Fat Mum Slim in Need of a Little Help! - Fitzwilliam Hospital, Peterborough, UK

After losing 9st/ 126lbs (pic is 8st/112lbs), a vigorous (and addictive) exercise schedule started to try and tone up my flabby, post pregnancy, weightloss body! Unfortunately nothing shifted my tummy so surgery was my only option. After searching for PS's and asking others for advice I found one who is also works in the NHS and is registered with several notably Plastic Surgeon boards - of which one he had to be invited to join.

I attended an open evening which allowed me to get to see his work and his attitude to his work - this was a good experience that allowed me to make an informed choice about who, where and whether I was doing the right thing.

After an initial consultation and question asking I booked in!

Fast forward to 11 days post op and I have definitely done the right thing.

(Price below is in UKPounds)

Just wanted to share some photos from the day after my tummy tuck and muscle repair. As you can see, I'm smiling (well smiling-ish!), I'm also standing up with only a little hunch (mainly from muscle tightness rather than worrying about splitting everything!) and I'm mobile. These were taken less than 24 hours after the op and I was out of hospital that evening. The drains were removed before I left.

We all know that photos can tell 1000 things so I also want to tell you about how I was feeling at the time. I was still quite spaced out and tired from the GA, although feeling a lot better than the night before where I experienced a lot of nausea and just couldn't eat or drink. I was administered fluids via IV as well as antib's. I got up at about 3am (12hrs ish post op) to go to the loo - nothing - but was glad I'd got over the 'barrier' of getting out of bed - my PS had warned me to make sure i had a nurse with me as he didn't want to be stitching my head up after falling over or out of bed! The nurse gave me advice on the best way of getting myself out of bed, she also reassured me that I would have to do something quite extraordinary to do any damage to my scar at that point! Between then and the next time I got out of bed I tried to drink as much water as possible as I was starting to feel a lot better - IV'd fluids were removed - I was also worried that pee'ing would become a problem! Finally, at about 10.30am, I got out of bed and went for a wee - and what a pathetic job I made of it - I didn't quite realise how much I relied on my stomach muscle to help me pee!! haha! Pain-wise, I was taking Codine, Tramadol and paracetamol every 4 hours - I couldn't feel a thing where my scar was - the most painful thing was where my left drain went in and up too - causing me discomfort from the moment I woke from my GA (enough for me to be administered morphine 3 times until I reached the maximum dose I was allowed). I would say this is all still true now 13 days post op.

So... here it is, my before (which I am still very embarrassed about photo) and 14 dpo comparison photo!! I sent it to a very close friend (who is considering a mini tt) via text and she sent back the funniest text full of swear words, completely out of character for her! She was in shock - I did warn her that if she had any doubts about having a tt this would make up her mind for her! I think it is amazing transformation and can't believe what an amazing job my PS has done for me! I can now see how he removed nearly 5lbs of skin/ fat!!

For comparison: If you look at the right hand side of my tummy in the before photo you can see four moles above my belly button, in my 14dpo one the same four moles are below my belly button - a-ma-zing!! I am in shock!!

Just to clarify, I had a full tummy tuck with muscle tightening. That's all! I think you will all agree that my PS did an amazing job!