UPDATE One Month Post Op, BEST Decision Ever Made - Draper, UT

've never had a flat stomach. Ever, at any point in my life. When I was born, I had to have 19 reconstructive surgeries on my intestines, causing major trauma to my abdominal muscles, not to mention leaving me with having to deal with extremely embarrassing and uncontrollable stomach and digestive problems. I could hide it pretty well until I was at the age when girls start to develop and wear tighter clothes, tank tops and bikinis. That's when I started to "suck it in". Now, I know lots of women do this, but not every second of the day.

My stomach was so distended from all the surgeries I had. So when I got into high school, I started doing sit ups. Lots of them. But my muscles were just non existent and nothing I did changed it. Wearing a bikini was the worst. Not only did I have to worry about sucking in, I had this giant gnarly scar across the middle of my stomach that everyone noticed. I tried to not let it bother me and be proud of my scars, but being a girl, I'm supposed to have a beautiful body. Scars were for boys.

Fast forward to being an adult. Still sucking in, unless I was pregnant, oh I thanked God that I had that time to be attractive with a big belly, it was heaven to just relax and wear whatever I wanted without worrying about that belly. Trust me, I've tried every diet and every exercise known to tone that belly, but it was just beyond destroyed. So after having my 4th baby, I finally decided to do something drastic, and in October I went to a plastic surgeon for a full TT.

I scheduled my surgery the day of my consult, Dec 5th. I FINALLY, after 33 years, feel beautiful! I may never be normal on the inside, I know I will have to struggle with issues for the rest of my life; but at least I can be normal on the outside now. And it feels amazing! I'm celebrating my 1 month post op tomorrow, I'll post pics and details of the whole ordeal later, this post is so long already. I just wanted to tell someone my story :)

I had my drains taken out at 13 days post op, and I was finally able to take the TED hose off (yay!!!). I was SO terrified at getting the drains pulled out, I don't know why, I've endured a lot of pain in my life, I can usually handle it pretty well, but for some reason, the thought of having something that has been healing inside my body being ripped out kinda freaked me out. It hurt, I'm not gonna lie, but not as bad as I thought. And only for a second. The worst part was having my surgical tape pulled off my incision. Holy mother, I thought I was going to pass out. I almost punched the nurse instinctively, ha ha. I was able to stop taking my pain meds and switch to normal Tylenol at about 8 days post op. I hate pain meds, they make me so sick, I couldn't wait to get off those. The worst part was not being able to sleep very comfortably, coughing, sneezing, the itchy tight hose, and the pain meds. I am finally feeling more normal now, but it is a long recovery. I thought I would be down for a week and then start feeling better. The swelling is kinda scary cause it makes me worry that I still have a little pot belly, but as with this entire procedure, I just have to be patient.

Well I'm 6 weeks po and I feel great! I heard from a lot of people that you'll finally feel like yourself again after 6 weeks and they were right. I'm not in any pain and my back doesn't feel 90 years old anymore. I am somewhat addicted to my cg tho, which is weird since I've hated wearing it and it irritates my incision horribly. I know it's completely in my head but I feel like if I dont wear it my tummy will not stay flat and will get big again. I've tried to wear spanx instead like my dr suggested, but I swell up pretty bad and it always freaks me out because my tummy pops out so much. I'm going to try to post a pic when I'm really swollen, please tell me if it looks normal? I also haven't been able to really exercise because it's been too cold to walk so I'm all paranoid now that the lipo I had is getting ruined because I'm building up more fat. I'm just stressed about ruining anything, this has been such a huge deal for me.