Help - Unhappy with consultation

[Jazz_UK]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to read my situation.

I am 32 years old and approx 10 years ago i lost approx 60 - 70 pounds in weight.  I am 6ft tall and currently am 12.5 stone (175 pounds).

That sounds good, however i still have fatty tissue or gland, or a mix of both on my chest.

Now i know that can be resolved through surgery, however another area of concern is that i have excess skin in the area after the weight loss.

Around my chest/nipple area i can pinch about 1 to 2 inches of excess skin that has not returned after the weight loss.  

After some months considering surgery and reading boards like this one, i plucked up the courage to arrange a consultation with Dr Levick.

To be perfectly honest i was very dissapointed with what he did and said to me.

I was very nervous and had travlelled a considerable way to see him, he gave me some small talk and then asked me to take my top off. He very quickly looked and felt and then automatically went into the procedure he would do and showed me some photos etc.

The procedure he said he would use was to remove the excess gland, through under my armpit and then would remove the fatty and some remaining gland that has stayed since the weight loss.

I asked him about the what scars i would have, and he said very minimal, i thought that was unusual.

I asked him about the excess skin and he said that there is nothing he can do about that.

The way i see it is if the fatty tissue/gland is removed then my excess skin will be even more, unless something is done about it.

I said this to him and that it was my main concern, his response was don't expect to be able to get results that allow you to go on the beach.  

He asked if there was anything else, i was gob smacked and lost for words. he showed me out and that was that.

I had travelled for hours and thought about surgery for months, and worried about the consultation for weeks and it was all over in around 20 mins.

After reading everyone rave how good Dr Levick is, i am very dissapointed.

Perhaps he is only interested in or capable of simple procedures where it only involves removal of gland/tissue.  

I have read on the net, sometimes surgery involves removal of some excess skin, especially after weight loss.

So i am basically after advise on this, i don;t want to waste my time and money on another consultation like the one with Dr Levick but eually i want to do something and i'm sure there must be something available, i just don't know where to go next.

I have posted my pics, on the more recent set you can see i have lost a little more weight that the 1st.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
 
I look forward to hear from you all.

Jazz

[Jazz_UK]

Don't think my pics worked
try this link
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jazz1974uk/album?.dir=e8a1re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

[Time_to_fix_it]

Hi,

I haven’t had my surgery yet with Mr L in the UK, but my gyne is a little worse than yours.  At my consultation with Mr L he told me that in my case (I’m 50) the skin should shrink back.  I accept the fact that as we grow older the elasticity in the skin reduces and I do wonder if, like you, I will be left with some loose skin.  I will be disappointed if this is the case, and if it bothers me then I will have to look at further surgical options to remove that loose skin.  I take your point that your present loose skin is as a result of heavy weight loss in the past.  I guess you feel that it won’t shrink any more and surgery for your gyne will only produce more loose skin.  If this happens then I don’t think there is much else that you can do other than look at the option of further surgery to remove the loose skin.

I keep reading on these boards that we should have realistic expectations for ourselves after surgery.  Of course we would all like perfect results and some people do get them, but at this moment in time I would be happy with any improvement at all.  I feel that in cases like yours and mine we will just have to wait and see which way the dice fall.

I would be interested to hear of any older patients of Mr L (35 plus) who have had surgery to fix moderate or severe gyne and how they feel about their results.

It might be worthwhile putting this thread on the UK boards.

Good luck to you Jazz in whatever you decide to do.

[jack9]

If you didn't like his demeanor, I would search for a new surgeon. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to have a beach body. You are fit and do not have an extreme case. Your skin should adhere fine. I'm older than you and my skin just shrunk to my new chest. I must admit that I was also concerned about sagging skin but when I took a look at my chest the day after surgery I was pleased to see that it looked like a teenager's chest.

[nonini]

Thats mesed up, definately go to someone else.

[Seal]

My surgeon also was conservative about my results the first time we talked.