Weight Loss Has Taken a Toll on my Body! - Auburn, AL

Dr Aquadro removed all of my glue, stitches, and two of my three drains. My incisions look good with the exception of one spot, which has become necrotic. He opened it up, put triple antibiotic ointment on it, and packed it. If it hasn't healed in two weeks he will do a small procedure in office to remove the dead tissue and close it up. On a more positive note, my implants are already dropping nicely! The left if almost completely dropped, but the right is going to take a little more time. He had to do a lot of work on that side to repair the capsular contracture, so there is a lot more swelling on that side.

As a whole, I am not in a much pain as I expected to be. My breasts are sore, but compared to my original augmentation I'd say my pain level is at a 2. My tummy tuck incision is about a 3, however the drain sites do hurt more (maybe a 5). Today my abdominal muscles have been hurting a good bit. I had a spell of vomiting earlier and I'm thinking that could have something to do with it. The two drains that are coming out from the far sides of my incision were putting out a light colored fluid (and very little of that). After my vomiting episode the volume increased and went back to light pink. The center drain (it actually goes in over my hipbone not truly in the center) runs up to my belly button. It has been putting out a decent amount of fluid this whole time and it has been red/dark red. I know all of this is a lot of information but I think I would have found it useful to have read a little about all this. I certainly haven't found many sites or people even on this site that really talk about fluid output.

OK, so let's talk about Bellybuttons for a minute. First of all I am extremely happy so far with the way my bellybutton looks. I think the doctor did a great job creating it and I cannot wait to see the finished outcome. A lot of tummy tucks I have seen pictures of the doc basically just cuts a circle in the stomach and you have a round scar around your new bellybutton. I will post some pics of mine. You will see that the doctor sold mine kind of on the inside so when it all heels it will (hopefully) look like wrinkles inside a natural bellybutton. While we are talking about bellybuttons, I must admit I was a little disappointed to find out that the doctor was unable to completely remove my old belly button. So I have a small vertical scar right above my tummy tuck incision just above my pubic line. I do heal very well and scars are usually very minimal on me so I don't expect it to be a very big deal. I'm going to post pictures but please keep in mind that everything is bruised right now so there is a lot of black and blue that will fade away. LOL

I attempted to take my pain meds on a schedule throughout the night, however I slept through the last alarm. This caused me to wake up in severe pain. Once my meds kicked in I was much better. I showered for the first time this morning (after my meds had kicked in). It felt absolutely amazing to get a hot shower. We brought a shower chair and a shower head from home with a removable handle. The combination of the two made showering so much simpler. I also brought a raised toilet seat with handles. (Unfortunately, this was as far as I made it in my post before my pain meds kicked in making it impossible to form coherent thoughts.)