42 Years Old, Two Kids (7 and 10), Tummy Tuck with Muscle Repair and Lipo. Philadelphia, PA

I am a 42 year old mom of two boys. I have always been normal height and weight (5'7", 145 lbs), exercise regularly, eat pretty healthy, etc. But having two big boys did my belly in. I started exploring ways to improve my belly about 2 years ago (early 2013) when my husband and I basically decided against baby #3. At first, I had no intention of having any invasive surgery. I looked into coolsculpting, thermage, etc., but was basically told that would not give me the results that I wanted. And in my consultations, I learned about the dreaded diastisis recti that I had. At one of my consults, I was meeting with the nurse (because I still was not considering surgery), and she told me I would be thrilled if I got a tummy tuck. She went on to tell me about her experience with having it herself, and she really did look great! I walked out of there still thinking, "no way"', but the idea was planted. I started to read, research, etc. About a year later, I finally started to meet with some surgeons.

So, I live in a very small state with one major health care system, which I just so happen to work at (for almost 15 years now). I work in an office, but I do interact with clinical staff quite regularly, so I was really opposed to having an elective cosmetic surgery there. Even though I know all about HIPPA, etc., it just made me feel uncomfortable. And of course, most of the surgeons in the area perform surgery at my health system. I found one surgeon who had his own private surgery center, and I liked him, but I did not like the fact that he only had a nurse anesthetist there during the surgery, not an anesthesiologist. I will mention that going under general anesthesia was one of my biggest fears about having this procedure! So at that point, I took my search to Philly (30-45 minutes from me) to find my doctor. I think I had my first consult with the surgeon I eventually chose just about a year prior to the surgery. I decided to wait a year to schedule, mainly because they were scheduling 4-5 months out, and I really wanted to have it done in winter when I could hibernate and wear warm, baggy clothes. So, January 12, 2016 it was.

I have added a few before photos. I am now one week post op and will post about my experience later today.

My surgery was scheduled for January 12th at noon which kind of sucked because it gave me all morning to panic! The surgery center checked me in quick got me set up in a pre-op bed with the bear paws warming air and blanket. IV started, my doc came in and marked me all up, followed by my OR nurse (who was very sweet and really helped put me at ease) and the anesthesiologist. They were about a half hour late taking me back (which led to more panic on my end!), but when they did, I basically remember them putting the oxygen mask on my face and the compression boots on my legs and that was about it until I woke up in recovery. My surgery was about 2.5 hours and then I was a in recovery for 3-4 hours. I think I finally got home around 7:30 that night. I had a bit of discomfort (I did have an experal pain injection and I highly recommend it), but not too terrible. My doc did not have me wear a binder (and I am still not wearing anything at 8 days post) which seems different from most. I am supposed to start wearing a compression garment once my drains come out.

I have definitely had some ups and downs over the first week.

The back pain from not being able to stand upright has been the worst. It's been getting better over the past few days as I have been able to gradually stand up more and more. I have been using a heating pad and letting warm water run over my back for 10 minutes or so in the shower most mornings. I took Percocet for about a day and half after the surgery and then switched to 800 mg of ibuprofen. I am now taking 400 - 600 mg regularly.

The drains are a pain and can be uncomfortable at times, but all in all, they are tolerable. Fingers crossed that they come out today!

Sleeping on my back is awful, but over the past few nights I have been sleeping on my sides in the fetal position and it is much better. I have slept in a bed every night but one when I decided to try the couch. We don't have a recliner and honestly, with enough pillows, I think I would have rather been in a bed anyway. We have a guest room that I have been in so that I don't keep my hubby up when I am having trouble sleeping.

Movement in general was really difficult the first few days. You definitely need a caretaker around to help you get in and out of bed or a chair! At this point, I am doing fine on my own, but I still can't bend over. Until this, I never realized how much I had to bend to pick things up off the floor, get pet bowls, etc.! I've definitely been putting my kids to work with that sort of stuff! Just in the last day or so, I find I can get down on one knee and then pull myself back up, as long as there is something close enough that I can grab on to and pull myself up.

Having my husband inject blood thinners in my butt was something I never thought I would experience! And so not his thing, but he did it. I am glad that one is done. :)

All in all, I have bee petty mobile over the last few days. I am not a sitter and hate just laying or sitting around. So, I do little things throughout the day like washing dishes, making my kids lunch, etc. The last two days I have spent a couple of hours sitting in an office chair and catching up on some work. I also drove my kids to the bus stop (it's only about a quarter of a mile down our neighborhood street), the last two days. I am really looking forward to getting these drains out and at that point I think I will feeling a lot better!

Just a couple additional things. I did get a shower seat ($25 on Amazon) which was so worth it. I did not get a raised toilet seat, a walker or have a recliner and I think that I did fine without them.

I am posting two post op pics from yesterday. I am not sure yet how I feel about my overall appearance. I feel a bit concave and I think my belly button looks kind of odd. My skin is still really tight though so I am expecting over the next couple of weeks things will relax a bit.

So I am just over two weeks post op and feel pretty good except for the swelling! I am swollen morning, noon, and night and there never seems to be any relief! I posted some pics and you can see how tight the area around my belly button looks, but then I have a huge swollen pooch above and a huge swollen pooch below. My ps said everything would be flat once the swelling went down. Anyone else experience something similar??