First, I will include pictures later- my doctor has all my before shots! I've never taken a before shot because I was too ashamed of how I looked! I am nearly 44 years old, and once I hit early menopause, and due to my overeating when my father died, I gained about 80 pounds in six year period. I've been so depressed and upset at how I looked, and I couldn't take it anymore. I'd been working out hard, but when months pass and I hadn't seen any real results, I would lapse back to the old habits. Finally, I was checking my email, and I saw a groupon for one laser lipo treatment. I started dreaming about getting something done. I bought the groupon and went in to see the doctor. After talking to him, he referred me to his partner, because he was able to root out my real concerns- my midsection, flanks, sides and back fat! I went to see this doctor, and really, he put me at ease, so I felt like it was worth it to pay for a good procedure. Updated on 30 Jan 2014: I don't know if it's the compression garment or the scars, but I'm very very itchy! I'm thinking that 2 weeks into my post-op, I may just take off this scratchy compression garment and exchange it for the silk ones I got to replace this big 'ole binder. I'm figuring most of my waking moment, I can wear the binder compression garment, and then I can relieve myself from the itchy one at night with the silk 2nd stage compression garment. Also, I am having a lot of swelling in my feet. I elevate them at night, but in the morning, they're still swollen. I drink about 45 ounces of water, and then another 40 ounces of juice. Since it doesn't seem to work, I'm going to talk to my doctor about it. Perhaps he might have some ideas on what to do. Updated on 31 Jan 2014: So they sent over my second stage garments. They're made of silk- I'm not sure how I feel about them just yet. I'm so used to having the binders holding in my swollen stomach- this second stage just holds everything in place and is slightly firm, but not tight. I'm not sure what's up with how things feel now that it's all hanging out. :-/ I have very mixed feelings on the second stage garment. On the other hand, my home health aide came by today to help me with my dressings. It's the first time she's seen me in nearly 2 weeks, and she was shocked- she said I'm looking really good! :) So there's an upside to this. The area above my belly button is starting to feel tender and sore. Yesterday, I took my shower, and I felt a little bit of stinging on my belly button. I'm not sure what's up with that because my belly feels numb, yet there's a slight stinging sensation when I shower and a little soreness. I'm back to not really feeling much of an appetite. My stomach just feels a little jumpy today. Updated on 1 Feb 2014: So, I was feeling down because I just get tired of the swelling! Yesterday, on a whim, I stopped at Whole Foods and picked up a few pounds of grapses and strawberries. When I returned home, I focused on drinking water and juice, but I added in the grapes. All night, I was up and down at the toilet, but then when I woke up for good this morning, I was amazed to see I was noticeably less swollen! I'm not sure why, but my feet aren't swollen either. So I'm going to keep up with eating the fruits and see if that will assist with bringing down the swelling. I know the swelling will still take time, but it felt good to see the swelling come down so noticibly after I was so bummed out yesterday! Updated on 4 Feb 2014: Even though the swelling has come down, I'm so not used to this numb feeling in my tummy and having it swell out like this all the time. I tried the compression garments they gave me to start wearing for second stage. They are comfortable, in the sense that it doesn't make me itch, but it doesn't get rid of that very uncomfortable feeling I described. So now, I wear the second stage compression garment, but I put my first stage binder on over it. It feels much more manageable than going without the garment. I don't bind it as tightly as I did in first stage, but nonetheless, it's still pretty tight. It helps prevent the back pain I sometimes feel from not being able to use my abs as much as I used to when I'm sitting upright or walking. I've got this feeling in my tummy sometimes that's also uncomfortable- like there's snakes wriggling around in my tummy. It also sometimes feels hot as well. I mostly just wait and take deep breaths, and sometimes, I cross my arms over my tummy until it calms down. Weird feelings! But I have my doctor's appointment on Saturday, so I'm hoping to get good news! Updated on 15 Feb 2014: Well, it'll be one month tomorrow. I've really taken down quite a bit of the swelling through diet and drinking water. I'm desperately working towards getting this anti-scar prescription my doctor set up for me. Hopefully, my insurance will come through for me this week. I was mid-insurance switch, which messed me up with starting my prescription right away. It appears to be expensive, so I'll try it out and report back. The incisions have nearly healed by now. Once I got the clearance to not have to use that salve and gauze, that changed things considerably. I had a couple of gaping wounds on the side I had to deal with, but once I started to really focus on getting that healed up, I was able to finally stop the constant bleeding. It was such a relief to not be bleeding all the time! I'm still slowly coming down with the swelling. It's so weird to have this numbness in my stomach. I'm not used to my new belly button, which is still clearly healing. *sigh* I hope it is able to heal up so I can see what the final result will look like! I know I've lost weight- first, I've been eating a lot less. I also don't snack on junk food anymore. I don't eat late night unless I'm really hungry, and when I do, it's fruits and veggies. I drink a lot more water- no more coke or anything like that. I do struggle with getting more protein, so I'd appreciate any advice on getting more clean, lean protein! Mostly, I just really dislike cooking. I do cook more, though, because it's healthier, so that is probably helping a lot. Three weeks after surgery, I got on the scale. I've lost 17 pounds! I am not by any means skinny- I have a long way to go, but at least the body contouring I had from the tummy tuck helps to enhance my weight loss! I'm taking it one day at a time! I do plan to start exercising again. I wanted to start last week, but I ran into some weird pain/numbness. I'm hoping this week will be better and I can get back to exercising. Spin class on Monday night! :) I tried to do some pilates, but my stomach totally killed me, and it just knocked me out for a week and put me back to using my cane for like three days. Uuuuughhh! I am about to get back into some pilates tonight and see if I can get some basic pilates under my belt. I teach pilates, and it's no good to teach a class if I can't demo some of the exercises! Milestones so far: -17 pounds lost between January 13th and February 7th -considerable swelling gone from around my midsection -laid on my side for the first time since surgery for about an hour today -incision nearly all healed from surgery -able to stand upright since last week -no pain getting out of bed My goal is to continue eating well and taking the weight down slowly. I had an appointment with my doctor for Saturday, but we had a bad snowstorm, and he canceled. But- he is going to give me my before pictures, and I'll post them here so you can see the improvement. It is so great to see those before photos and see I'm only one month in and there's a DRAMATIC difference- no rolls of back fat or side fat or stomach fat! Updated on 21 Feb 2014: This week, I somehow got the flu, even though I've been extremely careful with washing my hands and using hand sanitizers and limiting myself being in large groups. *sigh* I still got sick. :-/ I am very concerned that I might have affected my tummy tuck- all the deep coughing I've been doing has made my stomach and sides ache like crazy! I've been downing cough medicine and taking cough drops to help, but this really sucks! :-/
I am a 29 year old bi-racial woman. I gave birth to my son at the age of 15. My stomach was stretched beyond the stretch! LOL...I was so young and naive that I thought my stomach would go back to the way it was. I was SO wrong! I have been thinking about doing this for years and now I have finally came to my decision!!Updated on 28 Mar 2012:I forgot to mention in my 1st review that I am 5' 1 and 125 lbs. So...Im less than 24 hours away from the big TT. Im super excited and nervous at the same time!! When I finally decided to get this done I felt a little ashamed and only my closest friends knew...now Im so upfront about it because this is something that means a lot to me and apart of my journey. I WANT this and Im not doing it for anyone else! Im kinda scatttered and all over the place at the moment and probably will be for the next few weeks so please bare with me. lol.Updated on 29 Mar 2012:Today is the big day!! Im crazy nervous....im hungry...n im excited all at the same time! I hope it all goes well today..a couple of weeks ago I was really scared. Im not as much now as i was but my thoughts sometimes wonder off to those not so happy places. But whatever! Im ready now as im ever going to be!! I'll touch base once I get back home...Keep your fingers crossed!
I got vaser lipo yesterday on my abdomen, hips, and love handles for $5000 + $60 for my compression garment and $20 for all the medications. I was quite nervous but I went in and got my before photos taken, picked a movie, took a cocktail of pills they gave me, and was given a blanket and was left to watch the movie while the pills kicked in. I fell asleep and remember being woken up to go to the surgery room. I don't remember being marked or anything. The lidocain shots were less painful than a bee sting and honestly didn't hurt one bit. The surgery itself wasn't completely painless because I could feel it moving in me and it was uncomfortable but not painful. However, there were 3 times that I screamed "ow." The doctor though was great he constantly asked if I was having pain and for the most part I wasn't. Actually, during the surgery I fell asleep and started snoring so obviously it wasn't that bad. I don't remember much really and I was so scared before but would def. do it again. I now am in my compression garment and have a lot of swelling and bruising in the pubic area but not in terrible pain. I took a peek at my body and was shocked at how little my waist looks already even with swelling and how flat my stomach was, again with the swelling. I put my garment right back on but it def. made me very excited because if I look that much better with swelling, I can't imagine the final outcome. Overall I would def. recommend the procedure but I will come back and post in a few weeks to let everyone know how the final project looks and will post before an after pictures for anyone interested. I started at 5'8, 180 lbs. so we'll see what I end up at. The doctor says he took my waist down about 6 inches. So exciting.
I had my procedure done awake, but sedated. I am extremely happy with my result, except for the little concern about the feel of them.I always wanted breast implants and then when I had my children, I really wanted them : )I had a breast augmentation four months ago and overall...I am very happy. I only have one concern. I got 375cc silicone implants above the breast tissue. I was a 34B and now a 34D. My breast were a bit uneven (one sat lower than the other and one was more fuller than the other) before and I understand that followed over. My right sits lower than my left and my left is way more soft than my right. It actually doesn't even feel like an implant is in there because it feels so real. The small concern that I have is that my left breast feels harder than my right. Not hard like a rock or anything, but you can feel the implant; whereas, my right...it's as if there is no implant. I hope I'm making sense : ) Is this normal?
I had smart lipo service on my abs, flank area, bra line and a tummy tuck. After several months of complaining the decide to do what's call a touch up in my ab area. we had several mixs-up with schedules both were each other fault. Three days before surgery I notify the doctor that my daughter was in the hospital in would be discharge the day of surgery. He refuse to reschedule and my body looks the the same way, I am hurt,confuse and paying a bill for services that were not completed.
