skinty mcbroke
New Member
hello there 
firstly, thank you all for all the excellent information ive picked up here over the last few months reading through all your threads on abdominoplasty, its been a most helpful resource.
i had a baby 9 years ago when i was very young, and now feel as though because of the mess it made of my body (though i wouldnt be without my boy in a MILLION years, hes incredible and im very grateful for him) i havent been able to enjoy being young at all . my bump was HUGE during pregnancy! went from a shade over 9 and a half stones up to well over 14 stones, then back to pre pregnancy weight within a year or so of giving birth. stomach has never snapped back, really atrocious, deep, wide stretchmarks up way above my tummy button, extend all the way to several inches down tops of thighs to give you an idea, my skin just seems to be very prone to this kind of thing. lots of loose, wrinkled skin, some fatty deposits underneath which wont shift, but mainly skin obviously as my body fat overall is quite low. i basically have no tummy button anymore, its been lost under a mass of saggy skin and sometimes becomes infected. i also often find the area very uncomfortable, it shifts when i move (which i do a lot for exercise, i love to run, but hate it when i feel my stomach shifting), it becomes sore and feels awkward when i sit for too long, partly due no doubt to the way i sit partially hunched over with my arms wrapped around it. i no longer have any self confidence at all, ive spent the last 9 years with my arms folded in front of my waist 99% of the time, i cant sit down in public without grabbing the nearest scatter cushion or my handbag and clutching it to me on my lap in the hopes that it will hide any noticable damage... im basically never comfortable, im constantly checking myself, even when im just walking to the shop for a pint of milk in an oversized sweater i feel as though my mess of a stomach is glaringly obvious, even though i know full well, in my logical mind, that it isnt at all when clothed (funny how knowing that full well doesnt seem to make the blindest bit of difference to how i feel about it ). ive had a couple of relationships since my son was born, but both of them suffered immensely due to my lack of confidence in my body, to the point where i ended both eventually because i couldnt handle the stress. its like a seperate entity from me, i dont feel like its a part of my body. i sometimes fantasise about just hacking it off, it feels like its a parasitic growth that feeds on my every ounce of confidence and leaves me exhausted and miserable as sin. i think about it every single day. im so tired of it. if i had the money, or even the ability to go and take out a loan to sort this out myself, i would have done a thousand times over. im a single parent and my child has special needs which prevent me from working for the forseeable, though ive been studying and hope to get the chance to get back to work sooner rather than later.
anyway, that sort of gives you an idea of my history i think. so my GP said shed write a letter which she hoped would give me the best possible chance (she said it was worded to emphasise my distress over the appearance of my stomach, but without OVER emphasising that because she said that would go against me instead? thats what her feeling was anyway), and told me to wait for a letter to make an appointment at plastics, but not to get too excited when i got one as this was standard practise and i might have that cancelled before i even got to see anyone. in fact, this was exactly what did happen. i got a letter from nottingham city hospital plastics giving me an appointment date, then a week later another letter telling me it was cancelled and to contact my GP for further details. i did so and she expressed her suprise, telling me she hadnt actually heard anything from them at all, and usually did. she sent me away again telling me shed look into it. a while later i was contacted by the surgery asking me to drop in to see my GP, which i did, and she told me that id been turned down by both nottingham AND derby now (said shed contacted derby after id been turned down by nottingham) as i only met one of the criteria (BMI. the others were stomach having been damaged by previous surgery; mobility being impacted; SEVERE problems with infections, mine are not bad enough apparently). she suggested i contact patient advisory and liason service in notts to ask for their advice about how to move forward, but doubted theyd be able to offer me any more help than she had as i just dont meet the criteria. i asked whether there was a possibility i could be referred outside the area and she said she didnt see the point because "the criteria are the same all over the country, theres nowhere that would agree to carry out surgery for these reasons". i knew my chances werent fantastic, but from some of the posts ive read here it seems like it isnt quite as cut and dried as my GP thinks it is? she said shed be happy to refer me elsewhere if i could do the reasearch myself and find out the name of a place which would be likely to agree to performing the surgery on me on the NHS.
help! had anyone else found themselves in this position or similar? how did you proceed? any ideas as to where i should suggest, or how i could go about finding out where to suggest? is there anything i did wrong? thank you in advance for any help, i really appreciate you taking the time to read my rather epic first post by the way, congratulations on reaching the end of it haha
firstly, thank you all for all the excellent information ive picked up here over the last few months reading through all your threads on abdominoplasty, its been a most helpful resource.
i had a baby 9 years ago when i was very young, and now feel as though because of the mess it made of my body (though i wouldnt be without my boy in a MILLION years, hes incredible and im very grateful for him
) i havent been able to enjoy being young at all . my bump was HUGE during pregnancy! went from a shade over 9 and a half stones up to well over 14 stones, then back to pre pregnancy weight within a year or so of giving birth. stomach has never snapped back, really atrocious, deep, wide stretchmarks up way above my tummy button, extend all the way to several inches down tops of thighs to give you an idea, my skin just seems to be very prone to this kind of thing. lots of loose, wrinkled skin, some fatty deposits underneath which wont shift, but mainly skin obviously as my body fat overall is quite low. i basically have no tummy button anymore, its been lost under a mass of saggy skin and sometimes becomes infected. i also often find the area very uncomfortable, it shifts when i move (which i do a lot for exercise, i love to run, but hate it when i feel my stomach shifting), it becomes sore and feels awkward when i sit for too long, partly due no doubt to the way i sit partially hunched over with my arms wrapped around it. i no longer have any self confidence at all, ive spent the last 9 years with my arms folded in front of my waist 99% of the time, i cant sit down in public without grabbing the nearest scatter cushion or my handbag and clutching it to me on my lap in the hopes that it will hide any noticable damage... im basically never comfortable, im constantly checking myself, even when im just walking to the shop for a pint of milk in an oversized sweater i feel as though my mess of a stomach is glaringly obvious, even though i know full well, in my logical mind, that it isnt at all when clothed (funny how knowing that full well doesnt seem to make the blindest bit of difference to how i feel about it ). ive had a couple of relationships since my son was born, but both of them suffered immensely due to my lack of confidence in my body, to the point where i ended both eventually because i couldnt handle the stress. its like a seperate entity from me, i dont feel like its a part of my body. i sometimes fantasise about just hacking it off, it feels like its a parasitic growth that feeds on my every ounce of confidence and leaves me exhausted and miserable as sin. i think about it every single day. im so tired of it. if i had the money, or even the ability to go and take out a loan to sort this out myself, i would have done a thousand times over. im a single parent and my child has special needs which prevent me from working for the forseeable, though ive been studying and hope to get the chance to get back to work sooner rather than later.anyway, that sort of gives you an idea of my history i think. so my GP said shed write a letter which she hoped would give me the best possible chance (she said it was worded to emphasise my distress over the appearance of my stomach, but without OVER emphasising that because she said that would go against me instead? thats what her feeling was anyway), and told me to wait for a letter to make an appointment at plastics, but not to get too excited when i got one as this was standard practise and i might have that cancelled before i even got to see anyone. in fact, this was exactly what did happen. i got a letter from nottingham city hospital plastics giving me an appointment date, then a week later another letter telling me it was cancelled and to contact my GP for further details. i did so and she expressed her suprise, telling me she hadnt actually heard anything from them at all, and usually did. she sent me away again telling me shed look into it. a while later i was contacted by the surgery asking me to drop in to see my GP, which i did, and she told me that id been turned down by both nottingham AND derby now (said shed contacted derby after id been turned down by nottingham) as i only met one of the criteria (BMI. the others were stomach having been damaged by previous surgery; mobility being impacted; SEVERE problems with infections, mine are not bad enough apparently). she suggested i contact patient advisory and liason service in notts to ask for their advice about how to move forward, but doubted theyd be able to offer me any more help than she had as i just dont meet the criteria. i asked whether there was a possibility i could be referred outside the area and she said she didnt see the point because "the criteria are the same all over the country, theres nowhere that would agree to carry out surgery for these reasons". i knew my chances werent fantastic, but from some of the posts ive read here it seems like it isnt quite as cut and dried as my GP thinks it is? she said shed be happy to refer me elsewhere if i could do the reasearch myself and find out the name of a place which would be likely to agree to performing the surgery on me on the NHS.
help! had anyone else found themselves in this position or similar? how did you proceed? any ideas as to where i should suggest, or how i could go about finding out where to suggest? is there anything i did wrong? thank you in advance for any help, i really appreciate you taking the time to read my rather epic first post by the way, congratulations on reaching the end of it
haha
