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*Treatment results may vary
1 Year Update
Its now been a year since I had my operations. This will be my last update. Overall I am very happy with my outcome and do not regret my decision, but as this blog was started to give the true story with no cover-ups I will share the things I wish I had known or realised.
1 The recovery is LONG – I don’t mean the outer scars, they heal surprisingly quickly, I mean the internal recovery – even one year on my stomach muscles do not feel strong. I worry that I am going to strain the wrong way and tear the suture line apart down the middle. I have to stretch my stomach muscle out most days or they feel tight and uncomfortable. I have lower back pain because I have unconsciously taught myself to use other muscles (thigh/back) to avoid using my stomach muscle. I have seen a physio and have exercises to do, but I imagine I will have back pain on and off for life now.
2 I didn’t really want implants – I was unsure at the beginning about implants. Being overweight I hated my big boobs, once I lost weight I loved having less, but hated that they were saggy. I didn’t want big boobs again but thought an implant would give me nice shape. I asked for under 200cc but the doctor said that was pointless and that people always wished they had gone bigger, so I followed his advice, I think mine are 200cc, or maybe 250? Anyway, I wish I hadn’t. I don’t like how big they are, I also don’t like how I can feel them – they aren’t part of me, they make me feel fat, but I know they look better than they did before so I don’t get caught up thinking about it. If I had the money I would consider getting them removed, or replaced with smaller ones, just for a bit of shape.
3 My thigh skin is saggy after lipo – its like its not attached anymore, if I lie on my side and lift my leg it just hangs down. And there are odd lumps and dents where more or less fat was removed. I know there is an improvement in my thighs – I can see it in pictures – but I’m not sure I would do it again. My thighs were painful for so long (months!) and the improvement is only small.
4 I didn’t get lighter, or drop a dress size. I can hardly believe it, but I came out of hospital 2kg heavier even after getting about 3kg of fat and skin removed. I assumed it was fluid retention and swelling, but even now a year on, after trying to eat healthy and exercise I am still a bit heavier than when I went into hospital. And my clothes got tighter – especially around my thighs and bum. Again I put it down to swelling, but even now I’m healed my pants (that I have worn for about 5 years) are tighter around my bum & thighs than before surgery.
5 Scars – I saw all the lovely pictures of people with faded scars and assumed that would be me too, but sadly my tummy tuck scar is hypertrophic (raised, red and ropey) and one of my nipples where I had a stich pop and get infected is also really raised and ropey. The tummy scar doesn’t really bother me, I thinks its slowly improving and its low enough that its not visible, but my nipple one bothers me and its quite raised and visible through tight or thin tops.
6 Ken doll – I’m not sure why, maybe I didn’t have quite enough skin to stretch, but instead of my scar staying low where it was cut everything has been pulled upwards, so my scar is higher than expected and my pubic area is pulled up about 2 inches – this means I have hair growing right where the tops of my underpants & shorts sit – it’s a bit puffy too – maybe lipo would have been a good idea – it looks like a naked ken doll! I know the doctor cut low as he removed a tattoo as I requested that sat very low on my belly.
So that’s my ‘cons’ list. Now the ‘pros’…
1. I don’t have horrible, uneven, saggy boobs.
2. I don’t have large, puffy nipples.
3. I don’t have a big round belly.
4. I can wear most clothes and not feel self-conscious.
5. I feel like I look normal. Sometimes I even feel like I look good!
6. I look forward to the future now.
So as you can see cosmetic surgery is no quick fix, no magic wand, but if you go into it hoping for an improvement, not expecting perfection, you will likely be satisfied at the end.
Thanks for reading and I hope it helps someone one day!
xx
C
1 The recovery is LONG – I don’t mean the outer scars, they heal surprisingly quickly, I mean the internal recovery – even one year on my stomach muscles do not feel strong. I worry that I am going to strain the wrong way and tear the suture line apart down the middle. I have to stretch my stomach muscle out most days or they feel tight and uncomfortable. I have lower back pain because I have unconsciously taught myself to use other muscles (thigh/back) to avoid using my stomach muscle. I have seen a physio and have exercises to do, but I imagine I will have back pain on and off for life now.
2 I didn’t really want implants – I was unsure at the beginning about implants. Being overweight I hated my big boobs, once I lost weight I loved having less, but hated that they were saggy. I didn’t want big boobs again but thought an implant would give me nice shape. I asked for under 200cc but the doctor said that was pointless and that people always wished they had gone bigger, so I followed his advice, I think mine are 200cc, or maybe 250? Anyway, I wish I hadn’t. I don’t like how big they are, I also don’t like how I can feel them – they aren’t part of me, they make me feel fat, but I know they look better than they did before so I don’t get caught up thinking about it. If I had the money I would consider getting them removed, or replaced with smaller ones, just for a bit of shape.
3 My thigh skin is saggy after lipo – its like its not attached anymore, if I lie on my side and lift my leg it just hangs down. And there are odd lumps and dents where more or less fat was removed. I know there is an improvement in my thighs – I can see it in pictures – but I’m not sure I would do it again. My thighs were painful for so long (months!) and the improvement is only small.
4 I didn’t get lighter, or drop a dress size. I can hardly believe it, but I came out of hospital 2kg heavier even after getting about 3kg of fat and skin removed. I assumed it was fluid retention and swelling, but even now a year on, after trying to eat healthy and exercise I am still a bit heavier than when I went into hospital. And my clothes got tighter – especially around my thighs and bum. Again I put it down to swelling, but even now I’m healed my pants (that I have worn for about 5 years) are tighter around my bum & thighs than before surgery.
5 Scars – I saw all the lovely pictures of people with faded scars and assumed that would be me too, but sadly my tummy tuck scar is hypertrophic (raised, red and ropey) and one of my nipples where I had a stich pop and get infected is also really raised and ropey. The tummy scar doesn’t really bother me, I thinks its slowly improving and its low enough that its not visible, but my nipple one bothers me and its quite raised and visible through tight or thin tops.
6 Ken doll – I’m not sure why, maybe I didn’t have quite enough skin to stretch, but instead of my scar staying low where it was cut everything has been pulled upwards, so my scar is higher than expected and my pubic area is pulled up about 2 inches – this means I have hair growing right where the tops of my underpants & shorts sit – it’s a bit puffy too – maybe lipo would have been a good idea – it looks like a naked ken doll! I know the doctor cut low as he removed a tattoo as I requested that sat very low on my belly.
So that’s my ‘cons’ list. Now the ‘pros’…
1. I don’t have horrible, uneven, saggy boobs.
2. I don’t have large, puffy nipples.
3. I don’t have a big round belly.
4. I can wear most clothes and not feel self-conscious.
5. I feel like I look normal. Sometimes I even feel like I look good!
6. I look forward to the future now.
So as you can see cosmetic surgery is no quick fix, no magic wand, but if you go into it hoping for an improvement, not expecting perfection, you will likely be satisfied at the end.
Thanks for reading and I hope it helps someone one day!
xx
C
6 month post-op update
Wow, 6 months! I have to say the healing process is far longer than I expected! I am still not feeling like my old self. I love not having a big fat belly and saggy boobs anymore, but sadly you quickly forget how bad it was and start picking faults in yourself again - although not to the same degree at all.
My healing - I have started light ab exercises - planks and crunches - coupled with stretches - salute to the sun pose - to try and get my movement and flexibility back. My muscles are just so tight and weak that it feels like I'll never get there, but when I look back a month or two I know I am getting stronger. I do all activities without thinking like cycling, gardening, carrying heavy things etc - although I do notice it if I carry something a bit too heavy - I think oops I still need to be careful, but I'm talking moving furniture type heavy, not bags of groceries etc. I have plans to go scuba diving in a few months and I must say I'm a bit worried about how I'll go. Swimming was much harder than I expected and the water go too cold before i felt really confident, and with scuba you have heavy weights right where the incision is - will let you know how I go in October (I'm going at the end of September).
My incisions have healed, although I have messy scarring on my nipples where I had deep stitches come and and get a bit infected/not heal. Its a shame, but I'm sure they will fade. My boobs are more even in size now (or maybe I'm more used to them) but still have a bit of a square look to the bottoms, and a bit of unevenness where the two side of the incision meet. Internally they feel alright - I can nearly lie comfortably on my front again, just my right boob feels a bit hard, but it will keep improving I expect. I don't (and never really did) massage them regularly, but I give them (especially the right one) a bit of a rub most days as it feels a bit harder than the left and I get a little pain running down the center of it. Nothing serious and as I said I'm sure it will continue to improve.
My lipo entry points are fine - just a little red mark in several places around my body. I don't even notice them except the ones in my groin, and thats only because I spend time looking at my tummy tuck incision and they are right there. I do have some unevenness to my butt/upper thighs where more fat was sucked out in one spot than another, but this is improving as I do more biking ad tone my legs up. I think it was also swollen and is getting better now. The skin on my upper arms and back has tightened up and I can see an improvement there. Initially I didn't see any difference at all, but now I'm really happy with my back and quite happy with my arms. Theres only so much that can be done for tuck-shop arms though without removing saggy skin. I really notice how much smaller my thighs are, but because my belly is smaller too its not really outwardly obvious.
My tummy tuck incision is not my favorite thing. It is quite high, so my usual style of pants doesn't cover it. When all my swelling is gone I will go and buy new underwear in a different style. I know the incision was really low initially as I had a tattoo really low down which was removed at my request with the excess skin. Sadly though all the skin below the incision has been pulled upwards, so my hairline is now about 2 inches higher than it was. The incision is also hypertrophic - which gives it a dark, raised, ropey appearance. I can only hope this will fade and improve over time as its not pretty, but at the end of the day I can cover it with my underwear or bikinis without too much trouble so noone else will know its so ugly. If I knew ahead of time it would be like this I would still go ahead as its such an improvement over my big belly and I'm so much happier.
You can see in the pics I have more fullness above the incision than below. i think this is partially because I didn't get lipo on my belly skin. The dr said it was not necessary. I wish I had, but cant change it now. I think I also have intra-abdominal fat (around my organs) making my lower belly stick out as its bigger than the layer of fat I can grab with my fingers accounts for. This is my body type - I was always big around my belly, so I guess diet and exercise is the answer. Its possible I am still a bit swollen too.
I was suprised that my weight went up after surgery - probably due to me deciding chocolate bars and chips were good healing food while I was in Thailand recovering, and then heading right out on a 3 week holiday over Christmas to my family in NZ. So I went into surgery at 63kg and came out at 65kg after getting about 2kg taken out of me. I have not managed to lose the weight, currently sitting around 64kg although I exercise daily. I thought I would lose weight naturally after surgery as I can not eat as much - my belly gets fully because the muscles are so tight and can not expand to fit in large amounts of food or liquid - I can't even drink a can of coke zero - it takes me about 2 hours to get through it. I'm happy with how I am though, I expect I will lose some weight as I increase my activity more, but I'm not in a rush - I want to heal properly - don't want to pop anything!
I think thats all. I will update again at one year :)
My healing - I have started light ab exercises - planks and crunches - coupled with stretches - salute to the sun pose - to try and get my movement and flexibility back. My muscles are just so tight and weak that it feels like I'll never get there, but when I look back a month or two I know I am getting stronger. I do all activities without thinking like cycling, gardening, carrying heavy things etc - although I do notice it if I carry something a bit too heavy - I think oops I still need to be careful, but I'm talking moving furniture type heavy, not bags of groceries etc. I have plans to go scuba diving in a few months and I must say I'm a bit worried about how I'll go. Swimming was much harder than I expected and the water go too cold before i felt really confident, and with scuba you have heavy weights right where the incision is - will let you know how I go in October (I'm going at the end of September).
My incisions have healed, although I have messy scarring on my nipples where I had deep stitches come and and get a bit infected/not heal. Its a shame, but I'm sure they will fade. My boobs are more even in size now (or maybe I'm more used to them) but still have a bit of a square look to the bottoms, and a bit of unevenness where the two side of the incision meet. Internally they feel alright - I can nearly lie comfortably on my front again, just my right boob feels a bit hard, but it will keep improving I expect. I don't (and never really did) massage them regularly, but I give them (especially the right one) a bit of a rub most days as it feels a bit harder than the left and I get a little pain running down the center of it. Nothing serious and as I said I'm sure it will continue to improve.
My lipo entry points are fine - just a little red mark in several places around my body. I don't even notice them except the ones in my groin, and thats only because I spend time looking at my tummy tuck incision and they are right there. I do have some unevenness to my butt/upper thighs where more fat was sucked out in one spot than another, but this is improving as I do more biking ad tone my legs up. I think it was also swollen and is getting better now. The skin on my upper arms and back has tightened up and I can see an improvement there. Initially I didn't see any difference at all, but now I'm really happy with my back and quite happy with my arms. Theres only so much that can be done for tuck-shop arms though without removing saggy skin. I really notice how much smaller my thighs are, but because my belly is smaller too its not really outwardly obvious.
My tummy tuck incision is not my favorite thing. It is quite high, so my usual style of pants doesn't cover it. When all my swelling is gone I will go and buy new underwear in a different style. I know the incision was really low initially as I had a tattoo really low down which was removed at my request with the excess skin. Sadly though all the skin below the incision has been pulled upwards, so my hairline is now about 2 inches higher than it was. The incision is also hypertrophic - which gives it a dark, raised, ropey appearance. I can only hope this will fade and improve over time as its not pretty, but at the end of the day I can cover it with my underwear or bikinis without too much trouble so noone else will know its so ugly. If I knew ahead of time it would be like this I would still go ahead as its such an improvement over my big belly and I'm so much happier.
You can see in the pics I have more fullness above the incision than below. i think this is partially because I didn't get lipo on my belly skin. The dr said it was not necessary. I wish I had, but cant change it now. I think I also have intra-abdominal fat (around my organs) making my lower belly stick out as its bigger than the layer of fat I can grab with my fingers accounts for. This is my body type - I was always big around my belly, so I guess diet and exercise is the answer. Its possible I am still a bit swollen too.
I was suprised that my weight went up after surgery - probably due to me deciding chocolate bars and chips were good healing food while I was in Thailand recovering, and then heading right out on a 3 week holiday over Christmas to my family in NZ. So I went into surgery at 63kg and came out at 65kg after getting about 2kg taken out of me. I have not managed to lose the weight, currently sitting around 64kg although I exercise daily. I thought I would lose weight naturally after surgery as I can not eat as much - my belly gets fully because the muscles are so tight and can not expand to fit in large amounts of food or liquid - I can't even drink a can of coke zero - it takes me about 2 hours to get through it. I'm happy with how I am though, I expect I will lose some weight as I increase my activity more, but I'm not in a rush - I want to heal properly - don't want to pop anything!
I think thats all. I will update again at one year :)
3 month post op update
Posting on my phone & lost the lot grrrr. Will just post pic & say everything's going well - slowly improving but still have a way to go.
Provider Review
Dr Thiti Chaovanalikit