Tummy Tuck: Stories

I am mom of 3 kids ages 5,4 and 13 months, all c-section babies. I am tired of this gross loose skin and would love to have a flat belly for once!

It is two weeks to my Surgery day and it is all I can think about. My PS recommended that I have abdominal and flank lipo with the full TT. Both are extra charges and quite frankly, I think the abdominal lipo should be included with TT. My 2 cents! I think I will go ahead and add the flank lipo on. I hate to spend that much $$ and not get all that you want. It would be more expensive to get the flank lipo later on anyway since you would have to pay for general anesthesia again. I am 5'2 and half and 122 pounds and I work out 4-5 days a week. The flanks are a hard place to lose fat of, unless you have the perfect diet (which I don't, but I try!). I guess it probably would be easier if I can stop drinking wine. Unfortunately, when you have 3 little kids....wine is necessary for my mental health :P

I'm really not scared about surgery as much as the recovery. As a lot of you ladies, i'm just worried about taking care of my kids. My PS said that I can lift the baby (anything 25 pounds and under) after the surgery. It is one of the reasons I am having the surgery right now...before my baby gets too heavy! Of course, looking great in a bikini is a reason too! I am 41 yrs old, so I want to rock a bikini sooner than later lol!

Now, I am wondering if I should add lipo of the abs?? If I am going through all this, shouldn't I aim for the best result??? The PS said I would get the best result with both lipo of abs and flank along with the full TT. The issue is that I just don't think I have a lot of fat above the belly button and I am assuming the stuff under the belly button will be excised. Of course I am not a PS, so maybe there are things I just don't understand. If I add ab lipo it will make 10K, eeeek. I still have until surgery date to decide.

So, I went to a second consult with my PS. I just wanted to know if ab lipo would make a big difference, how low the scar would be, and more about recovery time. After talking to him, I've decided to go ahead and do the ab lipo....I might as well get it all done or I am sure I will regret it afterwards! I am also having a floating belly button procedure and I will have the same belly button, just lower on my belly. I was happy about that, I like my belly button :) I can't believe 9 days to my surgery!!! I have continued to work out this week, knowing that I will be getting a break from the gym has made me more motivated :P

So, tomorrow is surgery day! The time has gone slow and fast at the same time. I am nervous, but ready. I hope my expectations aren't too high. All I want is a flat tummy, small scar and no complications :P I don't have a recliner and our bed is really high off the floor, so I might have to get a step stool to help me in and out of bed. I am hoping recovery is comparable to a c-section recovery. I healed on the quicker side with my c-sections, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be too horrible.

I had my TT sugery yesterday, I don't really remmember anyhting. The drugs pretty mcuh had me in a loopy s! So today, is postop #1. The harfest thing has been trying to go out of bed with using abdominal muscles! Hubby was great and he helped me that little issue! I took a look at the belly without the CG on and I can't tell much of any chsnges yet, belly is swollen. I have one drain and a pain pump! I am so looking to getiing it all taken out, I am producing a average of 60ml right now. Hubby kept me to ly down. Unfortunately I like sleeping my side vs sleeping on my badk. The scar is under the steri strips so I haven;t notice how long it is. I am so sleepy, I think I overdid it today.

Post op #2 is better than yesterday. Like a complete crazy person, I ended up doing housework. Nothing too heavy, just putting away laundry, but I could tell that I did too much...my drainage output was like 75ml. Hubby told me to just lay down and chill, "I will have plenty of time to clean in the future" LOL, he is a great motivator! I did take a sneak peek at my belly yesterday. I really couldn't tell much with all the swelling, but my belly button looks the same :) Since the surgery, I have had zero appetite, I have been drinking coffee and water and yesterday I had some crackers with my "salad in a jar" . One of my girlfriends learned it on Pinterest and she turned me on to it. I have 4 more in the fridge, so I probably will have some for lunch today. I still have the pain pump, and i still hurt, so I am assuming if you don't have one it will hurt a lot more (if you had muscle repair). I have moved from our bed to the downstairs couch. Our bed is way too high and it hurts like "mofo" when I am trying to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I hate to wake up hubby to help me. He has been taking care of the kids and baby, and you know men, they can take only so much :P

I have my next dr appt on Tuesday. I will post new pics when I get most of the dressing off.

Hope everybody is having a good weekend!

March 27 postop day 5

I had my dr visit this am, it was very short. He wants me to take "natural" vitamins and vit C. Next appt is Thurs and if my output is still low then they will take out the drain (yipee!). I have one on my right side and it doesn't hurt but it is a little unnerving to have an extra appendage. I felt good for about 3 hours this AM and then I had to take a nap. I was so exhaused. The only thing I find curious is that I walk up straight and I have to remind myself to bend over. Of course, my first thought is that they didn't pull me tight enough lol! I need to ask PS about this Thurs.

Post op 8, apparently post op day starts with the day after surgery, even if you had in the AM, lol! So, I got my drain out and stitches from the lipo. I just saw the nurse and she is awesome....I can ask her anything and feel comfortable. This was on Thurs post op 6. I also got a new CG it goes from under the boobs to crotch. It is OK, better than the velcro thingy I was wearing before. I feel pretty good, no idea about the scar since it is still under tape. The length is a little longer than my C-section scar, but not too bad. I am happy with how low my scar is...pretty much the same place as before or maybe even a little lower. I am including my pic from today.

OK, I am so bad and ended up going to the gym today, I know post op #10 is really soon, but seriously I have no issues with standing up straight and my kids are on spring break....I needed the childcare at the gym for my sanity! I ended up doing 30 min on the ellipitical and lifting for back and bi's. I definitely did not push myself. I've always had been pretty good about listening to my body and I don't push when I have "bad" pain. My scar is getting super itchy and I am so ready to get the tape off and put on the silicone sheets (Scaraway). I have an appt with PS this Thurs and I am going to ask him if I can go ahead and do that. There is only one place that I have some pain and it is right below my sternum, seriously it must be some hardcore MR. That is the worst spot! I am also getting indentations under my belly button from my shorts.....I might have to switch to wearing dresses to relieve the pressure. I have changed to spanx.....the CG was awful and hopefully, PS won't think it is a issue. I feel about 90% back to normal. Hopefully, that isn't a temporary thing!

So, I am 18 days postop and have been having the post sx blues. My stomach is flat and weight is down, but I still have skin laxity above the BB and below when I bend over. Being rather a small person, I expected ALL the skin laxity to be gone. My PS said that we might be able to "laser" to tighten the skin above the BB. I am not happy with this at all, after paying 10K, you expect things like skin laxity to be taken care of. I paid for a full TT, but did the floating bb TT (basically keep your own BB, but move it down). If it wasn't for the skin laxity, I would be very happy with the result. I will post a pic if I can tonight. I would love to hear ya'll's opinion about the TT results so far. I am hoping things will tighten up by somehow, or that I am seeing things because i am a nutjob. Thanks!

It has been about a month since I updated and I am almost 7 wks postop. I am pretty much back to normal. I had a PS appt a few weeks ago and he is going to do lipoX laser for skin tightening free of charge. I hope it works! The skin laxity doesn't bother as much as before. I plan to get the lipoX done soon (they are in process of hiring a new tech for that laser at the ps office), probably sometime this Summer. My scar is looking pretty good, I am going to include a pic soon. I am using the Scaraway silicone strips for c-sections and I think they are helping. Overall, I am loving the result!