Suzy's abdominoplasty blog

Jean rant

2005-05-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

I need to vent for a bit here. I got on the scales yesterday. I weight pretty well exactly what i was before the OP. I put on my jeans and have a 2" gap between the top button and hole. Damn but its frustrating! I know i'm still in swell hell but i'd just love to put on my jeans instead of living in track pants. I'm making a commitment here to drop a couple of kilos - i'm currently at 79.7kgs and want to be back to 75/76 again. So it's time to give myself a virtual kick in the butt - eating healthier will be good for my healing, make me feel better and mean that when all the swelling disappears i'll look even better.
Our 10 year anniversary is next week. I'm going to dress up! I have a nice stretchy strapless dress with a green/white/black pattern that i'll wear with my fitted brown blazer and my blue pointy heels. It sounds kind of strange in writting but looks pretty in reality. We're going to go out for tea and maybe for a movie depending whats on, then go parking (heehee!).
I'll post a couple of photos of us all dressed up!

12 days PO

2005-05-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

First day home by myself! I got the daughter ready for school and my friend picked her up. I've managed to change boys nappy and put pants on him. And i've done a load of washing and folded some clothes. Not doing too bad - i've found if i do something quickly then sit and rest in between i'm fine and i just keep on repeating it through the day. I've got to get a battery for my scales. I have no idea if i've gained or lost weight in the last couple of weeks. I thought i'd lost weight in hospital but now i'm not sure - it's so hard to tell when you feel swollen like a blimp. I'll get another battery on thursday and then i'm thinking about following my weight watchers cd for a couple of weeks, just to keep an eye on what i'm eating if nothing else.

11 days PO

2005-05-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well i'm feeling pretty well normal again. No pain, except for my back if i am standing for too long, still taking a couple of ibuprofen a day though in the hope it will help the swelling. Still sleeping on the couch, i'll try our bed in a few more days i think. I tried on my jeans today - big mistake! They fit fine on the legs but are too tight on the waist to do up, and the silly thing is i look smaller because my belly's now flat (or flatish with all the damn swelling). I asked the nurse about using silicon strips the other day but she said to get enough to cover the scar is $180au so unfortunately i have to forget it. I asked about mederma too but again, we can't get it here in Australia (like Bromelin - can't find it locally or on the net). I'm going to give Bio Oil a go, it's specifically for scars and just the moisturising affect can't hurt. I'll get the scar tattoed later on anyway! My belly button is settling down, it looks great at the bottom but the top part still looks distended and strange - i can't wait for the swelling to go down!

9 days PO

2005-05-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

Finally got some photos up. The link is

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=amber_stone&x=19&y=16

Still fairly swollen, still got lots of stretch marks and have a weird looking belly button but i'd still take it over the befores any day!

Feeling normal again now. I cleaned the house yesterday and cooked tea - ended up i did too much as i was sore by the end of the day but at least i'm not so worried about how i'll cope next week when bill goes back to work.

The knickers i bought pre-op are starting to hang off me (woohoo!) i haven't tried on my jeans yet - i'm back to my pre-op size in the morning but by night i'm swollen as (stick a goodyear sticker on me and i could pass as a blimp). I think i'll wait a few more weeks, jeans would be too uncomfortable on the incision at the moment anyway.

I finished my antibiotics. Still coughing up bloody flem in the mornings and having a little bit of trouble with my breathing but i think as soon as i start moving around like before i'll be better.

Saw Dr Clifforth yesterday and had my belly button stiches out. He said because we have to travel so far that i dont have to see him again unless i want/need to. He said to let the tummy settle down for around 6mths and then if i'm worried about it i can go back in for some revision. Because i'm still so swollen its hard to know what it will heal like.

Bottom line - i'm so happy with it already and it should hopefully get a lot better!!

6 days PO

2005-05-10T18:14:00.000-07:00

Feeling much better today. Moving around with more ease, slept on the couch last night and slept straight through from 10pm to 7am. Not coughing as much which is such a relief! I can't believe how swollen i am!! I took my measurements and i'm about 1/2" bigger all round and up to 3" by the end of the day. And i still look better than before! He took a fair bit out - he said 1.5kgs but to remember that skin doesn't weigh that much and a little can make a big difference. I forgot to ask him if he tightened the muscles but i think he probably would have, my waist looks too defined. I'm moving around a lot more, i'm squatting to pick things up as i can't bend but the more up right i get the less it hurts my back. I was going to go grocery shopping tomorrow with Bill but i think it will just be too much too soon so i'll write myself a list - i have such a weird thing for veggies. I still cant eat much in a sitting - probably well under half than before, not sure if thats because i've been sick or because everything is so tight down there. But all in all getting much better.

2005-05-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

Not sure why the last post got cut of, but anyway, they started me on antibiotics and i'm now feeling a lot better. I was able to come home yesterday. The drive was 1.5hrs long and by half way i'd started to get a bit sore. I hit the emotional rollercoaster when i got home and couldnt stop crying. Still not sure why. Its Tuesday morning now. I had a bad night last night. I couldnt stop coughing for nearly 3hrs. I ended up losing it - so tired, so sore i just started crying. I fell asleep finally and woke up this morning sore. I slept most of the night on my side with a pillow stuffed under my waist. probably not the best idea. I took my measurements today - up by about 4cm all over. Still i'm standing nearly upright so my back isn't as sore. I think the whole op and infection is just catching up on me and i feel exhausted! I go back to the docs on Friday to get the stitches out of my belly button.

Good luck Erica!!

2005-05-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

Back home again! What a rollercoaster the last few days have been! Still to start from the beginning;

Thursday, Surgery day! I got to the hospital at 2:15. By the time i'd seen the nurse, changed and been prepped the theatre nurse came and got me. They got me on a bed, covered me in warm blankets then the surgeon came an marked me. The anaethetist put the i.v in my hand and started to medicate me. They then wheeled me into theatre, moved me onto the bed and i was out!
I came to that night around 6.30, i think, i was sore but had a pethedine pain pump in. I needed help to go to the toilet - the nurse brought a bed pan in a chair base to me and helped me up. Then i was out of it again.

Friday.
The pain was pretty good again - could have something to do with me being high as a kite on the damn pethedine! The day nurse helped me have a shower. I remember sitting in the shower chair and being able to look straight down! Totally flat - you could put a level on me belly! It looked so much better than i ever expected. After the first time i was able to get myself to the toilet by myself.
I was raving about how little pain i was in (yes still high from the pethedine!) so that afternoon they took out the i.v and the pain pump. Pain was still manageable but a bit sore still.

Saturday.
Had a shower by myself this morning. Went for a small walk - hunched over - can't walk far before i'm exhausted. Bad cough on and off all day - some good advice, dont cough! Feel asleep at around 11am, woke up shaking, ended up with a fever of above 39'c. That settled but they had the doc in to see me. He couldnt find anything wrong with me so they left it. If all went well i'd go home tomorrow. They took out the drains. Oh that was weird! You know the feeling you get when you scrape your fingers down a black board, thats what its like! I could feel the drain move through my belly - it didnt hurt it was just yucky!

Sunday.
Woke up at 4am shaking again. Felt like hell. Woke up at 6am burning up. Yep, had a fever again. This time they had the doc in. It ended up that i had a chest infection. They sent me for chest x-rays as because i hadnt been breathing deeply part of my lower right lung had collapsed. So they started

2005-05-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Well the surgery is tomorrow! I rang the hospital for my surgery time and its around 2:30/2:45. I have to be there at 2:15. I booked Amber (my 5.5yr old) a day off school so we'll go and do the grocery shopping in the morning to fill in some time and then finish off packing my bag and go! My nerves have settled a bit and am feeling not too bad about tomorrow. I'm still not sure about what to expect with recovery so i've packed a couple of puzzle magazines and my ipod. Hopefully i'll be able to walk around a bit - I'm having a pain pump so the pain hopefully wont be too bad. Of course my MIL is certain that having the pain pump for a couple of days means that i'll be coming home with a morphine addiction! All i can think of is Homer Simpson and 'Maybe a little morphine will refresh my memory...'(yes, we watch WAY too much tv!!)

Wish me luck!!!

Self Esteem.

2005-04-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

I, like most women, have struggled with self esteem issues as long as I can remember. I think I must have been about 8 or 9 when i realized my legs didnt look like Barbies and thought there must be something wrong with me. I hadn't worn shorts since then to just recently when i started jogging and had to because i get so hot. I have been a compulsive overeater since i was about 11 or 12 (puberty). I can remember sneaking biscuits out of the kitchen everyday. Its more or less under control now but i still have trouble with maintaining my weight unless i write down everyday what i've eaten.
Since i've lost the weight i am a lot happier within myself. I love to exercise and it makes me feel good. My ideal body shape is more of a bodybuilder/figure competitor than a typical model or what not. I still need to lose a couple of kilos and build a few kilos of muscle but that can happen later. I really decided to have this surgery done when my husband, me and his best mate were playing strip poker at xmas. I suppose because Bill (my hubbie) has seen me through thick and thin i dont feel too self conscious in front of him but i had a lot of trouble stripping in front of anyone else. And then it was like i'm 24. I look the best that i have been since i was 15. But my belly makes me want to hide myself in a ball and feel like shit. It still feels like more of a fantasy that it can be gone and i'll have a belly button again. I'll have a belly i can be proud of (even if it was more the surgeon than me who created it!)

Surgery Anxiety

2005-04-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

Well i'm offically terrified. When i had my appointment last week with the anaesthetist he offered me pre-surgery sedation and i joked it off. Ha! Now i'm panicing. I have two kids. I dont want them to grow up without a mum. And all because of an elective surgery. It seems so melodramtic but i'm just so scared.
All i can think of is that Simpsons episode where Homer is donating a kidney to Grampa and ends up jumping out the window and running away. Thats going to be me in that damn hospital gown running screaming down the corridor! I have always prided myself on my self control - i had half my back tattooed without flinching but then ended up screaming my guts out with the birth of my last child - man did i lose it! I felt so sorry for all the other people in the ward - they could probably hear me through the whole hospital!
I can't watch CSI or read Patricia Cornwell at the moment because it sends me into a depression! Its ridiculous. On the other hand i'm obsessively cleaning my house so i dont have to think, so its spotless at the moment!

2005-04-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

I went on the net and ordered some plastic barbells for my body piercings last night (tongue and nipples). The anesthetist uses something called a laryngeal mask so he said I can keep my piercings in as long as they are not metal. Apparently this mask means they don't put a tube down your throat so the doc says I won't wake up much of a sore throat. Both my surgeon and anesthetist seem really nice and seem very competent but man am I still nervous!

It was a real mess around finding my surgeon. Where I live there is no plastic surgeon in the area. The closest is about 5hrs away and they more or less refused me anyway because of the traveling and apparently they had had trouble with the local hospital with aftercare which means I would have to do a lot of traveling. My husband was talking to a women at his work who recently had a tummy tuck done and it ended up hers was done by the general surgeon at the Hamilton Hospital which is only an hour away. I was nervous about him being a general not a plastic surgeon but he's a part of Obesity Australia (he does the lap band surgery and all that) and apparently does a lot of loose skin work, plus Cathy was so happy with her tummy tuck. We took the plunge and went for a consultation, looked at all his before and afters, talked about what I can realistically expect and about the op. I trust him. A bonus of him being a general surgeon is that you have the option of going in as a public patient which would mean the surgery would be free. It also meant I would have to wait about 2years because he has so many women wanting them! I'm going in as a 'uninsured private patient' which means I'm paying about $1500Au.

I'm going to have to work out how to post some photos on here soon. Most of the girls on the forum seem to use picture trail so I might set up an account there.

By the way Erica - I'm Australian!

7 more sleeps!

2005-04-27T23:41:00.000-07:00

This is my first post about my upcoming abdominoplasty. I'm in for surgery on the 5th May (next thursday). Getting pretty wound up! I've been living on the makemeheal.com forums and been talking to everyone i can about it but its just so hard to know how you'll recover, everyone is so different. I had to get sapoderm soap today to use for the next week and had to buy big (read - granny) knickers so i will have nothing sitting on the scar!

Bit of back ground info on me - i'm 24yrs old, married with 2 kids. I gained a lot of weight with both pregnancies ending up at over 96kgs after the birth of my second baby. I lost it through a combination of weight watchers and exercise over 7mths or so and dropped to around 79kgs. I then joined the gym and settled around 77kgs, gaining muscle as well. I've been heavy weight lifting for the last 6mths and have noticed a lot more strength and definition but have been at a total standstill weight wise for a year now. I got sick of waiting around to hit my goal weight (70/72kgs and around 25% body fat) because realistically it might not happen for years so decided to get my tummy done now. I'm hoping the change in body shape will inspire me to drop the last couple of kilos. If nothing else my damn belly will be gone! And i'll finally see my belly button again!