Paid the Deposit. Here we go...

I feel great! I am so happy with my body, for the first time in my entire adult life. I feel confident and everything I wear looks great. I am very happy I went through with this, despite the difficult process it is worth feeling like a million bucks every single day. My only minor issue is my stomach skin, which I'm in the gym working on. I will be getting my boobs fine next.

Good luck to you and don't let anyone dissuade you from doing what will make you happy!!!

Hi ladies! I found the video I mentioned in an earlier post about the stages of BBL recovery. The doctor is Dr. Scott Fixin, and he is out of New York. I found the video helpful and now as I watch my booty shrink, I'm not worried as this is just a step in the process. Here is the link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BlTDIKYHWHj/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1css9hwse1kyr

Last week (Sunday?) I noticed my feet and calves looked chunky. I didn't pay it much attention, at first I thought I was obsessing over another part of my body and it was all in my head. As the days went on my feet got bigger and I began to worry. By Wednesday I could barely walk on my left foot without pain and I was hobbling around work in my stage 2, a dress, and compression socks. I know I looked really jacked up but by that point I didn't care how I looked. I locked myself in an office and laid on the floor with my feet elevated for an hour, but the swelling wouldn't go down. I took off the stage 2, thinking that maybe it was pushing my fluids to my feet.

I was going to go to my doctor or Patient First, but managed to get an appt with my massage lady first. I was skeptical she could do much but I knew that I must have a bunch of fluid in my body building up and after a night of looking at pics of lymphedema on WebMD, I was panicking. Long story short, after my massage my feet went back to normal and I began to use the bathroom multiple times a day, getting rid of my excess fluid. And finally the 10 pounds (fluid I guess) I gained from surgery has gone down and my weight is getting back to normal. I thanked the lady excessively for her help.

My stage 2 garment was not the primary culprit, although it didn't help; it was standing on my feet at work all day for 6-9 hours and not getting massages. I hadn't had one in 3 weeks. I felt like a fool because this was entirely avoidable if I had continued my massages. I was being cheap and I was massaging myself daily for an hour, and clearly whatever I thought I was doing was not helping. The girls I met in the recovery house have been massaging themselves and have said they are fine, no lumps or swelling. But they are also about 14 years younger than me lol smh. Every body is different. Before I thought that the massage lady wasn't doing much that I couldn't do, and also I didn't want to shell out $115 a session ($85 without ultrasound). Now, I have no choice and will be continuing massages once a week until September at least. Please learn from my mistake.

Now I am feeling much better. I am on the second hook of my stage 2, I never thought I'd get there! It does not feel uncomfortable! I posted the pics that I put on my IG. While I took all these pictures within the same 1-2 days last week, you can see how my butt looks big or average in different shots. I'm fine with a little shrinkage for now. I have a calendar alert for the "fluff fairy" to come in 2 weeks so I may wait until then to update this.

This coming Wednesday I'll be 6 weeks and can finally go back to working out! I put my gym bag by my bed because I'm excited. I really want to focus on my stomach and my arms, and get back into running. I signed up for the half marathon in October.

Hope I haven't rambled too much! Have a great day and let me thank everyone who has messaged me or commented during this process. I really appreciate the feedback and hope we can all share and learn from each other! Stay positive and treat yourself well!

I've added some pictures from this morning. I forced myself to put on my stage two garment. You can see the hooks through the two layers of my dress. I brought my stage one garment to switch into, and now I'm wondering if I should change before people arrive at work. This stage 2 faja kind of slopes my butt down when you look at it from the side view but I suppose that's due to how tight it is. Dr. Palladino hadn't responded to my Instagram message by last night so I sent another one. I know he's busy obviously but I think if I don't hear from him I'll go get my stage one taken in this weekend and wear that instead of the stage two. If I can finally lose this 10 pounds from surgery I'll put the stage 2 on again regularly. Why my body is holding on to this weight I do not know; the other girls I had surgery with are steadily losing weight. But weight has been a lifelong struggle for me anyway so I can't really compare.
I'm feeling decent, all in all. I'm curious to see how long I can last in this stage 2 today! I think my dress is a bit more form fitting than I thought when I put it on at home, so I will be wearing my shawl around the office if I have to leave my desk. People here are NOT professional even though they have 5 and 6 degrees. Still haven't lost any weight and I've been back on Phentermine for about four days. I'm moving to a very low carb low salt low every-damn-thing now out of a bit of desperation. I know they said not to exercise until 6 weeks but honestly I will feel much better getting in the gym and running and getting back down to 157. I've also returned to weight watchers because it works for me. I think I just need to be more active but after standing at my desk for 7 hours I just go home and lay on my stomach. But I need to push myself.
My birthday was decent. Just went to work, got a pedicure, came home. My family got me a cake and yes I did have ONE slice lol. I have committed myself to getting out more often and being social so this evening I may attend a happy hour (I know I'm allowed to have alcohol now but unless it's straight liquor most mixed drinks have a lot of calories, so I may just get water with lemon. Also I went out before and all it took was one drink and I was DONE, I mean hazy memory and everything, not safe). I haven't tried on a bathing suit or gone swimming yet so maybe I'll go shopping for a new suit. My body still feels very sensitive when I'm not in a garment so not sure how I'll do swimming.
My contour Faja rep sent me a few messages saying she was in the Dominican republic helping other girls with their surgeries and that we could FaceTime yesterday. She didn't call and honestly that's ok. I think I need someone to physically see me in the garment but really, I was able to dance around my apartment in it on my birthday so I guess I can move and be functional so perhaps this tightness is appropriate. I'd post the video of me acting silly but you can see my face in it, sorry I'm paranoid lol.
Yesterday I only wore my stage one and my butt tingled all day long and I felt extremely sore for some reason. The tingling is the only thing I'd like Dr. P to tell me if that's normal or what. If I start to tingle at work I'm taking this off asap. My butt seems to be soft with very few hard spots. I've been massaging myself for an hour a day, I think it's going ok but I'll pay for a 3 more sessions with that lymphatic lady also.
Last thing: a great girl I met on Instagram sent me a video of a surgeon discussing the stages of how your body and booty will change post op. It was very informative but I'm not sure I can post it on here. He said that your booty will shrink around the 4 week mark as some of the fat cells die, but that following this stem cells begin to grow and slowly plump the butt back up to near initial-post-op sizes. This is good to know because I feel my butt has gotten a little smaller, it's hard for me to tell by my pics honestly. I will try to do a collage and please tell me what you think. My biggest concern area continues to be my stomach lol, but I'm not stressing it. Have a great day, everyone!
Also a few people have messaged me on here asking why do I not show my breasts in my pics. Well, I don't like the way they look! Plus the focus of me writing this is about my BBL; when I get my breasts done in December that will be another review and then you can see how saggy and sad my boobies look lol. Plus this is the internet and I get paranoid that I'll see a pic of myself floating around and I'd be pissed. For now take my word that they are some saggy ass [RS bleep], ok? Lol. Other than that feel free to ask me any questions about my journey.
Until next time!