New pics added. Post-op day 2: TT, Lipo and hernia and muscle repair.

I am a 30 year-old mother of two beautiful children. Prior to having children, I was always a small/average size person. Both of my children were big babies and it left me with a large umbilical hernia, separation of my abdominal muscles and a lot of loose, baggy skin.

I've been wanting to have a tummy tuck for a while but I struggled with losing the baby weight. I am now within 10-15 lbs of my goal weight and hopefully I can lose a few more lbs before my surgery date of March 20, 2012.

I am currently 5'4 and 147 lbs. I am so excited and so nervous at the same time..but much more excited than nervous! I will post some before pictures very soon!

So, my surgery is less than 2 weeks away and I am getting so excited (and nervous) but mostly excited. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on products I can purchase that will help with my recovery. I know my doctor will provide the girdle to wear and the pain meds, but is there anything else I should get on my own? I would greatly appreciate some feedback. Also, if anyone has any helpful suggestions about the recovery process I would love to hear it! Thanks!

Post-op Day 1:

Well, I survived! Yesterday I had a full TT, lipo of the flanks and hernia and muscle repair. I’ll start off with yesterday, surgery day: I reported to the surgery center at 7:30am and taken back to a prep room pretty quickly. They took my vitals, set me up with an IV and gave me motion sickness pills and a patch to put behind my ear. I was moved into to surgery at about 9:15am and that is all I remember from before the surgery. I must have fallen asleep right away because next thing I knew, I was waking up in recovery at about 12:45pm.

It was hard to wake up but once I was conscious enough, they moved me to post-op. As they were rolling my bed to post-op I felt really nauseous and they gave me a bucket to puke in but fortunately, I took deep breaths and willed it away! Before I woke up from surgery, Dr. Price spoke with my husband and mom in the waiting room. He said that everything went really well and explained to them what to expect from my recovery time. He said that he got a liter of fat out of my flanks and apparently there was a lot more fat on my left side! Weird but kind of funny. He also said that my muscle separation was much more significant than he was expecting and he sewed it up all nice and tight.

Overall, my pain yesterday wasn’t too horrible but I feel the soreness much more today. I was expecting my incision to be the worst part but it’s my stomach muscles that are killing me. I have been hanging out in the recliner getting up only to pee, which is quite often! The hardest part is getting in and out of the chair, but once I am up walking around, it’s not too bad. I am pretty hunched over but my back hasn’t started to hurt yet from it. The doctor's office called to see how I was doing, which I appreciated.

I haven’t been able to see what’s under the girdle yet but I get to take a shower tomorrow morning so I’m anxious to see it then! I will take pics and post them tomorrow. I was afraid the drain would really bother me but it’s not been an issue at all. I think I’ve put out between 40-50 cc so far today. I’ve been drinking a lot of water and eating very light. I haven’t had a BM yet and I’m kind of nervous for when I do. Ok, that’s all for today, I’ll post pics tomorrow!