Tummy Tuck: Stories

Hello everybody,
I am having the same problem some of you are. I had my surgery 5 months ago, and my waist is still big. Some days I am so swollen it is depressing :(
My clothes don't fit, everything is still tight. Plus,I have also gained weight in my legs. My doctor says this is because of the 2 months of sedentary life I spent after surgery, recovering. He also says the swelling is normal.
Normal?? I was expecting to have a tiny waist no more than 3 months after surgery!
I feel fat and discouraged.

hi
thought i would respond as i thought i was the only person going through this
i had my surgey tummy tuck with liposuction may 30th 2010
after 10 days my wound opened causing weeks of infections and resulting in me beeing taken back to theatre and re stitched ive had several more infections since july when i was re stitched.
I have seen my ps this morning for the last time as he is moving hospital he has told me my stomach is distended and will send me to a gastrologist to see where the problem lies as i am suffering terribly with belching when i saw him last week he said my sutures from the muscles may have ruptured but today he has basicaly told me its my shape and since the tummy tuck it has reduced but im not convinced yes it is slightly smaller but its also protruding higher up
so 5 months after my tummy tuck i still have a big round pregnant looking stomach with a very unsightly scar

OK, so a huge, swollen belly is normal for many weeks, but how about NINE MONTHS AFTER SURGERY??!!! My tummy tuck was more than nine months ago and my abdomen has become gradually more distended despite the fact that I drink copious amounts of water and wear my compression wrap religiously. Before surgery my waist was 30", six weeks after it was 32", now it's 36", even though my weight hasn't changed!! My doctor insists my recovery is normal but my belly is so big I cannot even do crunches and other exercises I was able to do before the surgery. I look like a middle-aged pregnant woman!!!!

Thank you all for the comments! I think it's nice to know that i am not the only one in the world going through this today :) Update...I posted my original post on the 22nd and i'll be damned if I didn't wake up the very next morning with a huge reduction in swelling! lol I am now 17 days post tt and things are looking better. when i first wake up, I am at my least swollen and it goes up gradually throughout the day. I am a corporate Store Manager for 7-Eleven, so I'm on my feet all day. Usually by around 3, I call it quits to go home and swell on the couch! lol I will post before and after pics in a few weeks (oh, and my ps says there is still a substantial amount of fluid in there), when more swelling goes down. Thanks for your support and God bless you all!!!!

I'm pissed off too but thank God I found this site otherwise I would have said something stupid to my doctor. Its my fault I didn't do alot of research I thought within two weeks (I'm special for me 10 days) I would be in some tight jeans n a half shirt back at work! Boy was I wrong when the doctor say two weeks that means after two weeks you no longer feel like your going to die! Your results are anywhere between 3-6 months. The sooner we except this the better because o have been battling. Depression ever since my surgery and trust me IM A HAPPY PERSON! I swear I'm not going through anymore but in the mean time drink alot of fluids n wear your binder the more u drink the better. I been told n read over hundred reviews this is normal. Talk to my friend last night she told me she didn't wear her regular clothes for 6 weeks then one day she woke up n she was skinny just another fyi Remember giving birth it took your body 6 weeks for swelling to go down imagine this was a major surgery except there is no joy but pain n an ugly scar for now! Good luck keep us posted n upload pictures I use this site like a journal its helps me get through it

The swelling from my research adds weight until it subsides. As for the measurements, don't stress it. I went into my TT very lean. I am 5-9, was 195 lbs about 10% bofyfat, male, with a 33.5 inch waist. My waist thanks to swelling on day 12 is 37.5. I lost an inch of swelling in the past 48 hours. Think about the trauma your body has been through. The slicing, muscle tightening, the stretching of the skin to reattach, it is alot for the boyd to handle. On day 5, i was afraid I was getting dog ears from my incision. It was simple swelling that has since disappeared. Give it time. From my understanding, weeks 4-6 is when you really start seeing something you'll like. And it gets better for up to a year