Lost over 160lbs in a Year Through Just Diet and Exercise|Had TT 1week Ago Not Enjoying the Results So Far. - Jacksonville, FL

Lol, wow, I apologize for the extremely, extremely late update. All my issues were resolved in early August, and I've been back to a normal schedule. I had my last post-op exam mid-august, and won't have another until 6 months.

Last year in May of 2014 I weighed 345lbs, (I began dieting about 2 months prior but didn't document weight), before TT (July of 2015) I was 183lbs. All it took was dieting and exercising. I stopped drinking soda and kept my caloric intake below 1500 for the year. I'm extremely tenacious and so it wasn't that difficult. I was able to get my TT covered by my insurance and so I went ahead and had the procedure (not sure how much the procedure totaled). I know it's only a week post op, and I'm heading back tomorrow for post-op exam with a different PS because the one who conducted the surgery last week was transferring and thus transferred his patients to the other PS, but the problem is that my body looks extremely swollen, I'm talking pregnant with triplets swollen right above the incision line. When I see the PS tomorrow hopefully he'll tell me that it's still a normal part of the healing process, but I'm really dismayed right now. Other than the appearance, the pain is really minimal, didn't need to take pain killers after the 2nd day, and I was able to walk out of the hospital 2 days after procedure (had to stay 2 days because unable to pee on my own..let me tell you, having a catheter shoved up your penis is not a pleasent experience. 2nd time was even worse). The PS who performed the surgery notified me of the swolleness following the surgery, and I read that major weight loss before the tummy tuck also induces a great amount of swelling as well, but this looks very unpleasent. I've read what people called, "swell hell," but none being this early on, and none swollen to this extent. Also, the belly button, again, I know it's just a week post-op to the date, but is it normal for the belly button to look like this? The overall time from the evaluation to the surgery was literally just 2 weeks. All together, from consultation to the actual surgery, the time it took was just a little less than a month. I'm unable to take a picture of the post-op TT because I just put the compresssion garment on and it is a pain in the ass putting it on tight because the mid-section of my back begins to ache when standing for too long. The lower abdomen area protrudes over the scar line, it doesn't lay over, just protrudes greatly all around right above where the incision was made. Here is a picture of before and after weight loss, plus picture of belly button taken 6 days after surgery. I'm posting the pic of the belly button because my PS told me that there is a risk of losing the belly button following TT but it's rare. I'm a bit of a hypochondriac so I'm posting the picture for others to evaluate if the belly button looks like it's on a healthy road to recovery. I'll post picture of Full body TT tomorrow after my post-op exam. Hopefully another PS or another TT recipient could detail their experience with the procedure to provide more insight towards what I'm experiencing.