TT- No Muscle Repair. 40 Year Old. NYC. 3 Kids, 1 C Section - New York City, NY

Hello- I have read what must be hundreds of reviews that have been enormously helpful in my journey to decide to do this, so I am posting also so that hopefully someone finds comfort or information from my experience. I am 40, almost 41, and have had 3 kids, the second was a c section. My first child was at 19, last child at 32. I'm pretty sure my stomach was stretched from the first one and most definitely was stretched out from the last two. Needless to say I haven't had a youthful stomach for many many years! I have thought about this for so many years, but when I really could have done it my husband and I were split up and I like in NYC and my family is in Seattle, so I was not sure I could handle the recovery alone. We are back together now and he is crazy supportive about fixing the thing that is bothering me about my body- so I did it yesterday! I work out as many times a week as I can get in. Usually 4-5 days. I run, yoga, do barre classes, HIIT (high intensity interval training), spin, you name it, I do it. And nothing has touched this excess skin. I feel pretty good about my body right now, given my age, children, having a full time stressful job with travel, but that belly... Ugh! So I stalked real self for the last 18 months or so and read many reviews. I learned so much about the prep, procedure and recovery that I finally felt prepared. I researched several NYC doctors and ended up using Ryan Neinstein. He's Canadian but a New Yorker - he explains it all, gives you comfort that all will be great, but he does it fast. That works for me though, I had done my research and didn't need him to spend an hour with me in my consultation. He looked at my belly and said I should get great results. He also said I don't have love handles so Lipo wasn't necessary (which made me happy because I didn't want it because it adds to the recovery time, and I worry if I take the fat off of all of my trouble spots, will I just create new ones?), and I said I didn't feel like I needed muscle repair and he agreed, which I really liked. I liked that he was going to do what he needed to get the results, and not convince me to do more. Another doc was like- well if I am in there, I might as well do it (Lipo and MR) Um- no thank you. Dr. Neinstein also does the surgery in a hospital which I prefer to a surgical suite in office. I was able to schedule the surgery within a month and had the surgery yesterday. I followed the reviews on here and bought Bromelain, bio oil, arnica, lemons for water, Miralax etc... I was slightly nervous beforehand and a couple of times thought, what the heck am I doing?! But the. I saw my belly and was like- lets do this. My surgery was scheduled for 10:30 AM. I hydrated big time the day before so I wasn't too thirsty or hungry by the time I went in. The surgery was at MEETH (a Lenox Hill hospital) and everyone was amazing. I just got very tired so I will write more soon.

Sorry these are disjointed, but I want to get the info out there so I am doing it in spurts. :) As mentioned, I had a consultation with Dr. Neinstein and I immediately liked his direct approach. He explained the details of the procedure and asked if I had any questions. We tentatively scheduled a pre op for May 2nd and surgery for May 9th. I also went to my primary care physician for clearance for the surgery and passed that with flying colors and no need for an EKG or CT scan. During my pre op Dr. Neinstein went through the procedure again and what I needed to do over the next week. He tries to be very careful with elective surgeries so he said no caffeine 3 days before or after (yikes?! My coffee??), no alcohol for a week (and now my wine!?) and stop all supplements and vitamins. I did continue to take my allergy meds. Giving up the coffee was tough because I had a headache for three days, but I'm pretty happy I did it now. I needed to take a break from it as I it was making my bp feel high. The doctor also took the 'before' pictures and talked me through all of my prescriptions and we were ready to go, and he seemed as excited as I was to do this. I wished I would have realized the pics were taking place that day as I would have worn a matching bra and undies! :) My surgery was scheduled for Monday morning at 10:30 which worked out well so my husband could come to the hospital with me at 8:30, after we put the kids on the bus to school (as mentioned before, we live in NYC and my family is in Seattle so I was going to go to the check in alone if it was an earlier surgery). The hospital called with my pre op instructions on Friday. Dr N emailed me Friday and called on Sunday night to check in and go through the next day and answer any last minute questions. Up to this point I was so happy with all of the checking in and everyone reassuring me and reiterating the pre op instructions. When we got to Lenox Hill even the security guard started my day by telling me everything is going to go great! The process was smooth and I really liked everyone we came into contact with. I got into the gown, met a couple of nurses, the anesthesiologist, end got an IV. At that point Dr. N came in and marked me up using the bendable ruler he invented to make the markings more precise. He also said he thought we could start a little early. All in all I felt calm, and everyone made me feel at ease. Then it was time to go to the OR. I said goodbye to hubby and off we went! Once in the room I saw Dr. Neinstein, another nurse or fellow or resident (I can't remember who they said she was) and the anesthesiologist. I think they could tell that I was someone they should just talk to and that I wouldn't want the 'countdown' because we started talking about my son and after asking me his age I just remember having a weird dream as I came out of the anesthesia! I was done! He expected it could take up to 3 hours but it was only about 90 minutes. I guess no Lipo and no muscle repair must have helped, and the fact that my belly was ready to be a flat tummy! Everyone in the recovery area was amazing. I struggled quite a bit with nausea from the anesthesia so I was there for about 5 hours. They ended up giving me a patch for nausea that will work up to 72 hours which has been a godsend. I have been able to eat and take the percocet without getting sick. The second stage of recovery was another hour or so, I walked around and went to the bathroom and they took my bp. My bp was a bit low, but nothing to worry about, so we called an uber and headed home. The drive from East 64th st to Tribeca was a bit rough but not excruciating. I felt happy I wasn't dealing with the pain of the MR as well! I remember that feeling all to well from my c section. When I got home I had 2 protein shakes- the doctor prescribes 100g of protein per day while recovering, so I stocked up on protein rich foods that I thought I could palate. I drank about a thousand ounces of water because my mouth was so dry! And I ate a bran muffin. Last night (night of surgery) I slept on the couch, pillows propped up all around me and under my knees. I took one Percocet every 4 hours and felt great. I kept that up all day. I took 2 at 1 PM today since I was feeling a little more pain and 2 more at 6 PM because some pain has been setting in. I had a protein bar with 18 grams of protein in it, a protein shake with 26 grams, a chicken salad sandwich and some protein rich cereal today. I will probably eat a chicken breast at 10 PM with the meds. Dr Neinstein called this morning and afternoon to check in on me and the nurse from recovery called today as well. It really helped for those random questions I had been thinking about as well as feeling like I was not just a number to everyone. My incision still looks great, the drain isn't too annoying (my 8 year old daughter is the head nurse at home and is emptying the drain and keeping track of my food, liquid and meds intake. She loves being a part of it. I feel a bit swollen but with all of the water I have drank today (and coconut water) I am up and about going pee often and then just kind of hanging around. I think I have had almost 200 ounces of fluid today. Water, coconut water and water with lemon. I have a headache today (and yesterday) but I assume that has a lot to do with having had surgery and sitting in one place for long periods of time. Overall/ I have only felt discomfort and not pain until I let the meds wear off at 6 PM, but quickly got that under control. Dr. Neinstein doesn't have a ton of reviews on here and I am happy to post for him because so far it looks amazing and I've been very happy with everything. I think he is a perfectionist and very careful to be sure things go smoothly. I'll post more pics if I remove the binder tomorrow. He said to stay hunched over for about a week. I'm going to work from home a bit tomorrow since I felt pretty good today. I just hope to sleep a little better tonight as I feel like I was just in and out all night last night. Happy healing!

I'm drinking a ton of fluids and taking my Percocet every 4 hours but my head is killing me. It's a migraine. :(

Other than that the surgery site still feels good and just occasional burning around the stitches.