Mommy Makeover: Stories

I just celebrated my 31st birthday & am a mother of 4 (6yr, 4yr, & 18mo old twins). I have always been physically fit but the twins pregnancy has done irreversible damage that my 'narotic' working out can not fix. I finally convinced my husband I needed cosmetic surgery. As I lost my baby weight, the loose belly skin started getting the texture of a raisin. My PS informed me that I have extensive muscle wall damage & will benefit greatly from repairing that, not to mention removing the loose skin. I will also be having my flanks contoured slightly w/ lipo to correct my "boxy" shape. In addition, I had 280cc silicone implants done in 2008 preceding my twins. Sometime in the last 2 years I have developed capsular contracture (hardening on the implants). My doctor said that this can be corrected at the same time.

As my surgery nears, in two days, I am getting very anxious. My surgeon (comes highly recommended) is very experienced & a perfectionist (says many different sources). For surgery length, my PS said it should take 7-8.5 hrs!!!! I'm very apprehensive about this but he says he does surgery at this length all the time & it is very normal for a face lift to take 9 hrs. I will be having a board certified annesthsiologist along with a team of nurses. My fears come from other doctors on this board saying not to exceed 6hrs but my doctor did not seem concerned at all about this. He said that I'm welcome to split tummy procedures from breast but that is up to me & what I'm comfortable with. My husband thinks I should just do both because it is very difficult to spare all this "time " for surgery & then healing. I'm prepared to be in terrible pain but the fear of possibly endangering my life & leaving my young children w/o a mom makes me scared- normal feelings right? Are there others out there whose surgery was long? The surgery breakdown is 1-1 1/2 hrs for lipo, 3 hrs for TT, 2-4hrs for capsular contracture repair (doctor is not sure what he is going to find in breasts until he opens them up). I am small, 5ft 110lbs so he said tummy stuff should be faster than 5 hrs but that is what he's planning for.

Well I tried posting last night but I was way to groggy to type.

My surgery went well. Took 7 hours which was a little faster than they had estimated. The doctor said that my nuscle separation on my stomach wall was more than the average & he ran the sutures all the way up to almost the base of my ribs. Prior to surgery he said he may need to do a small vertical incision to keep my scar low, and he did in fact do that. My scar looks awesome- super low! Lipo of the hips was very straight forward. My breast aug consisted of removal of my silicone implants (with capsular contracture) & replace with 390cc saline implants. Dr said the the capsules were very thick! They acted like my capsule was one of the thickest they had seen. He the cleaned the pocket thoroughly & corrected the pocket so that implant is beneath the muscle.

I have 3 drains (one for tummy & 1 for each breast), compressions boots that hook to a machine, catheter, & pain pump. I look like a wreck but my husband has been awesome! Last night around 4am I had the worst pain ever in my life. Took about 1 hr to get under control & now I'm pretty comfortable (as long as I don't move;).

I am so happy that the surgery if finally behind me. I was so nervous and anxious about the length of surgery and saying good-bye to my family.

Well pain pills are making me sleeping. I will post before pics soon.

Day 3 post-op. I'm beginning to space out my pain meds where I take one every 4-6hrs. I am very emotional right now but I can't cry because it hurts my stomach too bad. I knew this would be painful & drawn out after reading others experiences but "in the moment" you just want to scream! My kids came home from Nana's last night & the noise of them bickering made me want to just go crazy. I've seriously had 5 different moments today where I had to just take a deep breath & remind myself that this will all be worth it & there's no turning back now. My breasts are very painful & swollen even though I've been icing. It is very painful when I take in deep breaths on the left side. At first I thought I may have a pulmonary issue ( possible embolism) b/c I woke up from general w/ a raspy fluid in my lungs but doctor said that it was deep tissue pain from him separating the muscle from previous capsule. My stomach feels very tight but I don't have pain-possibly b/c I have pain pump? I do have a irritating cough from the general annesthetic & it hurts when I try and clear it. Doctor recommended holding a pillow tight my belly & them cough but it still hurts!!!

I felt like I was managing my pain well the 1st 2 days & I was taking my oxycodone religiously (averaged 15mg every 4hrs). Ialso was trying to prevent myself from getting constipated from all the meds but it's happened. I finally went day 3 but it took a ton of effort to turn my bowels on. I have taken colace since night of surgery, mirilax, tons of water, on top of that I'm a clean eater (I.e lots of fruits & veggies). Last night I took a glass of apple juice w/ mirilax in it & waited. After 3 hours, did MOM & about 2 hrs later I started getting some painful cramps. I had to undo my binder b/c it was hurting, & after I took it off I had to go!

I feel like everything is so tight in there my bowels are confused. Have any others noticed there BMs were awkward or am I just scared to push. I know straining can damage my internal sutures so maybe I'm mentally crating this problem.

Sorry for the long rant today. Recovery is "feeling' better but it's a long & drawn out road. Take care.

12 days post-op: over the past 5 days my belly button has been bleeding. It has one big scab inside it. When I saw the Dr's PA a couple days ago for drain removal she said to put Bacitracin on it & it will eventually heal. I have read a couple people's experiences where the BB became necrotic. The PA said blood was actually a good sign because it means it has a blood supply & that would be the cause for it to die. Do any of you guys have a BB that's bled slightly for awhile? I would love to ask my Dr but he has been on vacation for all of last week. & this next week.

Other than the BB, this are slowly improving. Slept in my own bed starting 2 days ago, hubby was happy about that and not the couch. No need for pain pills but I do occasionally take my muscle relaxer when my stomach has spasms. Dreading going back to work in 5 days... Would have liked to take a full 3 weeks off.

Happy healing you guys.