Almost 34, Mama to 4 Kiddos and Ready to Feel Good in my Own Skin Again!! Scheduled for March with Dr Vath! - Golden, CO

I'm over a month past my revision now and all is normal, back to direct abdominal work when I'm at the gym and all that. Forgot to upload the pics last time, snapped a new one just now to compare even further. I'm on my period (hence the awesome period panties hahaha) and at the end of the day and still flat! Woohoo!!

Well, I am feeling a lot less pissy than my last post. The recovery from the scar revision and lipo to address my lower ab bulge was a LOT more of a process than I imagined but that being said I am feeling almost back to normal now and I am so thankful for that. It's feeling worth it, I just wish I had been better prepared mentally and emotionally for the recovery! I was good about wearing my binder and laying low as much as it almost killed me to do so but I am glad I did. I went for a small hike when I was just a couple days shy of the two week mark and I swelled up BAD and my abs hurt so I took that as a sign to rest for a few days. I was able to go back to my beloved kettle bells gym on the two week mark, I am having to modify a few things still with my abs, I have found that any twisting movement for some reason doesn't feel good yet. Today, at three weeks post revision, I did my first direct ab work (an unweighted turkish get up to the hand) and while it def felt like I was using my abs it didn't feel like I was damaging anything. I am trying to go slow and be patient with my body. Some how this revision seems to have reinstated all feeling in my stomach which I think is the issue. I was still mostly numb over my entire stomach and all along my scar line before and I am not sure of the how and why but I swear to you this revisions brought it ALL BACK. My scar looks AWESOME, I really think I am going to be happy with it once it's healed and faded, it's much thiner than my old one I think. And the best news? The majority of my lower ab bulge is GONE. So one or all of the things he did seemed to work. I know he thought it was my anatomy and I really have agreed with Dr Vath on everything else but I had to silently disagree with him there. I did not have that sort of bulge pre pregnancy and I barely had it pre op. I am so glad that the revision feels worth it now, I wasn't so sure there for a minute. My advice to anyone who is having lipo or any sort of lifting the skin off the muscle along with their scar revision TAKE THE DAMN MEDS!!!! ;) For some reason my photos aren't uploading now but I will come back and post some updated pictures and comparison shots.

Well I went back to Dr Vath for a scar revision to address the lumpy spots along my TT scar on the 18th of Jan (exactly 10 months post op). About a week before I went I messaged Carrie and sent pics of another issue that had been bothering more and more as of late. I had this weird bulge in my lower abdomen and it's not visible in jeans or anything but it's noticeable in a bikini bottom and body con dress and it bugs me so I wanted to mention it. I wasn't sure if it was residual swelling or scar tissue or what. She messaged me back and said Dr Vath was offering to do lipo in the area during my scar revision, I totally wasn't expecting that because I thought I was pretty lean and I didn't think it was fat at all but if he was thinking that would help I decided to go ahead with it. I got there the morning of and he told me it was most likely my anatomy (I understand that not all women are totally flat but I didn't ever notice this bulge on my body before, although it was admittedly hard to tell when I was heavier and the muscles were lax) but that he would address it as aggressively as possible since I am so far away and it's not easy to travel back up there if more needed to be done. I went into the procedure thinking there was be little to no down time and I wouldn't be in much pain afterwards. I am not sure why the heck I thought this would be the case after already dealign the the after math of hip lipo when I had my original surgery. The procedure itself was bizarre feeling, I was awake and numbed but during the lipo and actual scar revision part there were a couple small areas that were NOT numb that I felt. The actual injecting of the numbing stuff HURT too! Being awake for lipo is really really weird, they are literally jamming this rod thing in and out of your body and it kind of shakes you around and just feels kind of invasive. Anyway Dr Vath barely got anything out with the lipo, about 50cc's including the fluid he injected for the numbing. He removed a decent amount of tissue and pulled my skin slightly tighter and in about an hours time I was on my way, driving myself back to the hotel. I left in a binder with instructions to not work out and to wear compression for two weeks. I was kind of bummed out about that because I was originally told there would BE no downtime (I think the lipo added those two weeks in) but Dr Vath stressed the need for this and stated that because he had to lift the skin off the muscle there was now an area where fluid could collect and if I over did it and didn't stay compressed I may have to go back to Colroado and get a drain put in. Well that doesn't sound fun! I asked during the procedure how sore I would be and he said not very much but if I wanted he could write me a script for pain pills. Like a total IDIOT I declined them. By the time I was about 2 hour away from home (it was about a 7 hour drive total) I was so uncomfortable and in a lot of pain. I just wanted to get home and lay down. I made it home and immediately took 800mg of IB Profen. It hurt to walk and when I sneezed it felt like my incision was ripping open. It nearly hurt as bad as the actual tummy tuck! Maybe because I had the numbing shot for the TT and not for this? Anyway I was barely able to sleep that night, tried to sleep on my wedge elevated and I was alternating extra strength Tylenol and IB profen every 4 hours. I was still hurting so bad the next morning that I called the nurse line to ask for meds after all only to realize that because I was out of state it wasn't possible to get a prescription from Dr Vath anymore! I know it's not his fault because I declined them and that everyone probably responds to pain differently but I SO wish he would have pushed me on taking the meds. I just kind of had to wait it out, I was in a lot of pain for a couple of days and then slowly it's begun to lessen. I am still really sore and the times i take my binder off I feel SO weird. Bruising is starting to set in on my belly now and I am so swollen by the end of the day. This revision has really taken a toll on me emotionally more than I expected. I was so focused on it when I had the actual TT that I felt really prepared for it all. This time not so much. Not being able to work out (after just going back for a week and a half after a MONTH off for an unrelated injury) has sucked SOOOOO bad too. As of now I really miss my abs and I hate feeling so sore and tired and like I took a giant step back in my recovery and I am not really hopeful that all of this really will help the bulge that bothered me. I do think he got the lumps out of my incision which is awesome, I guess I can come to just accept that maybe this is my body and how it is built, I know I look better than before and I am probably being a perfectionist whiney baby but I am kind of sad after all is said and done. Maybe it's also my PMS hormones speaking, I will have to check back in when I am feeling healed from this latest process. :( Dr Vath though is, as always, such a sweet and honest surgeon and you could tell he really thought I was being overly critical of my body but that he truly wanted me to be happy and as pleased as possible with my results.