erica’s abdominoplasty blog

So this weekend went off without a hitch! I was really busy with Des’s graduation and Brian and Amie’s wedding. But I pulled through with flying colors. I even was out on the dance floor last night whooping it up! I’m paying for it today, that’s for sure. I’m really puffy and I feel quite bloated. Damn that swell! But I’m living, and I know it will pass. I’m back at work full time, which is good. It’s nice to get back into the routine of life. But I’m excited to get to the point where I can buy clothes and get back into sports. Everything looks like it’s healing nicely and I’ll post more progress photos soon. Hope everyone out there in Internetland is well.

OH MY GOD I SHOWERED!!

Yes! It’s true! The drains are out! I’m completely free of tubes, grenades and stitches. The only things left to deal with are the binder and tape. I still have to be careful not to get the drain site wet. He taped it up pretty well, but when I showered it got all wet and started peeling off. So I kept it out of the water as much as I could and then I redressed everything with fresh tape and gauze when I got out of the shower. So I better be more careful for the next couple days. He almost was going to make me wait two more days to shower! I would have died. While I was redressing that, I redressed the scar and belly button too. Everything looks a little scary right now. I love the way my tummy looks, but I look like a freak with the scar. I’m sure it will be like what Tj said, which is, after a while it will be just like a tattoo and I won’t even notice it is there. Not to mention it will fade and even out with time.

I still have to be careful with activity. The 4-6 weeks still applies. But I’ve been cleared to walk. And I have to wear the binder through the month until the swelling goes down a little more. He’s not very good about giving specific direction. I think I just need to use common sense. But I really have no idea when I can and can’t do things. I think my body will tell me, and I just have to be patient and not rush things. He must be confident enough in me because I’m not even scheduled to see him again for three more months. So here’s to happy healing!

I think from this point on I don’t plan on updating everyday, just when I have something new to report. So everyone that has been reading religiously – thanks! I’ll be sure to write when things change and I reach important milestones. I’ll post progress pictures and let you know when they’re up! For now, trying to get back to life.

So I’ve recovered from the emotional setback of not having that drain out yesterday. I threw myself a little pity party and then got over it. I was sitting there opening mail, and I opened another card and was completely floored. Some of my friends all got together and bought me a $250 gap card as a “get well” gift. So to Julie & Matt, Cassie & Josh, Towner, Schulte, Tj, Alicia and Sarah… Thank you. You’re too, too, too generous. That will be a really nice treat for when all the swelling goes down and I need to restock the wardrobe. Having so many supportive and amazing friends has been such an important factor in my healing. I’ve gotten cards and flowers and warm wishes the entire time. I can’t help but heal quickly! So thank you to everyone that has reached out and just simply told me to have a quick recovery. I love every single one of you!!

Today I’m back at work. I’m getting a lot done. We had a little mini welcome back party and Matthias made me a rhubarb cake that I love. (MMM… packing back on the pounds! I better watch out! Back to the WW grind.) Sitting in the chair isn’t that bad. The binder is kind of getting in the way a little. I ended up bird bathing this morning, and washing my hair in the sink. I feel pretty good. I put on a pair of my bigger pants, and I’m glad I did because I’m swelling up in them as we speak. I shoved the drain in my pocket and put on a longer shirt to hide it. So it’s not as bad as I feared. I’m going to put in a pretty much full day today, and then tomorrow I’m leaving at about 11:30 to go see Dr. Foley and (crossed fingers) get the drain out.

Well… I better get back to this “job” thing.

I’m really really bummed. I just got back from Dr. Foley’s office. He wouldn’t take the drain out. He said it’s still has too much fluid. I got out of his office and just cried in my car. I want the drain out more than anything. Mostly because I can’t even shower. And I can’t even begin to feel normal until I can do simple normal things like shower. AND I can’t really wear normal clothes yet because I have this dumb drain pinned to my binder. As if the binder wasn’t enough. I go back to work tomorrow and I just wanted to feel normal again. The only good thing that happened is they took out the staples. So I got home, cried a lot, and then gave myself a sponge bath and shaved my legs and pits in the tub. So I’m feeling a little better now… *sigh* friday. I go back friday. And it really needs to come out then. I have a wedding AND a graduation this weekend. So I will be so devastated if they don’t come out then! Wish me luck.

Oh, and there’s some pics of my incision on the gallery page. (Link also at right side of page.) –WARNING: may be more than you want to see of me–

Here’s a look at my brown pants on before and seven days post op. What a difference! I’m still swollen and I expect them to get a little more loose. But even if I never saw another change – I’m still so, so, so happy with how this has turned out.

There’s an update on my gallery page. (Link also at right side of page.)

So I went to Dr. Foley yesterday and the good news is he removed one drain, the bad news is he left the other. So now I’m lopsided!! It was so strange when he took the drain out. It didn’t hurt, it kinda felt warm and pinched a little. Then he put some gauze and tape over it and I guess it just closes up on it’s own. I had no idea that it went in so far. He pulled about a foot of tube out! It had all these little holes in it just like one of those lawn hoses that sprinkle the yard. Both drains lay right across my abdomen, and then come out the other side. I was pretty surprised! I go back wednesday and he takes the other drain for sure, and will remove the staples too… so I’m looking forward to that!!

Today I’m dealing with being really tired. I had all these high hopes when I was planning for surgery. I thought “A week and a half at home! How great! I’ll get so much reading done, so many movies watched, and knit like two million socks.” As if! I spent the first 3 days sleeping in and out, then this weekend I had guests in and out, and these last couple days I’ve just been resting. Reading and knitting seem like even they take too much energy. I hardly have the mental faculty to watch TV. Now that I’m writing this, I’m wondering, what HAVE I been doing? Healing I guess. You wouldn’t believe how just existing takes so much work and energy.

Just checking in with you guys for the day. I’m sitting here trying to take it really easy. The only chore I did today is I colored my hair. That makes me feel good since I still can’t shower. Remind me not to take that for granted again! Showers rule! Tomorrow I think I’m going to try and get it cut. That will be a good test sitting in the chair for an hour. It will be a mini workday test.

I’m seeing Dr. Foley at 4:15. Lets hope I can ditch these drains.

I’m not feeling the best right now. I think I really over did it yesterday since I was feeling so good. I had a minor allergy attack and that really messed me up. All that sneezing is killer on the tummy. I feel the sneeze coming and I tense up. Then when I do sneeze, I hold my tummy to minimize the pain. Then it feels like I’m ripping out my staples and it feels really hot. I’d pretty much give anything to not sneeze at this point. I thought I could fix that, but ended up taking one too many Alaverts, so this morning I woke up shaky and jittery. I felt like my heart was going to explode. I was so worried about limiting the allergies that I made a bigger problem for myself. It also made me sick and I threw up again.

All this throwing up doesn’t make for me keeping much food in. I try to eat. Last night I had pizza. But I can’t eat as much as I want to. I had two pieces and two breadsticks last night. But I had hardly anything during the day, mostly fruit and an english muffin. I think it might be the tightness of the binder putting pressure on my stomach. And probably the drugs are messing up my appetite too. I’m sure I’ll get back to normal soon. Not that I mind dropping a couple pounds while I can! I was under 149 this morning. Dressed. With the binder!

My drains are slowly leaking less and less. I go back to Dr. Foley tomorrow and hopefully he’ll take them out. For some reason the one on the left leaks more. Consistently 10ccs more than the right one. I wonder how that works.

I still can’t get used to looking down and not seeing my tummy. I especially notice when I’m sitting down to go to the bathroom or something. All I used to be able to see was my belly in my lap! It’s really bizarre. And I like it!

The pain is pretty much over. I feel slight twinges here or there. But I think that’s just a staple getting caught in a funny way or something. It’s still a little uncomfortable. Last night I slept in the bed with Tj. It was a lot more work getting all the pillows in the right place to keep me at a comfortable angle. The recliner does have that going for it. All the extra work was worth it tho. We’ve hardly been able to cuddle or touch each other since surgery! But tonite I think I’ll be back in the recliner. The good news is I can almost lay flat for a little while and I’m standing almost perfectly straight without any discomfort!

Other than that.. All is good! No regrets!

I’m feeling really good today. The theme word for the day is “hygiene.” –WARNING: friends and family who have a low TMI (too much information) threshold, stop reading here! Everyone else, you’ve been warned!– I woke up and decided I was sick of feeling dirty and grimy. So I stripped down to the binder and grabbed some shampoo and towels and headed to the kitchen. First on my list was my hair. So I washed that in the sink. Much easier than I thought, minus some back pain. After that I washed my face. I headed back to the bathroom and used baby wipes to give myself a little bird bath. That tip was given to me by someone on the Make Me Heal forum and I recommend it completely! I got off all the sticky stuff from the electrodes that they taped to me, and the iodine that was all over my legs. Curiosity got the best of me and I stepped on the scale. With everything off, and the binder sitting nearby, I weighed 149.5. Which is crazy. I weighed 158 going into surgery! I thought for sure I’d be up since I’m so swollen. After that I drained my drains, brushed my teeth and put on some deodorant. Then I went and got new underwear, pj pants and a tshirt. I also –WARNING TMI!– finally pooped. I was worried about that. Some of the girls on the board said they didn’t poop for four or five days, so I wasn’t too worried but I didn’t want to wait till it was an emergency either. After I was all cleaned up and dressed, I did my hair, put back on all my jewelry that I had to take off for surgery and even put on a little bit of makeup! I feel like a new woman. I have to be careful not to do too much… so now I’m back in my recliner nest.

Tonite is the Mike Doughty show. And I really want to go. I called and they said they could have a special chair for me and I bet I would be okay. But even feeling as good as I do, I don’t think I should push my luck. I haven’t sit up for that long not in the recliner. I’ll just have to see him next time he rolls around into town. Which, luckily, is pretty often!

Look! Pictures. There’s an update on my gallery page. (Link also at right side of page.) Take a look!

Day 3 is starting out great. I feel a million times better than days one and two. It’s true what they say about the first two days being the worst. Today I woke up with a really sore throat and my back hurting. The throat is to be expected. I guess they put something in there when I was under so I can breathe and whatnot. The back is just from sleeping in that stupid recliner. But last night I finally slept pretty much through the night. And I didn’t puke or anything when I woke up. So that’s good. Last night I even ate real food! I had some kielbasa and peas! MMMM. Anything would have tasted good last night that’s for sure.

So yesterday I went to see Dr. Foley. He took off all the bandages and stuff and I got to see my naked tummy for the first time. It was amazing. There’s nothing there anymore. You can see how good it’s going to look. I’m a bit swollen of course, so it’s not perfect. But even swollen it’s so much better than what was there. My belly button somewhat resembles a cat’s butt. And the scar is really low! The staples make it look like something edward scissor hands did.. which is a little bit freaky to see attached to me. But I have faith that it’s all going to heal and be so beautiful! He can’t take the drains out until I have under 30 ccs of discharge in a 24 hour period. So I’m going back to see him on monday. Once the stupid drains come out I can finally shower again. That will be so nice. It’s those little things you take for granted. I can stand up pretty straight too, which is new! So I seem to be on the road to recovery.

Thank you everyone for all the kind words and messages. They really make the recovery process easier. Sorry if I don’t respond to you all on an individual basis. When I have more energy I’ll talk to everyone in turn! LOVE YOU! **hugs**