NEW PICS 8 weeks PO, starting to see some abs again - Bristol, England

Hi. Just a quick update with a few pics at 8 weeks PO. Everything's fine - I still have some swelling I think but I'm starting to exercise again (swimming is fine, running feels haaaaard). I took some pics today and was pleased to see some shape coming back - my tummy has looked SO flat up to now, it was a bit odd. I'm not wild about my tummy button but it doesn't bother me particularly - what I love is having a flat tummy, so I dress differently, stand differently, feel MUCH more confident about how I look now. I'd do this again if I had to, no question.

Just a quick update with some pics from holiday last week - a holiday in which, for the first time in my LIFE, I wore a bikini in public!! There's plenty of healing still to do but I love the results so far. We were in Portugal and the heat made me swell quite a lot, so in a way it's a relief to be back in the rainy, grey UK - but I was loving the sunshine out there.

One of the other lovely things was getting used to swimming again. The hotel we were at had a smallish pool, only about 10m long, and on the first day I got in and struck out as normal - BIG mistake! That was the first time I'd been on my front in a month, and as my abs felt gravity they shrieked for mercy! So then I had to swim in a kind of vertical way, like a very old lady, which was embarrassing, and only managed about 8 lengths till I was shattered. But each day it got better till by the end I was swimming more or less normally, and could do 50 lengths. That was really encouraging.

Question - my surgeon has just sent me through a photo of the bit he cut off. It's quite seriously gory, but it's also fascinating (to me, anyway!). What do you all reckon? Do you want to see it, or would you rather not?

Well, 3.5 weeks post-op all my dressings are off so here are pics of the scar and new profile.

I'm really pleased with the way the scar looks - it's healing nicely and it's smooth and not too red. It pulls slightly at the ends and you can see there's a bit of swelling above it on each side. My surgeon didn't want to do lipo at the same time as the TT and he thinks this and any swelling will even out as I get back to exercise - and if not we can do the lipo in a year's time. I'm happy with that - it was the front slab I hated, and you can see how flat my tummy is now - hooray!

I still have some swelling around my abs and tummy, and my ab stitches are a bit tight still but I'm also delighted to have a proper waist shape for the first time in years! Energy-wise I'm sort of ok - but when it runs out it REALLY runs out and I just need to go and collapse for a while. My surgeon has cleared me to start exercise including swimming so long as I listen to my body and don't overdo it. We're away on holiday next week and the hotel has a pool so I can't wait to try that out!

Looking back at those awful before pics, I can't believe the change - this was SO worth it!