Hi Kaz, I feel your pain! In my 20s I lost 10 stones with WW and the most disappointing thing of all was that I felt my body looked better naked before than it did after as at least it was all filled out! I had so much loose skin and went to see my GP who referred me to an NHS surgeon. They said they could do the op on the NHS but there was a 2 year waiting list. This was in the early 90s - things are probably different now. Myself and my OH had some savings and decided to use the money to pay for the surgery instead as I was so hung up about it. I had worked so hard to lose the weight and imagined I would have this lovely body by the end of it.
It cost about £3,500 then and I had three separate operations. First to remove the skin on my stomach - the surgeon said when they released the flap of skin it hung down to below my knees (too much info - sorry!), they had to cut a new hole for my belly button. The second operation removed my bingo wings down to elbow and removed skin from my sagging boobs, and the third removed skin from the inside of my thighs and from my midrift area. So now I have one long scar from hip to hip along my pubic line, a scar around my 'new' navel, scars on the inside of my thighs, scars under by boobs and around my nipples and scars down the back of my arms. I looked like a patchwork quilt naked, but at least it felt more comfortable. Over the last 20 years I gained wait back and have now lost 7 stones with Exante Diet. This time the skin has gone back to how it was before, I still have some loose skin in areas that weren't operated on first time around - like under-arm areas, but everywhere else has stayed fine this time.
For me I knew I had to get the skin removed as, like you said, it just gets in the way. My surgeon told me that different people have different amounts of elasticity in there skin... some with go back, others will stretch and not return to where it should be. Exercise will tone muscle but not tone skin.
My advice would be to see your GP, if you think about what you have likely saved the NHS by tacking your weight problem yourself, I think there should be more post-weightloss surgery available - I imagine it's cheaper than a bypass op!
Good luck with it Kaz, I do know how you feel. x