Hopefully, Happily Ever After! - Leawood, KS

I'm a 57 year old woman who never had kids. However, during my 27 year marriage to a man who became disabled after 2 strokes, I gained a lot of weight. I'm 4'11" and weighed less than 100 pounds when I got married. Due to emotional eating during my husbands illnesses, at my heaviest I was up to 178. I finally had enough of looking horrible and feeling old and sluggish. I hired a trainer, started being careful about my diet and started losing weight. After my husband passed away I decided that it was time to really take care of myself. I finally lost a total of 70 pounds. Obviously, I looked and felt 100% better but my stomach had a pouch that would not flatten out no matter what I did. I had a consultation for a tummy tuck a few years ago but didn't think I should take so much time off work since I work on commission, and didn't know if I should spend so much money on myself. Then a couple years later, a friend of mine had the surgery and couldn't stop raving about her doctor. She looks amazing. I saw her surgeon for a consultation and thought he was great! Due to my work schedule, I scheduled the procedure 6 months from my consultation and then added lipo to my legs.
I haven't been good about keeping track of this entire experience. My surgery wa 3/1/2013. I'll have to admit that the first couple of weeks were hard. I stayed with my boyfriend the first week and he took great care of me, helping me to the bathroom, making me meals, running to the store for stool softeners and laxatives, etc. I boarded my 2 small dogs. I went home after the first week and started taking care of myself and my dogs (and cat). The dogs are old and need help going out so I had to start moving a lot. I was slow and overwhelmed at first when I was back to taking care of myself. Then after 2 weeks it was back to work. I'm a dental hygienist and due to bad weather prior to my surgery and the 2 weeks off, I was BUSY. Nobody helps with anything after surgeries like these because the think it's cosmetic, elective, and don't realize how incredibly hard on us it really is. I survived the hard first few weeks back, collapsed when I got home from work every day, and did everything at work and home better every week. I think i took the pain meds longer than a lot of the ladies here. I was working hard and I do lots of twisting at work and running around. It's 11 weeks post-op now. I'm feeling so much better now. I thing I wore my Flexees a lot longer than most people but they made me feel more secure. Last night I put on some lower cut jeans and a top that was a little translucent. I could see the Flexee so took it off. I was fine without it. I'm still a little swollen but I know I won't see the complete results for months so I'm being patient. I look better and feel better and that's what's important for me.