Excess Skin Removal Surgery After 170lb Wt Loss

HELLO to my friends, family, followers, and (perhaps) strangers! Thank you so much for reading this! Before I continue, first thing's first:

***CONTENT WARNING*** This post is about intentional weight loss. If that is a triggering topic for you, please be kind to yourself and don't continue on reading.

My name is Jade and I'm a Registered Nurse, albeit quite a non-traditional one. First I'll get to the point of this fundraiser, then I'll explain more about what led me here, why I haven't talked about my body transformation until now, and what it would mean to me to be able to meet this goal. The year 2020 was by far the most transformative one of my life so far, with 2021 not far behind. I figured that New Year's Eve - the 2nd one in a row that I'll be spending alone (it's fine) - might be a good time to ask for help closing perhaps the most enduring chapter of my life: My journey with my weight and self-acceptance.

On February 4th, 2020, I had a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. That's a fancy way of saying I had weight loss surgery. I had multiple chronic health conditions that were directly caused or exacerbated by my long-standing struggle with obesity. These conditions, combined with a significant family history of heart disease, led to my decision to confront this issue head-on before I turned 30.

The procedure and the radical lifestyle changes thereafter led to a loss of over 170 pounds. I lost the vast majority of that amount within the first year of surgery, which is an incredibly short timeframe for such a massive body transformation. Because of this, I have been living with a significant amount of excess skin on my body for the past year. This has presented issues of its own–it causes almost constant skin irritation, it hinders the exercise I would like to do to keep myself healthy, as well as being simply unsightly. That last point may seem like the least important, but as a single woman in my 30s who occasionally attempts to navigate the anxiety-inducing world of dating...it significantly hinders my confidence in spite of the great deal of work I've done on my self-esteem.

I recently had a consultation with a surgeon, who assured me that even though I have tried every skin repair treatment and exercise in the book, this unfortunate remnant of my transformation can't be fixed without surgical intervention.

The surgery, from start to finish, will cost $15,800. The additional amount here is to assist with sustaining me financially during the recovery period. Since I work for myself as a nurse consultant for the music industry, I do not have the benefit of sick leave pay. If I don't work, I don't make money. Additionally, the majority of my work occurs on the road, touring with bands while helping themselves and their fans stay safe at concerts in the setting of COVID-19. Sleeping on a tour bus and lugging equipment from venues, to hotels, to airports, is quite physically demanding. So, I will not be able to do the real money-making portion of my job until I am fully recovered, which may take as much as a month.

I am anticipating an extremely busy Spring/Summer season of work, and so I am hoping to get this procedure done in February of 2022. I need a deposit 20% of the full amount ($3,160) to schedule the procedure, and will need to pay the full amount by the time of my pre-op appointment shortly before the surgery. I am absolutely not expecting the goal I've set to be met, but literally any amount will help me to be able to afford this surgery, which is not covered by insurance. Please, if you are able, help me be able do my job of keeping people safe while spending a lot less time fighting with my body.

If you follow me online, you know that I'm pretty open about my journey with mental health, so you may be wondering why I have not talked publicly about this journey with physical health. The answer, to put it simply, is that I did not think it was as important to do so. I am not a better person simply because I look different now and weigh less. If I am a better person, it is because of the work I've done on my mental health in tandem with the weight loss. I don't believe that anyone should be judged because of their weight, and I did not want to give anyone the impression that my "after" self is better than my "before" self. Everyone is entitled to share their journeys as they wish. However, I have felt that posting the before/after photos side-by-side to celebrate my weight loss without acknowledging the mental health journey and surgical procedure that helped me get there, could send a discouraging or incomplete message to those who are navigating their own battles with their physical selves.

If you're interested, here's a little background on what the pandemic has looked like for me.

I'm a Registered Nurse who has always worked in the areas of mental health and public health. My career has primarily been spent working with people who are uninsured, underserved, and marginalized. In September of 2019, I decided to begin a Master's degree in Public Health to continue this trajectory and help people beyond the bedside. In January of 2020, I began working in the Epidemiology Division of the Minnesota Department of Health, performing Infectious Disease Surveillance. And oh man, what a hilarious time to get into the field.

That same month, I had my last drop of alcohol. I had to stop drinking temporarily for surgery, and decided that it was the best thing I could have done for my mental health, and so I simply have not started up again. On January 23, 2022 I'll have been sober for 2 years.

On February 4th 2020 I had my surgery, for which I had been preparing nearly a year at this point. I had started going to therapy, received a life-changing diagnosis of ADHD, and began working with a therapist to divorce my sense of self-worth from my weight, as well as working toward eliminating my life-long habit of using food as a vice. By the time surgery came, I was already, in many ways, mentally healthier than I'd ever been, and I was thrilled to begin the journey to becoming physically healthier as well.

The surgery and the changes to follow were initially grueling. I couldn't eat food for nearly 8 weeks, and I was left without any of my previous vices as the pandemic began to make my work busier and more stressful than ever before. However, I am incredibly grateful for the serendipitous timing of my procedure, because it is frightening to me to imagine what the stress of the pandemic would have done to my physical and mental health, had I still been able to drink alcohol and use food as comfort.

So, the pandemic raged on as I recovered, and due to a whole series of bizarre events, I eventually came to the decision to quit my job and begin carving out my own path in public health. In September of 2020, I packed up my belongings and my cat into my car and moved down to Nashville by myself to start my own business. Music has always been my favorite thing on planet earth, and I wanted to help live music and the gig workers who make it possible get back on their feet safely. I am incredibly lucky to have been able to work with some of my favorite artists and the incredible crews who support them, and it appears that work will only get busier as Spring arrives and Omicron surges. If you'd like to see more about the work I've been doing, please feel free to check out my Instagram.

So, that's a very condensed version of my pandemic experience. It has been interspersed with heartbreak, loneliness, as well as some of the most joyful times of my entire life. I have worked incredibly hard to get where I am today and I hate asking for help–but it would be truly life-changing if I am able to have this surgery and finally be no longer held back by the physical remnants of the weight I worked so hard to lose.

If you've read this far, I want to express my deepest thanks for your time even if you are unable to contribute. It feels very freeing to finally share this aspect of my life and tell this part of my story, and I am so grateful to everyone in my life who has celebrated personal victories with me privately over the past two years. Any monetary contribution or word of kindness will be paid forward in perpetuity, and I wish you all continued health as we head into the new year.

All my love,

Jade