Mommy Makeover: Stories

I am having a full tummy tuck, breast lift and saline implants in two weeks! I am so ready for this! I had my first child when I was 19 and I was totally unprepared. I didn't know the first thing about how to take care of my body or myself. I gained 75 lbs during that pregnancy, going from about 150 to 225. After having that baby I gained even more weight, never even losing the baby weight. I got up to 250. I had another child at age 22. I was already signicantly overweight when I got pregnant this time and only gained about 30 during this pregnancy and lost the 30 lbs pretty much right after. When my youngest was a couple years old I went from about 250 down to 170. At this time I did not have too bad of saggy skin but I did have "the pooch". And it was kind of big even back then, with terrible stretch marks. I wanted to have more children and my belly and boobs were a hot mess already so I figured how much worse could they get? I'll tell you, two more kids later and it can get much worse! lol Of course my children are everything to me, but I am at a place in my life where I can and want to do something about this. I work really hard today as a full time licensed daycare provider and we have the means to do this. I do feel at times it is selfish of me, but then again, I am always taking care of others and I just for once want to do something really big for myself. My oldest daughter is 13 years old so it has been many years of weight fluctuations and pregnancies doing a number on my body and it is the only thing I am unhappy with in my life. I am by no means at my goal weight. I have recently lost most of the baby weight gained from the last two pregnancies but I have a lot yet to go. I know that having the surgery before I am at my goal weight might lead to possible revisions in my future but I don't care. I hate my huge belly. I feel that if I can get this "removed", like a big tumor being taken from my body, I'll feel lighter, healthier and more able to work out, run, and just plain feel better. I will have re-newed motivation! I can't wait! I made my appointment 2 months ago so the last 2 weeks seems so far still but FINALLY so close!

Just 4 more days! I am super excited but finally the anxiety is kicking in too. I'm the most worried about going home the same day and getting up some stairs. It seems like such a big surgery to be going home from the same day and then have to go right back in the morning. eek. I have a great support team to take care of my kids and pets for the first 2 weeks. I'm running around like I'm nesting for a baby or preparing to go on vacation, trying to make things as easy on them as possible. I am so ready to go!

I am 3 days post op and I am thrilled with the results. I have been staying at my parent's house so I have gotten lots of rest and recovery is going very well so far. Even with the swelling I can see how much smaller my body is! They removed 7.3 lbs of skin and fat with the tt and 8 lbs of fat from hips, thighs and flanks with lipo. Wow! That's a lot. The sorest thing is on my lower back where I am very bruised from lipo and it hurts to sit on. It looks like he entered through the hip and sucked some of the fat from my lower back. I feel better than I thought I would by the 3rd day. I will post pictures when I get back home.

6 days po. Still feeling pretty good. In the evenings my swelling tends to be more which causes my bindings to feel tight, which then irritates my incisions. But overall I can't complain too much. I have had more energy and the pain is manageable. My drains both seem to be slipping out a little. I don't know how much of that tubing is inside of me but I am always worrying the things are going to fall out. I am posting a few pics.

How long did it take for others to have a bm? Just wondering because I'm a little concerned that it has been a week and still nothing. I have added before and after photos of my breasts.

Well the bm happened on day 8 and it turns out that was the least of my concerns. I was feeling so good Wednesday. I was up and about quite a bit. At 3:30 in the morning I started feeling a bit sick. By thursday morning I felt competely horrible; weak,nauseous, low grade fever. I went into my ps and they sent me straight to the hospital where I sit now with a staff infection in the tube site getting pumped full of antibiotic. I sure hope in a few months I look back and still decide this was worth it. I am in less pain today but I have been told my insurance may not cover any of this because the infection was a result of an elective surgery. Things are not great right now.

I've been in the hospital for three days and they keep saying I might be here for awhile. At first they were going to try to have me out by Sunday, which is tomorrow, but the infection is not gone. I have red, bumpy, irritated skin all around the mons pubis area where the drains were. They had to pull one drain but I still have one. This area is itchy and painful. I am hoping this gets better soon. They are going to try a new anti-biotic today. Fingers crossed.

Still in the hospital but it looks like I might go home tomorrow! They determined I have Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA)which is a form of staph that is responsive to anti-biotics. There is another form of staph (MRSA) that is very resistant to anti-biotic and much more dangerous. So...I do feel grateful and lucky even though I am sick, I could have had the worse kind and I am getting better. My white blood cell count is back to normal. The area is slowly returning to normal. I still have the one drain which I am incredibly grateful for. The first drain slipped almost all the way out the night I got sick (which I found out later was because my body had the infection for a bit already and was going into toxic shock that night) so when I got there they slipped it the last of the way out because it wasn't suctioning anymore. I am still draining ALOT and sometimes it gets cloudy and they say that might be some of the infection. I am going to be so careful not to lose this drain until it is ready because right now my swelling is not too bad and this drain is sucking a lot of bad things from my body so as much as the tube and I are NOT friends, I want it to stay put. I am wrapping gauze around it and taping a loop at the top so if it gets tugged on the pull happens there instead. Overall, I am beginning to feel like this is all not so bad. There is always someone out there going through something worse and this too shall pass. I did not die and I grew stronger. I miss my family. My kids have been up to see me once all four came and another time 2 were able to. I have been here 5 days and this is my 5th night sleeping in a hospital bed. I'm really ready to get home but at the same time I want to stay as long as needed to make sure I don't end up back here. The IV anti-biotic is so much more powerful than the pills I'll take when I get home so every dose I get here makes me that much more ready to go home and fight it. I still love my new body. When I go home I'll get some new pictures up. You can see it alot better now with all the tape off. I feel so small compared to the old me. I still have weight to lose but this was such a drastic amount of fat removed from me! I forgot to mention, 15.3 lbs! 7.3 of that was from stomach/tt and 8 from lipo of hips, thighs, flanks. He really attacked my butt more than I was expecting. My upper butt was one of the most sore and bruised parts of the whole ordeal and I see why now because he removed a whole lot around the back of me. I sort of had a shelf around me with my back fat leading into the chunky upper back/butt. He really did give me my moneys worth. Well, not counting how much all the hospital stuff will cost. I REALLY hope things work out with insurance or we'll be paying for this for the rest of our lives. Anyway, I better get to bed because someone will be in to get my vitals just as soon as I fall asleep. They won't come in if I stay up, oh no, they come when you sleep. ;) haha. goodnight.

I am home. I am doing well. There have been a few more adventures but today I really feel like I'm on my way to getting better. I am tired from this whole past week and ready to just move on! I am drain free, both by accident, but luckily I do not seem to be getting really swelled up. I had an ultra-sound today which showed that I had very little fluid build-up and my body so far seems to be absorbing everything so I am hopeful moving forward that everything will just be healing now. I am a little swollen but it's not painful. The area around my incision is a little hard and the incision is actually leaking something a little. I am posting some new pics, I am a little curious why the right nipple looks like it sort of drags down at the bottom. I have been so pre-occupied with the infection at appointments that I feel like I've missed asking some of the regular questions, like what is the stage 2 binder I hear people talking about and when can I wear that? When do the stitches come out and then what can I use on the incision to minimize the scar or help with the appearance? I have so much I wish I had answers. I am seeing the infectious disease Dr. tomorrow morning for my follow up with him. I will be on anti-biotic at home for awhile. I am starting to see how my body will look after the swelling is down and I'm excited to get past all of this. My family is going to Florida this summer and I hope that I will be laying on the beach in a bikini :D

I am 4 weeks post op and starting to see what the final look will be. I have a lot of swelling still and sort of a muffin top over the scar as if I'm wearing a tight band around my waist. It is worse on the left side (my right). I can't wait for this to go away. I am still taking anti-biotics and also packing quarter inch wide gauze soaked in anti bacterial wash (called Vashe) into an opening that is 2 inches deep in my incision where the infectious disease Dr. thinks that some of the bacteria is harboring. He says we need to fight the infection locally in addition to the medicine and heal that wound up. I still havn't heard a difinitive answer from my ins. company on coverage for the hospital stay. Lots of waiting right now. I'm so antsy to start doing things that I tend to over-do it almost every day. I have picked my kids up when I know I am not supposed to. I am back to work and I just wipe myself out. I am so eager to be all better!! Must be patient. This is a slow, slow process, especially with the infection that both my ps and infectious disease doc say has slowed my healing and worsened my swelling. BUT, like I said, I can see how much I will love this when it is all better. My flap is gone. My boobs are boob shaped! I'm super excited and I just can't wait until it's all better! I feel lucky that everything turned out ok after getting sick like I did. I think that despite what happened, I'd do it again. It is so freeing to have that fat/skin flap gone. :)

I am almost 5 months post op and I've been meaning to get on here for awhile and give an update. I am very happy with my results. I LOVE the breasts the most. Sometimes I still think they look a little large in certain clothes. I would maybe have not gone quite as big because it was more just the lift and shape I was wanting but overall I'm happy. My husband likes that they are big. haha. I love that they no longer sag and I feel more womanly. My belly flap and saggy boobs were like a deformity in my mind. I am still not at my goal weight but I went trying on swim suits and I have never had an experience like that before. I don't feel disgusted by those "deformities" and even though I'm still a little chunkier than I'd like to be it looks like that, a little chubbiness and not a gross flap that cannot be hidden by any bathing suit on the planet. We are going on a vacation to the beach in 17 days and I am SO ready! For anyone who is considering this surgery though I must warn...the recovery is unlike anything I could have imagined. Even after my infection when I began to really heal and get better it was slow going. I am still recovering. I can do all normal things. I have been exercising for awhile now but I still cannot do situps or ab work and basically I just don't yet feel totally normal. I feel great now but it has been sllloooww. You have to be willing to deal with annoyances and minor pain for months to come after surgery. It still hurts a little when I wear an underwire bra. No big deal, I just don't wear one. But the point is, you are not completely back to normal for a very long time. I still don't know exactly when that day will come. That all being said....I am happy I did it. It was worth it. My insurance did end up covering a portion of my hospital stay for the infection. It cost me about $2000 out of pocket for that ordeal. I love the way pants fit now. I could never find a pair that fit properly on top and bottom because of my belly. There are some things that didn't go away like some stretch marks so you can't expect perfection, but a huge improvement. I will try to get some pictures taken soon. I got myself a two piece bathing suit for the first time in my life so if I dont get around to it today I'll get some pics when I'm laying on the beach in a few weeks! :)))))