I'm now 5 months post op tummy tuck

Well, I've never been known for keeping up with my blog. I'm bad about that. Anyway, I have had a bit of a set back. It seems I have a hernia again. I had 2 repaired during the tummy tuck surgery. I had the umbilical hernia repaired before that! Well now it seems the umbilical hernia is back and maybe another one. I didn't do anything to get a hernia like lifting heavy stuff. I wore my binder like I was suppose to for the length of time I was suppose to. I think I have an underlying health problem that often has hernias go with it.

Anyway, I had a CT scan because my stomach swelled up really bad recently, pretty fast, too. The CT scan said no hernias, but I also had one before the tummy tuck to look for hernias and it said no hernias, so I have no faith in what they said. My surgeon examined me, and he sees what I'm saying. If I lay on my back and do a crunch or cough or whatever, it bulges up around my belly button. He said it kind of feels like a hernia, but not exactly. He wants me to go see a general surgeon. I'm stalling. I'm just sick of surgeries. I've had 10 surgeries. I really hoped my tummy tuck was my last surgery.

The surgeon doesn't know exactly what is going on. Your swelling typically goes down the further out you are from surgery, not suddenly increase. The scan also said no fluid accumulation. So he doesn't know if it's just "swelling" and might go away in time, or what. I'm not swollen anywhere else. My stomach looks bigger now than it did right after the tummy tuck when I was still swollen from surgery. I never expected to look like a Barbie, but I was not expecting this. It would be nice to have answers. :(

9 weeks post op tomorrow!

Wow! I can't believe it's been that long already! I'm doing really good. I took off the binder at 6 weeks and did well, but with Thanksgiving and a weekend get away I had, I started swelling pretty bad again. I've had to lay low this week, and it's helping the swelling to go down. I guess I've overdone it, but it's hard not to when you feel good. I notice that I still tire fairly easily. I tried wearing my binder again, but it was no help. It's way too big on me now. At this point, I'm not sure I want to waste money on a new one. I took Arnica Montana pills after surgery and they helped a lot with swelling. I ordered some more, so when they get here, I'll be taking those.

Maybe next week, on my birthday, I'll post updated pics.

Week 4 update

I forgot to do an update at 3 weeks. Tomorrow is 4 weeks post op. I feel like I really turned a corner between weeks 3 & 4. I'm feeling so much better. I'm not swelling as much. The stuff they put over my stitches is coming off more and more. I still have some of it there, but the places without it look really, REALLY good. I went shopping for some new clothes. Everything else is way too big for me. ;) Fun stuff! I have 2 more weeks that I have to wear a binder, but I will probably wear it even longer. It helps so much with swelling. I do swell more as the day goes on, but look pretty good when I first get up. I'm really happy with it!

Pre-op and post op tummy tuck pictures

The black clothes are post op at 2 weeks. The others are right before surgery. You can see that my stomach pre-op was not as bad looking with my clothes on. When I take my stomach out of my clothes, you can see how huge it is, and how far it hangs down. From the front, you couldn't even see my bottoms except under my stomach. The post op picture is with 2 binders on. My middle is still very swollen, but there is no more skin to pick up at all! Once the swelling goes down, I will look really normal!

Almost 2 weeks post op Tummy Tuck

I think this past week was my worst and my best. Technically, this coming Wednesday will be my 2 week mark. Since my last update, I had some pretty painful times. I tried to cut back on my pain medicine some. One reason was I wanted to spend time with my family. Another reason is, I didn't want to run out of my pain meds and still be in horrible pain, so I cut back to see how it was. I found out that it wasn't so great! I went back up on frequency. I was still trying to sleep in the living room, which was not comfortable. Add in the kids being noisy and waking me up while trying to sleep, I was getting fed up with everything!

I decided to go downstairs to my bedroom. OH, MY WONDERFUL BED! Oh, how I had missed my bed. I have a latex foam mattress and it's wonderful! I wasn't sure if I could lay in it, on my side. I did, and it wasn't too bad. It's still hard to sleep on my right side where I have 2 tubes coming out. It's more sore on that side. So, I started getting more restful sleep. I stayed up on my pain meds, which are really almost gone, and slept so many hours of good sleep.

I really started getting stir crazy and restless during this past week. I like to be up and doing something. The doc's instructions said to walk at least 5 times a day. Just getting up to go to the bathroom, and sitting up for a while after my shower, made my stomach swell until it was so uncomfortable (yes, I do keep my binders on, but still!) I was just at the end of my rope at one point and tears welling up in my eyes. That's when I decided I just had to keep taking that pain medicine around the clock. Anyway, I find it very confusing and aggravating that you need to walk, but the more you are "up", the more you swell.

So, the closer I've gotten to this second week, it's gotten a bit better each day. I'm not swelling AS bad, and not hurting AS bad. The swelling is still uncomfortable, but not like it was. Bruising is still minimal. All in all, I think things are improving (as they should be). I can tell this is going to be slower than what I'm use to. I still don't have any of the skin pulling apart like happens sometimes. My drains are still in, but getting close to coming out. I'm down to 35 mL of drainage in a 24 hr. period. I have to get down to 25 mL to get my drains out. None of my stitches have started coming out yet. Not sure when they are suppose to, but they are self dissolving. That's about it for now. I'll try to do a video to update here in the next couple of days.