Woman who had mounds of sagging skin after losing 360lb transforms after surgery
A woman from Dallas, Texas, who lost over 360 lbs over the past five years following a series of bariatric surgeries had been left with huge folds of skin hanging over her frame. She recently underwent a skin removal procedure to get rid of the excess skin that was weighing her down, and now looks like a completely different person!
Melanie Mason, 29, had weighed 535 pounds before she decided to undergo a surgical intervention to reduce her weight. Over a period of five years, she underwent two bariatric surgeries that helped her get down to a much healthier 175 lbs. However, the extreme weight loss left her with rolls of skin that marred her appearance and made it difficult for her to get around.
Melanie was on 'Skin Tight,' a show on TLC that follows two people in each episode who are preparing to undergo skin removal surgery, and also reveals the results of the procedure and the transformed bodies of the patients following their operations.
Melanie said that she had dreamed of feeling like a "normal" 29-year-old again, and hoped that the procedure would help her with that. She confessed that in order to hide her predicament and maintain a semblance of normalcy, she was forced to wear two shape control garments at the same time."Dating is really hard," she revealed, opening up about a bad experience she had after her return to the dating scene when a man had called off a first date rather insensitively after he touched the skin hanging off her arm. However, she managed to find love despite the cruel rejection, and her new boyfriend stood with her family as they celebrated her dramatic transformation together.
Melanie talked about her "wonderful" weight loss and described the changes that she had gone through during the five-year period, saying that her body had appeared to "deflate." She shared, "You can just feel the extra skin weighing on your bones. When it pulls on your body, it feels heavy, you can feel the skin rubbing together."
"The pool is the only workout where I don't feel the skin weighing me down. I've been going to the pool when it's not busy but I get very nervous when there are other people there. I feel that people are going to judge me, look at me, laugh at me," she confessed.
Melanie clarified that she wasn't oblivious to her own plight. She said, "And I get it, I'm not stupid, but it still hurts. I try so hard to look normal but you can't really hide all this excess skin. A good chunk of what I do during the day is around the maintenance of my skin."
She went through her daily routine in front of the cameras, covering her whole body with talcum powder so that she could minimize sweatiness and unpleasant body odors, and then she put on her body shapers. Melanie shared, "I feel like I'm supposed to be something else, like I'm supposed to do something else. I can't do it with this body."
Melanie got approved for the skin removal procedure by a specialist in the field, Dr Younan Nozaradan, and she was eventually scheduled to have her excess skin removed over the course of three different surgeries. Her first surgery was a 360 degree abdominoplasty that had to be delayed a little, though.
When she got to the hospital for her abdominoplasty, the staff were unhappy to learn that she had eaten breakfast that morning before the procedure. They had to pump her stomach to clear it of its contents before they could continue with the procedure.
After the surgery, Melanie was relieved of an astounding 14 lbs of loose skin, and she looked ecstatic as she showed off her new body to her loved ones waiting to see what she looked like now. Despite the success of her first surgery, Melanie has been forced to postpone her next two procedures as she had to find a new place to live after her relationship with her roommate soured.
The new hurdle isn't keeping her down, though, as she is happier than she has ever been with her newfound confidence. She is living life the way she always wanted to with the body she always dreamed of having. At 29, she has been given another chance, and she seems determined to make the most of it.