36, 5 Kids - TT Muscle Repair and Lipo- Raleigh, NC

I have some photos to share finally. I was waiting for some time to go by and see how thugs changed. My 6 week and 12 week check ups went wonderful. Dr. Pyle is so so amazing!

I feel pretty normal now. I have gotten back into my yoga and lifting weights now too. I am knee deep in the holiday season and just wrapped up a semester in college so my workouts weren't as frequent as I had wanted. But I plan to get back in full swing at the New Year.

I am so so pleased with how everything went and with my results. I have stretch marks still of course, but I didn't do this to be a swimsuit model. I just wanted to wear clothes normally, ease my back pain and have some confidence for the first time in my adult life. I got all those as a result of this surgery. I am very pleased with how it all went.

My scar is still pretty red. I have been wearing silicone strips everyday and the gel at nighttime. The scar has started to fade and there are small sections, a few centimeters long, in several sections that have really faded and all I can see is the line where the incision was - not as much of the red part is there. So I have faith in another 6 months the scar is going to look dramatically different. I will update of course later to show.

But here are some pics!!

Just a quick before and after photo. 6 week check up is coming up and I can't wait!!

Well guys it's been one month. I can't believe it. All i can say is the first two weeks are rough, Third week is a turning point and this 4th week has just been amazing! I feel the closest to myself that I've felt. I ran up my stairs the other day (like I used to. with 5 kids undertow I'm usually running up and down those stairs constantly) but I didn't realize I did it until I got to the top and was like OMG! I just ran up the steps like the old me. It was so exciting.

I'm also starting to see what my results will be. The swelling has gone down a lot but is still there some. Like many others I noticed more swelling towards the end of the day especially if I've been pretty on the go that day.

I am seeing some loosening of the skin down towards my incision as the swelling lessens. And it's maybe just a tad alarming, but it's only when Im sitting down - i can grab some extra skin now. But I have to say, i remember sitting down in my pre-op days and grabbing an entire fold of skin, whereas now it's barely a pinch. And when I stand it's much more taught again. I am realistic in that I wasn't going for awards in bikini model contests - I just wanted to be able to wear clothes normally, wear bras and panties and feel sexy in them for my SO and also have my abs back where they should be. I don't even mind the stretch marks. They don't bother me one bit. I think because compared to what I used to have this is a million times improvement.

Anyway, alls Well. I had to put gauze over my belly button for a few days with some Neosporin because the spanx was irritating it I think from rubbing against it all day. It's back to looking better again. That's all for an update. I'll post monthly now unless I have any complications. My 6 week check up is in two weeks so if anything interesting happens I will update then as well. Hope everyone is well :) and if you're reading this and still on the fence about doing it - DO IT! DO IT FOR YOURSELF, YOU'RE WORTH IT!!!