2016 Will Be the Year of the Tummy Tuck! Sterling, VA

Well I have been off work for several weeks and getting used to watching soap operas and Dr. Phil. I just love Dr Phil, don't you!
I have been on the wound vac for SO Long!! I'm feeling perfectly normal now, there's no more infection and I am ready to resume my NORMAL LIFE! Whew this has been a long time. I'm surprised that my nurse still has me wear this thing! It is draining next to nothing now and is pretty much closed up and healed.

Well finally today she removed the wound vac ! Yay Hoo ray!! I'm finally free. Well almost. Need to make an appointment to go see my PS so he can look at it! Nurse thinks Dr should put a few sutures in it to secure it and pull it closed a little tighter. I'm just so happy that it's not attached to me any more!
I'm happy with the flatness of my abdomen. The only NEGATIVE is that now my pants are all too big for me ! I guess that's a nice problem to have. I'm not complaining! I never have posted my photos on here but I will have my son show me how to do it.

August 4, 2016 I got up early to try to finish cleaning up the house.
My husband and my son both went to work and I waited for my friend to pick me up. She texted me and said that the traffic was terrible on Route 28
She arrived and we were off to 66 but traffic was crawling! Then Dr Berman called asking how close we were to the surgical center, I told him we were still on 66 and he sounded worried . Then he texted me a half hour later and asked for a time estimate, I told him I was 5 minutes away. He was glad. I finally arrived and went to the desk to check in. Signed some papers and was quickly wisked back to the dressing room and then the anesthesiologist talked to me for a few min, then I followed the nurse to the elevator and we went upstairs and I walked into the OR and hopped up on the table . Next thing they did was start an IV and placed a green rubber mask over my nose and mouth and that's the last thing I remember until I woke up in recovery. I saw my husband standing there, he had come to pick me up. To my surprise, the nurses had dressed me completely including the compression garment, and I was all ready to go.
I was feeling very sleepy and went with Tom on the elevator and out the door.

It's been a while since I updated my review of the Tummy Tuck I had on August 4th. A lot has happened since! Around a week after the surgery I went to my PS for a follow up check. When he first saw it, he said " Wow, Your incision is infected!" I said " it is? " I didn't know what was normal looking for an incision that soon after surgery. He wrote me out a prescription for an antibiotic, sent me straight to the pharmacy, and said come back in 2 days so I can check it. I took the first antibiotic within an hour after that and 4 times a day.I went back every other day while on the meds but it just didn't seem to be helping. He added a second antibiotic that I had to take every 12 hours. Meanwhile I had things I needed to get done at home. I was having a big birthday party for my husband in one week and I had invited 14 people for a buffet dinner. I was running to Party City buying party supplies, I was cleaning my house like crazy, one day I stopped and picked up 4 hanging flower baskets for the front porch and a watermelon. I was only 9 days post op. I was standing at my dining room table one day when blood started pouring out of my incision! scared me to death. I had been wearing surgical pads and the wound had been draining some. This drainage was different it was saturating the gauze pads so they could not hold any more blood and dripping on to the floor! Frantically, I called the Dr. He got on the phone and said, This looks scary, but its just old blood from your tummy tuck. This happens sometimes. Just let it drain. next day when he saw me he sent me to an infectious disease Dr. The infectious disease Dr. took me off the oral antibiotics, and sent me to get a picc line put in so I could give myself IV antibiotics every 12 hours. I did that. They sent a nurse over to show me how to hook up the IV med. She suggested I ask my PS to order a wound vac as well to heal it faster! When I told my PS he said " yes lets do it." The next day the wound vac came and the nurse put it on me. It is amazing! It pulls all the drainage from the wound and vacuums it out helping to speed up the healing! I've been wearing this for 2 weeks, and the nurse changes the dressing 3 times a week. I'm well on the way to being healed!
Ladies, In my personal opinion, in the beginning, I was trying to do WAY too much, too soon, getting ready for that party. I was doing heavy lifting, I was running around when I should have been resting. I kept hearing everyone say don't stay in bed, keep moving, but I went overboard, and caused this infection. I am 1 month post op and still wearing the wound vac and taking IV meds.