Full Tummy Tuck Scheduled for March 10th - I Am Excited and Nervous!! - Cleveland, OH

I had surgery this morning to drain the hematoma I developed and it looks like everything went fine. I was scheduled for 7:30 am this morning and was home shortly after noon. I have some pain at the new incision site - I haven't seen it yet but I think is 3-4 inches long on my side according to the doc. The yucky part is I have a new drain which I will likely have for week. The great thing is that my large ridge of swelling looks like it is gone! I expect some discomfort over the next few days but expect to be back at work on Monday. I see the doc in 1 week and hopefully the drain will come out then and I won't have any additional complications. He says this shouldn't affect my final results and I am really looking forward to see how I look without the swelling from the hematoma. I took a few pics last night and will post them shortly so you can see how protrusive this hematoma was! Otherwise, feeling pretty good and will post updates over the next several days to let you know how this progresses! Thanks to everyone for your continued support in my journey to a flat tummy!

I went back to work on 3/24 which was about 2-1/2 weeks post op. By the end of that first day back to work I noticed some new swelling right below my breastbone. It was almost like an egg of fluid. From day 1 I had much bruising and swelling only on my left side and I had noticed a hard ridge forming at 12 days post-op when I had my drains removed. Well, I waited about a week after this new 'egg' formed to see if it would go down on its own and when it didn't I decided to call my doc. He had me come in right away, which was yesterday, and he concluded I had a hematoma. While I was hoping this large ridge of blood/fluid was something that he could drain in the office, I was wrong. I am scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning (Wed) - he is going to make an incision on my left side and suction the blood out and irrigate the area. He will send me home with a drain which he estimates I will have for a week - ugh - back to that. I will have to undergo anesthesia again but the procedure should only take about an hour and I will come home. Not sure how the recovery will be from this, but hopefully it won't be bad. I will be glad to get rid of this swollen ridge and he said it shouldn't affect my final results. I don't this is common to get a hematoma, but it is one of the risks. I will post another update after this additional surgery.