I lost 40 pounds after the birth of my second son - 6 Months later - Hattiesburg, MS

So its finally happening. I am one phone call away from scheduling my date for a tummy tuck. If all goes well, I will be having my surgery on Thursday May 28th. I am scared--what if I don't wake up or what if I get blood clots or what if the pain is unbearable. I am anxious--I have been waiting to do this since 2011 when I lost 40 pounds after the birth of my second son. I'm confused--am I really ready for this or should I just exercise and diet some more and be happy with what good has given me. I have so many questions. What should I make sure I have on hand before the surgery so that it will be ready afterwards? How soon after can I get busy exercising again? I have a summer trip planned 6 weeks later, will I be able to enjoy myself?

So I wasn't able to get my may date but I am scheduled for June 17. Everything happens for a reason. Here's a question for those of you who had the surgery. I live almost 4 hours away from my surgeon's clinic. I will get a hotel room the night of the surgery since it is outpatient but my husband will be driving us home the following day. Anyone had an experience like this? Am I setting myself up for a world of pain?

So I went for my pre-op appointment yesterday. Surgery is scheduled for June 10th. I got all my prescriptions and am about to go fill this in a few. I wonder though. The pain medicine they prescribed was lortab the 7.5 mg strength. I have had lortab before in both the 5 and the 7.5 mg strength and this medicine does nothing more for me than a tylenol. My sister told me I should have asked for a different pain medicine, but I didn't feel the need to because I don't plan to use the pain medicines after the first two days so I figured it work good enough for then (plus they gave me flexeril so hopefully that will suffice). But now that I am home, I am beginning to wonder if I made a mistake. The only problem is it's a four hour drive back to my doctor's office and I am not about to make that drive between now and June 10th. I have a very high tolerance for pain so hopefully it won't be an issue. Other than that, I am super excited and nervous. Getting ready to get some granny drawers (lol) and others stuff. I'm currently in school working on my doctorate degree so I will be spending the next four days getting ahead on as many of my assignments as I can so that I won't have to deal with those next week. My husband is in workshops for the next two weeks so he won't be able to go with me or take care of me that first week, but I am lucky to have a sister who is a BSN with over 15 years of experience who will be caring for me the first week (although she has already told me I will not wipe your butt--lol). I guess my major fear right now is the ride home (which hopefully won't be too bad--I should be drugged up and out the entire time) and getting up 19 stairs to my apartment (yes--I counted them) once I get home. I know this sounds crazy, but have already been practicing how I am going to walk up them bent over and using as little abdominal muscle as possible. Other than that, I am pumped and ready to get this done.

My surgery is tomorrow. I'm ready to get this over with. I wish I could have lost a few more pounds before doing this but oh well. At this point im just ready to get it done, heal, and get back to jogging. We' ve been having a lot of thunderstorms that will continue until Wednesday and flash floods are out so im praying thatni don' t get flooded and not able to make my surgery. That would suck

Tt finished. Not in pain just a burning sensation and terribly sleepy. Cant shower until Thursday. Will post pics then

So far no pain. Had my surgery at 9:30 yesterday morning and have only taken 1 lortab and flexeril since then. Ive been up walkung around. The only thing hurting has been my back from being hunched over. Lucky me. My period came on monday so I was bleeding quite heavy through out the procedure and to make matters worse I have to start blood thinner shots today. This should be interesting. :)

:(

So I coughed for the first time yesterday. That was the worse pain I have ever felt in my life! I was crying, sweating and repenting of all my sins at the same time. Since then I have coughed three more times. It still hurts but not as bad as the first time.

So my dr cleared me to shower by the 2nd day and I would really love to take a shower tomorrow. Any advice? Im having a hard time seeing how this is going to happen since I cant stand longer than 5 minutes. I curse myself now for not getting that shower chair. Any suggestions for making these easy? I dont recall if they told me to avoid wetting my sutures or not. Still havent taken post op pics because I get dizzy everytime I take the darn garment off while standing.

So for the last four years of my life I have been jogging between 30-40 miles a week. I also take a 4 mile walk every evening. With that being said, it's about to kill me not being able to do anything. I am watching my husband get up every morning and go jogging and its been very difficult. I can't wait to finally be able to do something other than walk to the mailbox.

I would just like the swelling to go down so I can feel this has been worth it. Im so swollen my guts feel like they are going to pop out of my belly button and my mound above my vagina looks huge

So my swelling finally went down this morning. I began taking bromelain yesterday ( I wasn't able to take it any earlier because the doctor had me on blood thinner shots for the first ten days and you can't take anything else that may also thin the blood) and by this morning, a--but not all-of the swelling has gone down. I'm trying to wait until at least a month post op before making up my mind about this but so far I am not happy. I initially wanted lipo of my abdomen and flanks with the tummy tuck because I had most of my fat on my upper belly, but another plastic surgeon told me I didn't need this and this plastic surgeon seemed to think the tummy tuck alone would get good results. [I had lipo done two years ago by a gynecologist who was not board certified. He was paid to lipo my entire abdomen, upper and lower flanks, but he only lipo my lower abdomen and just a weird section in the middle of my back. Needless to say I learned my lesson and have been left with hanging skin on the lower abs and a fat, pot belly at the top.] I had a consultation for plastic surgery last summer, but decided not to go with that Dr. because he did not want to do the lipo. So I eventually convinced myself that lipo wasn't needed and when I did my consult with a different Dr. I only asked about lipo of the flanks which he was willing to do, but I eventually decided to just go with a tummy tuck. Now I feel as if I should have followed my first instinct and had the tummy tuck with lipo. The tummy tuck only pulled the fat down and now I look like I am pregnant. I really hope this improves with selling and exercise because I do not plan to go through another surgery.

So I went for my six month checkup Monday. As I said many months ago, I'm not happy with my results. Don't get me wrong. I definitely look better than I did before. I love not having that second stomach hanging down, but I wish I were flatter. I'm not happy that I still have to suck in my gut to look flat. After that was I paid almost 5thousand for. I really wish that my surgeon would have got me tighter. On the other hand, I went into this surgery knowing that I needed to drop some weight in that area which is why I wanted to do lipo prior to the tummy tuck. But oh well, shoulda woulda coulda. That's over and done. My goal now is to work my but off and try to lose weight in the middle of my body so that my results will look better. This is a problem area for me and losing belly fat only happens for me when I'm bone thin everywhere else--which is a look I don't like. However that's my goal and if I'm still not loving the middle then I may try lipo in a year to see if it helps.

So here are pics from July (when I was still wearing the binder and felt a little tighter), to Sep, and in November. I havve been reluctant to post pics because I really hate looking at my fat gut and the pics make it lose worse.