7 months later, still not happy. Making Lemonade out of Lemons - Shreveport, LA

I am a 38 year old mother of 4, ages 18, 15, 4, and 2.

10 years ago, I had a tummy tuck. I was pretty large at the time for me, at 5' 7" and 230 lbs with a very small frame.

Though it was supposed to be a full TT, the doctor did nothing with my upper abdomen. And I have a noticeable poof on my sides where my scar is. I guess I need to put in pictures so you can see what I mean.

Though it was a vast improvement to what I began with, it's certainly not something I'm comfortable with. My only saving grace was, Wow! That apron was gone! And everything between my belly button and my scar was really nice and flat! I was happy about that, but that was all I was happy with.

Thank goodness for my boobs. Natural, nice, not too saggy, pretty darn full 36G's.

Well, time goes by, my weight settles in at 165 with little effort on my part. I was waiting tables by day and bar tending at night. It kept me pretty muscular and active. I was happy with myself.

I met a man, and a year later, he proposed. I had stopped bar tending at night about 6 months prior, and unfortunately, a few weeks after the proposal, I was fired from my day job.

My soon to be husband took it as a sign that I should not work anymore. I let him talk me in to it. I started working at 15 years old, and quite frankly, I was ready to be done for awhile. Serving drinks and food is good money fast, but sometimes it comes with a ton of bull crap.

So, to make a long story longer, we married, and almost one year to the day, our little girl was born. I gained 40 pounds with the pregnancy. My tummy and boobs came through it like champs. I went back down slowly to 165. The problem was, I wasn't doing all the heavy lifting like I did when I worked. I had way less muscle. My thighs and arms had gotten bigger during the pregnancy, and as I lost the weight, I noticed new saggy skin there, but I was all in all ok.

On our second anniversary, I got pregnant with The Boy. I was 35. Now I will say that it was my most beautiful pregnancy. I only gained 18 lbs. I carried nice, I felt great, I looked great. The little creep turned footling breech, and his head got lodged under my ribs.

I had to have a blankety-blank C-section. It left me with a shelf. My beautiful lower stomach was ruined. And 8 months later, an ingunial hernia repair. Double ruined!

And my poor boobs. He sucked the very life out of them. They are still G's, but sad, pancake, sliding off my body G's. My confidence was now pretty much wrecked.

I got a groupon for smart lipo on my arms a year after The Boy was born. I LOVE my results from it. It is the very first time in my life I felt good about my arms.

Here it is, 2.5 years after The Boy was born, and I was just told I have to have an abdominal hysterectomy. I broke down and cried to my husband that I just could not handle one more disfigurement to my stomach. He very, very sweetly agreed to let me have a TT at the same time.

When I went in for my consult, after my Dr assessed my abdomen and told me what he could do, I just went for broke and asked about getting a BL too. He told me that he could absolutely do those at the same time, and advised me that I would be left with small D's after. He told me since I was used to having very large breasts, I might want to consider small implants as well.

I knew my husband wouldn't be thrilled with small D's. He's obsessed with my big boobs. He told me I was the only girl on this planet he'd ever seen whose boobs got bigger when she took her bra off (I wear a minimizer sometimes, lol). I knew I wouldn't be thrilled, either. I love my girls! So my Dr and I decided on 240 cc saline implants.

I went home and showed my paperwork to my husband. He said go for it all, lol.

So I have my surgery scheduled for August 9th. I'll be in the hospital for 3 days due to the hysterectomy (bring on the pain pump!) Both of my doctors say I will heal from the Mommy makeover faster than the hysterectomy.

I'm just ready to get in there, get out, get healed, and be done!

22 days. Know what I've done? Bought some Metamucil crackers and one front-close sports bra. And pat me on the back, I've scheduled a mammogram.

And that's it. I have meals to make, supplies to buy, cleaning to do, and I'm potty training The Boy.

Why I wasn't born into Royalty or extreme wealth, I'll never know. My life screams, "In need of a personal assistant or 3!!!!". I blame my ADD. One 'squirrel' and I'm a gonner.

Last night I had a horrendous stomach bug. I'm reminded of the line in The Devil Wears Prada when Emily says she's 'one stomach flu away from goal weight'. I weighed this morning and cursed Emily. I hadn't lost an ounce, lol. 159.8 lbs and holding strong.

I'm determined to post before pics in the next couple days. I'll be posting from my phone, so they will be sideways :( I haven't figured out how to flip them (hint, hint, wink, wink to any tech savvy ladies who might want to explain how to me).

I guess that's it for now. I did take the time to really enjoy holding and carrying The Boy and The Girl tonight. They are both way too heavy to be picked up or carried after my surgery.

Decided to go for the gold this morning and take my before pics. I have on no make up, haven't brushed my hair, and I'm just sayin', be GLAD you can't smell me, lol.