54 Yrs Old, 4 Babies, 2 C-sections

Since I would be on crutches for 3-6 weeks, I decided to put it off until school got out for summer. Yes, I am an elementary school teacher so teaching on crutches didn't appeal me. 
At age 50, I started playing ice hockey and love, love, love it! I play 2 or 3 games every week. Well, as you can imagine, this hip surgery was going to put my hockey playing on hold for 5 months. So that made me revisit my desire for a tummy tuck.  I spent a lot of time figuring out dates to see if I could cram 2 surgeries in one summer. After realizing I could, I interviewed 2 local doctors. I almost went with the first one but decided to go to the second consult anyways. I'm so glad I did. Dr. Najera spent more time with me, looked at previous scars to see how I heal, and explained the procedure more fully. He showed more genuine caring. I think his photos made my decision though. His results look more natural than the first doctor. The first doctor's results looked too aggressive in liposuction. And it's an extra bonus that Dr. Najera is $1000 cheaper, although that didn't make or break my decision. Both doctors were not concerned about my hip surgery 7 weeks before which was good. My preop visit is June 29th and the surgery is scheduled for July 19th. Now that I've made it though my hip surgery (yesterday) I can look forward to my tummy tuck.

I have always struggled with my weight. Being an air force brat, I lived in Germany for 5 1/2 years from age 8-14. We lived off base so we could experience the culture, which was wonderful. But one of my first days walking home from the school bus, a boy came right up to me and called me "Dickeschen." (Sp?) Which I soon learned was "little fatty." When I was 13, I started my roller coaster weight gain/loss. I am 5'6" and have weighed between 135 and 205, not pregnant. Mostly around the 150's and 160's.

Three years ago I started running, something I never enjoyed as a teen, to get faster in hockey. My appetite was really reduced and I went from 189 to 139. For once I mostly liked my body and got a LOT of compliments. But I didn't like the extra skin hanging from my chin and got a lower face lift.

This was just before Christmas. I directed the church choir with a scarf round my neck (I was about 5 days post op.) Then we left for almost 2 weeks to see family. When I came back, I had my hair highlighted. When I went back to church, I got so many compliments over my hair! (Wink wink). They were telling me that the color made me look 15 years younger. Lol. So ladies, if you want to distract people from your surgery, do something different with another part. (Hair might be the easiest.)

A year later I decided I wanted much more out of life, and I divorced my husband of 32 years. It took almost 2 years for that to go through and the emotional challenge was almost too much. I gained back 32 pounds. But the divorce finally went through last January and after a month of more emotional issues to deal with, I finally became strong mentally. I'm in a really good spot now with a strong support system. Since Feb. 15th, I've been working super hard to get back down to the 140's. I had set a goal to reach 150 by my hip surgery date (2 days ago) and I came within one pound. I'm hoping to be down to 145 by my tummy tuck date (July 19th) although that will be much tougher being on crutches and not standing up all day like I do teaching.
That's more than enough for now. I'll update more later. Have an amazing day!

I'm sitting on the couch as usual, realizing this has been the easiest surgery I have experienced. I have very little pain and although I don't think I'm supposed to rotate my hip a whole lot, I already seem to have much better movement than before. It makes me realize that my tummy tuck will be like hitting a wall. I expect it to be at least as painful as my c sections, although my second one was less painful than the first. I will be thinking, "The party's over!" BUT, these crutches are the biggest pain in the derrière and I will be free of them 2 days before my tummy tuck. (Yes, I'm cutting the surgeries very close. I was being overly optimistic that the doc wouldn't have to do the microfracture which would've given me 3 less weeks of crutch time.)

As I take a shower using a shower chair, change bandages that show swelling underneath, stay on top of my meds, it definitely feels like the warm up surgery for the tummy tuck. I will say, I'm getting better and better at using my crutches. ; ) My boyfriend frowned at me when I started dancing with them. I think the walker will not be as much fun to swing on. (I'll probably be texting from the ER tomorrow with an update to not dance or swing vigorously on crutches.)

Anyway, happy planning or healing fellow RS ladies!