Its Been Over A Year - Columbia, SC/ Sumter

Welcome to RealSelf.  Only a couple more weeks and you will be on your way.

The fears are all a part of this process but soon your nerves will be calmed.  You are doing the right thing and will love the results.  

I would love to hear a little more about how you found your doctor.

My belly looked a lot like yours just 3 months ago. Not bad, but not great either. I had my tummy tuck done along with a 5th ab surgery that included the removal of a keloid scar that had to be removed due to its size. You will not even remember "coming out" of surgery, and going into surgery is a very calm experience as well. You will NEED HELP after surgery, especially if you have kids. You won't be able to get in or out of bed. A recliner will be your best bet for sleeping. You will need to sleep propped up, and your legs propped up as well. Avoid constipation- even if you have never been prone to it before- you will on the pain rx. Use Miralax each time you take a pain pill!!! You should never let your pain rx lapse for the first two weeks either. Don't try to be brave- it will be a bad move. (This surgery was my 5th ab surgery- so I know what I am talking about) You will have tubes coming out of your body- I am sure you have seen some YouTube videos showing this? It doesn't hurt to have this, and I can deal with anything, but to empty and measure the bulbs that held the draining fluid was too much for me, as I was not well to being with. My husband did that for me. There is not a lot of fluid draining really, or maybe I was just lucky. You appear to be my side, (and I apologize if I am wrong) but 145 lbs.So its not that we are overweight, but that we had weight from children just sitting there. And I had the muscle cut for other surgeries that was just plain damaged. It has been 3 months. The numbness over this period of time is profound. The incision site is not a real issue. But having your ab muscles stitched back together, basically FEELS like they have been stitched back together. My belly button will be beautiful, but it remains a red and black hole for now. The shape is perfect though. *Having the tubes coming out of my sides AND having to stay in a very tight corset wrap 24/7 literally cause me anxiety. I was MORE than ready to have the tubes taken out, as the feeling of bumping them and fastening the corset over the tubes is a plain gross out. I am just now wearing zipper front pants. So what you will need is: Big Granny panties. not kidding, buy them 2 sizes too big and high. They will be your best friends! This is how you wear your clothes after surgery: (because you have these tubes coming out of you) Bra, Very long T shirt with THREE maxi pads taped to the inside of the lower hem line. Yes- rather than put bandages over your wounds over and over: peel the backs off the three maxi pads and press them to the inside of your very long t shirt aligning the soft padding with your entire incision line, corset over the T (you will come out of surgery with this on) tubes attached with pins to front of corset. panties up and OVER the bottom hem of the corset. This way you are not taking corset on and off- you will go crazy removing it or disturbing the tubes. The T shirt is UNDER the corset, b/c ithe corset is not comfortable.It can he hot and itchy. You may feel depressed after this surgery. You won't care how you look for quite a while bc you have a number of hurdles to get past first. I will be having a 40 min procedure next month to get rid of the "dog ear" , although small, from the each end of my incision on the hip area. This will involve novacaine in the office, and another 2 weeks of stitches. I am just starting to feel like I look good, and this was a good idea. I do feel guilty somewhat that my friends are no doubt pissed that I got mine done due to medical reconstructive reasons. *Oh an added plus to this surgery- my bladder capacity is way better! Yay! I wish you the best. Be sure to have some help around for the first week.

I hope that the information that I gave about my doctor and my doctor hunting helped