Tummy Tuck: Stories

I have been a long time reader on this site and now that my TT is right around the corner, I decided it's time to post! I'm 34 y.o., 5'8, 175 lbs (I think). I work out hard 4-5 times a week and am in really good shape, just have some extra weight, but I have always been “thick.” . My legs (saddle bags, mainly) are hereditary so I had slim lipo done on them about two weeks ago. I am recovering well from that and am now on to procedure II - Tummy Tuck in about 9 days. I have wanted this for a LONG time. I am super excited and wish it was tomorrow!

My story goes: I gained and then lost over a hundred pounds in my late teens and early twenties. Over the course of the last decade or so I gained about 40 lbs back. I had my one and only child 2 years ago and gained almost 70 lbs during pregnancy. My poor body has been overfed and starved for many, many years. I am actually impressed at how well my skin has handled the ups and downs. I wish I was more like 150 lbs but alas, it just does not seem possible and I am done depriving myself and hating myself. I have been relatively happy with my body for about a year. I have been working out really well the last two years, lost all my preggo weight and have decided that I’m not waiting any longer for the TT. I think this is the weight that my body is comfortable at and overall I’m okay with it. I just hate my dough-bulge! It looks really yucky when I’m doing plank – like practically touching the ground!! I am finally exercising not so much to lose weight but because it is like good mood medicine for me. I think my greatest fear with this whole procedure is that I will lose my drive to keep working out. I have pretty bad low back pain which I think is because of the abdominal wall muscle separation. I am really hoping that after my abs are repaired, healed, and toned well, that my back pain will decrease. That is also a big reason that I am getting the TT. Ever since my pregnancy my low back has been really bad.

So I have bought all my recovery supplies – thanks to all the great ladies on here – I feel really well prepared. I am staying at the Marriott for 3 nights following the surgery which is right down the street from the clinic. I am mainly doing this because I live about an hour away from my surgeon and the drive is windy and the pain meds make me nauseous and I don’t want to have to go through that, especially since my PS said that he will see me everyday following the surgery until I am cleared. On that note, I love my PS. I have a few friends who have had work done and they RAVE about him. He is really an artist. If he’s not pleased with the outcome of his work, he will go back and fix it for free – including the lipo. He already told me that he might want to get some more fat out of my thigh bags. I haven’t even had the TT yet and I would recommend him. He have me his email and told me to email him whenever any questions come up. I have done it a few times and he is super responsive.

Anyway…that’s all for now. I will post pre-op pics soon! Best wishes to all the Nov. TT ladies and happy healing to everyone who is already on the flat side. I love this site and am so grateful for all your stories!

Well, tomorrow is the big day. I can't believe it's already here. Last week I ordered everything I could possibly need for recovery. Unfortunately due to the Hurricane, deliveries have been slowed and now I will have to go out and by a lot of this today. Oh well, could be worse. I got my prescriptions and my wedge pillow. Can anybody tell me things that they absolutely had to have during the first 3 days of recovery?

When I think about it, I start to get nervous so I've just been distracting myself. Thinking about it right now is making me nervous. I can't believe it's in 21 hours. I feel pretty optomistic about a speedy recovery because I recovered so easily from the lipo I had done 3 weeks ago. I hope I'm not setting myself up for dissapointment. Based on everyone's stories, it seems like getting up regularly and moving around is really helpful for moving recovery along.

Again, thank you everyone for sharing your stories. Happy healing and I'll meet you on the flat side!

Well. I made it to the flat side. It has been a rough 24 hrs. It is really the muscle repair that is killing me. If I move even a bit I have excruciating pain. Getting up and back down hurts really bad. Yesterday, due to all the pain meds and anesthesia I was dry heaving and puked a little. That was the worst pain of my life. Thankfully my hubby (god bless his heart) put in a rectal suppository (sorry for TMI) but I must say that has been my saving grace. Finally around 10pm last night (surg was at 730am), I was finally able to eat and keep some food and liquids down. Because of that, I thinks pained a actually started working. So now, the incision pain isn't so bad it's the muscle repair. The throbbing, spasms, hurt bad. So it's been a pretty shitty 24 hrs but I can feel it slowly getting more bearable. Not sure if it's worth it yet, cause the pain is SOOO bad but I think it will feel work it in a few days (kind of like child birth). Right now, I feel completely helpless and I hate it. I have to get help with EVERYTHING -it drives me nuts.

Take care and happy healing everyone.

Hello ladies,
Thales for all your support! Thank you lilmary for the ice recommendation. It helped tremendously. I am feeling SOOO much better today (day 2 po). Now I feel optimistic that it will progressively get better. I am starting to feel that it might be worth it. I saw my doc again this AM. They took out my foley cath today (I forgot to mention I had that I had it in since the surg due to a history of problems of not being able to pee after anesthesia. ) even though it may sound annoying, I was delighted to have it. Having to pee and not being able to on top of unbearable pain is about the worst combo imaginable. No sign of a BM coming but I'm taking stoop softereners daily. Fingers crossed.

I am walking a little less hunched today. Thank god because that was killing my back. Despite feeling somewhat better, as ladies on here have advised, I am really trying to not over due it. I find just walking to the potty exhausts me .

I cannot thank the TT-ers on here enough for your support, encoragment,
and advise. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Happy healing and God bless. May we all be well. xoxo

I feel like so much has happened in just a few days. The first few days are very fuzzy. So let's see... I got to take a shower. That was lovely. Some ladies recommended putting a patio chair in the shower and I did just that (well my husband did). And that worked really well. Feeling clean and fresh is such a gift. I've been to see my PS everyday site the surgery 6 days ago. My mom is so impressed with the aftercare that heed thinking of getting a procedure done now. And I must admit I picked up brochures on BA/BL today...you know just for informational purposes.

So, at my last few appointments, they gave me IM meds everyday. The last few days they gave me Tordal which I think has worked the best out of everything (the RN described it as ibuprofen on steroids). The first PO day they had kept my IV line in and so they hydrated me am gave me more antinausea meds ans demral through the IV. (thank you God for Demrol.)

Today at my appt, my Doc took out one drain (not painful at all, just kind of weird - def not as bad as having a foley catheter pulled out or put in). The drains havent been a huge bother, one of them was a bit tender so he took out that one. And he took the stitches out of my new belly button (which I think I will like once it shrinks a bit). I asked my doc about the kind of puckering look of the scar, especially on the two ends. He said it looks totally normal and that it is good for it to pucker a bit now because that means it will soften and flatten at the final result. My doc said that for post op day 5 I am right on track and everything is as it should be. He didn't give me the Tordal today (something about liver damage) so I'm definitely feeling like I will be in bed all day. Getting up and moving around is just exhautimg ad in comfortable right now. The Tordal kind of tricks me into thinking I can do more than I really should (I.e., like vacuuming last night). I don't have another appt until Sat. (today is Thurs) and I will prob get my 2nd drain out then. The biggest thing affecting me now is how totally sleepy the pain meds make me (I can't remember if I mentioned that I alternate Valium and 10mg Percocet every 2 hours). The Valium is for the muscle spasms. Doc told me that it hurts so bad in the AM because I haven't had Valium all night. And I have to agree the Valium does seem to be the most effective of the two -- it just makes me SO tired that I don't like to take it. I pray that my healing continues to improve day by day and for all of you ladies out there, too. I have more pics and will post them later today (that darn Valium is kicking im and I can barely keep my eyed open LOL).

So let's see...pain is getting much more manageable. I took my last perc this AM and doc gave me the go ahead for Motrin and that seems to be going well. Occasionally I get these twitches of painful muscle spasm but I'm tryin to just bear it because at most it only lasts a few minutes. The Valium works well for them but its so sedating and I want to be able to take care of my babe and start driving again. I saw my doc again today (he's amazing). He took out my last drain (completely painless - i dont know if maybe certain docs place them differently cuz I've read about so many ladies having terrible pain with the drain removal). I was still draining about 30cc's every 24 hours but he said the risk of infection outweighed the benefits of the drainage.

My biggest problem right now is constipation. I haven't pooped in 5 days. I went on day 3 and day 4, both fairly nothing to write home about but I am seriously wondering where my body is storing this collection of waste. I feel very full and bloated, have very little appetite (though am still eating about 1800 cals a day), I taking stool softeners nightly, and last night took some sort of Herbal colon cleanse thing and - NOTHING! (Hence my second reason for stopping the Percs (though I managed to go when I was takin them every 3 hours so I just do get it)). I think tonight I might try an actual laxative. Lord help move the bowels please!! Sorry for TMI - I'd rather vent about it on here - if you know what I mean.
So I took some pics tonight. I am in my first bikini in about 20 years. It doesn't look very good and the scar (covered in tape) is high. I'm hopin it will eventually lower a little when the swelling goes down and I don't have 5 lbs of shit trapped in my bowel. I still have some stretch marks but they are much decreased. My doc really got all the ones on the front of my stomach which is amazing because they were so deep and huge I thought they looked like tiger stripes. So all and all, I look okay. Mind you, I am just over a month post op out of lipo so still expecting my thigh swelling to go down. I'm pretty sure my doc is gonna go back in and do a bit more lipo on my right thigh. It's hard to tell, but they are slightly assymetrical. I didn't even have to ask him about it - he brought it up himself. He is such a great PS. It makes me want to get my boobs done!! I can totally understand how people get addicted to this....I am uploading my pics from my phone. Sometimes they upload rotated so use yur imagination :) I hope my share helps someone else. As always, happy healing!

TMI ALERT: after 5 days of stool softeners, various herbal tea remedies, and finally laxative last night, I am so thankful to report that it worked and amazingly the scale went down 5 pounds! That is a little scary. Happy healing everyone and thank you for all your stories!