Tummy Tuck - Happy So Far, and I Encourage Others - Morristown, NJ

I have been thinking about this procedure for over a year, and so glad I finally pulled the trigger. I am a mom of two kids 5 and 7, and had terrible stretch marks across my lower belly and even 1.5" above my belly button. It was so bad I hated taking my shirt off in front of my own husband.

So, I had finally made my arrangements, and then days before my operation, I started to get nervous. I came to this website and began to get really scared about the recovery, and possibility of something going wrong. As it turns out, I'm really glad I read these reviews. It gave me a totally realistic perspective on what to expect -- the possibility of puckering, and the fact that I might not be able to stand up for many days.

I'd been through 2 C-sections, and I'm in ok shape, working out 2-3 times a week. So, perhaps it was the fact that I knew to stay on top of my pain medication, and I had pretty good leg strength that has helped me to cope. My friend stopped by on day 7 and was surprised to see me up and about looking so good.

So, here I am, 15 days post-op, and I feel great mentally. My incision is almost completely healed, except for two spots that I keep bacitracin on. My drain came out on day 6 - and even that wasn't that big of a deal. For the record - I had no idea what was going to go into that drain, so that was something unexpected. I thought it would be yellow - not red!

I only just started walking fully straight up on day 12 for real, and even now, after sleeping or sitting for a long period of time, it's kind of tight. I have some puckering on each hip, but my doctor tells me it will correct itself. I am optimistic, and from what I can tell, I'm so glad I went for it.

I took a full week off from work - I'm fortunate to have a wonderful husband who was my support throughout, watching kids and just letting me be. I worked from home the second week, by that time completely off all pain medication, including Tylenol. The only thing that kept me from work was that with the compression garment, I've had some difficulty getting into my work clothes - but almost all the swelling is already gone.

Looking back, I think my biggest fear of all was that I might not make it out from the anasthesia. While the results so far may not make me look like a 20 year old exactly (there's still some evidence of my upper stretch marks, and puckering), it's still MUCH better than before.