48 Year Old Athlete,1 Kid, Tired of Looking 4 Months Pregnant, thighs rubbing, and bikini top not fitting.

Night before-
As I sit here trying to figure out how I am going to fall asleep, I am contemplating how I got here. I am 48 years old about to have, what I believe to be aggressive cosmetic surgery. The plan is to have an abdominoplasty, breast augmentation, and a little lipo on the upper inner thigh. Why am I doing this to myself? Is this all going to be worth it? Do I really want to go through all the pain? These are all the questions I am asking myself.
Why am I doing this. I am doing this for aesthetic as well as functional reasons. You see I am a 48-year-old who has been a pretty intense athlete her whole life, and when I say intense I mean intense. I was a collegiate and post collegiate distance runner, competitive cross-country skier, and most recently a world age group qualifier in the triathlon. My average training time is around 1-2 hours a day plus strength training up until recently, where I have been suffering from lower back pain, hip issue, and hip flexor issues. Through lots of consultations and a lot of research I have resolved that the abdominoplasty may actually help these injuries, and I may be able to train like I like to. Let me explain, 15 years ago, I had a beautiful baby boy, the boy is awesome, but the pregnancy left a side effect which is distended oblique muscles. That is right most women get a diastasis, but not me. Due to the distention, I look 4 months pregnant all the time no matter how skinny I am, no matter how hard I work my abs. Since my abs do not support my core the way they should my lower back picks up the slack, which they cannot handle all that stress therefore my hip flexors and piriformis step in, thus pain all the way around. The other two procedures are occurring because I feel while I am on the table I might as well perk up the breast, and lose the thigh rubbing I have had since I turned 40.
Is this all going to be worth it? I hope so, I think so, I know so. Yes, yes I believe it will because after the many conversations I have had with Dr. Welch, she has given me the confidence it will all go great. She has been amazing through the whole pre-op process, she has been willing to spend as much time with me as needed to make me feel comfortable, and knowledgeable about what I am about to do. She is the only surgeon that asked me about my lower back pain, before I mentioned it, she was the only surgeon to look at all the different possibilities on how we might go about the abdominoplasty in the least aggressive way. She was 100% supportive on making sure we didn’t augment my chest to an enormous size instead she listened, look at my body frame, and demonstrated all the different options so that we both agreed what size I would look best in and be most comfortable. Finally, she was honest she didn’t sugar coat anything she let me know what might or might not happen, and let me tell you that was refreshing. See, Dr. Welch is an athlete herself so she totally understands an athletes mind set, and how certain changes in the body can affect training and appearance.
Which leads me to my last question is all the pain going to be worth it? I whole heartedly believe it will be, but only time will tell and hope is the people that read this blog will follow me in my journey. I plan to document my entire journey (pictures included) from tonight the night before all the way up to a full year. My hope is that if there are any athletes (or anyone for that matter) out there who have my same issues, or just don’t like how they look and are thinking about surgery, I can put them at ease.

December 12th, 2016

The morning of my surgery, I was a nervous wreck, and so was my husband. It didn’t help that I got confused on which surgical facility we had to go to, therefore we were a tiny bit late. Once we arrived they took me back right away, gave me a paper gown and told me to strip down. Once I was stripped down and in the bed a nurse came in and put an IV in for the anesthetic, and they put these plastic sleeves on my lower leg that blow up and deflate to increase circulation in the legs to prevent blood clots. The scariest pre-op procedure was when the anesthesiologist explained his disclaimers for being under, the more he revealed the whiter my husband’s face got. So just note to yourself if your companion is going to be with you maybe give them a heads up so they don’t panic. My BFF was with me too and that was priceless because she kept everything light and airy which kept us all relaxed. That all took or at least it felt like about 30 min, then they started to put drugs in my IV and that is the last thing I remember until post-op.
When I woke up after my surgery (which I felt like I was only under a minute), I was STARVING, groggy, and a little disoriented. Once I realized what was going on and what just happened, I immediately asked the doctor if I should have had the abdominoplasty. Dr. Welch said absolutely she said there was no way I could have fixed the damage my pregnancy had done. I in fact she said I did have a diastasis in my abdominis muscle, which really surprised her, because before surgery those was zero indication that I had one. Then she continued to explain that my obliques were so distended the she had to put two layers of stitches to pull them in. In my mind that means the risk was totally worth it because maybe just maybe I have fixed my lower back issues.
Leaving the surgery center wasn’t too bad, but walking up the stairs to get to my room was a little tougher. You can’t stand up straight and because I had my chest done as well use of the arms was out of the question too. However, we made it and thank god, I had an adjustable bed that was my savior it made it much easier to get in bed and comfortable.

Week 1-
Week one seemed to go really fast for me, but that may have been because I spent the whole week on pain meds. I highly recommend keeping up on the pain meds throughout the whole process of healing, I would swear this is what has made this so easy on me. I have a girlfriend who is totally anti-drug period not even cough medicine or Advil, and she told me having an abdominoplasty was the worst experience of her life and if she had it to do over again she wouldn’t. In my case I would because to me it hasn’t been that bad.
The challenges I had during this week was dealing with the drain, getting in and out of bed, and going to the bathroom. Oh, and my first shower was an adventure too. I was lucky because for the first 24 hours I had a nurse and a nurse’s aide at my disposal. I highly recommend it if you can afford it because it took a lot of pressure off of my family and me. They helped getting me out of bed, my meds, and my drain. Plus, someone was available all night and I didn’t have to disturb anyone. Getting out of bed was less than a challenge for me then some because my bed was adjustable, therefore I could put the legs all the way down and back completely up which helped push me in an upright position without having to use my arms. You see I can’t use my arms to get up because you aren’t supposed to do anything weight baring due to the augmentation, I can’t use my core due to the abdominoplasty. Due to the drugs and extent of the surgery someone had to still assist me out of bed (adjustable made it easier but still needed help) and walk me to the bathroom for the first 3 days. On day 4 I took a shower, which felt fantastic but I started to get nauseous and light headed before I was even able to get dressed so we finished dressing me in bed (the nurse was there to help with the shower too, she came back out of the goodness in her heart). The nurse said between the meds and the blood rushing to the areas where I needed to heal that is why I got a little lightheaded and nauseous, she said it was normal. I got lucky with the drain because I only needed one, most get a drain on both sides of the stomach, but the doc said because of my fitness level one was the number. The drain is very easy to deal with, I just had to be careful it didn’t get caught on my clothes that’s all. I had the drain in for the whole week however my body was pretty much done expelling fluid around day 4 or 5.
By the weekend I could get in and out of bed on my own and I cut my pain meds down to 1 every 4-6 hours during the day when needed ( most of the time Advil was enough) and 2 at 11p.m. and one at 5 a.m. I also went down the stairs for the first time, but only made it about an hour before I was ready to get in my bed.
The things to remember during week one of the surgery is you need help, you can’t do it by yourself, you need help doing everything, you need an adjustable bed or a ton of pillows you must lay on your back in an upright position with your legs propped up. Keep up on your meds, don’t torture yourself it is not good for you mentally or physically.