Fleur De Lis Tummy Tuck Lipo to Flanks with Grafting to Butt - New Orleans, LA

Thursday was my first day back at work and it wasn't too bad. I'm on half days right now because they wouldn't approve my 2 week extension of my leave. Which is fine with me because they say take half days as long as I need. My tummy is still really swollen and I'm still doing wet to dry dressing inside my belly button, more above it. The spot where my horizontal incision and vertical incision meet has opened some. The doctor now has me doing dressing changes on that spot too. I knew that this was a risk with the surgery and I just have to deal with it!!!!

I know I haven't really been updating, but I got really upset when I typed my update and then something happened and it wasn't there. Anyways, recovery has actually been pretty good for me. The worse pain had to have been PO day 2 and when I cough or sneeze. Not to bad though. I am still really swollen in my lower belly. Maybe it's going down, but I don't know. I am extremely happy with my scar placement. Because I had the vertical and horizontal scar, they were able to cut me along mine C-Section scar and they didn't have to go hip to hip. My first drain wasn't removed until the second week post op and I'm sure the 2nd drain would still be in, but last Sunday I noticed a lot of drainage on my clothes and my drainage bulb wasn't holding suction, because it was half way out. I'm a nurse, so I contacted my doctor to make sure and he told me to go ahead and pull it out. Well, I turned around to go back to the kitchen and it fell on the floor. I didn't have to pull it out. So, I still have fluid that is trying to get out and of course it found it's way, my belly button. On my week 3 Post op visit, the doctor examined me and listened to my concern of the amount of drainage from my belly button. He noticed that I had a cavity or small tunnel or empty space (however you see it) right above my belly button. He said that the open space is a perfect place for collection of fluid or even infection. So instead of waiting for the complication to occur, he started me on wet to dry dressing. I have to pack a 4 X 4 gauze into this space twice a day. Not to bad. I use to do it on my patients all the time, not myself!!!! I rather do that than have a complication. Post op day 7, my legs and feet started to swell so bad. I looked like an elephant. So when I went to my post op visit, I asked the Doctor for Lasix to help get the fluid off. He gave me 3 days, and by that 3rd day, just my feet were swollen. Back to normal now. I go back to work next Friday, but I am going to ask the doctor for a note for 2 more weeks off. I'm in the military, so I was given 30 days free vacation that didn't count against my regular leave. I just pray that this swelling in my lower belly goes down. Well, I will update more later with some pictures.

The surgery happened 1 week ago. I will update more later. My biggest thing is getting comfy with all the combined procedures. I set alarms so that I could take my medication every four hours. The waking up from the surgery and medication wearing off had to have been the worse part. I was under for 6 hours. I'm still exhausted and will update some more really soon.