Healing and happy!

I swear the most shocking part about this whole thing, other than how much I love my results, is how fabulous I feel. I'd say I'm easily 95% at this point, 11dpo. I get a bit more fatigued in the evening but feel pretty back to normal. I'm not sure why my recovery was so easy as I had fairly extensive muscle repair, but I'll take it!

My belly button scab around the suture line is starting to fall off and I think it will be an imperceptibly thin scar.

That being said, I am definitely very swollen still and am sure my activity level contributes to that. I'm eager for my Marena garment to arrive as it will put more pressure lower than my binder.

I think the most freeing part of all of this for me is that a small part of me had been considering a breast lift/Aug as nursing my two kids for two years left me 2 cup sizes smaller. But I really hated the idea of an implant, and appreciate the mature look of my breasts. I just couldn't stand that my stomach stuck waaaaaay further out than my boobs. Now that it doesn't I feel so much more proportionate and appreciate my breasts despite their droop and size. So we will use the other 10,000 I had put back for that on a kick ass vacation in the next few years :). Now THAT will be much more fun than another surgery. I can also say I was fully convinced by reading the explant stories on real self. The way those women talk about really disliking the foreignness of the implant, and then embrace their more natural shape afterwards was very inspiring. If you are on the fence, read the explant stories. It helped me tremendously in making my decision and realizing I didn't want to be saddled with a non permanent anything that I would have to worry about. Good stuff!!

Clean bill of health!

The nurse gave me the all clear to do whatever as long as I use pain as my guide, explicitly saying that I can hold and lift my 1 year old!! So exciting! No signs of infection, although a decent amount of swelling in my mid section. Got the okay to start moderate cardio next week, but no core until 6 weeks. Also got the okay to use my Marena garment, she suggested 3 more weeks. Next visit is in 4 weeks with MD after steri strips have come off.

Either I have an amazingly talented surgery, pain receptors that don't work, or both : ) I feel AWESOME. I literally feel probably 80%, if not more. It is not lost on me how blessed I am for this easy recovery.

A very funny story, though--probably the most painful moment of my recovery at the same time. On my first outing to the grocery store, I went with my mom and used one of those electric carts. I should note first off that my mom and I are extremely close and few people make me laugh like she can. We were in the fruit aisle when I realized I had passed the nectarines that I had wanted to pick up. Then I did it. I made the mistake of starting to use the back up function of the cart and it started that back up beep noise. Within one beep, my mom LOST IT. She was laughing so hard she was crying. I looked at her and couldn't help myself, I started laughing uncontrollably. It was easily the most painful moment of my life. My mom could not stop laughing; she was literally holding her crotch so she wouldn't pee herself. But that meant I also couldn't stop laughing, but the pain was so intense that I was sobbing with tears streaming down my face at the same time. I felt like I was being run over by a car but could not make myself stop laughing no matter the pain I was in. Even worse was that my mom literally had to duck behind the produce case at the grocery so that I wouldn't see her and keep laughing, but that meant I was there, alone, in the middle of the grocery store, looking like a perfectly healthy young woman on an electric cart absolutely bawling inconsollably. People walked passed me with the look of intense concern and simultaneous confusion, probably because they had just passed my mom crouching on the ground holding her crotch behind the nectarines laughing her ass off. I ultimately was able to stop laughing by thinking of the death of someone very close to me, but somehow the pain did absolutely nothing in that department. So there it is. The most hilarious, sad, memorable moment of my recovery.

I ordered a stage 2 Marena compression garment today. Damn those things aren't cheap. I had ordered a medium (thinking at 118 lbs, 5'4" it would be fine) and that thing was INCHES from closing. So by the measurement chart I'm a large, and let's hope that fits. For beyond 4 weeks, a lot of research lead me to the TC Medium Control High Waisted Brief. I got two from Bare Necessities AND they were 25% off today, which made them something like 40$ less expensive that Nordstrom's. I have had a few TC shaping tops and love them--very comfortable, no riding up, very soft, so I think they will be perfect post Stage 2 garment.

I have my follow up appointment on Wednesday, and I'm hoping to get the all clear to do what I want to do at 2-3 weeks as long as I'm using pain as my guide. Which, at this point, there is none!

Hope all my other RS sisters are healing well and loving their new bodies! I know this is one of the best things I have ever done. I wonder when I will get over the high?