“A Tummy Tuck Was the Best Thing I Ever Did!”

Ok, I'm commenting on my own story. The last photo was taken 1 month ago after a surgery to remove a "dog ear" I had developed after my tummy tuck. You can see that almost 3 years later how much my scar has faded comepared to the 6 week follow up one that is posted above. I know I could have used some Lipo on my hips but chose to get surgery on my breasts over lipo about a year later.

It was more of a lifestyle change instead of a "diet." I knew that staying healthy and eating a balanced, nutricious diet would be the best choice anyways. But watching a friend have a tummy tuck who continued to just eat alot of junk and fast food,(and didn't wear her girdle!!!) who was a social smoker realy hit home. I don't know if the two issues were in fact related, but her scars looked nasty. Mentally it was enough to make me committed to NOT looking like that. I wasn't going to go through all this pain and money and not do what I could, even if it took over a year from start to finish to have the best scar I could. And it went through alot of different phases from red and raised, to dark brown and flat... it was lumpy. But eventually, it calmed down and faded with time. I know everyone is different and I told myself if I was going to tan my scar then I was going to do everything I could to make sure it looked the best it could. It was lumpy for about a year,and I massaged it every night and I think wearing the girdle around the clock for several months helped to keep the tension off the scar so it didn't widen. Some people made fun of me for wearing my girdle for so long but like other people have said, I had residual swelling for several months.

A "dog ear" is a little piece of skin that sticks out at the end of your incision. I didn't have the "before" of my dog ear but I can see if my doctor can give it to me. Mine was small about 3cm that poked out like a little triangle. It grossed my daughters out! Early on there was this piece of flesh that didn't lay flat, so after a few years I decided that I wanted it removed.

Well all they had to do to get rid of the "dog ear" was to cut off the little piece of skin that stuck out. I think I had like 4 or 5 stithces and they were in for about a week. They were annoying and burned, but it wasn't painful. I kept the incision covered with gauze but the pressure from pants hurt it, but if I wore loose clothing it felt like a curling iron burn or something... and then it's healed up very nicely. I think my incision is about an inch long, so I traded a 3cm piece of poking out skin for a flat incision.

Yes, it was a little over 3 pounds, and the tattoo came off in 1 piece! They gave me a picture of that as well.