TT, MR and Hernia Repair - Palo Alto, CA

It's 2 months since my surgery and everything is going great. Almost forgot how tough it was the first few days post op! :) I'm enjoying the great result. Although the one imperfection I have now is that my belly button is gone! Zip, nada, nil, gone! It closes up and all I have is darker skins in that area that shapes like a belly button. I guess my hernia did take a toll on my BB and not much good skin left around so it decided to close it up. My PS said he can put a new BB in there in a few months when the scar is fully healed. I haven't decided what to do. Maybe it looks ok with just a scar... after all, the BB is quite useless. Will see how I feel in a couple months...

Even though I'm 2 months PO I'm still wearing my CG. I like to wear it during the day since the skin below my BB is still a bit numb and feels weird. I don't like the feeling of having my jeans rubbing against it or putting the indents to it directly. I don't wear it at home and while sleeping... but I do need to slowly wean off of it at some point.

On a side note, coughing is no longer hurting as much. I can still feel a tiny bit of heat inside but it's so subtle that I can barely notice it. It's good since I'm coughing like hell as I caught a cold and coughing my lungs out. I've also become quite obsessed to make sure my flat tummy stays flat. Sometimes when I'm bloated or swollen, or after a good meal, I feel like everything is going to be back to the way it was before. I'm scared that I'll gain a belly back and waste all this money for nothing... I'm watching how much I'm eating nowadays and making sure I don't over eat. My hernia doctor said no core exercise for a year. If I want to do any kind of "toning", yoga is the only one she allows, as it does not put a lot of pressure and stress to the wound. I can walk, jog, run, and do any kinds of cardio exercise, just not in the core... I've started doing more of the breathing exercise to tighten up the core muscle. Hopefully this will be good enough to maintain the nice flat tummy until I can do more toning exercise in the future.

It's itching pretty badly around the incision area with the tape and all that, still have to wait till Tuesday before it'll be off. I've been recovering well so far. Standing up better and able to feel more normal. I've been taking less and less pain meds now. Only a few Advil before bed so I can sleep better. Will be going back to work on Tuesday. Just hope that I can get though the day without feeling too tired. The number one concern I have is my belly button healing. It's not pretty at this point and I'm just waiting for it to heal and see the final results. For the incision scar, I think I heal well with my csection scar so I'm not too worry. Plus I didn't plan on wearing things that are super low anyway... Just hope that things heal well.

It's a good appointment because my drains are out! It's weird though as to the process. I have not tried to imagine how the drains should come out as I know it's gotta be done, why bother to find out the details. My PS removed the sutures and he count to 3 while I take a deep breath, and VOILA, it's like he just did a magic trick with some tickling in my belly, the drains are out. Boy are those long drains inside... I've always known that it goes pretty high up but it's different when you actually see how long it is. And try to imagine them inside... anyway, now I've got two holes which creeps me out. Even though I know it's going to close up in a few days, it's still weird thinking that there are two holes there...

So the dressing along the main closure will not be out until next week. He did took the sutures out of my belly button, and looking to see if there's a sign of "life". Hopefully my belly button will survive and stayput. At this point all I can do is give it some TLC to keep it clean and wait for it to heal.

I'm still pooping like having a mild diarrhea, hopefully those will be settled in a couple days. Eating yogurt everyday to help it, and also drinking my Ensure to help the muscle heal. Otherwise I'm eating normal with a bit less than normal appetite still. I'm also trying to make sure I eat lots of fruits and veggies and drinking lots of water.

Still get tired after standing for awhile. Good that I have a desk job and working remotely this week. I hope I can stand up longer without feeling major back pain by end of this week.