This CANNOT Be My Belly Button!!!! It Has Got to Go!! -Charlotte, NC

Finally writing this review at 6.5 weeks post op, better late than never I guess. I am a 37 year old mother of two, my oldest daughter is 19 and my son is 8. I was a very tiny 18 year old when I got pregnant with my daughter and even though I only gained 25 pounds my stomach stretched very badly. My son I had 10 years later and gained 65 lbs. So my stomach was pretty stretched and bounced back okay but my belly button was terrible, I used to call it the "Old Man As-h-le" because to me that is what it looked like. After 18 years of living with a belly button that looked like a squished up wrinkly something I had enough and decided to do something about it. I am 5 feet 2 inches, a size 4, and work out 6 days a week sometimes two times a day but no matter what my stomach would not go away. I went to visit Dr. Hamel and he said he could feel my stomach muscles under there so no muscle repair was necessary but that skin was not going away. I was sick of working out and not being able to show off my hard work. I wanted to wear a two piece and not have to wear some crazy spandex every time I wanted to wear something fitted. I wanted to run a marathon in just sports bra w/shorts and not scare people with my belly button flapping in the wind. I had enough!!! Soooo I had a TT with no muscle repair and lipo on my stomach and flanks. The procedure was fine and the recovery was not so bad. I was trying to figure out how I was going to make it 8 weeks without working out but was kind of okay with not doing it because at least I did not have to feel guilty because I had an excuse not to. Plus, who can come back to the gym after 8 weeks and look like they have been going hard core for years with rock hard abs?? After about 2 weeks my incision starting acting up. I had some stiches that were popping and fluid coming out and for the last 4.5 weeks it has been a battle. Tomorrow I am going back in to have my incision redone and I am confident this will be the end of the drama. Even with the incision issues this has been the best thing I have ever done for myself. I have lost 13 lbs. total and 4.5 inches in my stomach and 4 in my hips. I feel great and think I look amazing and cannot believe some times "THIS IS MY BELLY BUTTON!! I am so looking forward to working out again and getting really ripped.

Back from the redoing of my incision and it is official there is not antibiotic I can take due to an allergy, this last one caused me to break out in what looks like a bad sunburn and vomiting, yeah me!! Posting the after photos from the past 6 weeks.

7 weeks today and this has been hell week for me. I got the incision redone on Monday and the antibiotic that I was given which I took one of was a disaster for me, within one hour I broke out into what looked like a chemical burn all over my body, my eyes were blood shot, I was so dizzy I could only crawl crawl to the toilet to vomit , the dizziness got so bad that I could no longer get out of the bed and I could only throw up in a mixing bowl in my bed and my poor sweet husband had to come and empty the bowl and rinse it every time. My pulse was 108 laying down which is pretty high for no movement. There are 4 families of antibiotics I am allergic to two for sure, this was a 3rd family I had not tried "the sulfur's" and by far the worst of them all for me. So now I am officially allergic to 3 out of 4 families. By day 2 of not getting any better I was sent to the ER where I was pumped with IV's fluids, Benadryl and steroids. All over one antibiotic, my system just does not like them. Through this however I did find out that I have an amazing support system. I rarely go down and it has been 20 years since I have entered an ER for myself and not a child or family member so I did not know when the going got tough what would happen but I found out I have some amazing family and friends in my life and I am truly blessed. The revision was a cake walk compared to the antibiotic but as I was laying there in the depth of antibiotic hell I did have those old feelings of "Why did I do this to myself" "Was my belly button that bad?" But looking back at those pictures of that Old man ass_ole that was not leaving me I realized I did this for me and damn it, it is going to look fantastic when it is all said and done and I am going to rock it!!! And as soon as these surgical strips are removed and this incision heals I am going to get the mail every day in my Bikini!!! Take that Old Man Ass_ole!!!