A Gift to Me - Calgary, AB

After having three wonderful kids, I finally decided it was time to give back to me. Tummy tuck has always been on my mind, and now I'm ready to get the procedure done! As you can see from my pre-op photos, this procedure is long due.

My TT was scheduled on July 18 with Dr. Dawes, first appointment of the day, so fasting wasn't that bad. I was extremely nervous going to the surgical center, but my boyfriend was so supportive and kept me very calm. Dr. Dawes said the surgery went very well and that I'd be very happy with the results.I am now two days post-op and will hopefully have more pictures to show of my progress.

I am now exactly 1 week post op...Yeah! Let me tell you, the first week is definitely very hard. The pain is actually not as bad as I thought, I was only on the pain killers for 1 1/2 days. The reason why I stopped taking them was because they were making my throat dry which made me cough and trust me - you do not want to cough! Its like a internal grenade and everything inside you shakes....so painful!

So Dr. Dawes had to put 2 drains in me because of the amount of fluid that they had to inject in order to be as aggressive as possible for the liposuction, this is not his standard process because his technique is "drainless TT". He did discuss with me prior to surgery and I was okay with the idea...why not?...if I'm getting lipo then might as well get as much fat out as possible! The drains weren't that bad, just extra handling during bathroom breaks and showers but it was manageable....and I only had them in for 4 days.

The hardest thing for me was finding a comfortable position to sit, stand, rest or sleep in. I had to move every hour to 2 but couldn't get up on my own, just didn't have enough strength to push myself up. This is where my lovely boyfriend was so helpful...we live separately but because of this surgery, he stayed with me to be my personal nurse. He was by my side 24/7...and took care of every little detail, I didn't have to move a muscle. He is so sweet and I am so lucky to have him. Especially when we've only been dating for 1 year. Ladies, you definitely need help the first week, I even had a hard time standing for 5 minutes to brush/floss my teeth!

The last 2 days, I've been experiencing a lot of swelling, I wear the binder for most of the day (strict rules from Dr. Dawes) however I do remove for about 1 hour because the top digs under my breast and the bottom digs in my thighs when I sit so its quite uncomfortable - I'm short...5'3", however night time it goes back on. My stomach is still numb, no feeling when I touch my skin and I hope that doesn't last too long. And....I still can not stand straight yet. I only took 2 weeks off work so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by next week I can stand/walk like a normal person. Oh, I totally miss sleeping on my side. By the way, the day of my surgery, I slept on my bed because I don't have a recliner so I just stacked couple pillows under my knees and that seems to work fine. Here's are some more photos that I took throughout the week, lots of bruising still and swelling is starting to happen....