Mommy Makeover: Stories

From the time I was young, I have always had a rounder belly and bigger stature, despite being athletic. Now that I have lost my baby weight, I feel more pressure to wear clothes more fitting my age and active lifestyle. When I wear these clothes I feel uncomfortable about my shape, so I am going to take charge of my body. I am also scared of the large pregnant belly my mother has, despite her small body. I hope to never have that.

So I find this website three days before my scheduled surgery. I am freaking out about the pain, being unavailable to my 5 and 2 (not potty trained) year old, and how I am going to get back into shape after surgery without core exercises. 90% of what I do takes the core. I have been doing the Insanity workouts 5 times a week, and I play hockey once a week. I will post before and after picks soon, but I am also scrambling to get things prepared for my time "off", and Christmas. First time we ever put the tree up before Thanksgiving.

Good news is, this website is the only thing that has relieved my fear of the pain and recovery. I hope I am reading about regular moms, and not supermoms, because they all seem to be recuperating quickly. Good luck and happy healing to all.

One day Pre-Op, and thanks to what I have been reading on this site, I have never been more excited and confident (but still expecting tough times). For a little more detail, my highest weight was 165. I am now 130 at 5'4". You will notice in the pictures that my behind and thighs are still a bit large, but my doctor wanted to keep my surgery to 5 hours and she said I would not see too much benefit from it, so I am just getting a full tummy tuck, flank and upper abdomen lipo, and breast lift and augmentation with silicone implants. I am a 38B that rolls my boobs into the bra, I am hoping to be a small C that don't sag. I don't know if my doctor won't fix my bottom and thighs because she wants to draw me in for a later costly surgery, or if I would need more of a lift with lipo, which she thinks I am too young for. I am 34. I am however confident in her abilities and suggestions from what I have seen of her work.

I don't leave for the hospital until 9:30 tomorrow, so I will be starving. I don't think I will be posting, but we will see. Definitely will get back to you in a couple of days.

Hey all. Day 2 post op. I wasn't able to move much yesterday, but that was because the foley cath had to stay a little longer. Today I am moving more, but trying not to over-do it. I am swelled up quite a bit. Pain is tolerable, but like I said, I just started getting around. Get to shower tonight! That will help me feel more human. I'll get pics up sometime soon. Hope everyone else is doing well. I don't know where this shows up because I can't find it on the mommy makeover page. But I'll get a more coherent post up soon.

I'm on day 4 of recovery. Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I have to say that I hate showering because I don't want to look at myself. I am swelling like crazy, even though I'm trying to watch my sodium intake. I therefore have to adjust my binders throughout the day. I didn't get drains, and wonder if that makes the situation worse. The people supporting me have been great, and I loved that my husband took my kids out of town for a couple of days. My mom was extremely nurturing. I long for my independance, and wonder when I will get that back. Probably when I am in my bed and not this recliner. I have trouble getting into both. But if this is the worst, I will make it through. I'll see the doctor in two days. Can't wait to see what she says.

Ok.  So I'm 12 days post op.  Sorry for the lack of pictures, but the holiday and kids have been filling my time.  I'll post some soon (minus my "little" issue).  Don't read the next paragraph of this post if you get queasy, but please read if you are researching the procedure.  My breasts and belly button are healing well.  The implants haven't dropped yet, and I joke that the doctor slipped in extra cc's because my boobs are bigger than I expected, but generally things are good.  I'm even off of pain meds, except for extra strength Tylenol occasionally for my problem.

So during my one week doctor appointment, I was told that all looked fine, but keep an eye on this small red section of my tummy tuck incision that if it spreads, could be an infection.  Just put neosporin on cotton gauze (apparently never use synthetic) to cover that area.  Let me interject that my tummy tuck did not include drains, which might be why I did not read about this in any other blogs.  Anyway, the day after my appointment, thanksgiving, the red area develops a hole the size of a nail oozing blood and yellowish goo.  Called the doctor's cell, and she said she expected this.  Two days later, the hole is the size of two pencils.  Took a picture of it and texted it to her.  She says it is not infected, and to keep doing what I'm doing.  Two days later, the separation is the size of my husbands pointer finger, tip to knuckle.  After more texted pictures, she prescribed an antibiotic and rushed me to the office next day.  Was told the skin could tear away (yes I feel it tear) maybe another inch.  She cut out some yellow tissue and told me to pack with saline moistened gauze and cover with dry gauze.  There is no infection evident, but keep taking antibiotics.  The outer tissue looks good, but the inner tissue wasn't bonding, and is trying to separate good from bad.  In the end, the hole will fill in on it's own (after Christmas) with minimal scarring.  She said on a scale from 1-10 of skin healing this would be a 2 (not bad).

I hope this helps those researching drainless procedures.  And I hope everyone else is recovering nicely.  Pics will follow shortly.

I've decided to put pictures of the hole up. Maybe it will help you guys still in the research phase, or others going through the same separation issues.

Whew. Yesterday was my first time alone with my 2 year old in diapers and my 5 year old for longer than 1 hour. It was exhausting. I was ready to sleep at 7:30. I went to my recliner at 8:30 as soon as my daughter went to sleep. I was fine being tired and a bit swollen up top, because my very understanding husband really handles most tasks including the kids as soon as he gets home, and I just do what I can at my pace.

What really worries me is that I'm not very sore. I tensed my stomach muscles several times in the past couple days due to increased activity, and other than one little sore spot, I really don't feel much pain. I wonder would I feel any pain if I tore my interal stitches, or if it would feel pseudo-comfortable like it does now? All good questions for the doctor. I'll see her again tomorrow. I'll keep you up to date on what she says.

I totally forgot to post after my last PS appointment. She really gave me some great insight into my hole. Due to the disgusting connotation the of the word hole, my friends and I have decided to call it Mike, as in "The Situation".

Mike was caused by inadequite blood supply to the area. This section of the belly is furthest from the main blood supply. I also believe (but I'm not a doctor) that the lack of fresh blood supply could have been a result of the vicodin (I'm senstitive to narcotics), not moving, and swelling. So moving forward, she cleaned out goo from behind the red section adjacent to Mike, and I now pack that as well. The middle is almost healed all the way to my skin, and I may just have two Mikes rather than one large one soon. Things are improving much faster than I thought they would.

I move more and for longer periods of time each day. My new boob exercises have made the implants far more comfortable too. I'm really starting to feel like I'm on the road to recovery. I hope everyone else is having a good experience too. I will post newer pictures this week.