After losing 150+ pounds, Cherokee County woman undergoes excess skin removal surgery

HOLLY SPRINGS, Ga. - At 37, Felicia Zorn has come a long way.

"When I started my weight-loss journey, I was a little over 420 pounds, and I was in my early 20s," Zorn says. "And, I remember seeing a doctor, and he told me, 'Felicia, if you don't make a change, you won't live to see 40.'"

So, Zorn, who now lives in Holly Springs, did make a change.

Over the next decade, as she married FOX 5 Atlanta photojournalist Jim Zorn, and gave birth to two sons, now 4 and 6, Zorn lost about 50 pounds on her own and then underwent bariatric surgery.

"I had the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, and I was the ideal patient," Zorn says. "I was making sure I was getting all my protein. There was never a cheat day, until I realized, after I already lost almost 140 pounds, by being the model patient, I realized that I could eat certain foods, and they didn't make me sick.  So, I could sneak sweet things and eat them, and my pouch was fine with it. "

Through her pregnancies and the pandemic, Zorn gradually regained most of the weight she had lost.

"The weight just slowly crept back up. So, I went back up over 350 pounds despite having that first surgery.

So, she decided to try again.

This time, she says, she got counseling to help her reevaluate her relationship with food, used the injectable weight-loss drug Wegovy, and then underwent weight-loss revision surgery.

"I went into it with a different mindset," she says.  I went into it with, it's not about deprivation; it's about moderation."

As Zorn dropped below 200 pounds, closing in on her goal weight, the excess skin around her middle would not budge.

Zorn says the extra skin made it harder for her to exercise, and it was uncomfortable.

"It's kind of led me to that moment, where I knew plastic surgery was the next thing that I needed, because I was starting to have a lot of issues with having the excess skin, and knowing that there was nothing I was going to be able to do as far as diet and exercise to get rid of it," she says.

Dr. Asaf Yalif of Y Plastic Surgery in Atlanta says excess skin is a problem for many of his patients who lose a significant amount of weight.

"If that skin is then left hanging, despite the fat not being there, it can become difficult to maintain cleanliness and can lead to breakdown of skin and rashes and wounding," Dr. Yalif says.

He talked Zorn through her options, focusing first on the sagging skin around her midsection.

"And so, we ultimately decided on doing a lower body lift, and that included a 360-degree tummy tuck and skin removal, as well as fleur-de-lys, which is the muscle repair," Zorn says.

In December 2023, as she headed into her first excess skin removal surgery, Zorn says she was both excited and torn.

"I was taking a lot of pictures, you know, to remind myself, because body dysmorphia is real, you know." Zorn says.  "I can still look in the mirror sometimes, and I see 400+ pound Felicia.  And. I know that she's not looking back at me, and that's not what other people see, but she's still in me. She's part of me."

Zorn says the surgery, which was not covered by her health insurance plan, was about $15,000.

Dr. Yalif removed a belt of excess skin, about 15 pounds, Zorn says, from around her waist, then tightened and contoured her abdominal muscles to create a smaller waist.

Then, he tightened and contoured her abdominal muscles to reshape her waist.

It was a major operation.

"It's not just skin removal, even though it sounds like it's a small thing," Dr. Yalif says. "The reality is, the skin weighs a lot, and we're going to make very large incisions to remove that skin. So it's going to require a significant amount of time and energy to heal from that surgery."

Patients, he says, must be physically and mentally prepared for surgery and recovery.

"It's going to take, probably, a good 6 to 8 weeks to get back to normal," he says.

The healing was harder than Zorn expected.

"I've had two c-sections, and I had two bariatric surgeries," Zorn says.  "And, I thought, ‘Okay, I can handle anything, I can go back to work maybe a week or so. No, it was a big, big surgery. ",

Today, Felicia Zorn says the extra skin is gone, and she feels good about the woman she sees in the mirror.

"When I look at my body today, I don't even see the scars," she says.  "I don't see any of those imperfections in the skin. I just see someone who has been through a battle and won the war. And I'm so, so happy to be where I am. "