Way overdue Tummy Tuck and the Stars Finally Aligned!! - Jacksonville, FL

So I have been back to work for 3 weeks, the first few days were a little rough, but I feel like I am back to normal. I can tell when I swell, I feel my abdomen get tight. I have been wearing spanx, once in a while like when I mow or rake I put the binder on, but other than that spanx it is. I have some fluid in my abdomen, I can feel it, but its not a lot. I have been cleaning up my incision area twice a day and putting a think layer of bactroban per doc. It's getting better slowly, I love what I see despite the swelling I am extremely happy!!! I will update with some pictures next week.

I went back to work full duty on day 28, i wore a tank, binder on top then undershirt and scrubs. I thought wearing the tank under the binder would help with rubbing while at work, which it would have, had I remembered how much we actually perspire in our scrubs :-/.....so tank got damp binder rubbed, areas got irritated all at my own doing ugh! But work was fine, I have refrained from moving patients on my own, I have been getting assistance, but instead of doing just three 12 hours shifts I actually ended up doing 6 in a row...stupid me. Long story short, going back to work has been fine, I have had to baby my areas that got rubbed to death the first day which were both sides on the hip bones and a little bit of irritation on the are above the mons. I emailed my doctor with some pics and he responded immediately, reassured me and I know that slowly but surely all of the glue is making its disappearance and all will be good. Swelling hasn't been too bad, the first day I will say within an hour of being at work i felt tight and swollen, by day 6, I am back to minimal morning swelling and normal swell hell by bed time lol...BTW I covered the irritated areas with gauze, no ointments or anything, continually wash morning and evening with hibiclens, let air dry and will just wear a mid thigh spanx body suit to work without the binder next week to see how that goes.

I am going back to work tomorrow. It will be 28 days post op, I am ready mentally that is for sure but concerned about swelling as I do work three 12 hour shifts. I usually try to break up my days here and there, but this week will be three in a row then two off. I still have areas that have glue on them, which in my opinion is fine, the longer it takes to come off the better and I will not pick at either. I did have A LOT of swelling yesterday for some reason but it is better today. I do still have bruising on my left hip and am not sleeping through out the entire evening yet, just can't seem to get comfortable but it is getting better day by day. The best advice I read on here that stuck with me and that I think everyone should remember is "don't expect perfection" we all do when we think of plastic surgery but realistically everyone's body is different, everyone heals differently, not everyone is symmetrical even thought they may think they are, I had not noticed till this procedure that my hips are off a bit. Not everyone will come out looking like they want initially, it takes time for the swelling to go down and as much as we can prepare ourselves for it by research, that by far is not enough to truly prepare you hahahaha....No regrets, just better day by day!