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

So yesterday was officially 2 months and all is going well. I still have some minor discomfort occasionally in my upper ab area ( I think due to the muscle repair and lipo in this area) but otherwise feel pretty good. You'll notice in my pictures that I also have swelling in my upper and lower abs, but it is much better than before. I can wear pretty much all of the clothes I wore before surgery and rarely wear any compression other than spanx camisoles. Overall my recovery has been smooth and I am increasingly happy with my results! Best to all getting ready for and recovering from surgery!

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??

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.