39 Years of Big Belly and Lipedema

I've always had an unfortunate body type - big belly, two distinct rolls. As puberty hit the bellies got worse, and my legs ballooned.
Never had kids, and finally reached an age where I could say for sure I wasn't planning on it.
Dieting has never really worked; even when I had managed to starve myself I would never lose that weight in my belly or legs. It was lumpy, painful, and I always have bruised easily. Just assumed it was bad genes.
Lo and behold, I have lipedema. I saw Dr. Emily Icker and Dr. Jaime Schwartz for diagnosis and confirmation in Jan 2021. I was able to wrangle payment for my procedures from my insurance company, and just had my first one, the abdominoplasty.
Dr. Schwartz is awesome. He has a great bedside manner and sense of humor. I felt confident in his assessment of my body and was comfortable working wiht my body type - the double belly and the lipedema. He said we had to start in the middle, since my lymphatic flow from my legs should improve after the bellies are gone.
I should also shout out for Belinda from his office; she's super organized and responsive and kind.
Kelly and I went back and forth for months on the insurance thing and she also deserves a shout-out. I appreciate that Dr. Schwartz is even willing to take insurance; most plastic surgeons won't touch it, and he certainly doesn't have to with his caliber of work. But he's obviously passionate about lipedema and wants the medical world to treat it as a medical condition, which it is. Not all fat is the same.
Having never had any kind of surgery, these first few days are pretty shockingly painful. I don't think I'll be able to really enjoy my flat tummy for months. But hey - flat tummy. Really and truly. My rolls are gone. I can't believe it.

The aftercare situation is not a good one for non-locals. I have been in the hospital for five days for a rare form of staph infection that the doctors at home think i got in the tummy tuck OR. I would only recommend traveling for tummy tuck if you have good care lined up at home or the ability to helicopter back to LA when there are issues because the office will not be helpful otherwise post-op.

After almost a month on IV vancomyacin, my staph infection is gone. Unfortunately the antibiotic was so intense and damaging to my system that I became critically anemic and required a blood transfusion.

It's been 8 days since then, and since being off the vanco, and I've been able to focus (finally) on the normal TT healing. I'm still keeping the small dehisced area (just a scab now) bandaged, and probably over-babying the area on the left side that developed into an abscess and cellulitis. Including pics of those - pics are about 2-3 weeks old.

There is a ton of indurated tissue around my incision and I suspect some fat necrosis, too. However I'm able to walk and even lay on my sides, so there has been healing and improvement. Not standing up totally straight yet and trying to remain patient.

When I can actually tolerate sitting upright long enough to drive 7 hours to see Dr. Schwartz I'll make my way to Bev Hills for a follow up. The one plastic surgeon in my little town was like eh you're fine come back in 6 weeks, but obviously I'd prefer Dr. Schwartz's input.

Worth noting: every medical person who's seen my TT (and there have been A LOT, between 9 days in the hospital, ERs, infusion clinic nurses, specialist visits) says what a great job Dr. Schwartz did. That is usually their first comment. Unprompted. So there is that. Looking at myself before and after it is clear he is an artist, and even though I've had hella life-threatening complications if I had to choose between this and then getting a complication-free but ugly TT, we all know the choice.

His staff should have used more precautions in draining my seromas and they should have cultured the seroma fluid to establish whether I had an infection. They also should have better listened to my concerns about the left side of my wound (because I knew something was off from the start). But, you know...at least I didn't get necrotic tissue and at least I didn't die. I'm just so grateful to be on the other side of what was a terrifying 6 weeks.