27 Years Old, 5'4", 159 Pounds and Counting the Days Until I'm on the Flat Side! - Austin, TX

So I had a little girl 3.5 years ago and nothing has been the same since. I was never skinny, but I had an appealing shape. Even when I worked out for 25 hours a week (running 25 miles per week and whatever time was left was spent on muscle strengthening) I was 138 pounds at my thinnest! And damn, I looked good :) I'm ready to feel that way about myself again. On the day I had my c-section (baby was breech) I weighed in at almost 200 pounds. My stomach is so loose and saggy. My breasts are even more so. I went from a beautiful pre-pregancy D to about a FFF while breastfeeding. Now I'm a saggy DD. So my expectations are pretty simple. I want the saggy fat off my stomach and hopefully that will be accompanied by an hourglass-ish figure. I am getting a breast lift, without implants. I am expecting to be able to proudly not wear a bra periodically. I'm trying to keep my expectations realistic. I have looked at so many before and after pictures....As long as I'm not square when I come out of this, I should be happy. I don't think that will happen as I am kind of curvy now. Most of the people who end up square were a little square to begin with. I'll post pictures as I move forward in the process. My pre-op was two days ago. 14 days and counting!

Well I'm nine days out and I find that I am in a state of complete calm. I have even taken a much needed break from obsessively reading reviews and comments on this site :) I ran into a little snag getting my doctors office to send the blood work to the surgery center. I called my PS though and they offered to do the blood work for free (normally $35) on the morning of my surgery. So now and taking my vitamins everyday to make sure that everything goes smoothly that morning. I did deep clean my house this past Saturday....I'm not sure how that is going to help me recover but I felt the need to do it anyway. I'll take some pre-op pictures soon and post them :(

I have been a chaotic mess this weekend. I moved into the house I live in last November with the intention of moving this fall, so I never unpacked the things that make a home feel like home...pictures, mirrors, decorations. Approximately one month ago we decided not to move (hence the timing of the surgery). For some crazy reason I decided I needed to decorate the whole house this weekend! So I got everything out and then quickly got overwhelmed. I managed about 1/8 of the decorating and then just packed the rest back up in an attempt to save my sanity.

On top of that....we were grabbing some screws to hang this really large mirror up at Lowe's and my three year old suddenly makes the throwing up sound! I scooped her up, clasped my hand over her mouth and made a run for a trash can. We made it. She threw up a lot but handled it like a champ. She hadn't been acting sick. She puked again at home and that was the end of it. I am so glad she wasn't truly sick. I doubled up on vitamins just in case that night and the next day.

I'm feeling excited and nervous. My daughter will be with her dad for two weeks after surgery so I know I will miss her like crazy. But she will be having fun in sun in Florida with her grandma. Besides missing her, I am looking forward to lounging around, reading, watching movies and enjoying the quiet. I hope it will be as enjoyable as I am picturing it. I feel like my recovery is going to be quick and only slightly painful. I am not nervous about it at all. I hope I don't get a slap in the face, lol. If I do though, I have the most amazing man to take care of me and the best cat to tell me stories. Yeah, my cat is a talker. She talks more than anybody in the house. Especially at five in the morning.

I took some pictures. I'll post them asap.

Here are all my pre-op photos :)

I can't believe it is soooooo close. I find that I am nervous, but only slightly. Mainly I feel excited to stay home and relax for a week or so. I realize it will be painful and I'll probably get cabin fever....however, I will get to re-watch all my favorite chick flicks, pet my sweet cat, and snuggle with a blanket. And nap. My main concern is still missing my daughter for two weeks. I hope I will not be shocked with a difficult recovery. I just feel really positive and ready. Does anybody else feel as confident as me or am I being a weirdo?

I think my body is nervous because I feel ill. I haven't eaten anything that would cause me to be sick, but today I have gone number 2 too many times to be considered normal. I also have that watery mouth feeling you get before throwing up and I am have been burping all day. I am not even trying not to think of the surgery. It's not like my minding is clamoring with nervousness...I feel mentally/emotionally blank, yet physically a mess :( I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep tonight. I still have to do my blood work before surgery in the morning. I am praying everything goes okay with it. I don't want to have to go through pre-surgery jitters again!

I'm feeling a bit more calm now. My little one is safely with her dad, the house is picked up, and I'm taking a relaxing bath.... I'm still nauseous and gassy but I haven't thrown up. I got permission to take a melatonin to help me sleep tonight. Yeah! I'm about to hop in bed and sleep it off (hopefully, lol). Wake up is at four, leave the house by five, surgery center at 645 and surgery at 730. I can't believe it's finally here. I'm in a state of shock I think :)

For starters, my lover wants me to mention how painful it is. He has mentioned several times that I need to get on here, update you ladies, and make sure you know you aren't in for a romantic weekend at home reading books and gazing into each other's eyes. This is serious shit.

Now let's start from the beginning. I had a tummy tuck, lipo to the flanks (which includes parts of the back and butt), and a breast lift without implants. Everything looks great :) at least it did right after surgery. Since I left the surgery center I haven't had the energy to look at myself. I can't even sit on the potty. If you have not had your surgery yet, go get a "she wee." It's like a funnel for your toti so if the pain is too great, you don't have to lower yourself all the way to the toilet. You can get them at academy and maybe walmart. Both stores near me are sold out, so i am Peeing in a Dixie cup. No big deal except that aiming is extremely difficult so I'm sort of peeing on The floor and on my lover...every time. A little In The cup too lol. And as if we weren't taking our relationship to enough newer, higher heights....I started my period 24 post op!

Next order of business, I was not prepared for the level of pain. I may have touched on this a bit already, but it needs to be reiterated. Breasts are pretty much fine, lipo is fine, even incision is of very little concern....but my abdominal muscles are so tight! I had to hold myself in the jackknife (aka v-up) position for about 15 seconds due to miscommunication around 8pm last night....whoa. First, that was the worst pain I have known in my entire life. Ever. I was shaking and trying not to cry for a solid 20 minutes afterwards. The noise that came out oft mouth actually caused my lover to cry. I have never seen him cry. I won't be getting back into that bed in a long time. I'm planning a retirement in this recliner ;)

The incident also cause one of my hips to swell up pretty badly. My stomach too. When I woke up at midnight I couldn't even move one of my legs. I was ready to call the PS and the ambulance but my love was able to calm me down. He for me to get out of bed with no tears, go potty in the Dixie cup and laid up in the recliner. I massaged my thigh quite a while though I believe the swelling has gone down. I am now out of energy. I will fill in the holes as I get more spurts. Thanks to all of you for your support!

But hey! I still think it's totally worth it :) the way my body looked before all the good surgery meds wore off and the swelling started is still a glimmer of memory that I'm sure will actual use itself soon!

So my lipo areas are definitely swollen. But my stomach is also feeling swollen / bloated? Can anybody please give me some input? I'm am becoming move and more uncomfortable!

Everything took another turn for the better I think :) I decided after getting super bloated today to take some milk of magnesia. I took the smallest adult dose and got things moving just enough to make it comfortable. I have never been so excited to pass gas. What's super funny is that my boyfriend is cheering me along as it happens (even though it's totally foul).

Warm wet wash cloths are a great way to keep your face feeling fresh.

Swelling in hips finally went down a bit tonight. I think swelling in breasts went up because they look bigger. ;)

So the In the haze of recovery and waking up, I believe the nurse told me they took 3.7 pounds of skin off and with lipo they got 1750 mL of fat. By calculation I believe that is about 59 fluid ounces and about 3.7 pounds. So about 7 pounds total of fat off of my stomach and flanks. Whoa.

So I had my post op appointment today. It went really well. I have had a compression garment on since I woke up from anesthesia so it was my first time looking at my body today. All the bandages came off too. Obviously it all looks weird since it's day four. The PS told me everything is healing perfectly and that my lower back is going to be perfectly rounded into my butt. He basically said perfect over and over and I believe him :) I do look significantly thinner all over the central region. I noticed that my VJ looks like it got a little "facelift" as well. I'm allowed to shower and wash my CG tomorrow so I'll post some pictures when I do that. It was over an hour long drive in a rain storm to the PS office so wiped.

Good morning ladies :) I'm six days post op this morning and feeling pretty great as I sit up, cross legged, drinking coffee in my recliner. I even managed to surprise my man by cooking a quick breakfast and wiping the counters in the kitchen while he was out running this morning :) I will admit I'm sweating my buns off now lol.

We managed to get some pictures taken last night after my quick and vigorous scrub down. I was shocked by how intensely he scrubbed me down actually. He wanted to go to the store before hand to get a soft sponge before hand so of course I was on board. I was imagining a luxurious sponge bath with soap running down my beautiful new breasts....He came out of the store with the sponge and some lavender anti-bacterial soap. I was sure he was imagining the same thing. We went home and I went to the bathroom to take my clothes off. He comes in a few minutes later with his swimsuit on. I was thinking .... Hold on, now what are you planning lol? Next thing I know I have been scrubbed top to bottom. I had to keep my eyes closed the whole time because I never knew whether I was going to get a shot of water to the head or somewhere lower. It was pretty intense, but at the end I felt clean :)

So in the pictures my belly button looks weird, but PS told me that it has some type if stitch holding it in place and pulling it towards my spine. He told me he does it that way so it will look better after it heals. I trust him.

The pictures are are at the end of the day so I'm pretty swollen.

Everything is getting easier. Showered by myself. Still swollen. Lipo areas are now the sore areas.

I guess it's time to update....I started my master's program and went back to work this week. I am wiped out to say the least. Very irritable too. I went through a period of sadness. I think it was because I went to heavily medicated to not medicated at all very quickly. My endorphins needed time to catch up. I started having terrible nightmares on the hydro codon.

I still have my drain :( it's been 20 days! I think all the nerve endings around it are dead because it really doesn't even hurt anymore. The Amazing news is that I'm getting it out today. Yeah!! I can take a bath in a few days :) I have been showering obviously. But I love to sit in a bath and soak at the end of a long day and now that I am going to look much more slim under the water...I'm doubly excited.

One thing I have been wondering about...I am having some light brown discharge.It's annoying. I have to wear a pantyliner every day, all day long. I normally don't. Has any body else had this? When does it go away?

My body is looking a bit slimmer each day and my breasts a bit larger :) I'm used to having big breasts so this is a comfort to me. I am so glad they don't hang out with my belly button anymore though! One thing I have noticed, is that my breast ache like I'm on my period....all the time. I can't wait for that to be over :) I am having a lot of swelling still. I think these pictures were taken at night about a week ago so I was swollen from the day . I look better now. Once I get my drain out I'll take some new ones. It's just not that fun to try on clothes and feel sexy when you are trying to work around that thing lol. Last week at my appointment to get my stitches trimmed, the doctor said that everything is still really swollen and that my appearance will still change dramatically. I trust him. None of my pre-op jeans fit me. Even with the medical Styrofoam in my cg, they are all too large. yeah!! I'm even able to button a few of my pre-baby jeans without the styrofoam. I can probably get them all on but I'm afraid to do any tugging with the drain in. Something that has surprised me is that I have lost 13 pounds. They took 7 pounds off during surgery between skin/fat and hypo. I also went from an XL Marena CG to a large. The large is even almost getting big at this point. I put the styrofoam in it and some padding on the side to keep things smooth because it tends to bunch up on the fastening side.

I got my drain out, as expected. My energy levels are going back up. I'm still really swollen even though I moved down a size in my CG and wear the styrofoam under it at all times. I took more pictures this morning and I'm less swollen because it's morning, but still very swollen over all. PS said I will still be shrinking significantly still and that the swelling will go down eventually.

In two days time I will be three months post-op. I feel like it (surgery) never happened .... almost. I am back to lifting weights and can run four miles. I am sure I can run more actually, I'm just too busy this last week or two to hit the pavement. I get swollen still, fairly regularly. I do occasionally wear the compression at night to smooth things down if I have completed an especially hard workout or eaten something especially delicious... and by delicious I mean salty. I love my body now. I am naked as much as social possible! My breasts have settled into a position that I think they will stay in. I am a full C /small D, where I was a full DD before. I wear a 9/10 in pants where I was anywhere from a 12-15 before. I used to wear large/x-large shirts...now I where a medium. For the first time in a long time I feel comfortable buying shirts without trying them on :)

The pictures I posted were actually taken about a month ago.

I have absolutely no regrets.
My experience couldn't have been made any better by my Doctor and his team.