12 Weeks Post Op, and doing SOME P90X

12 Weeks Post Op, and doing SOME P90X

Happy New Year fellow post ops!

I hope everyone had a nice safe happy holiday, I ended up having my sister visit for a few days and with the rainy cold dreary weather in Richmond, she and her husband encouraged me to workout with them during their stay. I'd heard of P90X a lot from coworkers and friends but never tried it. I can say the workouts are VERY intense, but not terrible if you're in some decent fitness shape. I have only been lightly walking and of course building up my house duties and never did much working out until this holiday. I was so pleased to see the workouts were intense but I felt very healthy doing them (not like I was about to pop a stitch or hurt myself). I emailed my doc, who said I'm out of the "danger zone" for potentially harming anything that was repaired in my surgery, so I'm now working on the p90x Lean schedule.

I'm on week 2 of P90x, and man I cannot do the full "ab ripper X" routine, but I'm not feeling horrible either. Its not the most comfortable exercises, but its been great so far.

For anyone just post op wondering when it will get better, it really seems like that 8 week time is magic. I'm now 10 weeks post op as of Tuesday and followed up with my doctor this week. After many weeks of very light activity besides walking, I definitely feel weaker than before, I still get a little tightness in my tummy at night, but in general you're able to really stretch, yawn, stand straight like you did pre op. Would I go doing wheel yoga pose? (bridge on hands and feet only?) not quite yet, but a little stretching on the resistaball, sure thing.

My belly button incision is healed but very dark, my scar lines on the incision are dark. My doc said its just part of being asian, (I'm filipino) that it'll be a dark red, and lighten over time, but it might take a long time. Again, the surgery was more for just the ab repair, getting shirts and clothing to fit right more than bikini time so no big deal.

I can feel all my stiches under my skin still and I think that'll take a few months to fully absorb, swelling almost never happens but I do still feel a bit more swollen at the end of the day than I do at the start of the day, (minimal)

However, there is no better feeling though than getting back into all my tighter sweaters that fit my belly before kids and post kids made me look 2 months prego, but now, i just look like my old self again! Jeans I'm back to my old size too and just so happy with how things look and feel.

My husband noticed.. its a nice feeling when I asked him, "can you tell my belly looks better" and he's like "oh my goodness your clothes totally fit better now"

One odd thing about the surgery, I think its helped my overall confidence. I guess I was a mom that really 'let herself go' if there is such a thing as that. I stayed fit, but stopped caring about my face. Once I felt ok about my stomach, I started looking at my face and was like "wow, i really need a facial" Joined a hand and stone nearby, got a facial, taking better care of my skin and hubby even noticed that! Now i'm looking and noticing my hair needs to really be cut and colored.

I guess I never realized how much my stomach's appearance was mini-depressing me, was this surgery worth it? You bet it was, hang in there fellow abdominoplasty peeps :)

Wow, I am amazed how radically better I'm feeling every day. It was almost becoming habit getting up from working at the computer and feeling this overall achyness for a good 10 minutes or so just adjusting from sitting for so long. I realized without thinking about it hey i'm not so sore yesterday. Until I tried to shoot some basketball with my son, then I was quickly reminded I'm still healing :)

The belly button is healing well, and I'm able to wear regular underwear (non granny panties) without feeling like clothing is digging into my incision, no longer wearing a compression garment now for days and wearing regular sized jeans.

So far, the swelling is very much under control and improving constantly. I was showering this morning in absolute shock of how amazing my stomach looks now compared to before. Everything seems to so far be going very well, although I haven't been one to push an exercise regimen just yet, trying to wait for 8 weeks or so before I really go for it.