Tummy Tuck Photos & Stories
TPACH's
Story
(Forum Name)
Unfortunately
I did not document this recovery as I did my lipo.
I
will tell you that due to the intense muscle repair my FTT recovery
was horribly painful, and long....BUT SO WORTH IT!!!!
It
was over 3 weeks before I could stand up straight, my mood swings
were awful due to all the pain meds.
It
took a FULL 6 weeks to recover but you know what? I would do it all
over again in a heart beat! The results were just incredible.
Feel
free to post any questions you may have.
Full
Tummy Tuck With MASSIVE Muscle Repair.
Pictures are before and 6 weeks post op.
Well my tummy tuck journey begins like this. I married my high school sweetheart March 1995 and over the last 15 years I have given birth to 7 beautiful children. In 2005 after I had my 5th baby I had a breast augmentation with lift. My results were amazing and knew that once my husband and I were done having kids I would want my tummy back. June 9th 2008 I gave birth to our 7th and last baby. Before I had kids I was 5'1 and weighed 110 lbs. By the time I got pregnant with my 7th I had worked my way up to 154 lbs. I was very unhappy with my weight and made sure to watch how much I put on while I was pregnant. I gained approximately 15 lbs with her and with in 2 weeks was back down to my pre pregnancy weight. Knowing now that our last baby was here and I was not going to be able to get pregnant anymore I was already putting a weight loss plan together. I wanted to drop about 20 ~ 30 lbs. Being only 5'1 and 154 lbs really did not look good on me at all. At 3 months post partum I started working out and I counted calories. I started out slow only exercising 3 days a week for no less that 30 minutes a day. Gradually I worked my way up to 5 days a week and 40 ~60 minutes a day. I lost 20 lbs in about 6 weeks. The weight seem to just melt off, I was ex static! It had been so long sense I had seen the numbers on the scale go down.
Around then my husbands company had paid for their employee's to take a trip to Las Vegas, on our drive up there my husband was commenting on how well I was doing on my weight loss. I told him that I had set my goal at 130 lbs. I was approximately 134 lbs at that point. He smiled and said he knew I could do it. Then went on to challenge me. He said well if you can get down to 125 lbs I will come up with the money for you to get your tummy tuck. He knew how bad I wanted this so I smiled and said "Your going to regret saying that to me", too which he said back with a laugh "No I won't, I know you can do this" When we got home I worked out like crazy, I was determined to do this. I also started looking up plastic surgeons who specialized in tummy tucks and muscle repairs.
After speaking with my husband we decided to go ahead and set up a consultation. We drove down and it was actually a nice drive...just me and my husband, no kids. Anyhow we arrived at the surgery center an hour early. They said it wasn't a problem and took me back to a room where I was given a gown to put on. The surgeon comes in and at first I am super nervous, not really feeling him. I guess I just thought I would have that "this is him" feeling like last time. A few minute into the consultation he is explaining to me what he thinks I need, to give me the result I want. He asks me if I have any questions which I did and he patiently answered each and everyone. Then he looked to my husband and asked him the same thing. That was it, I got that he's the one feeling. He tells me to get dressed and that we will finish the consultation in his office. When we get in there he gives us a couple of photo albums with his befores and afters in them. I was surprised to see he had a variety of outcomes in there some perfect and some not so perfect. That right there showed me and my husband his honesty.
He gave us a few minutes to discuss what we wanted to do and immediately after he left my husband said "you like him, don't you?" I laughed and said yes. We agreed to go ahead and book with him. He sent in his patient coordinator who brings in a calender to help us pick a date. August 4th seemed to work for everyone. The kids would be out of school and my husband had some vacation time for that month, also my mom was going to be able to help around then too. I pretty much had my pre-op right then and there. Sense we had drove 2.5 hours to them they didn't want me to make another trip until surgery day. I got all my pre and post op instructions, lab slips, and signed consent forms. I also learned that my husband would be filling my RX's while I was in surgery. It was a 3 month wait but time went by fairly quickly. August 3rd rolled around and I received a phone call from the surgery center. It's the patient coordinator saying that we need to reschedule because he had a family emergency and couldn't make it in for surgery. I was bummed but really couldn't complain sense it was only pushed back a day. August 5th we woke up and got ready to go. My surgery wasn't scheduled until 2 p.m. that day but because we are 2.5 hours away and traffic is unpredictable we left early that morning. We ended up there about an hour early which worked out because they had a cancellation.
I was taken right back and given a gown to put on. My husband was with me the hole time and that kept me very calm. Sense this was not my first cosmetic procedure I could understand why I was so nervous. Maybe it was my age (older, wiser.lol) or maybe it was the fact I understood better the risks of anesthesia . I still don't know but I was pretty nervous. Anyhow my surgeon came in and asked how we were doing? He didn't waist any time marking me up with his pretty blue pen on my tummy and lower flanks. He then broke out the camera to take my before pictures. This was very strange, the part of my body I hated so badly and kept covered most of the time, was being photographed. I can laugh about this now but then it was really embarrassing . The anesthesiologist came in to get me. As he was taking me back to the OR a nurse came out to get my husband. He wanted to show him how to care for my drains . My husband gave me a kiss and we went our separate ways. The anesthesiologist said to him "don't worry, we will take good care of her". When we got back to the OR he helped me up on the table and started my IV. He had me lay down and put some meds in there and asked me if I felt anything. Just as I was going to say no, I started feeling it .
The next thing I remember is waking up in the SUV on our way home, I wasn't feeling any pain altho my lower flanks felt very bruised from the lipo . I asked my husband if he put me in the SUV and he said no I got in myself ...I have no recollection of this but I'm sure that is a good thing. I started feeling nauseous so I asked my husband for a bag to get sick in. As soon as he handed it to me I started dry heaving *TMI* I know but this is what happened to me. This was the only "pain" I ever felt. Because I had the muscle repair the dry heaving hurt pretty bad. I did that about 3 times on the way home and that was it. We finally get home and I go straight to bed. I stay asleep pretty much the rest of the day. My husband only wakes me up for medicine and to go to the bathroom. Later that night I was pretty curious to see what my new tummy looked like. So I asked my husband to help me take off the bandages to take a peek . I of course made sure to have the camera ready.
Let me just say I had no clue I would be so happy to see what I saw. I was amazed at the difference. So as days passed my husband and mom made sure to stay on top of my medicines and because of this I had virtually a pain free recovery. I was off my pain medicine by day 6, however I still needed help for a full 6 weeks. I always read that every ones pain level is different and not to compare myself with others so in that sense I new I was one of the lucky ones to have such an easy time recovering. Now on to my drains. My drains were located in my hips and for the most part didn't bother me . I would occasionally get pinched or tugged on but it wasn't that bad. My plastic surgeon said he does not remove drains until they are putting out less than 25cc's in a 24 hour period. So every 24 hours me or my husband would drain them and record the cc's on a paper that was given to me. I thought I would have these drains for ever, 15 days later I finally started slowing down and was able to go in and have them removed. Now I don't want to scar anyone because most of the time women say the drains being removed does not hurt. For me I guess it was more than I expected. I can't really say it was "painful" but it wasn't comfortable either. I nearly passed out. Out of my whole recovery time this was the only time I considered the worst.
After a few minutes and a glass of water I was OK to go home. At 6 weeks post-op I noticed 2 small pin holes opening up in my incision. I immediately called my surgeon to see what I needed to do. He advised me to use peroxide 3 times a day and cover with gauze. 5 days later I couldn't see much difference so I called my surgeon again and he recommended coming back in so he could take a look. He was very please how everything was coming along and showed me how the holes were closing from the inside out. He said about another week and they should be completely closed. I am 11 weeks post-op now. I absolutely love my new body. The day I went into surgery I weighed 128 lbs and was a size 8 pant. (no I didn't quit make it to 125lbs but I was close). One week after my surgery I weighed 122 lbs and am a size 4. My results have been amazing and I would do this again 1000 times over. The swelling, the scar, the recovery, all of it is definitely worth it. If you are considering doing something like this and have done your homework, I say go for it! Everything about this whole experience has been worth it. I hope by you reading my story you get an idea of how this process works. Yes everyone's story is slightly different, but our goal and outcomes are some what the same. We as wife's and mom's sacrifice so much of ourselves. It is important to remember that it's okay to put ourselves first every once and a while. I truly believe that by taking care of ourselves and feeling good about ourselves makes us take care of our families better.
Denise
Day 1 (154 lbs)
before side
|
6 weeks later
 |
before
front before
 |
side before
 |
| AFTER SURGERY |
day of sx
 |
day of sx
 |
love my bb
 |
brusing from lipo
 |
side day5
day5
 |
day6
 |
side day6
 |
day7
 |
10 weeks
 |
11 weeks
 |
11 weeks side
 |
11 weeks
 |
Before and After Photos
