Surgery One Week from Today!!!

Today is 13 days po! I'm going to try and upload pictures again this time. I don't know how to make a picture smaller to fit what's allowed here. Anyway, recovery is going extremely well. I haven't been in any pain really at all. Had surgery on Monday and was off all meds by Friday. Not even any Tylenol or ibuprofen. The biggest thing for me has been the tightness. I didn't understand swelling to mean tightness. I feel great. The tightness is uncomfortable. Feels like a balloon full beyond capacity and ready to pop, except it never does. It has gotten better, though. Day 3 and 4 were the worst of it. And it mostly happens with activity. Also tired of sleeping sitting up. I was prepared for that but it gets old. I don't feel I can lay flat at this point. Too much stretching. I'm not standing straight consistently yet, but I do have moments where I can, and then it starts to feel too stretched so I hunch again. Not sneezing and coughing is still rough. The trying to not cough is tougher than the no sneezing. I really have no opinion at this point about how it's going to turn out, so am not sure how to rate it. I'm still pretty rounded. There's a difference in the size of the pooch for sure, but it's still pretty rounded. Doc says I have a lot of swelling, so just going to wait and see. Just tried to upload pics again and it says my pictures are 7MB and only 6 is allowed. No idea how to get around that.

It's 2:13 in the morning. Sleeping sitting up, so when I wake up I get myself up and move around a little bit.. As things started to wear off, I started feeling more and more discomfort yesterday. I can tell when my pain meds are starting to wear off. One thing I didn't mention was burping and passing gas. At first my burps were getting stuck in my throat. Kind of a panicky feeling. The nurse said it'll go away if I walk. She was right. That feeling of drinking water and needing to belch was a new one for me. That finally went away by 24 hours. I can drink almost as much water as I'd like to, and if the feeling creeps in, I get up and walk and it goes away. Have passed gas only once in the last 48 hours. Kind of weird. I haven't been gassy, so it hasn't been an issue, but there's no forcing anything, whether it be peeing or having a bowel movement or passing gas. You gotta wait for it to happen and not help it along at all. Every time I pee, I'm on the toilet for a while because you just have to let it flow at its own pace. And if you feel like pushing, the minute you do you'll regret it!!
I just tried posting some before pictures and it says they're too large. I'm not sure what I can do about that. It's just a picture. This happen to anyone else?

It's 3:45 a.m. Today is day two. I feel better than I thought!! I know all the pain meds they gave me are probably still blocking, plus I've been taking my pain pills religiously. I am moving around, getting to the bathroom on my own, filling up water bottle, getting in and out of bed. They gave me a patch behind me ear for nausea, so I haven't felt sick at all. Couple coughs here and there due to my throat being sore from the tube. No idea what I look like yet, as it's not been 24 hours even, and I think I have to wait for 72 before a dressing change. Will post before/after photos as soon as I can see my incision. I did have to get the T incision, which I'm bummed about, but he did tell me there'd be a slight chance of that.