Tummy tuck on the menu! :D

In two weeks I will be having a tummy tuck with muscle repair and lipo of the abdomen and love handles. I am so excited and equally filled with dread in anticipation! I have bounced back and forth with my decision to have this surgery, (dread! excitement! huge scar! no more front rolls! excitement! dread!) My peace to move forward came in conjunction with my realization that no matter how hard I try to fix it on my own, my body is permanently damaged by the miracle of my children. My pelvic floor is basically collapsing, I have diastasis recti, and my bladder...well, it tries hard. ;) I am moving forward with this abdominoplasty to heal my core and tighten up my pelvic floor, and to remove the excess skin and belly chub baby that won’t go away no matter how much weight I lose!
I am *almost* 5’ 2” ;) and as of today for these before photos I weigh 129 lbs. I have had 3 beautiful children, one of which was 10lbs and stretched my little body as far as it could go. ;) I have always been a little chubby, and I am not expecting miracles from this procedure. It won’t make me skinny, but I hope in time that my flatter tummy will be a stronger motivator to get more fit and toned. Thanks for sharing my journey with me!

Well, as is typical of me, I am laying awake in bed instead of sleeping. *sighhhh* Ha ha, I will make up the lost hours on the surgeon’s table!

I have prepared in every way I know how, and now the only thing left to do is wait till it’s time to drive over there.

Honestly, for some reason the thing I’m worried the most about is my period!! It is supposed to start either today or tomorrow (bad timing on my part with scheduling, whoops!) and I am stressing about how annoying/inconvenient a thing it will be to be bleeding and cramping during this fragile healing time.

The other thing I’m most worried about is nausea. I’m the barfiest person I know. I never met a narcotic I didn’t throw up ;) I asked the hospital pharmacist if there was a narcotic that was less likely to cause nausea and he suggested tramadol, because it’s synthetic, so I talked to Dr Isom about it and he prescribed that for me instead of hydrocodone. A few nights ago I decided to try one when I got a bad headache, to see how my body responded and sure enough, I got nauseous and threw up. I ate food with it and everything. So I tried one of the zofran he prescribed and that didn’t do anything, so I finally took some Benadryl, which is also an antiemetic in case you didn’t know, and put myself to sleep. :) Friends, I just really really hate barfing. :( Dr Isom prescribed me a strong anti nausea pill to take before the surgery called Emend, so I’ll let ou know if that seems to do anything in case there are any readers who suffer from this like I do and are worried about it.

Well, wish me luck this morning! 4 hours out and counting!

I survived, yay! There is such a surreal feeling going into an operation like this. I felt strangely detached, like I was watching it from someone else’s perspective.
The surgery went perfectly. Dr Isom came to see me in the recovery room before he went home and when I asked him how much skin he’d taken off he showed me with his hands and it was a lot more than I was expecting! I’m so glad. I can’t wait for the next few months to see the swelling go down and watch the scar fade.