Quick Note

Just a quick note to say that the skin sensitivity is better. I think I might be withdrawing off the meds, so hopefully a few days and I'll be tip top.

Week 3 Post-Op

I wish I could say that week 3 ended as well as week 2, but I would be lying. The skin sensitivity stopped getting better after a couple of days and started to get worse. I felt like I had a horrible sun burn over my entire abdomen. I'd wear a sports bra and yoga pants around the house, but just putting on a soft cotton shirt twice a day to walk my daughter to school caused so much discomfort I'd have to take narcotics and lay in bed for the rest of the day.

The doctor addressed this by giving me Zyrtec and Prilosec. He said each of these medications had a nerve inhibitor that would help with the nerves that were reconnecting. He prescribed a cortisone cream (a strong one) to apply twice a day. It didn't work for the first few days but it seems to be better, now. It makes my skin lose all pigment and I'm starting to peel a bit, but I'm able to leave the house without heavy pain meds and I'll take any progress I can get.

I also got the green light to start taking Advil instead of Vicodin, and that's been a huge help. I felt like I was becoming dependent on these meds and I asked my doctor to please not give me anymore. In fact, I said something to the effect of "I need to learn to live without these, from now on, please hold me accountable to that and refuse any further refills." The doctor agreed, saying he doesn't want me in pain but the pain of a possible addiction isn't something he wishes for me either.

I have a full bottle left, and when I feel uncomfortable or sore I'm able to talk myself out of taking them by repeating to myself that the pain isn't that bad and this is my last bottle of the strong pain meds. If I have a bad day or pull a muscle, I need to have these around. So far, it has enabled me to wean off of the hard stuff and on to the Advil. I'm also resting just about as much as I was the first week of the surgery.

This recovery has been more difficult than anyone could have possibly described to me. There are moments when I'm frustrated and I cry because I want to move on with my life and get out of the house. There are moments when I'm elated because I look fantastic. Pre-surgery, I knew it would hurt and it would be difficult but I was able to just block it out of my mind. I refused to think about it. I also need to remember that the longest of recoveries take 8 weeks, and I'm only 3 weeks into it. Patience is not a virtue of mine.

Today I'm going out to the mall to buy some new clothes. THAT makes me happy. :)

13-16 Days Post-Op

Hi!

Today is 16 days post-op, so I'll update the last four days or so.

Each day the skin sensitivity has become a little less irritating, but I've spent the majority of the last few days in a sports bra and low rise yoga pants because it DOES irritate my skin when even the softest material rubs against it.

I'm now down to less than 3 pain pills a day, and even then, I only need them if I needed to wear a shirt for a while to run an errand or something. When I get home from the store I just take off the shirt and take a pain pill and it is manageable.

I stopped needing valium the day after the drains were removed. I haven't taken that for three days, I think?

I have no more abdominal muscular pain. I feel it faster if I use my abdomen to lift my baby (she is 16 pounds) but it isn't painful, it's just what I consider a warning from my body to take it easy.

Here are my 16 day post-op pictures. I have a lot of swelling from my ribcage to my belly button, making my torso wider and causing it to protrude a bit at the bottom, but the swelling is going down.

I've lost 21.4 lbs since the surgery. They removed 11.5 pounds of skin and the rest is just weight I've lost during recovery. The tightness of my stomach makes it difficult to eat large amounts of food.

12 Days Post-Op: Drain Removal!

Yesterday I made the trek back to the Doctor's office, drains carefully pinned inside my sweatpants and sweatshirt tied around my waist to hide the bulk. I was taken back to the exam room quickly (amazing the service you get when you pay someone five figures, cash). They took one look at my drains and told me they could come out, as they were barely draining anything and were full of air.

I had been assured by the nurse that most of my pain was being caused by the drains, and while I was looking forward to them coming out of my body, I was DREADING them coming out of my body. Every description I had read said it was a weird feeling; you could feel the tubing being ripped out of you internally. I really had no desire to experience this. So I completely blocked what was about to happen and refused to think about it. I went Scarlett O'Hara on the whole thing, "Fiddle Dee Dee, I'll think about this tomorrow."

Well, I laid down on the exam table and they pulled out each drain. One by one (there were four). OUCH. No, really. OUCH. I felt the drains pulled from my sternum and lower back on each side, and out of the site on my groin where they had originally been placed. The best way I can describe the feeling is that I was laying on the bed and a Kung Fu master was throwing direct, tough punches at my abdomen.

Then, they removed the tape around my abdomen and I got my first good look at my incision. It's not bad. Every time I get frustrated with the thought of having this scar I think about what I looked like with the loose skin and it really isn't all that bad. I'll post pictures, soon.

We left after to go walk around Target and buy some new clothes for me to lounge around in (HELLO SIZE MEDIUM, I HAVE MISSED YOU SO FREAKING MUCH) and I was REALLY uncomfortable. We came home and I laid on the couch. Dinner was prepared for me and I didn't eat it, even though I was on full doses of pain meds I was really uncomfortable so I just went and lay under the covers.

While all this was going on, my skin started feeling really sensitive, like I was warned. My hands and feet got cold and I was involuntarily trembling. I put on three pairs of socks and two comforters and shook until it was time for my next dose of pain meds. I asked my husband to take my temperature and I had no fever. I started getting scared that I was dependent on the pain meds and that is what the shaking was from, because an hour after my dose of meds I felt able to sit up in bed and talk.

I took my last dose of meds for the day (the valium is no longer needed, my internal pain IS much better without the drains) and went to sleep.

I dreamed of a beach, where I was out in the sun all day. I'm white as a lamb so in my dream I contracted an awful sunburn. When I woke up, it hit me - that's exactly what I was feeling! Now that the incision isn't protected by the surgical gauze and tape it feels like I have a blistered sunburn. My solution? Naked time. Really. My poor sister in law - I'm sitting in my bed in a sports bra and panties, and as long as nothing touches my abdomen I have no pain. So...my husband should be happy and my sister in law and I are about to get REALLY close.

11 Days Post-Op

I mentioned yesterday I'm growing increasingly frustrated with the pain. Part of the problem is that I'm scared to run out of pain medication. I'm not allowed to take Advil or Aleve or anything other than what I'm prescribed (Vicodin) because it might thin my blood. I'm scared to take the medication as directed because I'm afraid I'll run out and they won't give me a new prescription and I'll be in even more pain. I'm also scared of becoming dependent. I have only taken 10 pills over the last 4 days and I'm really hurting bad. I'm obsessing over my medications.

I e-mailed my physician this morning and told them all the details of how I'm scared to take the meds, I detailed the number of doses I've taken and talked about how much pain I've been in throughout the week. I asked them, candidly, about what I can expect in the next few weeks. Will I be able to renew my prescription? When can I switch to non-narcotic medication? Is this abnormal for someone who's had a body lift? I hope to have a response soon.

I am becoming increasingly anxious and neurotic about this. The fear of future pain is almost worse than the pain I'm currently in (and that's bad).

If I'm rambling, I apologize. It is important I share this here - this is the exact type of feedback I was looking for before the surgery and was unable to find. I hope reading this struggle helps prepare others for what has turned out to be a very difficult recovery.

Update: I received the following response from my e-mail to the doctor.

Hi (name censored). TAKE A DEEP BREATH. You will NOT become addicted to the pain medicine. I will give you a refill, just call your pharmacy and request it. (Lortab and valium if you need it) It is perfectly normal to still be pretty uncomfortable with the drains in. When we take them out you will feel sooo much better. It’s not quite time for Advil. You sound like you are doing everything right and are progressing just as we’d expect. If you still have the tape dressings on you can take them off as they do start to get a little funky after a while. You are doing the right thing washing the drain openings with soap and water and keeping them as dry as possible. They do tend to get very irritated toward the end.

10 Days Post-Op

Ouch.

Yes, I overdid it yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night and it felt like someone had kicked me, hard, in the stomach. I took one vicodin and one valium and got back in bed, curled in the fetal position, and fell back asleep.

I don't know what time that was.

I woke up to my alarm at 6:00 am to help my oldest off to school, took two vicodin and skipped the valium. I sat with a cup of coffee and waited for the medicine to kick in. This has been my worst day since my appointment last Wednesday.

Around 7:30 I walked the half-mile it takes to get my oldest to school, very slowly. Every time I stepped on my right foot I had lower groin pain. To be honest, I think I may be having my monthly bloat, or I may be just plain gassy. That is extraordinarily painful when your insides have been completely tightened and rearranged.

At 9 am I took my last two demerol - the only other pain medicine I'm allowed besides plain tylenol. I'm laying down now and feel a bit better. It's been almost six hours since my last dose of vicodin and I'm doing well enough to where I think I can hold off until later. I'm fortunate to have my sister-in-law by my side, helping me with the little ones so I can truly rest.

I'm growing impatient with recovery. I read other websites before the operation (the lack of stories online is part of the reason for this blog) and they said to expect to be depressed and frustrated. Up until now, I didn't understand that - even swollen with surgical drains I've got the best body I've ever had. But we're on day 10 and I still hurt and I'm just ready to get up and on with my life.

I don't do resting well.

9 Days Post-Op

I'm pretty tired of these surgical drains by now. On days where I'm more active, I drain more fluid. The color in the drains is redder than it has been the first week, so I hope that doesn't mean I've overdone it. It doesn't look like red blood, it looks like red fluid.

After being told last week to be more active, I was. I woke up this morning and baked muffins for my children and my sister, who is here to help. I went to the pharmacy and walked for about 30 minutes again. I set up a craft table for my children, and I used my bread maker to make a fresh loaf of bread for the dinner my mother-in-law was bringing. I lifted the baby a few times (I'm a day early on this restriction, so I cheated). I did lots of dawdling around the house and standing.

I wasn't supposed to lift my baby until ten days post-op, but I carried her for a few minutes a few times today when she needed comfort. It didn't hurt, but I did feel it in my ab muscles.

Now, at the end of this day, I feel like I've overdone it and I'm completely exhausted and my stomach is hurting a bit. Hopefully a good night sleep will undo today's exertion.

I have a good half-mile walk in the morning to take my oldest child to school, and I plan to rest after that. I'll see the doctor on Wednesday, and my number one request is going to be to get these drains out of me! At the same time, I don't think he'll take them out because they're still draining fluids from my abdomen and I guess those fluids are better out than in.

I've also noticed more abdominal swelling today than usual. I'm going to attribute this to overdoing it and, other than walking my daughter to school, going to take it very easy tomorrow.