27 Y/o with Modified TT - Chicago, IL

After losing 90 pounds through diet and exercise and keeping it off for 4 years, I decided it was time to have my excess skin removed. Besides aesthetic reasons I found my stomach held me back from fully enjoying a lot of things. I'm a very active individual and when I worked out I had to wear a tight undershirt and pull my pants up to keep my skin from jiggling around. I also avoided dating because I knew at some point they would end up seeing my stomach and I would have to explain that I once was.. Well.. Fat. Nobody wants to do that!

Anyways, I had my surgery one week ago to the day and it's been a challenging week, mentally and physically. Day of the surgery I tried to play it cool but my elevated blood pressure showed other wise. Once they took me into the operating room, the anesthesiologist said he was giving me medication and the next thing I knew I was in the recovery room. That versed is some good stuff! Lol when I woke up I wasn't really in any pain but just felt achy. Because it was an outpatient surgery, the doctor required that I stay across the road at a nearby hotel so my mom and aunt were there waiting for me. That night I didn't sleep a wink. Not sure if it was from everything that had just gone on or the fact that both my mom and aunt were snoring like bears! Haha the next morning I went back to the doctor and he took off my binder and I immediately felt like I was going to pass out so that created a bit of a fiasco haha. Doctor said everything looked good and would see me in about a week to take out my sutures and drains.

Over the next few days, I hobbled to and from the bathroom and couch. On the third day I felt good so I went out to do a little shopping with my mom. After shopping for two hours I went back home and slept for 4 hours and realized I had way over done it. What is it with women and shopping!? Always on our minds! After the third day I stopped taking pain medication and took Tylenol for mainly headaches. One word of advice , take a stool softener! I'm not going to give details but I thought for sure I was going to end up opening my incision. No fun :(. Mentally I've been very sensitive since the surgery. Sad and teary over nothing. Thinking I look terrible and this is how the final results will look. I tell myself to be patient, this is only week 1! Luckily my mom is very good at keeping me grounded.

Throughout my recovery I had very little pain except when getting up. Since I only had excess skin to remove (no kids), I had a modified TT so no lipo or muscle repair was done. I'm sure the addition of these significantly increased the recovery process so be aware of that. As far as swelling, that has been slowly improving over the week although I still feel very uncomfortable and thick in my abdomen from the swelling. You can see the improvement in my pictures. I hopefully get my drains and sutures removed tomorrow so I'll provide an update! Thanks for listening

Yesterday was my post op week 1 visit with my PS. I was praying I could finally get my drains pulled, which he did! What a weird feeling! I've read that some individuals have pain but it's more of an unusual feeling that anything. Feels kind of like they are pulling a snake out of you. After one of my drains was pulled, there was a large blood clot that he had to pull out of the hole. I felt myself get a little woozy over that! The suture removal wasn't quite as easy as removing the drains in that my incision had scabbed over so to get to the sutures, some of my scabs had to be opened up. I ended up with quite a bit of blood everywhere but thankfully most of my incision is still numb!
He said everything looks good, keep walking and reminded me to not over do it and no athletic activities, and will see me in 2 weeks.

Being a nurse, this whole experience has been an eye opener. Twice now I have gotten "lightheaded" over nothing really in the doctors office and the feeling of my numb skin above the incision kind of weirds me out. It's totally different when it's your body. I feel this experience will allow me to better sympathize with my patients.

Now that my drains are out, I am going to go for a long walk. Hopefully I don't swell up too much because right now I feel good!

So this morning is Post Op day 10 and I'm feeling good this morning. I can stand almost completely straight which makes me look less thick in the middle. A couple days after surgery I took a look at myself and thought, "when did I get all that fat on my back?!" But having swelling and not standing up straight makes you look thicker than you may actually be. Yesterday I went out shopping to get my "exercise" since the Chicago weather is not cooperating. I ended up getting pretty fatigued, kind of difficult getting a full breath, and had to lean on the shopping cart a bit but I think carrying around my large purse on my shoulder was contributing to most of my issues. Once I put it down and sat down for a few minutes I felt better. On the way home I stopped my Subway and got an egg and cheese flatbread. Wanting to eat low in salt I thought this was a good option, but when I looked on their website it had almost the entire amount of sodium I was wanting to eat in a day! (1,500mg) crazy! Eating out and eating low sodium is just not going to happen.

As I mentioned, I have lost around 90 some pounds about 4 years ago and have maintained my weight as well as toned up quite a bit. and become a bit of a health nut. To those who are struggling to lose weight, don't let yourself get down! It is unbelievably hard and I know how hard society can be on overweight individuals. Just remember everyone is beautiful whether they are a size 18 or 8. Losing weight and being healthy is a lifestyle change not a quick fix. Slowly substituting one fast food meal with one home made meal, grilled chicken for a burger, water for coke, and walking whenever you can will eventually become more part of your routine and you won't think so much about it. Being a nurse I see the complications long term obesity has on an individual and especially on their happiness. Don't get down, make small changes for long term success! *I've attached my before and after pictures...very few know I was ever overweight.*

I've attached my pictures from this morning and definitely look less swollen, especially right above my incision. A picture of my bb is attached, looks a little rough but there is still swelling and scabs present. I'm going to take off the steri strips here in a few days so I can provide a better look at my incision. Have a great day everyone!