Abdominoplasty/Tummy Tuck: 2 Weeks Post-Op

Let me start by saying THANK YOU to so many of you who have checked on me over these past few days. I truly appreciate it. And it’s been nice communicating with folks outside these walls since I was only released to drive today.

The surgery went smoothly. We showed up on time. They finished on time. There were no surprises. This is not the norm for me, so I was terribly excited and maybe a little bit confused. Husband refused the staff’s advice to go home and instead sat outside the door for hours “waiting for something crazy to happen”. He was pretty traumatized by a scary delivery situation after Parker’s birth. Poor guy.

That first day or two was a blur. I read this about 400 times from other women who’ve experienced this and always thought “ok, how do you forget an entire 48 hours of your life”? But you know what, I FORGOT AN ENTIRE 48 HOURS OF MY LIFE. That’s not entirely true. Pain. Pain is what I remember. For anyone considering this surgery please do not underestimate the amount of pain involved. There’s a lot of it. BUT, I never felt any sharp, piercing pains and those are the ones that really get to me. It was more of a constant burning and ripping sensation which I just realized doesn’t sound that much better. A few of you asked me to compare it to a c-section and the best I could do was say it felt like 4 or 5 c-sections at one time. That said, I was off of prescription pain meds by day 4 and only took a few Tylenols here and there for the next two days.

HOWEVER…much of my pain was because I had such a large separation that extended from top to bottom. In addition to that, the no-drain (which my doctor used) method is only possible if the skin and tissue is sutured to the abdominal muscles, thereby eliminating the gap that allows fluid to build up and makes drains necessary. So basically, I have more than the typical amount of internal suturing but for me it was completely worth not having to deal with the drains.

Ok…two weeks. At this point, these are a few things I can do:

• Drive
• Start and finish a load (or two) of laundry
• Stand and walk 98.5% straight
• Burn that awful surgical binder
• See actual results through the swelling (the swelling lasts for MONTHS)
• Button a pair of jeans

Most of these milestones were hit some time in the last 72 hours. I was a little freaked out by the amount of swelling and a lot freaked out by the state of my new belly button. It’s improved a great deal and Dr. P says it looks “perfect” but that thing was looking pretty rough last week. He closed my incision with a glue/tape combo called Prineo which is completely sealed so I was able to shower since the first post-op day. I also never had to change any dressings or apply anything topical to that area. I do however have to care for the belly button. I insert a shortened ear plug and secure it with a little tape and this process is incredibly creepy because the area is still numb so you don’t really feel it, but you still feeel it. I apply Neosporin every other day or when there’s new scabbing.

So this surgery was painful and gross and creepy and I would 100% do it again. I can’t even really begin to explain how glad I am that I did this. And I can’t close this post out without mentioning how wonderful Husband has been these past few days. He’s exhausted and has told me no less than 10 times how awful my job as mother is and that’s oddly satisfying. Ok, so progress photos below. Last two photos are in a completely relaxed position. I didn’t post a photo of my incision because some folks are squeamish about things like that but if looking at healing surgical incisions is your thing, you can click here and enter the password: incision.