Getting My Tummy Back! - Tennessee, TN

Hi Ladies I'm late to this forum on my journey but here I go. I am 45, and have one grown child who is 23 yrs old. Looking at my stomach you would have thought I had at least three or four. After having my child I was left with terrible stretch marks and a stomach I could not get rid of. I did everything. I became a gym rat and lost 30+ pounds. I was looking and feeling better than I had ever looked. But still could not get rid of the belly. I kinda thought I would be stuck with it. When I was not able to go to the gym the way I used to because of the long hours of work, I started to put on some weight. First slowly but then after a while I noticed that I not only had gained weight but was starting to get love handles and some back fat. I once again started thinking I HAD to start working out again because I was bigger than I had ever been. I'm 5'7 and weighted in at 184. Highest weight ever. I did not look bad but since I carried weight in my stomach it was NOT Cute! I was also thinking what is the point of doing all this work to lose the weight and I will be left with the ugly stretch marks. So I started doing research to remove them. Mostly all my searches brought me to tummy tuck and plastic surgery. I had never thought of it before. After doing the research and meeting with two doctors in my area, I settled for the ps who did not use the drains and I liked his procedure a little better than the other pla surgn. I had my surgery on March 23, 2012 and I love my results. Mostly all the stretch marks are gone and I am pretty flat. I have noticed that I may still need to work on my flank area. My ps did not do lipo of flanks. I still look really good but had I got that lipoed it would be even more flattering. So I'll have to sweat it out in the gym. If that does not work then back to the ps I go! I'll give it three or four months to see if there is progress. I am about 10 weeks post op now. I still have swelling and and my scar is healing well. My ps is just giving me the ok to start the scar treatment so i'm still a little dark in my incision. My belly button is looking good but I have noticed that mine is a lot different then most I have seen here. My opening is a little wider and the scar seems to be more on the outside rather then on the inside of the belly button. I'm ok with the way that it looks but hope the scaring will blend better with the help of the scar treatments. I also had a great support system in my fiance. He would tell me how he loves me even with the stretch marks. I told him thank you for that but this is for me! I've wanted to get rid of that belly for over 20 years and now I had an option. I went for it and glad I did. Ladies I don't have any photos to share yet because I have not been following my progression with pics but I will start soon and post for you to view as well.

Hi Ladies. I met with my ps today and showed him the area I was concerned about with the puffiness on my right flank. I was surprised when he asked me if I would like to have it removed! I gladly said YES! he then said well let me know when you want to have it done because it's summer time and we want to get you in that throng! OMGosh, I am so not wearing a throng! My revision date is scheduled for July 11th but asked them to please contact me if someone cancels so I can get in sooner. I was told that the recovery time for the revision is not as bad as the full tt. Has anyone has this done, if so how much longer was your down time? Also since I have to have the revision my ps told me not to start the scar therapy on the incision. I had already started it on the belly button so he said that was fine. If I have that revision in July, I may not be able to start the scar treatment until August. My surgery was in March. Is that too long for me to have good results on my scar?

Hi, I posted a few of the pics I had of my belly the night before I had my surgery. Nice big and stretchy! I'll take current pics soon and post.