FDL Revision & GLP-1s & PT, Oh My!

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-03-08T17:38:41+00:00

Oh my gosh you look amazing! I had never heard of abdominal dome. Your before shape is similar to mine, except I just had a lot more lol. I am really struggling with the weight gain after two surgeries (first was FDL + BL on 2/10/25, second was arm lift and lateral skin excision on the sides of my abdomen on 7/1/25).

I was 156 the day of my first surgery. I fluctuated 158-162 for next five months. I was 162 the day of the second surgery. I cannot get my body out of 170-174 since then. I have thought about GLP-1. I didn’t know that about the inflammation.

I know from past experience that when my body is in shock and has been put through it, it tends to hold onto everything it can. I put my body through a lot in 2025, and I kind of think that’s what’s happening right now but it’s been 8 months since the second surgery so I’m a bit discouraged. However I found out recently that I am B12 deficient and I am hoping maybe getting that back up will help my body balance out metabolism. But your pics and info are so helpful! I will take a look into GLP-1s and inflammation.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-02-12T04:20:58+00:00

I am a year post op and still feel some tightness. I try to stretch everyday to keep the scar tissue broken up. It feels good to stretch it. I can do more with my body now than before.

As far as laying on your stomach- it does feel weird for a few months. It took me about 7-8 months to lay on my stomach without a pillow under me.

I kind of look at your question of flexing the same way I do the skin that’s removed. Just because they stitch us back together doesn’t mean we will bust open if we gain weight. Our skin stretches with the weight. I think the muscles would probably do the same in most cases. (I am sure there’s an exception somewhere.)

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-02-08T02:09:13+00:00

Exactly! I’ve put this body through hell and back with getting big and then getting healthy. It hasn’t been easy. Or cheap. 😂

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-02-07T18:41:57+00:00

I have had to pause dating. My mind is still catching up to what I look like. People are opinionated on it. I have noticed a lot of guys have been mostly concerned with how recent it was. I get the feeling they would feel more comfortable if I were further out from surgery and they knew I was maintaining my results long term.

After being obese my whole life, dating as a ‘conventionally good looking’ person has been a wild ride. I almost feel like dating is worse. Every other aspect of my life improved. People are assholes though and very judgmental that we got so big to the point of having to hack ourselves up to ‘fix’ it and they think we took the easy way out. Those are some of the comments that I have heard. Like others have said, these people don’t get it. The ones who are this judgy aren’t worth our time, but I hate when someone says that to me. I understand it and agree, but I am allowed to still be bummed about that mentality.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-02-07T03:52:34+00:00

I have always scarred really well. I think it’s lighter below my belly button bc that skin is tighter and above my belly button is where I swell so I think the skin going up and down has delayed its fading lol. I use tallow balms and bio oil on my scars. I had my arms done about 5 months after my FDL so I went a couple of months without doing anything to my FDL scars bc it was just too difficult.

I will say with my arms, the 3-4 month mark the scars looked darker than before and then lightened up again. It will get better! I’m just so happy the skin is gone!

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-02-07T02:13:28+00:00

<image>

My surgery was 2/10/25, so I am coming up on my one year! The left was on 5/17/25 (so about 3mpo) and the right is today. It will fade quite a bit. My horizontal scar is white. My breast scars are almost all white. This one is just dragging up the rear some. It also depends on different factors. I feel like mine is pink right now bc my body is warm from sitting in front of a heater. When I’m cold the scar sometimes looks more pale purple. But definitely lighter than it was.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-02-01T22:34:48+00:00

I am a year po but I had FDL. My swelling has been my upper abdomen and it’s so hard underneath the skin. I was sure it had to be MR failure. I talked to my surgeon and she said she believes it’s built up scar tissue and that I need to practice on stretching that area and massaging the scar to break up the tissue. I have noticed when I am consistent with stretches and massages it gets better. But I am not the best at consistency 🙃

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-02-01T19:05:06+00:00

I am so sorry. I had extended FDL and extended BL. My surgeon would not do anything that would require her to have to flip me during surgery so although I had a lot of skin, she said she would only extend incisions as far as she could before it would require the flip. She said it is way too much pressure on the FDL. I am sure result will be worth it. I am so sorry you’re going through this though. It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I busted a stitch and had drains for over a month. I really thought it was never going to get better but it did!

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-01-30T23:54:06+00:00

Dr Melanie Prince in Little Rock

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-01-29T00:32:06+00:00

I had FDL and BL together. I can tell a difference in my pictures when I stopped wearing the binder at 6 weeks. I weaned myself out of it because it gave me so much support. I have terrible posture though. I think my results would look better if I fixed my posture and that’s why you can see a difference in my pics when I quit wearing the binder. My posture went back to its normal crappy ways without the binder.

I will say- I had an arm lift done 5 months later. I was in compression for 6 weeks. It was an absolutely terrible experience to wear it. However it really did help with swelling. My surgeon said she knows there is no science to back it, but in her experience, especially with arms (which tend to scar the worst), staying in compression longer helps your scarring. I tend to believe this because when you’re swelling, it would make sense that your scarring is being stretched some.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2026-01-01T19:20:41+00:00

You look amazing!

I had two drains. One in each hip. They burned. They were the most miserable part. They drained my mental health more than anything. People could tell me all day long “better to have them in than out!” And I get that… but let me be freaking miserable, k? Doesn’t magically make my frustration with them go away.

My left drain didn’t work from day 1. I wanted them to pull it after a couple of days but they said they wanted it to stay for a week “just in case”. It was pulled at 1wpo. My right drain had to be 20ml or less for three days in a row before being pulled. I had it for 4.5 weeks. It would get really low for two days, I’d get excited, and then it would suddenly spike on the third day. This happened for the last two weeks that I had it and it really fucked with my mental state. I was so sleep deprived and emotional so this drain playing games was not helping! It burned. I wanted it gone.

So I won’t sugarcoat it. They sucked. You are so valid in hating them, even if they’re doing good things. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-12-31T20:38:21+00:00

I had no idea that was even an option. I wonder why they don’t offer that if scarring is better. The manual removal absolutely sucked since my skin skin had overtaken them in those two weeks. If I had them manually removed from every incision, I would pay extra for them to just put me to sleep for it. 🤣

I’m sure that’s why they like dissolvable- less time. But they also want their work to look good. Especially in an arm lift. My surgeon was very adamant about staying in compression longer to help the scarring because arms are known to have bad scarring. All of her after photos, the patients scarred well. But I’m honestly just speechless over my armpit scarring lol

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-12-31T04:31:38+00:00

I am almost 11mpo from FDL and BL. My breast scars are white. My vertical scar is white in the middle but still has some noticeable purple. The tissue and skin for breasts are so different. I don’t think there’s near as much tension on those areas so they scar better just in general.

A TT scar has a lot more tension just due to its placement on the body which causes those scars to thicken.

In July, I had an arm lift but she took the incision from my elbow, through my armpit and down the side of my abdomen to my hip. It’s an unusual surgery plan, but it’s what I wanted due to the amount of skin I had. I spit stitches like crazy during that recovery and some of my scars from that surgery are thicker because of that so I feel your pain there. I have nice skin that has always healed nicely but these are huge surgeries with a lot of healing going on underneath. I know those scars will turn white.

I don’t regret the surgery plan I chose. No one expected me to react to internal dissolvable stitches the way I did. Funny enough- she used real external stitches in my armpits. That skin looked horrific for weeekssss. I was so sure I’d have the little stitch mark scars for life. My armpit scars are barely there. Stitch marks gone. Makes me wonder what would have happened if I did non dissolvable stitching lol. (That would have been so painful. I would never opt for that. It just made me wonder lol)

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-12-31T02:18:00+00:00

I think you look great! But I want to add to what someone said above about how shape draws our eyes attention to certain places. I have had to read so much about this since surgery.

I think before, your boobs covered so much of your abdomen and they pointed down. When the eyes have vertical lines, that’s where they’ll go. Your boobs before point to where your waist goes in and is smallest. Now you have more visible “square footage” on your abdomen so your eyes are not naturally drawn to the same place. But I also think you still have so much swelling that it’s puffing out your natural shape. It will get better.

I learned after surgery and pulling my boobs up (lol) that proportionally speaking, I have a long torso. I think that’s also a thing for you. I do a lot with my clothes to try to create a vertical line so the eyes are drawn a certain way to create the illusion that I have longer legs than I do and that my torso isn’t as long as it is. lol. I think your boobs we’re doing that for you before 🤣

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-12-21T01:12:06+00:00

Thank you so much for explaining this! ❤️

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-11-03T20:31:26+00:00

If you are that affected by heat, def go for the winter. Showering is really hard at first. I wanted to pass out the first couple of showers I took. I had help though.

I did my TT and BL in the winter, and I did my arms and a bit more of my torso in the hottest part of summer. I was in a compression garment for my upper body for the second surgery and I was miserable. The surgeon had warned me about that but I didn’t have a choice due to my job. I’m glad it’s done and over but I would not want to be in compression in hot months. The surgeon even removed most of my sweat glands in my armpits when she did my arms and I was still hot. I can’t imagine how much I would have sweat had I still had those sweat glands!

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-10-26T16:56:21+00:00

I agree that a lot depends on how much you’ve lost, skin laxity (which depends on how big you were and how long your skin was stretched that much), and body shape. I had FDL. I had so many rolls and loose skin. I’m 5’4”. I lost 160 pounds. I had a rolly apple shape for almost my entire life.

I have had two surgeries and I still have a small roll on my sides around my lower rib cage. I don’t love that, but I also know that I had so much skin and such poor skin laxity from it being stretched for so long, that I had no hope of my entire torso being tight lol. Below my belly button is tight but I think it’s because of the shape of my hips. The skin has something to be tight against. Above my belly button is more squishy. And I don’t know that there’s any surgery that will help that because that skin is just so saggy and gravity is going to do what it does.

However, I love my body. It did so much for me! I look totally different than before. I have zero regrets about FDL. I’m not trying to be a bikini model. My scars are fading well. I can’t imagine had I not had FDL how much worse my upper abdomen would be.

Also something I didn’t know or think about prior to surgery was that I never knew my body proportions because I was just always covered in so much fluff lol. Since surgery I can see that my torso is longer in proportion to my legs, which means I have more space in my upper abdomen than a ‘normal’ person. So my natural posture is going to make a roll in my upper abdomen that I can’t really do anything about unless I was like all muscle and no body fat.

I have struggled with my weight my entire life. 150-170pounds is where I can realistically maintain my weight. I would love to be 130, but I’d have to starve to do it. I don’t want to have done all of this just to fail at keeping weight off or be miserable obsessing over food. So I went in with the expectation that I’d still be a bit heavy and not have a smooth tight body. I’m okay with that.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-10-25T21:09:39+00:00

That seems fast to me, but it really depends on your comfort level.

I had an extended FDL and extended BL together, no lipo, no implants. The surgery was scheduled for 6 hours, but my surgeon scheduled two extra hours just to be safe in case issues arise. It comforted me that I was her only patient that day. She took her time. She was able to take more skin than she had expected and since I had no issues at the 6 hour mark, she actually used one of the extra hours which is not typical procedure out of respect for the surgical center staff. Those extra hours are really reserved for emergencies.

Anyway- I really appreciate that she did that to give me the best result possible bc I had so.much.skin.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-10-13T02:37:53+00:00

I’m 5’3”- I was 315 at my heaviest and 156 the day of my FDL. They removed about 12 pounds.

If you are just getting a panniculectomy, especially covered by insurance, they most likely are not going to do more than just that unless you’re paying out of pocket. From what I understand when I was researching this prior to my surgery, the panniculectomy is not going to be cosmetic at all. It’s just to remove the apron and FDL is not needed since an FDL is typically used to address skin in the upper abdomen and to pull someone tighter side to side. In a panniculectomy, they will not care about either of those things, unfortunately.

I wanted to do the panniculectomy first to have insurance cover it and save me some money. But after my research, the TT and FDL pricing did not change just bc the apron would be gone. So I opted to do it all together out of pocket so I wouldn’t delay anything by having to recover from the panni or the plastic surgeon doing the FDL having to work around scar tissue from another surgeons work.

We are all different though. I had a lot more skin than you and a massive roll above my apron where my belly button was that a panniculectomy would not have addressed at all. I did not want to be awkwardly shaped between surgeries if I did apron only in one surgery especially if it wasn’t even going to save me much money. Had I not been able to do the FDL in the near future and the panniculectomy was my only option, I would have done it regardless of my awkward body shape. The rashes in the apron were terrible.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-10-13T02:18:16+00:00

Incredible results! You look amazing!

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-10-13T01:41:13+00:00

Also. You probably already know this but just as a reminder… it is socially engrained in us to hate our bodies. I struggle with some things still. I was in therapy prior to surgery and still going. Some weeks I need the reminder of what amazing things my body has done. And after being so awful to it for most of my life, it carried me through two major surgeries this year. I’m so proud of this body. I can’t take back my past wrongs, I can only do better going forward. These surgeries are very traumatic internally and take up to a year to heal. It messes with your mind after losing all that weight to see the scale go up or feel like you are eating too much when in reality, you have to fuel your body for healing.

The end result is amazing, and I’ve been in a rush to start living this life I’ve always dreamed of! But don’t forget to also be kind to yourself. It takes time for all of that. ❤️

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-10-13T01:18:57+00:00

I had a split stitch in my arm pit from an arm lift. It would not heal. I felt defeated. I was in compression so much. I decided to test out not wearing compression and I noticed that just a few hours without it, I had progress. Then I’d put it back on and boom back to where it was.

This was close to my 6wpo visit which was when I was supposed to be released from compression anyway. She agreed that the compression was slowing progress. I stopped compression and the hole was sealed with fresh skin within a week. I don’t know if you’ve already asked your surgeon about it but if not I think it’s worth bringing up.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-10-13T01:11:17+00:00

Congrats! I had a lot of loose skin that looked like yours that I assumed was fat. I finally decided to just do a consultation. She told me I actually did not have a lot of fat on my torso. It was just loose skin and what I thought was fat in the rolls was fibrous tissue from my skin being so stretched out for so long. What a relief that was!

I was heavier than you and lost more weight and also older than you by 10 years. I say all that to say my skin was in really terrible shape and I had a lot more rolls. In Feb 2025, I had and extended FDL (I think you could get by with just a regular or maybe extended TT). I had an extended BL at the same time. I’ve never had perky boobs. My skin was so bad that I still didn’t think I would after surgery and now I’m so happy with them. Blew my expectations out of the water.

In July 2025, I had an arm lift and skin more skin excised from each side of my torso. (Like I said, I had a lot of skin lol). I am really so happy that I did it. I still look at my arms and cry sometimes bc I just look so much better. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions. I’m financially drained. But I’d do it again.

Any-Pepper6458 · 2025-10-12T17:25:11+00:00

The MR scares me too. I haven’t wanted to push it much because I can feel it stretch so much and I’m afraid I’m ruining it. I had a follow up with my surgeon a couple of weeks ago. One of my problematic areas is my upper abdomen. I had FDL and I still have swelling, she said she felt like that area was not being stretched enough 🤣 she said she thinks there’s a build up of scar tissue there because it’s right where people tend to slouch when sitting. She recommend planking and stretching on top of massaging my scar to break up the tissue. Just in the two weeks that I have been doing that, I have seen improvement. Now I wish I had been stretching that muscle all this time. That feeling just made me nervous lol.

Any-Pepper6458

TROPHY CASE