Turning 30 and Was Determined to Celebrate in a Two Piece! - Washington, DC

Hey everybody so I want to thank everyone on this site for all the knowledge everyone provided and stories, things to look for, etc while on my journey to my beach body. So my name is Lynn and I was at first working out to get my beach body till things took a turn for the worst and I ended up having to have ACL surgery. It halted my fitness progress and due to me being bedridden I was thinking time for alternatives. I had been thinking of Lipo for years and went to Dr's and all and just never acted on it till now. I had my Surgery 6 Mar with Dr. Araya in Northwest Washington DC. He was very nice no long wait time for my consultation I told him what I want and he told me what to expect healing time can take up to a year. He felt I should do my sides too but I was set on the front and gave me a reasonable price quote. So then I did my blood work and paid for my upper and lower abdominal section I scheduled my big day. Day of the procedure naturally I was nervous because I was AWAKE for my procedure. I had the local anesthetic and I cant lie getting that fluid pumped in my stomach was painful. The pain eventually subsided but the initial areas filled the fluid but it felt like a ton of books were on my chest. LOTS of pressure. Then came time for the suction that wasn't so bad surprisingly until he got to the very end and I more so think its because there wasn't much fat left and the anesthesia was wearing off. I was under the impression that the procedure would take hours however it only took an hour and a half and the Dr. even did a little of my sides as well free of charge. The pain in the process while awake I will say just one more time this isn't for the faint at heart. You have to control your breathing and you really have to find you happy place at times during the procedure. What helped is the Dr talked to me thru the whole procedure and I had headphones in to listen to music. That did wonders for getting thru it. The most annoying part that I agree with most is the leaking fluids the first day. Surgical pads work best because I ran thru all regular monthly kinda pads because the fluid your leaking is more frequent so that's why its so important to change out. Also I would recommend buying at least 4-5 compression garments so that you can constantly keep a compression on at all times. I started off with 2 and ended up buying at least 2 more. The day of surgery you want a good compression garment but something that's easy to take on and off not the waist trainers but a spanxx kinda garment. I got the tshirt type of garment where the boobs are free and I didn't hook the bottom so that way I can pee without having to pull up and down over my stomach. U can but those types more so after at least 2 weeks go by. So I have a before pic but its on my home computer. Here is my after tho initially.

Sooo the swelling was uncomfortable but manageable. Wore loose dresses to not place too much pressure on my stomach.

Pain was gone but the swelling was no joke. Unable to wear pants from before the surgery. Dr said everything looked good tho