I am a 44 year old mom of 4. My stomach and breasts were in pretty bad shape and I've wanted to do a mommy makeover for years. This year I decided it's my time, and went for it. I chose Dr Rhee because I felt like he valued doing my surgery safely over anything else, and didn't over-promise results. I am a former smoker which plays a big part and he was very thorough in explaining what can be done and how the blood vessels effect surgery and healing. He listened to what I wanted and gave me realistic options based on my specific health and body. I chose a tummy tuck and breast reduction. I felt like I was in good hands, and I was right :)
I'm almost 3 weeks post-op and I love my results!
The first few days after surgery was very rough,
and the pain was much more than I expected, but it gets better as each days passes. It was hard to breathe due to being pulled so tight in the chest area and very hard to get comfortable. A recliner is an absolute must in my opinion. Propping up pillows in bed just does not support you enough and it's too painful to try to move in and out of the bed and adjust yourself. I slept in my recliner for the 1st two weeks and have just recently been able to start laying on my side.
I got the two drains by my breasts out the day after surgery, and got the abdomen drain out at 3 days and 1 week post-op. The drains weren't fun but it wasn't hard to take care of them. I bought a little fanny pack drain holder thing from Amazon and it made the drains so much easier. Even though the drains are out now, I continue to produce some extra fluid so I have to go in to the office every few days so Dr Rhee can aspirate the fluid out manually. Sounds horrible but my abdomen is completely numb so you can't feel it. Dr Rhee prefers to take the drains out after about a week and manually drain any extra fluid in a sterile manner rather than leaving the drains in longer and risking infection. Again I appreciate how he values safety over convenience. I appreciate how often they have you come into the office, from day 1. They change your dressings and stay on top of everything to make sure everything is healing exactly as it should. When my drain was leaking, they had me come in and got that taken care of right away. I have felt very well taken care of during the entire recovery process and am so glad I chose Dr Rhee and his team to do my surgery.
I am almost 3 weeks post-op now and I am glad I chose to do this, even though it was so rough in the beginning. My stomach is flat, my breasts are perky and cute, and I couldn't be happier. I am still swollen and will probably be for a while but I still love how I look! My incisions are looking good and are all closed up. I bought an extra faja from Amazon that is a little tighter than the one I got after surgery, and I bought the ab board and waist wrap thing, which I love. I wear the tighter faja with the ab board during the day, and the post op compression garment with the waist wrap at night. The wrap is great because you can position it as high or low or tight or loose as you want, and it keeps me supported so I can lay on my side. Ill post links to the items in the comments.
I've added pictures and will update this post as time passes. Updated on 10 Sep 2022:
I’m almost 4 weeks post-op now! These are some pics from early last week. Everything is healing very nicely and I’ve stared using silicone scar tape. Still getting manually drained every few days but should be done with that next week as I’m only outputting abt 10cc’s a day. My belly button is almost all healed and I should only have to pack it for a few more days. It looks really cute :) The lower part of my belly is pretty swollen. It’s hard to sleep because of very tight compression needed to reduce the swelling. I wear an ab board inside my faja and use one of those belly wraps during the day to wrap it all up tight and thats helping with the swelling a lot, just pretty uncomfortable. I still have a big crease in the skin above my bellybutton from the muscle tightening, but the doc says it will relax more as my swelling decreases.
This surgery was alot more painful than I expected, and the recovery is not fun at all. It’s been really rough, but to have this flat, tight tummy and perky breasts is indescribable! Having this new body, being able to wear clothes and not worrying about my big ugly hanging belly and back rolls showing through my clothes, it feels so freaking good, making all the pain worth it Updated on 11 Sep 2022:
26 days post-op :)Updated on 11 Sep 2022:
Wow! What a difference!