43 yrs old, 5'9, 80lb weight loss,4 Kids (LARGE births) with previous hernia mesh and hysterectomy. TT Lipo muscle repair

Here are several collages of the day put of surgery until a week ago. Theyre all different weeks and show the various horrifying wounds trying to heal. See my last update for my major turnaround points l. I'll take more pics tomorrow and the wounds are smaller now and so much of my swelling is gone where I'm ALMOST flat. Almost! Sweeping is a beast still at 6 weeks post op. Especially at night.

Hello RS, it's been a while since I updated. I'm now heading into week 6 and wow how things have changed. My initial tiny incision separation turned into two massive holes on both sides of my public area. (see pics) Tiny holes merged with larger ones then kaboom. Enormous disgusting horrifying holes. These started as 4 to 5 inches long and black holes really. Not black tissue (no necrosis) but you could see nothing but dark red 'something' only with a flashlight. (yes I made my husband get a flashlight ha!) I've taken pics everyday so will be posting. Alright let's get down to itm My tummy tuck kind of turned into hell to be honest, with me only feeling ok in the last week. But so much of that was psychological. Now, the massive holes and pain didn't help either but follow me here and read below..

The psychological impact of large open wounds following a dream procedure you waited a decade to have (and paid 16.5k for, now well over 18 with all the gauze buying, revile, lift chairs toilet seats etc) can not be understated. At this point I'm now use to the insanely gross wound packing. But I was NOT OK at first. Now, I do wet to dry changes sometimes 3 or 4 times a day when it just flops out.. Disgusting! Yes it is covered in slime, greenish fluids, light blood sometimes and you name it. There is so much that comes out I change my abd pads (with maxi pads over it and sometimes a towel, while wearing an adult diaper to hold it all in, mortifying, kill me!) so I change it like I said sometimes up to 5,6 times a day and the dry gauze on top every time I use the restroom. (Honestly if this ever happens to you be prepared to nearly pass out the first few times) btw, my belly button also had to be packed with 3 feet of gauze at first too, now only 6 inches can fit yay! (omg, one day the belly button gauze fell out of one of my OTHER incision holes. I mean honestly it is way too much for the untrained eye. Severe anxiety.

The turnaround! Good news, part one.
Being in Oregon I used cannabis edibles cbds only at first then was told to add thc (to get off the damn narcotics, I was on them for 3 refills and had a previous bottle from a root canal I gobbled up too! See my other pics for the reaction I had to that) and I have to say it helped me sooooo much with pain and anxiety. It was a major turning point in my anxiety since these open wounds happened.

Turnaround good news part two:
At a snails pace the wounds are definitely getting smaller, healing from the inside out just as my surgeon said it would, and it no longer hurts to pack. (BTW in each hole originally I could pack 5 inch wide x 4 feet length gauze inside each. Now I can only get about 1.5 feet of wet gauze inside.) A major 2nd turnaround? My surgeon uses a fairly secret ingredient and if I told you what I wet the gauze with you wouldn't believe it! (Note! He's been a surgeon for 38 years and has been using it on massive open wounds for a very long time. In fact it's the only thing he will use and it's proved time and time again to keep infection away and speed up healing.) before I tell you what it is, know that I have searched EVERYWHERE for info on it, published papers etc when he first packed me with me it (showing me how to do it) and not because I didn't have faith but I was just fascinated by it. I only found only a couple published papers that I can't download without paying for. Oh and some flunky comments under an article on xo Jane where a commenter was horrified her doctor told her to use it. Ready for it? I pack my wound with apple Suave conditioner soaked gauze and no I am not kidding. I ended up finding another highly regarded but female surgeon who presented on it in some wound plastic surgeons conference thing this year and sure enough, it's a damn miracle. I'm in no way messing around. Freaking 2 dollar conditioner keeps infection away and speeds healing. Mind blown. So mind blown that my engineer husband might change one of his research works to it (the chemistry makes sense is where he's at with it now after watching it work in a petri dish to keep infectious germs bacteria etc away)

Anyway my Doc has been very straight up, it'll take months to close but like I said it no longer hurts due to his process (and the suave and cannabis ????) so, get you a Doc in a State where cannabis is legal because no joke, I'm suddenly healing much faster, have no more nausea, can sleep (was on ambien, couldn't sleep at all), can eat without get tick sick, no constipation problems, and my wounds are healing faster. Also, anxiety gone!

I credit my physical and emotional turnaround from both the constant packing, his vitamin regimen, his wet ingredient and in large part his calm and the cannabis edibles. I'm not a doctor obviously but as a patient all I can say is it is all working and working well.

These pics are so gross but you should know what could happen. In my case I had a higher BMI with significant weight loss, 4 huge pregnancies (see my other notes, so many typos as I was medicated when I wrote but you can get the point reading them still, my kids all weighed 10 to 13 lbs at birth!), and had an embedded and stretched tangled belly button under old umbilical mesh from a previous hernia, another hernia repaired (a surprise one he had to fix on the spot), a previous total hysterectomy, large panni, c sections etc etc. All of this and he removed 10.5 lbs of skin! Omg.

So is it a failure? Or somehow his fault? Or not worth it no? No way. I'd do it again.

But it's definitely inconvenient, disgusting really and makes you wanna hide yourself away from the public. I did get terribly concerned about going in public or having anyone over, even though I packed and covered them with so much including towels. I was terrified of getting staph or MRSA, necrosis or God knows what. Psychologically it is more disturbing than what's actually happening though (an open wound closing from the inside out by "secondary intention" is what he called it).

Quickly, I love him so much for being on call with me 24/7 and helping me realize that all will be ok. I hope you all have surgeons like that Even at very late weekend hours sometimes I'd text him and always he hit me back with calm and directions. I used to get pissed when they kept saying, no big deal it will heal just fine) but now I know they were right.

I had my surgery Sept 19th and these holes will probably not be closed my Xmas which is over 3 months. The holes like I said were way bigger (5 to 6 inches long and 4 inches wide) and now shrinking. About 3 inches long now. Before my surgery he did let me know it could happen. Anyway so months to go and while that's depressing, I can now deal with it like a non cry baby adult lol I'm still not as social or mobile as I want to be but he tells me I can be. It's just I get soaked so much it's pointless doing any outing linger than 1 hour and I guess I feel vulnerable.

So, I was horrified at first and condemning myself for my vanity in wanting to have this horrid flap removed and my muscles fixed, but now I am not and I have faith. I trust my doctor, love all of his nurses so much, and I know he's gonna stick by me throughout this. He always reminds me. I see him weekly or biweekly, depending upon how I'm doing. Which, since the turnaround points has been pretty good considering.

I'm feeling good and hopeful, very minimal pain if ever and am just being very sterile and careful. That's my update!

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Adding pics next.

Nuts!