43 Year-old, TT with Umbilical Hernia and MR Ready to Have a Core Again! - Miami, FL

I'm feeling better but still not perfect. Knowing my limits is a struggle. The hardest part is not lifting more than 10 pounds. Everything weighs more than ten pounds, including my 3 year old! I have to bag 7 items per grocery bag to get it to my kitchen. Or try not catching your kid when she's falling or not twisting awkwardly to check for a car pulling out of a parking lot. Plus, by day's end I'm so tired. But all that said, some days I'm flat as a board!

I had my first experience where I ran into another mom who I hadn't seen in awhile and she kept looking at my waist. Finally, she told me I looked great and started to sadly tell me how she needed to workout more. I actually felt a little guilty! If I knew her better I would have told her about the TT so she didn't think working out is some six-pack panacea. She looked so bummed w/ herself, as if any amount of sit-ups or planks would have gotten me here - not. I walked away shocked that my belly looked good enough 3 weeks after surgery to provoke a response like that. Wow.

Still feeling MUCH better. I'm still getting the occasional pain in my back and hip but it's manageable. I do remember reading people saying that they would feel good, do too much, and then feel exhausted and swell like a kielbasa sausage. All true. What I didn't expect was that I can go from up and feeling good, making kids' lunches, clearing breakfast items to suddenly feeling like I'd run a marathon and MUST MUST lay down NOW. It really goes from cool to total crap in 1 minute. I've never felt anything like that before. Usually in life there's this wind down to getting tired. That makes it much harder to know your limits. I sent my mother home yesterday after she picked up my little girl thinking I was fine. I made dinner, took her outside to play, came home and then fell on the couch and could not get up. I was taking care of a 3 year-old horizontally with my voice only. But I really felt I could not get up. I felt my heartbeat in my incision, my feet throbbed - strange. And today I'm definitely more tired than yesterday. So today I'm not sending my mother home! Happy healing!

As far as my actual TT pain... it's great. I can move around. I can even engage my core under my giant corset. It feels amazing. I couldn't do that pre TT because I had a giant ball of intestines in the way - so cool!!! Overall just wondering what the trajectory of self-sufficiency will be over the next month. Since I get so tired so suddenly how can I plan well? Also, I'm still not driving. I see my doctor in a few days and I hope he will say it's fine to drive. I'm not 100% in my body movement but I can't see how I will be for potentially weeks, so that's not an option. I guess I just have to keep my driving to a minimum until I feel like myself again. Happy Healing!!!

Here are some day 11 update pics. I'm feeling much better. I laid on a tennis ball for 24 hours and my sciatica pain is much improved. I also made myself stand upright and sleep flat. My hip is still sore but off and on and nothing too intense. I Participated in the Easter hunt and took a completely solo shower. Basically, feeling human again! And I like having a waist! I'm so pleased to post a happy update - whohoo!