I Am Still Recovering but Everything Looks GREAT! – Sherwood, OR

Hello! I turned 35 years old 3 days before my procedure. I also got my first degree in June so this was a graduation/birthday present from my husband! Yay hubby! I have 4 kids (ages: 11 1/2, 9 ,8 and 3 1/2). As you can see by the ages, my middle children are close in age. N is 18 months younger than G. and I think this is what caused my distastes in my abdominal muscles. Before they could finish going back together I was beginning to show with my son. A boy that was 9 lbs 2 oz at 3 weeks EARLY!
I am DONE with having kids and was left with a large gap between my ab muscles and a lot of extra skin. No amount of ab workouts would ever fix this. I permanently looked 4-6 months pregnant!

I live in Oregon and we chose Dr. Meegan Gruber to be my PS. She is GREAT!

2 days pre op I had to go on a clear liquid diet.

I had my surgery in the hospital and stayed the night. Dr Gruber put in 2 drains and the Q-pump.

I was wonderful to spend that first night in the hospital where nurses could do everything for me for the first day.

The next afternoon I went home.

My first po appt was 6 days after the surgery. The next one is 2 weeks after that.

My biggest advice is to make sure that you get the breathing exercise device to make sure that your lungs don't partially collapse like mine did a week PO. I ended up in the Er a week and a half PO worried about a possible clot in my lung. Nope, just partially collapsed lungs from not taking deep enough breaths and being mostly sedentary for a week for recovery from the TT.

The swelling is minimal, the scars are healing and don't look too freakish. I am still on pain meds but I am a wimp and have a high tolerance to all meds (antibiotics, OTC pain relievers, etc). So far no Seroma and I am excited to wear a bikini this November when we go to FL for Thanksgiving!