75 Pounds Down After VSG and Finally A Tummy Tuck! - Baton Rouge, LA

So it's been almost three months since my surgery. I can't remember a time in my life when I've been happier or more self confident with my body. Dr. Hanemann surpassed any result I even imagined or hoped for.
The only issue I'm still having is swelling which is to be expected. Other than that, everything is perfect. My scar looks so ridiculously good. My boyfriend makes a comment literally every night about how amazed he is that it looks as good as it does. The scar itself and particularly Dr. Hanemann's placement of it are just really superb. I can wear the tiniest panties known to man and you can't see it. He is truly an artist and I'm SO thankful I chose him as my surgeon!
A month after surgery I bought my first bikini in 30 years and I rocked that [RS bleep]! I've had a lot of fun buying new clothes because I finally feel like I look normal in them again. It's so nice to be able to buy pants that don't sag in the ass because the waist had to be big enough for my belly. My only regret is not doing the breast reduction because I could be pairing my nice fitting jeans with fitted shirts but nooooooo. I'm stuck buying shirt that are baggy on my flat new tummy so that my big giant boobs can fit in them. *sigh* Oh well, maybe I can save up enough to do those before I turn 60. =) My boyfriend is still against it but as I told him, he doesn't have to carry them around all day!
Overall I'd say to any of you that are thinking of doing this surgery, it's TOTALLY worth it. Every.Single.Penny!!!

Finally almost two weeks out and I'm able to sit in the computer room long enough to post this update and some pics. Surgery went great, barely remember anything. Don't really actually remember anything but flashes of the recovery room. No recollection of the ride home or getting into the house. Apparently I slept for about two hours and then my mom woke me up to walk. Walked to my living room and back twice and then got a kitchen chair so I could sit in the living room with my boyfriend and my mom for a little while. Sat there for about 15 minutes and started feeling a little funny. Told them I thought I might be overdoing it a little fast and stood up to go back to bed. My boyfriend let out a loud gasp when I stood up and when I looked to where he was pointing, there was a large puddle of blood on the floor. It had pooled on the seat of the wooden chair I was in and dripped off the side onto the floor. My mom ran to get a wet washcloth to clean me off so we could figure out where the blood was coming from. I started feeling worse and worse and told her I felt like I needed to sit down. From what I'm told now, I sat on the edge of the chair and then passed out. My boyfriend said my face and lips were totally white and my eyes were half open. I was unresponsive and he didn't think I was breathing so he called my PS but got the service. They were asking a lot of questions and he panicked and didn't want to waste time so he hung up on them and called 911.
The whole thing was pretty scary but turned out to be dehydration and the fact that one of the assistants in the ER didn't completely tape the left side of my incision. My PS met us at the ER, checked everything out, taped the wound up and had them discharge me.
Went back for a quick check the next morning which was the day after surgery. He said everything looked great but I was already really swollen. Especially the left side. I asked him why it was hurting so much in that one spot because my abdomen, main incision and right side were barely hurting at all (thank god for Exparel!). He said that in the process of my surgery he decided that the front was going to look better than he initially thought so he decided that I'd be happier if he thinned out my sides a bit so he did some extra lipo. Apparently during that process he said he must have nicked a blood vessel so I wound up with a huge bruise that was unbearably tender to the touch and felt like a softball in my side.
What I've learned from all this is that this surgery, particularly the lipo part, is definitely not for sissy's. It was a really rough recovery for me. The tummy tuck itself was a breeze but add in the muscle repair and lipo and it's a gourmet recipe for a lot of pain. I was barely able to get out of bed for the entire first week. I've since learned that a lot of that pain was due to the fact that he put my right drain tube too close to a nerve so every time I moved my leg too much or bent it, it would hit than nerve and shoot molten lava from my groin down into my leg. Can I just say...OUCH!
I got my right drain out at my one week checkup but the one on the left had to stay because of all the bruising. Hopefully the left comes out tomorrow or I may become homicidal.
I was initially fairly disappointed with what I saw in the mirror but am slowly starting to see glimpses of the end result and I couldn't be happier!
If you had asked me last week if I'd do this again, I'd have said, not no but hell no! I'm feeling a bit different this week as the pain decreases to almost nothing and I can stand up straight and sleep flat again.
I know everyone says not to weigh yourself the first month but I was too curious and I did it. To my surprise, even as swollen as I am, I'm down 12 pounds. Can't wait to see what happens in weeks 3 and 4! =)

Here are the pics! Oh the horror!! =O