Diastasis Repair. Tummy Tuck. Abdominoplasty. Week 6 exercise begins!

Things had gone smoothly, and 6 weeks is the big step back to normal life...I was cleared to do it all!  HAHA!! I knew to take that with a grain of salt, but it sure felt good to have the all clear to SLOWLY start working back in some exercise, and feel less concern about how my body was healing!

This week I started with light engagement exercises.  Here is a link to a youtube video with

 the plan that worked for me! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Ctjm9uVDM&t=7s

I also started 20-30 mins a day on the recumbent bike! 

Swelling was real every evening, kinda painful, felt like pulling, but honestly not bad! 

Lived my best bider-less life! 

We did our make up together for "Witches Night"

Had and amazing time with friends at "Witches Night".

Loved watching the kids enjoy a Halloween hayride. 

 

Diastasis Repair. Tummy Tuck. Abdominoplasty. Week 5 in photos

By week 5 my energy levels were back to normal, and there was nothing that felt like too much any more. I remained patient and only walked, and short light recumbent bike! 

Week 5- Left side is a before photo, Right side 5 weeks post op! 

My incision continued to heal well during week 5, and my belly button started to open up. 

Week 5 was wildly uneventful, and lets be honest I am HERE.FOR.THAT.

 

Diastasis Repair. Tummy Tuck. Abdominoplasty. Week 3-4

 The first 2 weeks were pretty hard, but after 10 days I felt like I was feeling better and better each day.  My back still hurt some but I was able to stand up more and felt much less pain.  I started sleeping in bed, with lots of pillows to prop me up, and a wedge to keep my legs up as well. This helped a TON in terms of me feeling more alive, and energy. I still tired slowly, and moved much slower than normal. But I felt I could do most household chores, and I was able to drive, and go to kids games, etc. I was cleared to do light cardio at week 4, but I was not allowed to intentionally engage my abs so that was just very light walking. 

Week 3 notes- I was able to go out to dinner to celebrate a friends birthday. Late in the week Ryan left for a work trip and I was fine to be solo mom. Week 3 was a vast improvement, and I was able to function aside from running/working out like normal! 

Week 3- I still had Steri-strips and glue along the vertical incision

Week 3- I had a spot along my incision that didnt look great, but it was not infected just heal, sloth off, heal, and repeat.

Week 4-Still wearing the binder, so all sorts of marks, but feeling good! 

I removed my steri-strips as they were peeling quite a bit, and that made me feel a lot better too! 

I saw improvement I was using silver sulfadiazine on the area, and once a long stitch came out and was cut, the healing really started. My incision got better and better! 

Diastasis Repair. Tummy Tuck. Abdominoplasty. Week 1 and 2 .

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! 

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. 

Lots of swelling (to be expected) and double drains. 

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.

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. 

Photo of 2 weeks post op.

Photo of 2 weeks post op.

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. 

 

The Unlikely Story Of Becoming A Marathoner

 I joke that “I have spent a lot of my life in a parking lot”.  I am almost always very early to everything. Late October 1983, that was when my parents expected me. But if you have met me, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt I AM A LEO. So on August 17th, I was born after a terrifying and long labor for my Mom. Feet first, face up, nearly taking my mom’s life in the process (don’t worry she is alive and healthy). I decided very very early on I liked to be early!  Doctors told my family I would not live long, and when I seemed to be doing ok, they told them a myriad of problems that would ensue.  My lungs were underdeveloped. My family would spend quite a bit of time in the hospital with my lung issues during the early years of my life. Doctors told my parents I would always be behind other children my age.

I was a lazy kid, always finding ways to be carried, and whining over my “tired legs”. When my family would go on bike rides, I would lock myself in the house hoping I would not have to join. So when I told my mom in 7th grade I wanted to run track, she was a little taken back.  But she says I was always a fighter.  I’m not sure that was meant as a good thing at the time. 

I fell in love with running and by High School I was a good runner for my conference and region, but far from a great athlete. I ran 2:16 for the 800m, 5:20 for the 1600m, 11:28 for the 3200m and 20:01 for 5k XC in High School.  Good enough for a college scholarship, but far from having many of the accolades as the incredible women on my College team at the University of Akron had achieved.  I worked hard in college, always believing I could be a better athlete than I was.  I have been called immature once or twice in my life, so I suppose it should be no surprise it took me so long to grow as an athlete as well. My college coach found frustration in my questioning of workouts and fluctuating weight. I pushed harder trying to impress him, and become the athlete I knew I could be. But like most stories of young children trying to hold on to the puppy as tight as possible, I got bit and never really found my groove until I let go a little.  I started to have fun, and not take running quite so seriously.  Yes, this means I started going to some parties, and having some fun. 100% yes that is what it means. Running became more enjoyable.  My body found a good weight for me, and I started to see glimmers of who I thought I could be. I finally broke 5 minutes in the mile, and every race I ran was faster than the last. Turns out a happy athlete is a fast athlete. I walked away from college underdeveloped and with more passion for running than I ever had. 

Following college,  I trained hard for my first marathon but missed my chance when 3 weeks out I had issues with my achilles and had to postpone the race.  My coach was furious I had pushed too hard and lost the opportunity to race the Columbus Marathon. I had done a 5k workout and pushed a lot harder than I was suppose to in order to run a PR in practice. So in the most immature way possible I said no problem, I will coach myself. And I did. I got healthy, just to get hurt again, and went back and forth between being able to run and using the elliptical to get healthy enough to get through my next workout.  I reached out to the Austin Marathon in a last ditch effort to run a marathon in the Olympic Trials qualifying window for 2008.  The race director, John Conley, explained that that course had changed from years past and was not a downhill course but instead a hilly course and not a great one to run fast on.  I said I didn’t care, all I needed was the chance. He added me to the invited athlete list, I vowed to myself I would not make him regret it. I told everyone who would listen, my goals, and to my surprise there was some push back.  A co-worker of mine informed me that I did not know what I was doing and my plan to try and run under the Olympic Trials standard of 2:46 was arrogant and probably unrealistic. She suggested that I instead go in with the goal of completing the distance. Thank you for the fuel on my fire.  So I plugged away at 100+ mile weeks supplementing when needed with long hours on the elliptical. 

Friday February 15th 2008, at 24 years old my parents and I went to Austin for my first marathon. My bags didn't make it, my Mom was frustrated for me, but I had all I needed in my carry on for the race. A great thing I learned in college, always have your race gear with you. Over the next 30ish hours I nervously stretched, did weird standing drills as if they would somehow make my legs remember to do what I needed them to do. I did a shakeout run the day prior to the race, and saw only one person…who I happened to know!  Bridgit, a runner from Bowling Green who was living in Austin.  She said she would come cheer the next morning. That night I enjoyed dinner and nervously went back to the hotel with my Mom and Step Dad (Sam). I got at text I will never forget, and all my nerves disappeared. It was from my boss and friend, Almond,  it simply read “God Speed”.  Those words still make me tear up to this day. He never doubted me, and in that moment I decided to not doubt myself either.  I didn't sleep well. Mom asked if I was "sure I wanted to do this" as I went to leave for the warm up area. I snapped back at her that she wasn’t helping. 

I don’t remember warming up. But I remember pushing my way to the front of the start line and realizing that maybe I didn’t belong there, next to Olympian Brian Sell, then I recall thinking, “who cares? It's one less step to the finish line if I start here, and I came to run as fast as I could, why not give myself that step”. The gun went off and I was amazed to see so many woman flying past me, “wow, they are going to run so fast” was all I could think. I settled in around 8-10th place. Around 2.5 miles in I asked the woman next to me if we had passed the mile yet.  She looked at me like I was crazy. Then I saw the 3 mile marker.  I was running along side a man who looked at my bib and said “oh fuck, your running the full!”  I had no idea what he meant. All I knew was 5:45 was too fast, so I chilled out.   I saw Sam around mile 5 and threw him a smile. At 10k I missed my water bottle and panicked for a second, then calmed down and grabbed a cup at the next water station. At mile 10 I wondered how so many people knew my name, and thought maybe the race had a handout that had our names and photos in them or something. I burst out laughing a mile or so later when I looked down and realized my name was on my bib! At mile 11 the ½ marathon went straight and we took a left turn. Again I laughed.  The women who had gone out so fast were running the half!  I didn't know there was a half!  Now I wondered what place I could be in! At mile 18 I saw Grandpa, just over my left shoulder, cheering as I passed him. 2-3 miles later I realized he was in Ohio.  But I knew I had heard him, and even saw him, standing there, loud and clear he said   “It’s your day Beck!” He was somehow there, and I can not be convinced otherwise. 

At mile 22 my feet really hurt, I was doing all I could to stay on the paint lines because they hurt less on them. I even asked two men running together to let me through on the paint. I was thankful when they did. At mile 23 I heard Bridgit screaming as she ran down a side street toward the race, telling me the woman in front of me was walking and I could catch her.

  

Back at the finish line Mom and Sam eagerly awaited my finish.  As the first woman ran past the Capital building and won, the announcer stated the second place woman would be rounding the corner soon with minutes over the 3rd place woman. Mom and Sam felt sadness. They knew I would miss my goal since I was not in second place, and the clock was ticking relentlessly as it always does. They were proud of me for trying, but knew I would be upset. Mom looked on toward the turn as they announced second place would be arriving.  She burst into tears when she saw I moved into second place, her daughter, who wasn't suppose to live, let alone thrive as an athlete, was running down Congress St.,  finishing second,  in her first MARATHON, nearly three minutes under the Olympic Trials Qualifying Standard. As I Rockettered my ass across that finish line my Mom and Sam cried tears of joy for me. I had never in all my life felt so much joy to have arrived where I was going early. That day I had become a Marathoner, as unlikely as the story was, I couldn't be more happy it happened.

Rockettering 

Just The Beginning Of My Running Story

Running, Momming, and Coronavirus

Becoming a Mom was a tough fit for me. I struggled with the loss of freedom, and the guilt that the feeling would be labeled as lack of love for my children.  I have always deeply loved my kids, but felt that no one would believe that because of the many views I heard, and pressures I felt. I was told by people I respected that I took running to seriously and should let it go now that I had kids. That it was selfish to keep training and racing.  That somehow, me having a life that wasn't 100% about my kids, made me a bad Mom. Less than other Mom's.  I carried that guilt, all the while believing in my dreams as an athlete, and knowing I wanted, and needed to chase them.

Becoming a Mom was a tough fit! 

I worked hard through many missteps, and failures along the way, but I can say nearly six years later, that I am a good Mom. I work hard for my kids on the days it comes easy, and on the days it does not. I work hard as an athlete, choosing to "not care" what the people said who believed I should give up on my dreams since I was now a Mom. But there is deep seeded hurt knowing that people view me as only a Mother to my children, and no longer my own person. It created anxiety, resentment, and sadness. The struggle with it has gotten easier over the years, as I have chosen to surround myself with many people who see me as a person, and a Mom.  Just like parenting somedays the guilt is light, and others it is heavy.  Many Mom's out there can probably identify with that very strongly.

Running, and pushing myself brings me great joy. 

I have been looking forward to late August 2020 for nearly six years.  This was to be the time I would regain some freedom. Be able to work, and train while my kids were in full day school. I long for the mental freedom to work, and train on a more regular schedule instead of having to squeeze it in the cracks of the day around Ryan's work, and taking care of our two incredible kids.  I long to not be viewed a a bad Mom who is taking away from her kids, from those who have viewed it as such. As we wade through week ten of school being done from our home, my responsibilities increasing, the weight of my kids education on my shoulders, I feel tired. I know that my "plight" is one of privilege, and comfort, much unlike many will, and have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.  For me this is heavy and tough none the less, which lead me to share. The thought of home school, and the loss of long sought freedom, for quite possibly 67 more weeks feels unbearable somedays. I fear not having the skill set required to help my kids get through next year as well as full time school would.  I want safety for my family, and all of our communities, yet the heaviness of it weighs on me.  I share this with the hope that people out there in similar situations, loosing freedom and feeling guilt because of their sadness and see this and know it is ok to feel loss and sadness in the midst of much greater loss and sadness. You are not alone, you are NOT a bad Mom, you are a person, who longs for freedom, nothing more. So hang in there, cry, feel upset, and press on through the struggle.  Doing the best we can IS GOOD ENOUGH.

The incredible and incredibly loved kids.

Postpartum Training Cycle

I made some huge mistakes coming back from having my twins, and the purpose of this blog is to help you or someone you know NOT to do what I did at first, but to learn from my mistakes, and do what I did after a layoff to get to healthy and run some faster times again. 

People have asked to see what I did to come back so first I will show you what not to do. 

postpartum (PP) week 1- short walks

PP week 2- walks

PP week 3- weekly total-12 miles

PP week 4-  weekly total-19 miles

PP week 4- here is where I start to make big mistakes-weekly total 30 miles with 1 workout- 6x1 minute hard/1 min easy

PP week 5- 1 workout- 7 miles with 1 mile@6:15, and 6x400@6:00 pace, 34 miles total.

PP week 6- 1 workout-6x800@2:45-2:55, total 27 miles.

PP week 7- 1 workout 3x(800, 600, 400) between 5:24 and 5:45 pace, 39 miles total.

PP week 8- 2 workouts- 2400@ jog/stride, 2x1600, 1x800, and 10 with 4 miles@6:35 pace, total miles 50.5

PP week 9- 2 workouts-12x400 @76-88 (faster as I went), and 9 miles with 4@6:30, long run 12 (total-47)

PP week 10- 2 workouts- 2x(1200, 1000, 600), 1200@ 5:40 pace, and 10 miles with 5@6:45, total 37 miles. 

PP week 10-  1 workout-1 mile@5:55, 2x400@83, and 4x200@38, and a race 16 total-1/2 marathon 1:24:27, total 41.5 miles.

Akron 1/2 Marathon 10 weeks PP

PP week 11- 2 workouts- 2x(4x400m, 2x800m), and 10 miles with 6@6:15-6:45, long run-12 (total-49)

PP week 12- 2 workouts- 2x (1k, 2k, 1k), and, 11 with 8@6:38 pace. long run 14 with cutdown under 7 for last 4 (total-55)

PP week 13- 15- 55-60 miles a week with a track session and tempo- by week 16 I was in PAIN!

So I had to start over! Here is what I should have done in the first place.

6 weeks of walking and doing postpartum core routine given to me after a functional movement screening.-- see blog here

SO MUCH CORE- 45 mins 4-5 days a week.

week 7- walk/run 3 days, 3 mins run/2 mins walk- 4x pp core

week 8 walk/run 4 days, 4 mins run/1 min walk- 4x pp core

week 9 walk/run 5 days, 5 mins run/1 min walk- 4x pp core

week 10 - 5 days 2 miles easy- 4x pp core

week 11- 5 days  3-4 miles easy- 5x pp core

week 12- 5 days of 4 miles easy, 1 long run 6 miles 4x pp core

week 13- added in speed starting with 4x400 increase long run to 8 miles. 30 miles total 4x pp core

week 14- 6x400 and 10 miles long run 35 miles total 4x pp core

week 15- added in an additional mile of speed and a light tempo of 3 miles, long run 12,  40 miles total 4x pp core. 

week 16- resumed training similar to prior to injury.  Gave myself an 85% rule.  I would not go beyond what felt like 85% of my max.  So I head back.  I increased my mileage by 2-5 miles a week until I was back to 80 miles a week and in marathon training.  I increased my long run 2 miles for 2 weeks, then one week down, (example- long run 12, long run 14, long run 10, long run 14, long run 16, long run 10). 

Grandma's Marathon 2:47- 11 months PP

Coming off of Grandmas I had a lot of work to do to find the 5 minutes I would need to hit the 2:43 Olympic Trials Standard at Columbus  4 months later.  I continued with my 4x core work weekly. Added in drills before every run, and this is how the training cycle went. 

Last week of June was all easy runs between 4-8 miles.

July- 55-75 miles a week- long runs 15, 16, 17, 17.  Tempos- 4-8 miles.  Speed- 5 miles once a week of speed intervals. 

August- 75-85 miles a week- long runs 16, 18, 18, 20.  Tempos- 6-10 miles. Speed- 5-6 miles of speed once a week. 

September- 70-85 miles a week- long run 22, 20, 18, 18 with speed.  Tempos- 10-15 miles.  Speed- 5-6 miles of speed once a week. 

October- taper from 70 miles the last week of Sept to 60 and 55 for the last 2 weeks. Last long run was 15 miles, and a couple speed workouts one with 5 miles of work and another with 3 miles of work. 

Columbus Marathon 2:44:44- Olympic Trials Qualifier after the standard was adjusted to 2:45.