27 Year Old, Two Children and Want As Close to my Pre-kid Body As Possible. - Albuquerque, NM

July 7 was the 4 month mark. I've had a lot of ups and down the past few weeks. Around mid June I was starting to see and feel less swollen. I was feel great with how I was looking and starting to feel the surgery was worth it. I even had sex for the first time and really wasn't self conscious about it either. I think it was mostly because I unexpectedly had sex with an ex and the comfort level was already established. On June 24th, my mother passed away and that's when everything turned. She passed, I wasn't sleeping or eating, extremely stressed, emotional, I lost both my jobs. With all that came swelling as well. The first week after my mother's passing, I lost all the weight I gained during my recovery from surgery. So, that was a plus but at the same time, I realized how physically and mentally unhealthy this whole situation was. It's been a little over two weeks since her passing and I'm now eating and sleeping again, starting a new job on Monday, stress has slowly been diminishing, but the swelling is still there. I know wear a compression garment won't really help, but I feel compelled to wear it. I'm attaching photos of how I looked before all the stress and swelling came back. Two of those that were from Instagram from "2wks" were literally just days before my mother passed. But anyway, just thought I'd update and warn you guys about just how much stress really effects people. Have a great weekend, ladies.

Yesterday I decided I was going to start up with an old exercise regimen I had a couple years ago. I'm not sure if I've mentioned here before or not that I'm a certified TRX suspension training instructor. I taught in a studio for a little while but quit to focus more on my own health versus other people. A little selfish, I know, but I was literally at the exercise studio upwards of 12 hours a day and I literally lived in workout clothes! Training other people meant I didn't have time for my own personal training. Anyway, I decided to get back on the straps 3x a week with running in between. So I put my straps in the car and drove to my favorite park. I drove around until I found a nice, sturdy tree. I get out of the car and put my things in the grass and start to rig up my straps. This particular branch has about 10 inches on me so I looked a little silly! But I got my straps all rigged up. I get ready to put my ear buds and I hear someone yelling.
"What are you doing?"
"Exercise."
"Why, are you trying to break off the rest of the branches?"
"I assure you I don't weight enough to do that."
"Don't do that. I'm going to call the city and the cops."
"You go ahead and do that, lady."

At that point I put in my ears buds and started my work out. Front squats, chest press, chest fly, left back lunge, right back lunge, side lunges, stretches, crunches, and so on for the next hour. Meanwhile she's calling her neighbors to try and approach me and ask me to stop, and even came outside and took photos of me! I paid no attention to these crazy ladies and really kicked my ass in that hour and 15 minutes. I normally only do 30-45 minutes, but I was really in the zone. This morning I woke up and could hardly move. I am literally sore from my neck to my ankles. I forgot how intense these exercises are. While doing them it doesn't seem like anything is working and you can go for hours, but the next day, you'll be crying for your momma! So, needless to say, I feel amazing. Extremely sore but amazing.

Now after an upbeat and amusing story, I have a less upbeat and amazing story. A few weeks ago I picked up bromelain as it's one thing many women had mentioned. I figured, why not? Well there's no warning labels on the bottle. Apparently if you're allergic to latex and grass pollen, you'll be allergic to bromelain. I figured the extremely loose bowels were maybe in a sense a detox that the bromelain was causing. Me, being the not so brightest crayon in the box, didn't add it up that it could really be a problem. Not really a big deal as it wasn't helping with inflammation anyway, so it's not like it was really doing anything other than destroying my bowels haha so any other recommendations as I am three months post and still extremely swollen, I'll try them.

Hope everyone has a great week.
(PS: Adding some photos when I was still teaching just because! :)

A week from tomorrow marks 12 weeks since surgery. I went in today for a post op check and to take the after photos. I'm sitting on the exam table, gown on opening to the front and the nurse walks in and starts up casual conversation. I open the gown and she was amazed at how extremely swollen I still am at three months post. She's baffled as to why, as I am. Just said to come back in another two months and we'll try to take the after photos then. It would've been nice to actually speak with the doctor. I'm not sure what the statute of limitation is on revision surgery, if one needs to be done. I just wouldn't want to miss out on that window, you know? Anyway, here's some of my 3 month post photos. I also did my first photoshoot since my surgery (and October!) this past Friday. Once I get some photos back I'll be uploading them. I hope everyone's healing well!