Time to Feel Better About the Way I Look - New Jersey

4 months post op:
I feel great, just great! I continue to lose fullness in the lipo areas. The TT is immediate but the lipo seems to take a while to fully reduce. It is so cool to realize it is me in the mirror. My clothes fit so much better, i can wear cute low cut jeans, i get compliments on the way i look. And, i am not a skinny Minny. My weight is a little over my pre-operation weight and i can tell that i have gained that weight in new places but i still LOOK much better. Before surgery i knew that no matter how much weight i lost i would never look this good. I don't want to waste any time with the 5 extra pounds i've added; i already wasted four years debating whether to have the surgery. So, i'm going to watch my weight - starting tomorrow. LOL.

26 April 2012: 6 weeks post op:
OK, I went on a business trip to Europe for nine days. Absolutely no problems with the walking, carrying, waiting in lines, or on the airplane.

I wore my compression garments every day and night. I stopped wearing all compression garments exactly at 6 weeks. What a relief!! I know some people like the feeling of security but i found them terribly uncomfortable in the upper torso.

This morning I went to the weight room at my regular gym for the first time in 6 weeks. I was a little surprised at the number of machines that I couldn't do because they use more abdominal strenght than I have recovered. I am pretty good with running (up to 60% of my pre-surgery) and biking and such but not a lot of the upperbody and quite a number of other machines that use the abdonminals. I have quite a lot of work to do there but i am nervous to do that very vigorously (or even a little vigorously). I'm not even doing any real situps yet! more work to do there.

4+ weeks post op:
I had my 4 week follow up a few days ago. The scar now looks "angry" as some people say. Dark red, a little puckered, almost no scabs anymore, and not yet smooth from above the scar to below the scar. I imagine that will take years to smooth out. The belly button looks a little red (Dr. says it looks good) and since it was stiched in a new place, I have to remember that it also had surgery LOL. I have feeling at the back of the BB which the Dr. says is very good. However, i still have some numbness at the BB and the abdomen just below the BB and some numbness where the lipo was done on my hips.

I have a small superficial venous thrombosis (Dr.says just to massage firmly) on my arm near where the IV was inserted, a small but sharp bruise on my lower back (Dr. says it was where they inserted the lipo tube and not to worry), the disolving stich came out a little and she cut that off. And, hurrah, I'm cleared for all exercise but Dr. said to start slowly.

I ran two s-l-o-w miles the next day, Eliptical machine for 25 minutes the following day and swam 10 laps this morning. The swimming really pulled on my lower abdomen - it was not painful but it felt tight and weird. I guess i'll see tomorrow how much i overdid it. Funny issue that i hadn't thought of - my swimsuit is cut high on the legs and actually sits above the top of my incision. It is not really noticable unless you are looking. I guess for a few months i might want to get a suit that is not cut so high. It feels great to be able to move around. The skin at the top of my legs looks a little odd from the liposuction but it's not noticably bruised so even if it doesn't look great, it is fine for me. (I have had stretch marks forever so that skin never looked great anyway.)

I had a business trip that required two short flights (Dr. had cleared me) - the flights were each a little over an hour. Absolutely no issues. I put heavy stuff under my seat and only light stuff in the overhead bin.

In a few days i have a long flight to Europe (for work, of course) so we'll see how that goes.