A New Look for Me

Back history, I went on steroids for a long period to treat an illness a few years ago. Because if that, I gained about 75 lbs over the course of the illness. Yeap, I blew up and not in a good way. LOL! I was able to lose some of it but not all. In early 2011 I had gastric bypass. I lost a lot of the weight and I don't regret it one bit.

Fast forward to the here and now: My problem now is regardless of how much I exercise, and believe me I exercise my tail off, my stomach will never be tight and right like it was before I was before the steroids. Which brought me to the decision to have a TT. I met with numerous surgeons and decided on Dr. Madda. Dr. Madda is just AWESOME and honest. He suggested a Fleur De Lis for the best results. My surgery is scheduled for May 20th.

My surgery is one week and 2 days away. I'm so excited to see the new me. These pictures are from my pre-op apt, which was 2 weeks pre-op. Please excuse the ashy buttock that my loving hubby was so kind to pointed out. Anyway, my main concerns:

1. I'm taking 11 days off to recover and I'm not sure if that will be enough time.
2. Complications after surgery...infections where the drains will be. I was hospitalized after my bypass because I had a horrible infection after that surgery.

Other than that, I'm ready to go. I'll try my best to update you guys on my progress.

So I'm having a REALLY hard day and regretting my decision to proceed w/my surgery. It may be contributed to 3 people calling me today wanting to hang out the first weekend of my recovery. Of course they have no idea what I'm doing but the secrecy, the feeling of letting them down, & fear of judgment is depressing me out. I'm normally Ms. Dependable! So it's hard avoiding people when i can't celebrate a siblings's birthday or take some one to the hospital for their surgery or visit w/ an old friend coming into town. Oh well, guess it's ok to be selfish this one time. It just doesn't feel ok to me.

Howdy my fellow realself'ers! I'm 5 days post-op and I have to say the surgery went pretty well. I was in mega pain the day after. I could barely walk, get out of bed, and was unable to urinate, let alone a #2. I ate a lot of ice in recover and had at least 3 cups of water. Then when I got home all I did was drink water and Vitamin Water. So by Saturday I thought I had a lot that needed to come out.

Sunday was a bit better because I was able to walk a little more. Now, the pain was still bad but the pain meds my PS prescribed took about 70% away. By that evening I was able to roll myself out of bed and walk to the bathroom by myself. Yes, there was pain but it was a necessary evil. Oh yeah, I also urinated for the first time in over 48 hours. Talk about relief!

Fast forward to today...I'm feeling good! Pain is still manageable, walking better and for a little distance, able to get out of bed with no pain (still rolling though, lol), and was able to brush my teeth without anyone watching me "just in case you fall or something" (I love my hubby!). Still haven't seen what I look like, swelling or not, because I'm fully bandaged. The doc will take them off on Friday so I'll have another update for you guys after that apt. So I'm happy to say I have NO REGRETS whatsoever!!!

P.S. I expected the itching due healing but NO ONE mentioned anything to me about shooting pain. What is that all about?? I could be sitting still watching TV & BOOM there's a shot of pain. Or trying to catch a quick nap and BOOM here's another shot of pain. WTH & WHY???