TT with MR, no lipo - Dallas, TX

i walked into the pre-op bay in dr. hughes' surgery center at 153 lbs. today, i am 126 lbs.

the past few months of my life have really seen a reduction in my food intake and meal frequency, and i can admit that my diet has sometimes bordered on a little too calorically restrictive. but the results are there, and i feel more attractive now than i ever have in my adult life.

losing weight post-abdominoplasty hasn't marred the cosmetic effects of the surgery, which i am still very happy with. i get asked on a regular basis if i like my results, how bad the pain was, and whether it was worth it or not. i'm really glad i chronicled my particular experience on realself, because it's easy for me to forget how tumultuous and all-consuming this journey felt last year (lol @ my endless complaints about monster crotch). re-reading my updates reminds me that it wasn't as easy as i think of it now. but i'd do it again in a heartbeat. if anything, it was an interesting/terrifying glimpse of what it'd be like to live with chronic pain and immobility (and i am definitely not about that life).

hope all my fellow november 2013 girls are feeling as great on the flat side as i am, one year later.

long time no see, realself! this update is massively overdue. here's a quick rundown on the progression of my healing:

1) by 3-4 months post-op, the sensation of tightness finally receded to nothing. now though my skin still feels incredibly taut and firm to the touch, the visceral feeling of compression in my abdominals is gone. i can now lie down flat in the prone position without feeling the alarming tension of stretching in my torso.

2) the swelling in my upper abdomen has finally desisted! i can't really pinpoint an exact moment when i stopped looking like i was hoarding an alien baby in my ribcage, but i can definitely tell that i am no longer experiencing that crepuscular swelling. the odd thing is, if i overeat, my food baby is visible on the upper half of my torso, but my abs stay completely flat. not a big deal, i just have to refrain from eating all the chicken wings in the world.

3) i have lost 10 lbs since surgery, which mostly makes me feel smug when i think about all the people who predicted that taking the cosmetic surgery shortcut would make me lazier and less accountable for working on my body. although to be fair, i am still lazy, but i've been really good about my diet. every couple months or so, i catch myself backsliding up towards my pre-op weight, and i bring it back down.

4) i'm bought my very first bikini. y'all, i have never worn a two piece swimsuit as an adult up until now. for example, my old swimsuit is from the maternity section at wal-mart. i bought a few sleek one-pieces from black milk clothing in the past year, but a bikini by summer 2014 was my ultimate goal. i walked into victoria's secret like a woman with a mission and picked out the first bikini i laid my eyes on. i don't mind telling y'all that i definitely cried a little bit when i put it on. 50% out of the sheer joy of finally being able to look like a normal human being in a swimsuit, 50% out of anxiety for my back fat.

5) my scar hasn't really improved dramatically, despite my early onset scar therapy. for the first few months, i used silicone tape, scar cream, bio oil, and vitamin e like i was adhering to sacred religious rites. while i do think that my efforts probably ameliorated the worst appearance of a post-op scar of this magnitude, i have to admit that my enthusiasm for scar therapy waned after a little while. in the above photo, i've spackled on foundation to figure out how concealable it can be. it's not bad. i've made my peace with the fact that my incision is higher than the other results i've seen on realself. and i think you can't walk into an abdominoplasty with the expectation that your scar will fade to nothing, because that's a severely optimistic perspective. ask yourself: "if two years after the surgery i still look like i've been cut in half, will i regret having done this?" for me, it's a no-brainer.

6) my drain site indentation is gone! i think. i haven't noticed it in months.

7) i had a revision performed on my belly button in february- dr. hughes was kind enough to put in some more stitches. he explained that left so little between my skin and my abdominal walls that the umbilical stalk just looked too excessive, hence the outie situation. the umbilicoplasty was performed in office, under local anesthesia, and didn't take very long (although i bled copiously). it was basically dr. hughes cutting out pieces of my belly button (horrifying in retrospect) and cheerfully talking about pancreatic cancer. unfortunately, the end result still doesn't look great. not alarmingly awful, just not great. although the bottom portion of my belly button can now pass for innie territory, there's still some issues with the top. i think i could've done with some more stitches up there. i'm not sure it's bad enough to warrant another 3 hour roundtrip drive, nor do i want to drive my lovely surgeon crazy with my fixation on getting a perfect navel. i think it's serviceable. and maybe it'll look more natural over time.

the post-op numbness was definitely a weird experience. the lack of sensation in my abdomen made me feel like i was lugging around a stranger's belly. but i've noticed that i've regained quite a bit of feeling in the area. it seems like my nerves are coming back in a lateral to medial order; my sides have regained full sensation, but the area around my belly button is still numb. then there's a bizarre zone in between that feels intensely ticklish when touched by someone else.

my withings scale continues to tell me that my body fat percentage is 35%. that's what it was prior to my weight loss. that's also what it was right before surgery. i am having a hard time believing that having fat surgically removed still doesn't change this composition (which puts me in the obese category). i think i'm going to throw this scale out of a very high window.