procedure when they can take the next person in line who will pay them $8000 in cash without the hassle? Either they feel we are deserving of a break and have the good of humanity at heart, or they are not a top doc and can use the business.
There are two things that you should never shop for at a discount... plastic surgery, and parachutes! Don’t even get me started on trips to Costa Rica and Mexico for reduced rate cosmetic surgery. It's your body, it's your life... don’t base results you must live with forever on where you can get the best deal when you paid $25,000 for the car you are driving that won’t be worth a dime in ten years. Choose wisely and you will love the results that you deserve after life changing bariatric surgery, but make a wrong choice and your life can change again, but not necessarily for the better.
Ciao, Susan Maria
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© BE, Inc. 2011 - Susan Maria Leach. All rights reserved.
