POD 10. Than you God for laxatives.

TMI ALERT: after 5 days of stool softeners, various herbal tea remedies, and finally laxative last night, I am so thankful to report that it worked and amazingly the scale went down 5 pounds! That is a little scary. Happy healing everyone and thank you for all your stories!

So let's see...pain is getting much more manageable. I took my last perc this AM and doc gave me the go ahead for Motrin and that seems to be going well. Occasionally I get these twitches of painful muscle spasm but I'm tryin to just bear it because at most it only lasts a few minutes. The Valium works well for them but its so sedating and I want to be able to take care of my babe and start driving again. I saw my doc again today (he's amazing). He took out my last drain (completely painless - i dont know if maybe certain docs place them differently cuz I've read about so many ladies having terrible pain with the drain removal). I was still draining about 30cc's every 24 hours but he said the risk of infection outweighed the benefits of the drainage.

My biggest problem right now is constipation. I haven't pooped in 5 days. I went on day 3 and day 4, both fairly nothing to write home about but I am seriously wondering where my body is storing this collection of waste. I feel very full and bloated, have very little appetite (though am still eating about 1800 cals a day), I taking stool softeners nightly, and last night took some sort of Herbal colon cleanse thing and - NOTHING! (Hence my second reason for stopping the Percs (though I managed to go when I was takin them every 3 hours so I just do get it)). I think tonight I might try an actual laxative. Lord help move the bowels please!! Sorry for TMI - I'd rather vent about it on here - if you know what I mean.
So I took some pics tonight. I am in my first bikini in about 20 years. It doesn't look very good and the scar (covered in tape) is high. I'm hopin it will eventually lower a little when the swelling goes down and I don't have 5 lbs of [RS bleep] trapped in my bowel. I still have some stretch marks but they are much decreased. My doc really got all the ones on the front of my stomach which is amazing because they were so deep and huge I thought they looked like tiger stripes. So all and all, I look okay. Mind you, I am just over a month post op out of lipo so still expecting my thigh swelling to go down. I'm pretty sure my doc is gonna go back in and do a bit more lipo on my right thigh. It's hard to tell, but they are slightly assymetrical. I didn't even have to ask him about it - he brought it up himself. He is such a great PS. It makes me want to get my boobs done!! I can totally understand how people get addicted to this....I am uploading my pics from my phone. Sometimes they upload rotated so use yur imagination :) I hope my share helps someone else. As always, happy healing!

I feel like so much has happened in just a few days. The first few days are very fuzzy. So let's see... I got to take a shower. That was lovely. Some ladies recommended putting a patio chair in the shower and I did just that (well my husband did). And that worked really well. Feeling clean and fresh is such a gift. I've been to see my PS everyday site the surgery 6 days ago. My mom is so impressed with the aftercare that heed thinking of getting a procedure done now. And I must admit I picked up brochures on BA/BL today...you know just for informational purposes.

So, at my last few appointments, they gave me IM meds everyday. The last few days they gave me Tordal which I think has worked the best out of everything (the RN described it as ibuprofen on steroids). The first PO day they had kept my IV line in and so they hydrated me am gave me more antinausea meds ans demral through the IV. (thank you God for Demrol.)

Today at my appt, my Doc took out one drain (not painful at all, just kind of weird - def not as bad as having a foley catheter pulled out or put in). The drains havent been a huge bother, one of them was a bit tender so he took out that one. And he took the stitches out of my new belly button (which I think I will like once it shrinks a bit). I asked my doc about the kind of puckering look of the scar, especially on the two ends. He said it looks totally normal and that it is good for it to pucker a bit now because that means it will soften and flatten at the final result. My doc said that for post op day 5 I am right on track and everything is as it should be. He didn't give me the Tordal today (something about liver damage) so I'm definitely feeling like I will be in bed all day. Getting up and moving around is just exhautimg ad in comfortable right now. The Tordal kind of tricks me into thinking I can do more than I really should (I.e., like vacuuming last night). I don't have another appt until Sat. (today is Thurs) and I will prob get my 2nd drain out then. The biggest thing affecting me now is how totally sleepy the pain meds make me (I can't remember if I mentioned that I alternate Valium and 10mg Percocet every 2 hours). The Valium is for the muscle spasms. Doc told me that it hurts so bad in the AM because I haven't had Valium all night. And I have to agree the Valium does seem to be the most effective of the two -- it just makes me SO tired that I don't like to take it. I pray that my healing continues to improve day by day and for all of you ladies out there, too. I have more pics and will post them later today (that darn Valium is kicking im and I can barely keep my eyed open LOL).