 many of you have been very curious about my skin removal surgery and you wanted to know a little bit more in depth about what was going on so I thought that this would be a great chance for me to just sit down and kind of give you a step-by-step through it and let you know kind of the ins and outs of it and please stay till the end because I do have a surprise for everyone so let's get into that right now. Hello there girlfriends I'm so glad that you've got to join me today. I'm going to start out by telling you that this skin removal surgery was so important to me and a lot of people have asked me why in the world did you do it. Now if you go back and you watch my other video you'll understand a little bit about the infections that I was getting. I about three almost four years now I lost 125 pounds through bariatric surgery I had gastric bypass I had tried all kinds of diets by having surgery definitely was the answer for me so I took off that 125 pounds in about a year and a half somewhere about that but when you lose that kind of weight you get a lot of loose skin and I always liken it to a balloon that's been stretched out and blown up really big and when you let that air out of that balloon that balloon never quite looks the same it's wrinkly it's stretched out however the skin itself wouldn't have been a problem for me but I have had three cesareans so not only did I have the extra apron of fat that went over on my stomach I also had it where it was kind of pulled up so the flap was very pronounced and especially in the summertime I was always having infections I'd get a staff infection I'd get a strep infection something up in there because it was always moist it was always wet because of just our body and how our body sweats no matter what I did no matter how much powder I used I really had a lot of infections and it was very hard on me so I just made the decision to have the skin removal surgery and I realized that there are not a lot of people that are gonna agree with that and that's okay but this was the right decision for me when I walked it would flap on my thighs when I sat down it would go down to my thighs and you know it was just it was not something that I was proud of it was not pretty I just really had a hard time with it by the way if you're new to my channel I would really appreciate it if you take a minute and just subscribe I do all kinds of makeup videos fashion videos skincare and we do a lot of talking about the mature woman here as well the woman over 40 and all the challenges that are that so I'd love to have you subscribe and of course my ladies that are here the big reason that I'm doing this video is because at the end I have a big thank you for you so make sure that you stay till the end of the video and hopefully I won't make it too long okay so I consulted with four different surgeons the last surgeon that I consulted with I knew he was the one he explained everything to me he was so cut and dried it was exactly what I knew I needed he was kind and gentle but at the same time there was his job and he knew what to do and I just felt very comfortable with him and his name is Dr. Barnett and he's in Utah so if you are somebody that is in the market for something like that I highly recommend him him and his staff have been phenomenal phenomenal to me they have just been fantastic so they booked me in for a couple months later while I was waiting because I knew that afterwards you had to be kind of bent over when you're walking because they tighten you so much around your stomach that you can't exactly straighten up so it's I knew that my core muscles especially my back muscles needed to be in better shape that they were so for the eight weeks before I had the surgery I was doing tons of core exercises I was doing planks I was doing push-ups I was doing everything I could figure out to do in order to get that back and those abdominal muscles stronger so you have a pre-op meeting where they talk about the surgery they also talk about all the medications or supplements that you're on that you have to stop taking they also talk about they also do your little bit of hemoglobin blood work just make sure that your blood count is high enough because you do lose a lot of blood in this surgery it's a pretty major surgery some matter of fact it's a very major surgery so I had that and then a week later I act I went in for my surgery and what happens is the nurse comes in she talks to you she gets you prepped and gets that IV in and then the anesthesiologist anesthesiologist comes in he talks to you about what you're going to be going through and then the actual plastic surgeon comes in and he marks you all up and you're into surgery it was that quick I mean I don't even think that I was there for 15 maybe 20 minutes before I was going into the room to be operated on and with his private practice I actually walked into the operating room and as a matter of fact what was really cool is he showed me the recovery room the day that I had my consult with him and he showed me the OR which was phenomenal I was just really shocked so at the point when I had the surgery was about 190 pounds and I was fine at that weight it wasn't you know the bottom weight that I wanted to be at but at the same time when you're 310 pounds plus you you know you feel like a million bucks when you're under 200 pounds and you're doing well I also want to tell you I do have some loose skin right here it's not too bad though even for you know being somebody that was that overweight and that lost that much weight it's you know it's pretty flabby but I think I can work on that and you know really tone that muscle up as I am able to the one thing that does bother me is my thighs I have such a bad cellulite in my bottom thighs that it's really hard for me to wear shorts or anything like that without being embarrassed I'm gonna try and lose a little bit more weight now and try to possibly you know work on those I don't know exactly what I'm gonna have to research that a bunch but if any of you have gotten rid of your cellulite let me know I would really appreciate that okay back to the surgery they took me into the OR room and there was a gurney and then there was another I guess the bed that they actually operate on so I laid down that they had me get on the gurney myself I lay down the anesthesiologist said okay I'm gonna inject something for you to relax and this medication will kind of burn and he start he immediately started to put that in I'm like oh my god that hurts and that's all I remember and I you know I think that he said that in order to try and make me feel more at ease and then I was out and I do not remember anything but I will tell you what they did in the operating room I have pictures of it which I'm not gonna show because you know I'm very exposed but I had a cut all the way around my whole body so it went from my crack of my butt all the way around to my front he took off all of the skin that was in the you know the above the belly button probably like three or four inches above the belly button pulled that and pulled that skin where I had my scar for my C-sections and just pulled it together and really tightened that while he was in there before he did that he actually took my abdominal muscles and brought them together and sewed them together so now I actually have ab muscles which is interesting after not having them for my oldest son is 34 years old so after not having that it's just crazy that I actually have abs now and then on the back same thing they don't pull the back as tight because if they did there would be a mess that would be pulling stitches so you're you know you're not as tight but before he did all of that he also did 360 lipo which means that he did lipo all over my body on the sides of my body he did lipo on the front he did lipo down into the groin pubic area he did lipo down my butt he did it up on my back he did it on the inner and outer thighs and everywhere I mean everywhere it's called 360 lipo and even though I had given my consent for that and I definitely knew that I want I needed some lipo I didn't realize how extensive the lipo section was gonna be I will try to insert pictures as we go along here because I know that you're interested in that as well I don't remember any of this I don't remember waking up in the recovery room I don't remember anything that they did to me in the recovery room I don't remember even getting into the car going home I do remember being in the car and then I remember waking up to get into the house because I do have some steps I was very concerned beforehand about the steps that I had to get in up because they're a little bit steeper and there's about six steps I was very worried about that but I just rushed through there because I knew I had to do it I got in bed I don't remember anything until the middle of the night that night and my husband he was fantastic I don't remember anything but apparently he was like stuffing the pills in the in the side of my mouth right here because that's what the nurse the nurse actually came that night to make sure it was okay which is fantastic about this particular surgeon he sends a nurse to you that night because you do go home with the catheter so you don't have to get up for about 24 hours so the nurse says to him to stick it in you know her cheek because it will dissolve but you it won't make you choke and you weren't not going to choke anyway because you're pretty much kind of sitting up a little bit as you sleep and then I remember waking up at about three or four in the morning and asking him you know how everything went we got through that night and the next morning the nurse came and she got me up for the first time in oh my lord that was intense that was probably one of the hardest things that I've ever done it was that intense the pain was incredible but she was incredible because she's so strong and she basically lifted me up we got me into the bathroom and she you know took the catheter out and that was a total relief because when I was on my bed and I was continued to tell my husband over and over again have to pee have to pee have to pee and he kept saying you have a catheter in just pee well you if you've ever experienced that it is so hard to pee so I was like totally concentrated on peeing and trying to get that out because I my bladder felt so full and it was just crazy I hate catheters because of that and then I don't remember a lot for this first week I remember getting up I remember using a walker being very bent over I remember the pain being very intense my husband was with me the whole entire time my son stayed out with our three dogs that we had a baby gate so that the dogs couldn't come in the room and it was just kind of a fog for me I don't remember a lot but I do remember that each day it got a little bit better now my bed as you can see right back there my bed's a little bit higher so my husband being the genius that he is got me a little step still so I stepped on to that and then I was able to push myself on to the bed but my bed does go up and down like a hospital bed which saved my life I feel like it was really good if you don't have that you don't have the ability you know to have a bed like that you're gonna need to get a wedge pillow for your feet and for your back and then as many pillows as you feel like you need anyway there are a lot of things that I used and I can do that in another video the next week my husband went back to work on a Monday or Tuesday and it really was scary for me after that and about halfway through that week I'm in tears I'm telling my son that I don't feel good that I feel like I'm gonna die and he's like mom you're not gonna die when's the last time you took a pain pill and I'm like well I'm out of pain pills because they don't give you that many to begin with but then I contacted the nurse and she said I'm gonna give you a few more just because you had probably the most major surgery that we do in the office it is one of the hardest recoveries that I've ever been through I've been operated on several times my bariatric surgery seven days post-op bariatric surgery or gastric bypass I had a bell blockage I had to go back in and have that repaired which I guess happens very often with bariatric surgery I had three C sections I've had an appendectomy and now this under my belt and yes this was way beyond and I even with my first child I labored him clear up to the point where I pushed and I couldn't get his head out and so they had do emergency C section he had this huge head even that labor I would take over this surgery this surgery was very hard everyone that I've talked to has said that the surgery was like having a C section I don't feel like that a C section was way easier and I just figure everybody's so different so don't go in there thinking it's the worst possible surgery because Melissa might just be a pansy and I might just not know what I'm talking about for everyone but that's my story now let me tell you that afterwards I found out that they took off 14 pounds between the skin and the actual liposuction and all the fat they took off 14 pounds off my body after that I ended up losing about six more pounds so I'm about 20 pounds down from where I was when I started which is great that means that I'm about 10 pounds away from the goal that I want to be which is 160 pounds I've always wanted to be around that and now I have to wear a binder which that's one thing that I didn't talk about you come home with a Faja which is compression on your thighs all the way up underneath your chest it's kind of just shape where all the way through and they put a waist cincher around me as well so now I only wore the Faja for probably two weeks maybe almost three weeks and then I went to a waist trainer which is really interesting I wear that a lot still they still want me to wear that as much as I possibly can I wear it to bed it is very very constricting and it drives me insane so I did find some leggings that are compression clear from the bottom of them down by the ankle all the way up underneath my chest so I wear those all the time and I'm wearing them right now I'll just show you really quick what they are they basically come clear up underneath my bra and they just really hold you in there very very tight and yeah these have really saved me because I didn't necessarily want to be wearing something all the time like that waist trainer because it's very constricting and when you sit down it's really hard to be able to sit and feel comfortable in it and a lot of times it will get all messed up so I just went to these compression things during the day and then at night and in the evenings I go ahead and I use my waist trainer by the way let me just tell you this shirt isn't it cute it's such a cute shirt it's got a little flutter sleeve and it's a chiffon fabric so I think that's polyester and the little tie with the buttons so dang cute if you're somebody that has blood clot issues or vein issues or problems you might really think about getting some of these and trying them they just they feel great once you get them on they're a little bit hard to get on because you buy your true to size and they're compressed I mean they're tight they really push in on your body so yeah be just aware that that's what happens they do stretch out a tiny bit but I would say that if you're somebody that can't handle that kind of really strong compression then size up one size that's what I would probably do this last Monday and I don't know when this video will go up but this last Monday was eight weeks and I'm still having a little bit of nerve pain when you get cut all the way around everything is numb completely numb and that is because they're cutting all the nerves all the way around and those nerves have to regrow pathways so that they can talk back and forth through the skin and regrow all of the blood vessels and everything like that so what happens is as those nerves are waking up as they're regrowing they end up sometimes getting angry and I talked about that mine aren't angry they're furious at me and so I have had to have some cortisone shots in my tummy to try and take away some of that nerve pain it is quite intense if you've ever had nerve pain or if you haven't had nerve pain it's an intense almost jolt of shock and then sometimes it'll just be like deep throbbing pain like an you know like a knife pain so it can be quite intense and that was one part that I wasn't expecting I wish that I had researched that just a little bit more so if there is anything that I can tell you it's that expect that and I also didn't expect to be numb this long now they said that it can take up to a year and for all the numbness to go away and for all of your skin to wake up I still have quite a bit right around the incision and then on the sides or they did lipo on my butt or on my hips then it's really quite numb there as well so that's another thing that I wish that I had known beforehand by the way I didn't even tell you they cut your belly button out and I don't even get a belly button until March 27th so I should probably show you that you guys are gonna crack up so it's like all the way down I don't even have a belly button yeah it's supposed to be right here and yeah he's gonna put me in a belly button on March 27th I don't know why they wait so long other than they want you completely healed because it's another thing that you have to kind of take care of another wound that you have to take care of so I'm sure that's what it was just too funny I'm like an alien cuz I don't have a belly button so I texted my husband last night I'm like I'm sad and he's like why are you sad and I said cuz I don't have a belly button and everybody in the world has a belly button but me anyway we were being silly but it is kind of weird you guys when I was when this was all going on the support that you poured out to me was phenomenal it was phenomenal I just feel like I I can't even begin to tell you how lovely all of you were you know people talk all the time about the trolls on the internet and there are a lot of nasty people out there and there are a lot of nasty people just in everyday life but 130,000 of you are amazing women that I am blown away by your love and your acceptance and how caring you all were and I just I can't thank you enough because me reading those comments kept me going I mean I I was in the depths of despair some days with pain and just sadness just what it you know what have I done to myself type thing on some days and other days it was just the winter blues and other days it was just sad because whatever reason menopause I don't know but you know basically you guys kept me going and I love you guys beyond what you can possibly imagine okay enough of that I want to tell you that I'm doing giveaway obviously that's what this is all about there is so much in here but the thing is is that that's not all there is there is also this and I have another box okay so I am giving away three large boxes of goodies and there will be all kinds of stuff in there I mean I've got skincare haircare lots and lots of makeup okay so this is how the prices are gonna go there's gonna be three boxes and then one international price the international people they're gonna get a gift card I always do a $50 gift card for my international people because I feel like you guys I want to include you but it is so dang expensive and sometimes there are taxes on things that we send over there and sometimes they just confiscate so if you're an international girl I want you to comment down below where you're from and then the other thing we're going to do is we're gonna use the purple heart I always use the purple heart the purple ribbon is a fiber my algea ribbon I know that it stands for a lot of different things because there's only so many colors in the rainbow to have awareness for but I have fiber my algea and and my favorite color is purple so the ribbon for fiber my algea is purple so we're gonna use a purple heart in the comment you can comment whatever you want but if you're international please tell me where you're from I love to hear that and you know what if that's all you want to tell me if you're domestic if you're in the United States that's all you would really have to tell me as well you can comment anything you like but please do a purple heart now if you are on somewhere like your television or something you're watching that that way and you can't put a purple heart in there then it's not a big deal just say purple heart and so I know that you know you got it and you understood where I'm coming from okay so there's gonna be one winner here on YouTube there's gonna be one winner on my Instagram and there's gonna be one winner on my TikTok I really would like to build my TikTok up so those are three chances for you to be able to win you can go over to my Instagram it's Mrs. Melissa M one because Mrs. Melissa M was already taken and then Mrs. Melissa M was also taken on TikTok so on TikTok I am Mrs. Melissa M beauty and I'll make sure that all of those are linked down below so that you know that now I don't run my giveaways through any sort of a third-party app or anything I just kind of do the spinny thing there's an app that I can run it through that way and I just randomly pick somebody just so you know that do not fall for the scammers okay I am not going to be answering anybody on this I'm actually you know you're you're going to see me give you a heart but if anything comes up from anybody else I I'm not kidding if my icon comes up underneath your post and you click over there and you see that they don't have any videos they don't have any that's not me that's a scammer and I'm not going to respond to comments in this video because if I did it would take me forever and the other thing is that the scammers they just glom onto everybody so do not be fooled I do not announce winners through that what I will do though is starting the week of March 19th I will have like two or three videos up that week watch those videos because I will announce the winners in those videos now I will only announce the winner for the YouTube box in a YouTube video if you want to know the other winner winners I'm gonna announce those on Instagram and then also on a TikTok post you can follow me on all of those if you want to and up your chances of being able to win and we have our international gals as well so so much fun I'm so excited it's my way of giving back to you and telling you how much I love you guys and wanting to support you as much as you guys support me thank you so much alright that's everything for today I hope that you're all doing very very well please be happy be healthy and come back around really soon I love you much goodbye my friends