- Nervous now, but excited.
Here we go!
I was probably around the age of 14
^when I was told that I was obese.
^I went to the doctor.
I remember stepping on the scale, and I weighed 280 pounds.
That's when the doctor told me
that I had to do something to lose weight.
If not, I could develop serious health issues.
I would get bullied a lot because of my weight,
because I was a lot bigger than a lot of other students,
and the easiest way to attack someone that's overweight
is to call them fat.
So, that's when I started working out.
I would just pretty much show up
and do 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there,
and I still ate the same way.
And just by doing cardio every day,
I went down to 250, I think it was.
These were a pair of my work pants that I used to have.
These are 40 by 32.
You honestly don't have too much
to choose from when you buy clothes.
If it fit me, I would buy it,
and it didn't matter what it was just because
I would struggle finding clothes that actually fit.
When I graduated high school I was at 230.
After high school, that's when I kind of
started learning how to eat healthy.
Once I started to learn how to eat right,
that's when I started lifting weights.
I started seeing a really big difference in body,
but the more weight that I lost,
my skin from my abdomen would sag more.
I discovered that I had another challenge
and that was the loose skin that I was left with.
Honestly, I started dieting a lot better
to see if that could help, but it wouldn't really.
The doctors explained it to me, it's like a sweater.
You can can have a sweater and stretch it out
and it's never gonna go back to the same fit,
and that's pretty much what happened to my skin.
So, right now I'm still hiding some of it.
These jeans are a little bit looser on top,
so it kinda covers the skin that I'm self-conscious about.
The looseness that goes all the way
at the bottom right here.
So if I lean forward, it just kinda falls out.
I know there's a lot of people out there
that have probably lost a lot more weight than me
and their skin's probably a lot more loose than mine,
but I feel like that's something I need to do for myself
in order to feel confident again in myself,
or to get that feeling at least that I've prolly never had.
It's the morning of my surgery.
It's 9:00, so my surgery's actually in two hours.
I don't even believe it's happening yet.
You don't really know what to expect pain wise.
My first consultation I went to was in October.
They told me I would be a good candidate for it
because I lost weight the healthy way
and I've maintained it for a good while.
It's been something that I've been wanting to do,
and I feel, for myself, it's something I have to do.
^Two drainage tubes inside of me right now.
They're just to remove any excess fluid
and drain any blood that's left inside my abdomen.
The doctor says I have to be changed at least twice a day.
I feel pretty good, I'm not in too much pain.
I thought it was gonna be more painful.
My back hurts more than anything
just 'cause I'm always hunched over and always sitting down,
but my incision doesn't really hurt.
But then again, I don't know.
I've been on pretty hard medication.
So, maybe that can be why.
They want me walking pretty often
just to prevent blood clots in my legs.
So, just to get up to go to the bathroom
or to get up to go eat,
just that little bit of walking helps.
And by next week I should be able
to start standing up straight and walking.
I should be good within two weeks,
but fully recovered is six weeks.
My belly button that I have now is my original belly button.
So, when they started he procedure they cut it out
and they brought my skin down and then they relocated it,
so they just wanna make sure it doesn't get infected.
So we have to clean around it,
put an antibiotic inside of it that way it doesn't close up.
My parents and my sister have been helping me a lot.
My mom's actually kinda there full-time
because she took off time from work.
They've been very supportive
just helping me out of the chair
because I need help getting up, taking a shower.
Usually it's something easy to do,
but when you're in this situation it's not easy at all.
I just got back from my second post-op.
Today went pretty good.
I haven't had any pain anymore.
I'm standing up a lot straighter,
so my back's not hurting anymore.
The two drains that I had put in, I only have one,
so they took one out today.
I got to see my scar today for the first time.
It doesn't look too bad.
It's healing pretty good, so that's a good thing.
Overall, I am happy with my results.
At first I kinda wasn't
because I had a lot of swelling going on,
and I guess I wasn't really expecting that much swelling.
I still have a little bit now.
It's normal, they said it's gonna go away
within six months to a year, so I'm only four months in.
Still kinda numb in certain parts,
like I can't really feel when I touch that area.
^But little by little I'm getting feeling back.
^First time I saw myself without loose skin,
^even though it was swollen and stuff like that,
^I got a really big smile on my face just because, obviously,
I didn't see that loose skin there.
I would say eight grade Carlos
is really proud of the Carlos I am today.
All the time and dedication that it took to lose the weight,
learning how to diet, exercise,
it was a really long process and obviously it took its time.
And this is my end result
to what I've been trying to accomplish all this time.
(upbeat music)