Lifting the Apron: Panniculectomy Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe panniculectomy, the operation to remove a hanging fold of belly skin and fat. Writers came to it after gastric bypass and sleeve surgery, a weekly weight-loss injection, 110 pounds lost walking at truck stops, thirty years of diets, carrying twins, and rashes and infections that sent one woman to the emergency room with a fever. They include a school cafeteria manager, an office cleaner on Medicaid, an ICU nurse, a PE teacher who lifted his way down from 330 pounds, a dairy farmer, a roofer back at work after nine days, a cross-country coach, a deacon, a former college linebacker and a 72-year-old who wanted to get back to water aerobics. Places range from Cape Breton to Johannesburg and Waikato to Bradford. Writers describe insurance photographs, three denials before a yes, waiting lists, medical scheme gaps, a credit card, surgery across a border, quitting smoking before a nicotine test, getting blood sugar right first, a hernia nobody knew about, three weeks of drains, going home the same evening, and asking for a woman on the team. Not every recovery went smoothly: writers describe a wound that opened and took its time, a return to the operating room, numbness that stayed, loose skin left elsewhere, and results that were good but not quite right.

Who it's for

For anyone living with a hanging apron of skin after weight loss or pregnancy, for those waiting on an insurance decision or a surgery date, and for the partners who end up emptying the drains.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 233 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.