49, after losing 87 Lbs It's Finally Time for Fleur de lis TT and BL in Raleigh, NC

I am scheduled for the last week in October. This will be the last of my surgeries and from what I understand they might be the most challenging. I was very fortunate, the recovery for my TT and BL went very well and I was back to hiking and exercising at 6 weeks. The most challenging thing with that was the extensive muscle repair as I had complete separation. The results make it so worth it and I couldn't be more please.

I have already warned my friends and family that although Halloween does follow my surgery, I don't want them to wrap me in gauze like a mummy and put me on the front porch like a scary decoration while I am heavily medicated. lol!

For this recovery my sister is coming to watch me for 3-5 days and then I am going to a friends for a week to quietly recover. I would love to hear from people that have had both of these surgeries and any helpful hints they can offer for recovery.

I have been hiking for the past two weeks and I feel great. The muscle repair was the hardest to recover from as my muscles would constrict when I walked and my skin would pull REALLY tight. When I went in from my 6 week appt I was told that that was a normal sensation and i would not pull tear anything open ( that was my fear) just knowing that gave me peace of mind and just work through the weird sensation. I am swollen at the top two inches of my fleur de lis incision but I knew to expect that so it was no surprise. I went back to work after two weeks and just took it easy. The swelling in my legs was reduced when i changed from CG to Spanx Higher Power at 6 weeks. It gave me support where I needed it and didn't cut me off at the legs and it was so much more comfortable. My doc said I didn't need anything anymore but I wore it for another week and finally stopped wearing it. Has anyone else continued wearing theirs. I stopped the day I hiked with it on and it was so hot I was sweaty and gross. DONE! My energy level went back to normal at 5 weeks...thank goodness! I have been kind to myself during this and patient with the process. I continue to eat a clean diet. I am looking forward to getting my arms and thighs done in October. I was sent the picture of the skin that was removed ( yes, I requested a picture!) from my abdomen and sent the picture to my family so that they could say good-bye lol. Today is a new day and a new life.

I have my surgery 4 weeks ago and so much has changed in that time. My recovery has gone very well and I attribute that to Dr Pyle's skill, being a good patient, I was kind and took good care of myself during this time, and continued to eat really healthy. I have increased my protein and carbs to 120-150 mg each to allow my body to heal well since the day of surgery. Admittedly, the first few days I was not taking in enough protein as my appetite had decreased but by the end of the first week I just ate smaller meals to get in all in. I think the hardest thing about this recovery was the extensive muscle repair that was very necessary and I didn't anticipate being so tired the first 3 weeks. Last night I finally took off the month-old tape. I made every effort to keep it on as long as possible and trimmed it as needed but it was time to part with it lol . I am amazed with how good everything looks even with the evening swell! I'm not sure what I was expecting as I hadn't looked at the incision at all during this time (not once!) so I never saw the stitches and now the're gone! I am really pleased with the results so far. I used to have two ugly scars; one where the fleur de lis scar is now and one from my c-section but Dr Pyle removed both scars when he removed the skin and I now have much thinner and cleaner scars. Happy Healing everyone! 100% worth it!