Mommy makeover - PO 2 weeks tomorrow

My doctor was incredible. He has an excellent bedside manner and seems to really care about his patients and his work. Know that my review at this time doesn't have anything to do with him or his skill.

I was an extremely active person. I made sure to work out as often as possible up to my surgery date because I believe that healthy people heal better. . . Bc of the stacking of my procedure (TT + Breast lift + lipo) I was warned not to work, or work out until weeks after.

The day after surgery, I was up walking. I used a walker for a couple of days as needed but that's long gone now. However, I'm not sleeping. My muscle relaxer allows me roughly three hours of sleep and then I'm awoken by painful swelling and full body clenching muscle spasms. Further, I'm struggling to regulate my body temperature. Either blazing hot or shivering.

As part of the post op procedure, compression garments are required, and I'm understanding of this. My painful swelling in addition to this, though, means that I'm literally never comfortable. Not at home. Not in bed. Not in the grocery store.

My breasts are great. I don't notice any discomfort with them at all unless I attempt to sleep on my side, in which case gravity reminds me that I have several breast incisions.

I had a post op appointment with my surgeon today who insists that things are going splendidly. I. Don't. Feel. That. . . . Not right now. I'm so swollen that I can't wear my clothes. I'm worried about going back to work if I can't dress myself. I rarely eat bc the garments are so tight that I don't feel even food will fit inside me.

He felt that maybe I took the prescribed ibuprofen too long and that it may be worsening my swelling. I'm ceasing that. He also suggested that walking more will help. I plan to do that and will update again in a couple weeks.

It’s been almost a week since my first review.
My incisions are closing nicely. My nipples don’t look like they could slide off anymore. It’s great.
I’m still not really able to look at my TT incision. It’s a lot. I had more skin to remove on my right side so it goes from hip to hip and then around a few more inches.
My belly button is a foreign thing. I can’t feel it or the skin around it most of the time, but occasionally it will get blazing hot or I’ll get a little zing of pain as the nerves attempt to reconnect.
I’m still very very swollen. Maybe not quite as sausage-like, but it’s the worst when I first wake up in the morning. I can feel knots all over my back from the lipo, but sleeping in any position aside from on my back is not an option.
I cannot tell if I like my shape or not. I honestly feel like my lower belly where all the skin used to be is swollen to it’s previous size so it doesn’t seem much different. I’m sure that’s not the case.
I stopped taking a muscle relaxer before bed because I was waking up a few hours later in excruciating pain from the swelling and would have to take a pain pill. Now I take a pain pill before bed and 86 the muscle relaxer entirely.
That was great for a few days, but then the pain pill started making me feel not so great. Last night and the previous night I had heart burn and a little nausea.
I ate. It wasn’t on an empty stomach. It was my first night to try and sleep in the bed. Maybe it was my positioning. On my back, pillow under my head and pillow under my knees. We had Indian food for dinner, but the spices are supposed to help with inflammation. I still woke up swollen, so that remains to be determined.
Outside of aesthetics and comfort, I got some bad news about work. I was working two part time jobs. One less physical with a terrible boss and one great but much more physically strenuous. I had a conversation with the good one and we decided that I would leave the bad one, and they’d make things work while I was recovering and then I could come back and work more hours to replace the other job. Instead, I found out that they won’t let me come back at all until I’m approved to lift 50 lbs. and they actually took hours from me as well. This means I probably won’t be able to make the payments for my care credit that I used for the surgery. I feels like forever until I’ll be released to lift 50 lbs. my doctor isn’t even seeing me again until the 27th. I have a masters, so the fact that I can only find work part time for minimum wage two days per week is really depressing and stressful.

Anyway, I’ll update again next week, or maybe when I have my follow up in 100 years.

Pros:
This week I was cleared for the things I hoped to be cleared for. Baths. Light jogging. No more 24/7 compression. Sleeping on my stomach.

I am still swollen a bit. That’s to be expected. I also still have a softball sized area in my lower abdomen that has stretch marks and has fat in it. The doctor explained why he had to leave it. In a few months I’ll be considering whether or not I want him to go in and do more extensive lipo. Right now, I don’t want to be poked and prodded anymore, so it doesn’t seem that bad. But I do notice the pooch. It’s the first thing I see when I look down.

I’m no longer wearing the zip front bras. I like being in my regular sports bras, and being able to take a break from compression is awesome. I’ll want it for a while during workouts. I have not been clearing for lifting weights and cannot go back to work yet bc they require a 50 lb. lift clearance.

Other than that, great healing. My belly button is awesome! I’m experiencing some burning around my TT incision. It seems to be normal nerve healing.