“Tummy Tuck After 2 Kids - Super Nervous!!”

I am 21 years old and a mother of 2 beautiful children; a 18 month old and a 7 month old. Yes, they are 11 months apart. :) I'm done having children and after a nasty bout of postpartum depression my husband decided to give me an early Mother's Day present of a tummy tuck. :D I have always had the goal of getting one after having children. My surgery is April 8th so I only have 2 more days before going in. I am so nervous!

The doctor and his staff have been amazing and very helpful so far so I feel that I am in good hands but I still can't shake the butterflies. I have never been super thin and after having kids I was pretty heavy. I am currently at 160 lbs(down from 185 lbs). I want to get down to 150. They said that 10lbs wouldn't make a big difference if I lost it after surgery. I hope that my results will be really good even if I am not "thin". I have a ton of stretch marks from my two children. I am 5'4" and both my children were large (almost 9 lbs) I can't wait to see what I look like after surgery and to not have all of this skin hanging off my stomach and in my lap when I sit. I'm also getting lipo on my flanks. My dr. said that it would help thin me out there and get rid of the love handles.

I will keep you all posted on how everything goes! :)

Updated on Apr 7, 2010:

I just checked into my hotel room. The doctor called and they have pushed my surgery time back to 9:00 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m. I'm actually happier with 9:00 since I am not an early riser ( thank goodness my children aren't either..lol!) I'm a little frustrated with my Primary Care doctor as I just found out an hour ago that they never sent my pre-op exam. :( So I had to spend an hour on the phone with them trying to get it faxed through. Hopefully they finally got it straightened out. Other than that everything is running really smoothly still. I picked up my prescriptions and I have this weird cream to put on my wrists that is supposed to help with nausea. Did anyone else have to use this?

I'm feeling even more nervous but hopefully I will be able to get some sleep tonight. :)

Updated on Apr 9, 2010:

I did it! :D I had my surgery! I am so happy. I haven't seen my belly yet but my husband says he can already tell a big difference. I don't have any rolls when I sit down either. Yay! It's 3 in the morning right now and I am just waiting for my pain meds to kick in. They make me fall asleep. The pain in no where nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was in more pain after giving birth to my daughter then I am now. I think having the ON-Q pain ball is helping a great deal. I love having it. The drains are probably the most uncomfortable part. They tug  a bit when I walk which never feels nice but it's managable.

  I went in for surgery at 9. One of the nurses came in for me and gave me a pregnancy test and then had me get dressed for surgery. The anesthesiolgist came in and got my history and helped answer any questions. He was super nice and helpful. I love the fact that he numbed my arm before giving me the IV. Then the nurse came in and I signed a few more forms and she walked me into the OR. They do the surgery as an outpatient process and have the OR right in their office building.  Everything was done super fast so there wasn't any long waits in the waiting rooms. 

  In the OR the anesthesiolgist gave me some kind of sedative to help relax me. He said it would feel like I just drank a glass of wine. I was very happy to have it because my nerves were terrible! To me when it kicked in it felt like I drank a bottle of wine. The room was swaying a little and I had a hard time standing. The nurses and I joked about it. Once I adjusted to the sedative they had be stand up and wiped me down with iodine to sterilze me for surgery. Then I layed on the table and they boot these really nice booties over my socks and started wrapping up my arms to help keep me warm. The anesthesiolgist came back in and that is the last thing I remember.  I woke up in recovery and I was SO sick! I kept throwing up and couldn't hold down anything. They told me that this would probably happen since I was at higher risk for nausea being a young female. Once while throwing up,which I was trying to do as carefully as possible, I felt a pop. The nurse and doctor didn't seem to be very worried about it but I am hoping I didn't ruin my tummy tuck. The doctor said that he did multiple stiches up and down my abs so if I did pop a stitch is really shouldn't affect my results. But we won't be able to tell until all of the swelling goes away. I'll just cross my fingers until then. :)

  The were very good about explaining my aftercare to me and my husband. I had such a hardtime staying awake through it though. lol! They had be walk to the car which they have you pull up to the back door so it's only a few feet away.  I go back for post-op check in one week. They have you remove your dressings yourself which I totally don't mind since I went to nursing school but it may gross some people out. I'm to call them and come in if anything doesn't seem right though. I'd reather change my dressings at home in 48 hours than have to make the 4 hour drive for it.

 At home I am in a recliner and am totally amazed at how much sleep I have gotten. I thought for sure that I wouldn't be able to get comfortable. My butt is numb but other than that I really do feel great. My drains are catching quite a bit of fluid so I am hoping this will continue and I won't get too swollen. My husband is such a great help and is doing an amazing job being a nurse. I need a good bit of help getting to the bathroom mainly because of how tight my stitches are. I am been in half when I get up. I have to go the the bathroom about once every hour during the day. I haven't gone that much since I was pregnant! I'm eating soft foods and drinking lots of liquids. My tummy gets full pretty fast and I still feel a tiny bit sick after eating so I don't want to jump into solids yet. Maybe by Saturday....

 Overall I feel really good and I'm happy with how well everything as gone. I can't wait to see my new tummy. I hope it looks as good as I feel! Pictures will be coming soon!  

Updated on Apr 9, 2010:

I forgot to mention that I had an extended tummy tuck as you will see from the pics I will get to post tomorrow. :) 

Updated on Apr 10, 2010:

Well it's been 48 hours since the surgery and I am feeling great. My pain is minimum and the only thing I am really feeling now is the drain sites. They have a weird burn feeling when I move. My bruising is actually looking like it is fading. I am slowly starting eating solids. I am eating alot of fruit and drinking a TON of water. I'm not really having any trouble sleeping and I feel pretty comfortable. I do complain a lot about my lower back when I am walking though. It's extremely sore from being bent over for so long. Tomorrow my doctor said I can start straightening up. :D Hooray!  I go in on thursday for a checkup and maybe to have my drains removed. I'm kind of half and half on that one. I really want them removed but I don't want them out to early. I know my doctor won't pull them out earlier than he thinks is good. He is very strict on the drains.

 I took my dressings off today and I was able to see my stomach for the first time. I am so happy with it! I am still very swollen and my belly button hasn't tucked but I could care less right now. This is worlds better than my old pizza doughy belly with a totally absence of a belly button. I really like the way it is looking. I can't believe that it's mine though. I still feel like I should have rolls when I sit down and have a huge flap when I sit.  I am very happy with my results so far. :) I am posting new pictures today. Hopefully they will show up on here. Pictures seem to take a while to be posted...

Updated on Apr 11, 2010:

Day 4-  I have been through Swell Hell and back.  Yesterday I puffed up like a puffer fish. It was super uncomfortable.  I think I know what caused it though. I tried a piece of my husband's homemade fried chicken...BIG MISTAKE! I payed for it all night long. When you get your tummy tuck done make sure you are super careful about your salt intake. It really does matter. I am much better today and even smaller than I was a few days ago. The swelling is moving down and my stomach is looking flatter. :D  I'm still hunched over but I can straighten out a little more than I have before. I'm posting my day 4 picture for you to see.  I can wait until I can stand up better and have one taken then!

Updated on Apr 15, 2010:

Day 7-

So it has been one week since my surgery today. :D  I went to Dr. B's and I was hoping to get my drains taken out. I only was able to have one out but one is better than none! :)  I have to go back on Tuesday to get the other one out. I'm so excited. The drains are by far the worst part of the surgery. Mine were super irritated and the one I still have has started to leak a little at the drain site. It's normal but I'm so ready for it to be over!! Thank goodness it will only last 4 more days.  I still can't shower but I have finally mastered the art of washing my hair. It will be good to shower again. I am feeling really good and just having one drain out has made such a big difference in my comfort level.

  I went throught the post op depression on day 5. It was gone the next day though. I am still hunched over but I am getting pretty close to being upright. I still move a little slow while walking but my nurse said she is really impressed with how I am recovering. I got the tape taken of my incision and was able to see it for the first time. Dr. B uses liquid stitches on the incision so the scarring should be minimal and the width of the cut is tiny. I am really happy about it. The stitches were taken out of my belly button as well. My belly is looking so good!! I will post my week one pictures for you all!

Updated on Apr 28, 2010:

Week 2 ( and a half) 

I'm up and moving about like normal now. Hooray hooray!! I can finally stand totally straight and even went out for a girls night out. It was nice to actually be able to enjoy dressing up without worrying if my stomach looked to big or if I had rolls when I sat down.  Most of my clothes are now to big which is awesome! All that skin was adding at least 2 extra pant sizes to me.  I went into surgery wearing a size 13 ( I still shop in the juniors dep. lol!)  and I'm now wearing a size 9 almost a size 7! I haven't been that size since before having my daughter! I'm so happy. Today I went out shopping and bought a bunch of new clothes for me. I 'm so thrilled with with my new body! I can't wait to go swimsuit shopping!

Updated on Jul 9, 2010:
This coming week I go in for my 3 month appointment. I can't believe that it has been that long!! My tummy continues to look better everday. I've never been this flat in my life! I've started working out again and am starting to see some muscle definition. :) It took a while but I am back to my high intensity workouts again. My tummy still has some tightness left in it and it's still mostly numb but I am okay with that. My scar is higher than most peoples but it's because of the fact that I needes an extended TT. The scar is healing very nicely and in a year I think it will be barely noticeable. I LOVE my tummy! I'm so happy I did this for myself. I'll post my three month pics for you and my doctor's before and afters when I get them.