I had a full tummy tuck. There is some nasty stigma around it. I was told by a lot of people as a knee jerk reaction that I did not need a tummy tuck. I appreciate the comment from the perspective that I am not overweight. But...I didn't get the surgery to fix a weight problem. I had the surgery for two reasons. One was that I wanted it. I had a lot of excess skin from my twins that didn't matter how much I weighed, it was there. I wanted rid of that. The second reason was separation in my abdominals, called diastasis recti. This separation and the way it impacted me was a huge part of the decision. In February I started with Sciatica once again, and the pain would not let up. Despite PT work, my diastasis was getting bigger. The PT work had kept it at by for about 8 years, but it was no longer working. So after 6 months of trying to fix it I decided I was ready for surgery. I had met with Dr. Donaldson in 2020 when I was looking into the surgery for the first time, so it was an easy process to find the right doctor, because I had already met him!
During the first meeting we went over what they would do in a Abdominoplasty procedure, and talked about the various options and what would work best for me. I viewed a bunch of photos of others who had undergone a similar surgery to what was recommended for me, and I left excited for my surgery on August 30th!
I went in and surgery took a couple of hours, and it went great. They sutured my abs together, removed about 1/2lb (197g) of tissue and put me back together. I woke up groggy but not in much pain. Once I started moving and getting dressed I could feel quite a bit of pain and I accepted pain meds. Ry came back to help me, and we were heading home before I knew it. When I needed to use the restroom I wanted to take off my binder and see what we had! So Ryan helped me!
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| This is my excited face on pain meds. |
I was pretty stoked, my incision was smaller than I envisioned, and my stomach was flat! Already excited.
With my surgery, I had 1 drain put in. They told me to empty it every 4 hours and record the output...here is where things got dicey. I was having to empty it every 60-90 minutes because it was filling up. We put a call into the Dr. and waited to hear back. I went to the restroom around 6:30 PM and told Ryan I needed to get to the bed now because I was going to pass out. My face went numb and grey speckles came in and clouded my eyes. I laid there kinda scared, but I had just had a major surgery so...I wasn't surprised my body was asking me to keep it slow! We spoke to the office and they requested photos. So I got up and took my binder off again. The swelling was UNREAL, but I had heard the swelling could be a lot, so I didn't feel surprised by it. I remember saying "I think we need to go to the ER" as I hurried to sit and passed out. Well, it wasn't swelling. It was a hematoma with a bleeding vessel.
The following morning Dr. Donaldson met us at the surgery center, where my brain on tramadol had decided he would take a look and surely tell me it was not a hematoma, just swelling and send me home. When I got there they started prepping me right away. I was still confident it was no problem. Dr walked in and said, "yep, that is a hematoma, surgery will take about and hour". We moved on to talking about our cats. I had my second surgery to clean out the hematoma. They found the active bleed and they were able to cauterize it. I was home by 3PM. Now instead of surgical glue I had steri-strips and I was quite sore.
Over the next couple of days I walked lightly, did my best to eat high protein, and stayed hunched over. I wore my binder all day everyday aside from showers and I had the immense pleasure of taking care of 2 drains instead of one. But I was feeling ok, and things were looking good despite CRAZY levels of swelling.
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| Lots of swelling (to be expected) and double drains. |
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| The swelling in my pubic area and hips was extreme. |
The first week felt like an eternity. I felt like I could never get comfortable enough to sleep. I had a recliner and a set of wedge pillows. All day I waited for bedtime, and all night I waited for coffee. It was not fun. My back hurt from being hunched, my head hurt from sleeping sitting up, and I felt anxious about everything.
FINALLY 8 days after my first surgery I had my appointment to get my drains out and the output was low enough they could be removed! I needed less than 25 cc's for two consecutive 24 hour periods. I was well under that for each drain. I was stoked to be drain free. I had heard it was painless to get them removed, so that eased my mind. I went in and they told me everything looked great. It was time to take out the drains. I exhaled, the nurse pulled, and it was out! One down, one to go! Same thing on the other side...only the drain didn't come out. The nurse tried a few times and went to get help. Another nurse also tried and could not get it. They told me the drain would have to be cut out. I immediately began to cry. I think I was so overwhelmed by the idea of starting over and I panicked. It was not NEARLY as bad as I envisioned. Once Dr. Donaldson arrived, it was just a local lidocaine and 10 minutes and I was on my way home. I am so thankful for the way this was handled, Donaldson plastic surgery was quick to take care of things when I was really worried. They could have easily told me to come back in a day or 2 but instead Dr. Donaldson came to the office as soon as he was done with a surgery, and took care of the situation.
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| Drain free! |
Many women told me that once the drains were out, I would feel significantly better. Man oh man were they right! I still had quite a bit of swelling, low levels of energy. I really didn’t do much for the first 10 days aside from rest, work on my computer, eat, and mill around wishing it was time to shower so I could check my stomach again. Haha! My back hurt a lot by the end of each day from walking hunched. Sleeping without laying down was more and more annoying. I used pain meds for 4 days post op. Once I was off my pain medication. I struggled to sleep a bit.
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| Photo of 2 weeks post op. |
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Photo of 2 weeks post op. |
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| Before Surgery/1 week post op. |
By week two, it was safe to say I was thrilled I had gone forward with the surgery. I was able to make dinner and clean up stuff around the house. My energy levels were very low. I only had about 10-15 mins of moving around in me before I needed to rest. But that was expected and ok. I listened to my body and rested as much as I felt I needed. I also did a lot less than I would have a few years ago, and said no to doing anything more than I felt comfortable with. I read a lot, I worked, and I slept. I also vowed to stay the course and not try to push walking/working out in any fashion for the 6 weeks following surgery. That is always a hard thing to commit to for people who are used to working out, but I promised myself I would see this through.
