Well I did it!! I am a 27 year old mother of three. I have a 9, 7 and 18 month old. When I was in my teen years I was pretty fit and weighed about 135 but after I was married and had my first child, I was about 155 and the skin on my stomach never went back. After my second child, I gained a lot of weight and was up to 205. In 2006 I joined LAweight loss and loss 60 lbs. I worked out regularly and was toning nicely everywhere except my stomach. I had even more loose skin that hung down below my pantie line. In 2008 I had my third child and was able to lose all but about 10 lbs of my pregnancy weight but now my stomach is REALLY bad! I have been lifting weights for toning but I just cant seem to get my belly even down to what it was!
I had a consult with a Doctor and he said I was a great candidate for a tummy tuck. I saw another Doctor just to be sure I was comfortable but the first Dr. was great!!
I had my Tummy Tuck on Feb. 4, 2010. It has been exactly one week since my surgery. My doctor was very thorough in preparing me for the procedure. He told me to take Vitamin C, daily vitamins and drink plenty of water several weeks before my surgery and I think that really helped! I was told that this is a VERY painful major surgery and that it totally lays you out for two weeks and then about 4 weeks of still sore recovery.
Pros
I have read several nightmares and I realize that there are risks with every operation but I am very happy to say that my experience has been great so far!
When I woke up I wasn't in any pain and within a few minutes I could feel some pain in my abdomen but not bad. They gave me IV pain meds and then sent me home with Oral meds. The pain was never really as extreme as I expected. I have heard that some people have been reduced to sobbing and explain the pain as blinding. I am very thankful that mine has not been as I do not like pain:-) Day 3 and 4 I was really sore but was also slowing down on narcotic meds and switching to Ibuprofin.
This is Day 7 and I am now only on Ibuporfin with an occasional Oxycotin at night to help me sleep. My doctor said it is really individual to each person but again I think that taking care of yourself before and loading up on water and Vitamin C helps immensely with recovery. I still have my drains in but they are not bad to deal with although they get more annoying with each passing day. I may have to have them in for a little over 2 weeks. (ugh)
My sutures are hip to hip but are healing with no infection thus far. I know the scaring will be bad to deal with in the beginning but that is the least of my conerns since. I had TERRIBLE stretch marks before and now a lot of them are gone I still see it as an improvement. The doc. ended up taking 10 vertical inches of skin from my abdomen and he says at least 4 inches from my waistline!!
I can't wait until I am fully healed and I am having a hard time remembering he days when I could stand fully upright:-) My goal with operation has never been to have a bikini body. I just wanted to be able to put clothes on with out having the bulge of skin in front. Say goodbye to the front butt!
Cons
Overall I have had a good experience but the worst of it for me was waking up from anesthesia.I woke up in a panic attack and felt like I couldn't breath. They think it was a reaction to the IV pain meds they gave me. That was really scary and it took a few hours for that to go away. I have quite a bit more swelling on one side of my stomach than the other so it doesn't look completely symmetrical yet. I hadn't expected that. I know it will get better with time and smooth out more but it was a little surprising when I first saw it. The phantom itches are very frustrating! You get really bad itches that you cannot find to scratch since most of the feeling is gone in your belly anyway, which is also a very weird sensation.
Also, if you have younger children, you WILL need help. It is amazing how much you can't do in the beginning. You get worn out very easily.
