I Now Realize I've Used and Abused my Body, So I'm Fixing It! - Bakersfield, CA

I'm 37 years old, 153 pounds, 5'7 height, 32DDD or 34DD (but very flat and deflated, hourglass type figure. At 18 years old I gave birth to my first child, then had 2 more all 1 1/2 apart approximately, all three breastfeed. As a teen I was never slender always curvy, thus given the nick name "soft and fluffy", but after 3 children, and being one those that I didn't really bounce back to my normal weight quickly, my curves got curvier :-( After my 3rd I never really lost my pregnancy weight, and then slowly gained more. 12 years ago @ 260 lbs, I had gastric bypass surgery, lost 100lbs, gained 10 lb, and seemed settled... But then became self employed, sat, worked, sat, snacked, and slowly gained 40lbs, topping out at 210! This past March 2012, I woke up to reality after seeing an awful picture of me, and realized I needed to make a major change! So diet, exercise, complete permanent change of lifestyle! I feel good, I have energy, I feel stronger, and..... I have a TON OF FLABBY STUFF!!! I had my consultation for a MM 11/07/12, and I'm going in on 12/18/12.

Today is the day, the before pictures they took are awful, seeing those makes me more confident this is a good decision for me.... Oddly I'm more concerned about the destruction of my house (husband and kids), then I am about having surgery!! Maybe it's my way of distracting myself :-)

I've avoiding reading people's experiences the last 2 weeks to hopefully minimize my obsessing!

I will try to remember to post about my recovery though....

I completely concur with many others that the first 3 days are the worse!

I'm on day 5 of post surgery, and I'm feeling restless!
Day 1: I made it upstairs to my room.... Lots of oozing on my right side, I guess from the lipo... My hubby gave me my meds. Enough said on that day!

Day 2: slept a lot. Randomly closing my eyes and then poof! I'm asleep! I'm so glad I have my recliner with electric controls, it stays stopped in whatever position I pick :-)
I totally recommend building muscle by doing squats, I attribute my ability to get up and down from the toilet to that!

Day 3: very similar to my previous day. i took a shower that evening with hubby's help, technically I was allowed to take a shower after 36 hours, but I didn't really need one, and I was supper nervous to see the incisions. Good news they don't look as scary as I expected (tonight I will shower again and take a picture).

Day 4: I stayed awake nearly all day yesterday, walked to the mailbox 2 times, baked cookies (house full of happy kids), and up & down the stairs a several times. By the end of this day I am able to get out of the recliner without help, uncomfortable but totally able.

Day 5 (today): I woke up at 2:15 am :-( Being that I was wide awake, I went down stairs... Washed a few dishes, decided to put a slow cooker meal together for this evening, baked some cupcakes, at 5:45 am woke up my husband and ventured off to the bagel shop (being early there will be an excellent selection). Kids were totally happy to have fresh bagels for breakfast:) Then I went upstairs to my room, locked the door and napped for a couple of hours.

So that's my recap of post op days... Now I have a question (maybe someone will read this and have similar experience... I hope!!!)

I have GAINED 10 pounds! Seriously!?!? WTF? Could be swelling? If it was would an excessive amount of fluid come out of my drain? My daily drain amount has been averaging 50 cc the last couple of days. I know I shouldn't of even gotten on the scale, but now I've become obsessed with this! I'm not going to look much better if I gained 10 pounds:-(