Upper Body Lift

Well I am just one day from celebrating 4 months since I had my body lift surgery and this morning I met with my surgeon for a follow up appointment. He was really happy with how flat my tummy is and how my scar has healed, but then he threw a bombshell at me.

He thinks I need to have an upper body lift to properly complete my surgery. Sigh.

My first thought was that he was crazy because having more surgery was the last thing on my mind. Then he went into more detail and showed me the skin he wants to remove and how it would change the shape of my body. After lots of pinching and prodding of my skin and squiggly drawings on his ipad, I have to admit that I agree with my surgeon.

There are two types of upper body lifts--the first lifts the breasts and removes excess tissue in the arms and the second also lifts the breasts but instead of removing excess tissue from the arms, it removes excess tissue from the upper back rolls.  

Of the two upper body lifts described above, my surgeon would perform the second one on me.

What he wants to do is an incision under each breast and insert mesh to my ribcage and then attach my upper torso to the mesh to hold it firm. Right now the skin on my upper torso is still quite saggy and there is no other way to pull it tight so it will stay in place. He would also lift the breasts using the same incision under the breast.

The surgeon would then continue the incision all the way around my upper back and remove the folds of skin hanging down on my back. So I would basically be sliced all the way around my body like the lower body lift I had, but this time they would do it on my upper body.

The scar would look like this (if only my body also looked like that!)...

source

So all the complaining I have been doing about the extra weight on my upper back since my surgery isn't actually weight gain, it is excess skin. The skin has always been there, I just noticed it more now that my tummy is so much smalled and flatter.

My surgeon also examined my lower back, where I am still protruding after surgery and he advised it was not fluid or swelling, it was fat and would need to be lipoed out.

I left my appointment feeling overwhelmed and confused by everything. In one way I felt like a bit of a failure that I need additional surgery and the thought of having to tell my family and friends made me feel sick. I also felt a little excited by the results I could achieve with this surgery, but mostly worried by the idea of additional surgery and how much it would cost. I should receive the quote by the end of the week and then I can make some decisions.