Finally Getting my Body Back - Rockville, MD

Had my procedures today. Feeling better than I expected. Dr. T and his staff were great throughout the process. His male nurse named Sid was especially wonderful. Dr. T called me tonight to see how doing. I told him feeling great. He warned me that I will "hate" him tomorrow once the local anesthesia wheres off so we will see.

Day 2 post-op and I'm still feeling better than expected. I had a catheter which I was able to take out today. Have been urinating frequently and overall pain is tolerable. So I guess Dr. T was wrong because all's good and I don't hate him. :-)

8 days post-op and had my first follow-up appointment with Dr. T. This is the first time that I saw my entire body naked since my surgery, so it was exciting. Dr. T. said that everything is healing really well. One drawback is that I'm still draining too much fluid so have to keep drain in for one more week, but that's okay.

It's nice to finally see my breast up where they're supposed to be. Also, the fleur de lis tummy tuck scars are okay by me because now all that excess, overhanging fat and skin are gone. I'm not looking to wear a bikini, I just don't want to where spanx for the rest of my life. :-)

I also weighed myself before my appointment and I have lost 3.5 lbs, which is very exciting. I am now 10 lbs from my goal weight and am happy to see that I'm still losing weight even though I can't workout everyday like I usually do. I haven't had too much of an appetite, but am still eating healthy, and I don't know if it's the meds, but I'm constantly thirsty so am drinking a lot of water. Speaking of meds, other than the required antibiotics I'm pretty much off the pain meds. So, I have to say that so far this has been a totally great experience...knock on wood.

I posted some new pics, recognizing that this is very new and still have a lot of healing to go.

11 days post-op. Only major complaint is this darn drain. The fluid seems to have slowed considerably, so hopefully it can come out on this Thursday's visit. One thing I strongly encourage everyone undergoing similar procedures is to get a laxative with stool softener because constipation is the worst effect of the pain meds and/or antibiotics. I'm totally off pain meds and finished antibiotics yesterday--hooray, but I'm still on a surgical protein supplement the my doctor had me take 3 weeks prior and 3 weeks post-op that's supposed to help with healing, especially for massive weight loss patients. The stuff has every kind of nutrient in it like all the essential vitamins, amino acids, protein, etc. doesn't have the greatest taste, but if it helps, I'm all for it. This has also caused some constipation, so again take those laxatives everyday.

I've been able to get out of the house and did a little mall shopping with my son and his girlfriend who came to town to help me. It has been great to get out and overall I feel good. Not going back to work until the drain comes out and then will telecommute for about a week in order to ease back into the grind.

Looking forward to starting to exercise again, but will take it slow per doctor's orders. Nonetheless, I'm still losing weight--about 4lbs post-op, so I'm happy with that. Also need to start working only scar healing/minimization, but again will wait to hear what doctor says.

I'm very pleased that so far this process has been far less painful that I had anticipated.

15 days post-op and had second follow-up appointment with Dr. T. The drain finally came out--hooray! Things are healing very well and I haven't had any complications. What's most important is that there are no issues where the skin was pulled down and removed where my old gall bladder scar had been. This had been the biggest area of concern, but it's looking great. In fact, Dr. T. said I've been one of his more involved recent cases, due to fleur di lis TT with BL, but have made the best progress in the short term, so we're both very pleased. Obviously, I still have a ways to go and want to ensure that there's no fluid build up now that the drain is out, but again the fact that I'm not in pain, have been off pain meds for at last a week, and have no complications makes me very pleased that I went through it all.

I'm 26 weeks post-op and still happy with my decision. Just attached some updated photos. I have some scare issues that are something that I knew might be a problem, but these are being treated with steroid injections to help soften and flatten the scars. I have this type if treatment before on other surgical scars and it has worked well, so I'm certain I will be happy with the final outcome in this case. I'm still very pleased with Dr. Tattlebaum's post surgery care and don't think there's a better out there in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area.