You dread summer and the hot days it brings with it. You don't mind the temperatures, but you know that the heat will no longer permit you to hide your flabby arms under the guises of long sleeved sweaters and blouses. You dread the invitations to pool parties, and an outing to the park leaves you panting with anxiety. You know you look somewhat odd at the pool in eighty degree heat wearing that jacket, and everyone wonders about your long sleeved sweatshirt when playing tennis in the blazing July sun. Is there hope for you?
As a matter of fact, there is! Its name is brachioplasty, which is simply a fancy word for the process more colloquially known as an "arm lift." Loose skin is quite often the result of rapid weight loss. When you still carried around all that extra weight, your arms sought to compensate for the fatty deposits by stretching the skin. When you lost the weight, the skin did not tighten back up, and so you now have saggy, baggy skin that does not look very nice. Some patients may have the mistaken idea that liposuction will take care of this problem, but this is unfortunately not the case since the liposuction will remove the fat but not the loose skin.
Take note that brachioplasty is not for the faint of heart since a long incision, usually from the armpit all the way down to the elbow, needs to be made, and quite often the result of this incision is some scarring. While scarring may be minimized with properly administered post operative care, it cannot be totally avoided, and you will need to decide which is the lesser of two evils in your case. The procedure itself only takes a couple of hours and recovery is swift and any swelling or bruising can be easily concealed with loose fitting long sleeves. It is important to note that this procedure is only useful for excess loose skin and not for the removal of fatty deposits trapped underneath the skin. If you have issues with fat on your upper arms, you will most likely benefit more from an actual liposuction which, at some point down the road, may be followed up with a brachioplasty if nec essary.
It is important to realize that while side effects are rare, they do occur, and quite possibly the most dangerous one is any damage to nerves that run along the arm and that may temporarily or perhaps even permanently change the way you are able to feel your fingers, move them, or even influence the sensitivity of your skin in some areas. Skin infections and excessive fluid retention needing draining procedures were also among noted side effects, yet obviously they are not as severe as a loss of feeling or sensitivity.
Of course, much of this may be avoided when dealing with reputable physicians, state of the art facilities, and of course a faithful adherence to any pre-operative as well as post-operative regimen your surgeon prescribes for you. Avoidance of lotions and maybe even underarm deodorant for a while may go along way to prevent annoying rashes and skin irritations at the wound site, and may also help to decrease any possibility of swelling or excessive scarring. Additionally, a properly supervised exercise plan will prevent sutures from breaking open. As you can see, there is no kind of cosmetic surgery that it entirely risk free and without the possibility of complications; in many instances, however, the risks may be minimized by not being afraid to spend the extra money to purchase the highest quality of surgical know how, experience, and education in the form of the surgeon who will be operating on your bod y.
In addition to the foregoing, this is a time where background checks, licenses and testimonials need to be researched in detail to ensure that your physician is indeed as highly trained and experienced as he or she claims to be. Do not encounter the heartache of having received a cut rate operation at the expense of receiving cut rate results. Your body and your health are two things you should not skimp or compromise on!
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