42yr old diastasis recti fix, tummy tuck, history of hernia, 136lbs, 5ft 6, 3 kids, London

Life is totally normal more than a year post op and I do everything - going rock climbing tomorrow, I can head stand, I can chin up, I can dead lift, I do sit ups. No pain. To issues. Feel strong. Like so many, now I wish he’d taken even more skin off, ha ha!! But I am very happy, very satisfied. Tummy above scar is still fairly numb. It doesn’t bother me, compared to the mental agony I was going through every day with the abdominal split and how I could t wear the clothes I wanted. My advice - if you’re like how I was, find the right surgeon and don’t hesitate. Particularly if you have tried everything else and want to feel your core function again properly. One thing I still have t done as I just don’t want to risk it, is a back flip.

Now at about three months post op and love how I look. Exercise is going well, still slowly slowly with weights. Not yet trying direct core work or chin ups but am doing half planks and dead lifts. Definition is coming. If I over do it, I hurt the next day or so, so it’s a slow recovery for me. But all going the right direction!

Something small to share today and sorry in advance for the ramble - real self and the internet in general is pretty confusing on belly buttons in an abdominoplasty. So just sharing here in case it’s helpful to anyone what I have picked up. There’s lots that tells you an innie belly button with a hood above is the ideal, not too big, not too small, though clearly it’s also very personal. I fall into that category of what most people seem to want, an innie, of normal size, central, with a hood.
I’m three weeks post op and have devoted some of the recovery time worrying about my belly button. My main worry has been it looks very flat, the inside of it pretty much flush with my body, and it’s definitely on the small side. I asked my surgeon about a week ago about it and he recommended a ‘wait and see’ approach, and definitely doesn’t recommend putting anything inside it like a marble to encourage depth - the pressure of which could affect healing or worse, cause skin death.
If you’re anything like me, ‘waiting to see’ is super hard as an instruction when every second you’re thinking your body could be healing into a new permanence (!) and I’ve been mulling it over, his confidence in the outcome eventually, and have also been thinking more about what I’ve been told before, that depth in the belly button tends to be harder to achieve when you are on the thinner side. That depth is skin and fat, which makes sense.
So what’s my point? Well if you look at the photos you’ll see I discovered something super interesting to me (if boring to you, so sorry, and thanks for reading this far!). But stunned by how different the button looks when I am standing up vs bending over slightly. The button looks so much better and how I would like it to be when I bend over. The pix were taken seconds apart.
So probably not as interesting to you all, but for those obsessing about buttons, there you have it, ladies out there who may be recovering from tummy tuck and with similar concerns! It may or may not be the case that as time goes on and I heal, the skin will become more lax, and as it does, the belly button aesthetic will improve. But I feel so much better now just feeling I understand what my surgeon was trying to achieve with my belly button I think! I’m still swollen and very tight - and that, and possibly the way the belly button looks - will likely change over time. Would love to know if this ramble resonated with anyone!