Weight loss and gyno surgery.

[LagoonTrifecta]

First post.  Been lurking here for a few months now, while I debated on whether or not I should get surgery.  I'm still a little on the fence and I've come for some answers to my questions that maybe some of you who've been in similar shoes as mine, could help me out with.  

A bit of a history: I gained a large amount of weight in middle school.  As a young child I was very active, and loved to play outside, but when I got into middle school, the junk food available and the sugary drinks combined with my own inactivity and loss of friends made quick work of me, and I ballooned out very fast.  

I dealt with it through middle school and into high school.  It was terrible -- people didn't treat me bad.  I would have prayed for them to tease and harass me.  No, they simply treated me as though I wasn't there.  Like I wasn't human.  

The end of my junior year, and into my senior year I took drastic measures.  I cut out all sugary foods and drinks.  I ate only when I was hungry and not when I was bored.  No fruit after 6 PM, and I started drinking large amounts of hot tea.  I also start walking.  Every day, whether it was raining, or windy or warm, I'd walk.  My record is walking to the next town over, which is well in the 35 miles + range.  

I dropped the weight by the middle of my senior year.  Got myself a girlfriend, and had one hell of a time.  The thing is, while outwardly I didn't say anything, my body had been wrecked.  That's the worst part of it all.  You lose the weight, feel good, and then you take off your shirt and it's worse than before.  I had a flap of skin over my stomach of sagging tissue, lovehandles (still!) and sagging skin on my chest.  

After I graduated, I asked my mom about surgery.  Being in the medical field, she was aware of the solution: a tummy tuck.  We shopped around surgeons in my area, (though not as widely as I am now) and settled with a local cosmetic surgeon.  

Terrible, terrible idea.  The end result was decent enough, though the love handles increased in size and the scar is very noticeable.  The post op, however.. I feinted twice, from dehydration, was sent home immediately after the surgery, without someone checking on the results, the drains were removed too early and as a result, I had to have fluid drained via hypodermic needle for a month and a half.  Even now, two years after the surgery, I still can feel that needle hitting my hip bone.  The doctor was eager to 'help me out' after he'd messed the thing up, offering other surgeries as, what I feel, was a bid to avoid a malpractice lawsuit.  
  
After I recovered from that nightmare, for the most part, he told me that though he'd done all he could, there was nothing he could do about my chest.  I'd have to learn to live with the sagging skin on it.  Even if I worked out like Arnold, I'd never get rid of it.  

Throughout this process my girlfriend was incredibly supportive, though I never removed my shirt in any sort of intimate situation.  

It's been almost three years since that surgery, and my condition is driving me mad.  I wear a long-sleeve shirt over t-shirts to hide the excess skin.  Jackets are a mainstay of my wardrobe.  

I found out about gynecomastia surgeries about three months ago, and though it's not technically what I suffer from, the emotional effects and a lot of what people are saying sound the same.  

Enough babbling from me though.  Questions.  

Has anyone had this surgery?  Excess skin tightened/removed from weightloss?  What were your experiences with it?  Am I in for another nightmare of half a year of pain?  

What about a lipo on those lovehandles as well as the breast reduction?  What are people's feelings on this and how much does it lengthen recovery time?  

What sort of scarring at I looking at?  I've seen some pictures on websites of men that have (what I see, as) a less severe condition than I do, and they have scarring all the way across the chest.  The scars don't bother me much.  Never been much of a 'shirt off at the beach' man, but I do want to be able to reveal myself intimately to someone I care about.  Right now I'm disgusted by myself when I look in the mirror without a shirt.  With a shirt, yeah, I'm fine!  But without it.. I look like a half-melted army man.  

Just how bad is it?  What sort of surgery are we looking at here?  I'll upload pictures for people to see, which I would normally avoid, but I'm desperate, and frankly, more than a little worried given the past experiences.  

So I turn to you, anonymous internet readers.  Help me out here.  

Front: img7.imageshack.us/i/img20110411220347.jpg/

Profile: img843.imageshack.us/i/img20110411220358.jpg/

And for reference:
Front w/Shirt: img291.imageshack.us/i/img20110411220540.jpg/

That is a size medium, shirt, by the way.  

Lay it on me, internet.  

EDIT: Links not working.  Fixing.

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

Congrats on your weight loss!  You are much healthier now.

Your photos reveal that you still are overweight -- would suggest getting down to your best and most stable weight before embarking on any corrective surgery.

Having been heavy at one time in your life, you have stretched out your skin so that it now lacks the elasticity to rebound and tighten by itself if the underlying fat and gland tissues are removed.  Hence, any future chest surgery would undoubtedly include all of the following: removal of all excess fat and breast tissue from the chest and lateral chest; removal of any excess skin; elevation of the nipples to a more appropriate position.  This type of surgery would leave some scars -- and you would have to accept them in trade-off for a tighter and more comfortable chest.

As for your abdomen, probably additional lipo could be of help -- but better photos would be helpful for further evaluation.

Overall, though, things are not as bad as you imagine.  In the meantime, try to lose a few more pounds and hit the gym hard.

Welcome to  gynecomastia.org!!

Dr Jacobs