Day 6 post Tummy Tuck!

Well today I have been a little more sore but still sticking to the same amount of pain meds because I am determined to get off these things so I can drive again!! I actually straightened my hair and put a little makeup on today too!  I was supposed to call the Dr. this am because my drain hasn't been draining much and make an appt. to get the drain removed. once i called the Dr. i had an appt set for 1pm. As I was up getting ready I see that my drain won't hold suction anymore so with further inspection i see that it has started bleeding around it and that it had been pulled out a little farther and that the stitches had popped. well that made me call the Dr. again and they told me to head on up there. I have been dreading getting this drain out since before i had the surgery. I think that I dreaded this part more than the surgery itself. Anyway I get to the Dr. and they tell me that I am still extremely swollen (more than normal ppl) and they said that if its fluid it should pour out when they take the drain out...well it was absolutely nothing to freak out about because it was seriously over in 2.5 seconds and it didn't hurt at all! Well once  I had the drain out and stood up absolutely nothing came out so once again they said maybe i just swell more than most people. The Dr. still wants me to come back on Tuesday to make sure it isn't fluid. he said that if there is fluid in there building up he should be able to aspirate it by then. Hopefully i'm not this swollen by then because i am really uncomfortable by they end of the day! Anyway I always tend to feel like crap riding in the car that long and I almost always feel nauseous after the ride home (could be my hubby's driving). I have been drinking carbonated water and coffee the whole time i have been home and i'm thinking maybe that might have something to do with the swelling so as of right now i'm switching to plain water only until Tuesday to see if that helps with the swelling. I pray it does!!! Stay Tuned!!
Current weight 144.4

Still stuck in this recliner....joy!

Day 6 from the front....still swollen!

Side view still swollen :(

day 5 post op

I feel a lot better today mainly because i'm not as sore and swollen....yet. Anyway my bowel problems have resolved and I seriously pooped a small dog this am (TMI???).I seriously lost 3.5 lbs after I got of the toilet!! Anyway I decided i needed to attempt a real shower again today and it went AWESOME i did everything myself except made my hubby hold my drain. let me give you a piece of advice.....don't attempt to get in the shower until at least day 5 even if the Dr. says you can 24 hours after surgery! Sponge bathe the first few days if you need to!! I am going back to my 5mg pain pill every 5 hours today because i just don't think i''m ready to completely give it up just yet! I did take some pics of my stomach today its still quite a bit swollen and so are my thighs but its better than it has been being! My drain still isn't draining much so i will probably be visiting the dr. tomorrow to get that removed which i dread!!! I will let ya'll know how that goes tomorrow! As for the rest of the day i'm going to keep my sodium intake to a minimum to help with the swelling and i'm going to veg. all day watching tv!!

Current weight: 147.4

Don't worry these are bathing suit bottoms!

Still swollen but i'm still excited with teh results so far! and my bathing suit hides the scar perfectly!

1st post op appt. and day 4 post op

Well today started off good i got up and took a sponge bath and finally got to shave my legs! well I am extremely swollen again today and its my biggest pain right now its more uncomfortable than painful. I swear i look 5 months preggo right now! Well i tried cutting my pain meds down to a 5mg pill every 4 hours which worked until i had to ride in a car for 45 minutes to my 1st post op appt. By the time i got there i was pretty miserable and it was almost time to take my next dose of pain med anyway so Chris gave me 12.5mg which was a big jump from what i was used to taking lol...lets just say i was feeling GOOD! anyway the Dr. said that i was more bloated than normal and that he thought my drain was clogged so they tried stripping it and then shot saline up the tube to see if there were any clots clogging it and when that didn't work much he decided it was time to "drain me". that was not what i wanted to hear because i know what "drain me" meant....Needle and syringe in the stomach! anyway i braced myself and to my surprise it wasn't bad because i'm still numb  in the spot he stabbed the needle in! The bad news is that he couldn't get any fluid out and he said that the bloating was probably because i haven't pooped in 5 days....so laxatives, MOM, and coffee is what he prescribed me....They left the drain in for now in case it decides to start draining some more....I need some poopy prayers!!! Sorry for all the poop talk and if you don't want the ALL details of my life don't read my blog lol. I will keep ya'll updated of anything else that goes on lol

Update: i forgot to mention that the ride home from the Dr. was the first time i felt nauseous since i have had the surgery but i think it was from the big jump in pain meds and then the 24oz coffee on the way home lol

Extremely bloated belly today...still have the lines where the Dr. marked my belly

Day 3 Post Tummy Tuck

Well Today has gone pretty well today I have cut my pain medication in 1/2 and I had my mommy wash my hair! after pulling the pain pump out I thought i would need the extra pain pills but it turned out I'm not as sore with out it in! I am doing better on my urinary issues. when i first got out of surgery and the day after i was having trouble knowing when i needed to pee and if i was actually done peeing and it was hard to get it started lol (TMI?) anyway that is better now which I'm glad of! Some of my stomach is still numb but i think the feeling is coming back because every so often it tingles in certain spots (nerves growing back???). I have trained myself to get up and move without using my ab muscles which took a while because you actually don't realize what all you use your abs for! once i got that down pat I am having no problem getting up and down which is a relief. Its still hard for me to get out of my recliner if the feet are up because i can't get the feet to go down by myself but that's where the hubby comes in! I have been on my feet walking a lot more today than i usually do and evidently that caused me to swell more today. it seems like the later into the day the more hunched over i walk...i can get up in the am and stand almost all the way straight which i didn't think i was going to be doing at this point post tummy tuck!  I changed the bandages again today which really didnt need to be changed because they weren't draining but i felt like they needed it and dang it i bought the dressings so I'm gonna use them lol. thanks to all the support and help everyone has given us and i will keep y'all updated! I apologize in advance for the pics at the bottom because my girdle does have some blood on it and if you don't wanna see then i don't advise you look. i'm waiting for the Dr. to tell me how long i can keep it off for so i know if i have time to wash it because i don't wanna mess any of the results up! once again DON'T SCROLL DOWN IF YOU DONT WANNA SEE BLOOD!

Front view of my stomach that is really swollen (sorry about the blood guys)

side view (right) and sorry about the blood again!

Night 2 post op and morning 3 of post op

Well last night was going good because I downed my dose of pain meds and didn't hurt too much. I got some good sleep even tho the kids were here and were fighting and what not. I could tell Chris was getting aggravated with them because there was one time he said "I'm gonna Fing loose it in a minute!!" and Chris isn't the one to cuss lol. I felt bad because i couldn't do anything but tell them to stop and that doesn't really work if i cant get to their level but anyway once they went to bed he calmed down....Thank God! Well everything was going good until I got up at like 430am to use the bathroom and i noticed that my drain had started draining dark red blood and it filled up the entire tube and just kept going. My initial thought was that I was going to bleed out and die but I asked God to watch over me and help Chris to be calm about the whole thing because he tends to freak out about stuff like that. Well after I used the bathroom i stood there for a while and just waited to see if it would stop but it didn't so I walked out and told Chris to turn on the light because I had to see how bad i was bleeding...i have never seen him jump off a couch that fast after being asleep lol anyway my drain had been draining light red and only been about 7.5ml every 4 hours and now it was dark red and 40ml in 45 mins....BIG change! Talked to the dr and he said that was normal and that it was old blood so i went back to sleep and it seemed to resolve itself while i was asleep. This am i am feeling pretty good and I'm getting around pretty good. My pain pump finally became empty so I had the joy of pulling that out this am which didn't hurt too bad but it just felt funny and made me feel light headed. It felt like i was pulling it across the inside of my stomach if that makes senses. I'm not in much pain from not having the pump in but i'm sure that will get worse through out the day. I was going to down my dose again today of pain meds but i think i'll stick with the same amount until i see how i'm gonna do without the pain pump.

This is my pain pump friend that helped me out the first 3 days

Day 2 post tummy tuck

Well today hasn't been as painful which is good but i decided to try and lower my dosage of pain meds today. That has been going good so far which is a relief. I did try and get a shower which didn't go as good as i had planned. I got sat down and started taking the binder off which was ok at first until all the pressure was off then it made me feel pretty whoozie. After that feeling passed I stood up and got in the shower holding my drain and pain pump in one hand while Chris washed me off...i didn't go anywhere near the incision on the front because that is a "danger zone" right now lol. The only thing that was really uncomfortable was my back was hurting so bad while Chris was washing all my dirty parts. after a quick washing i was beyond ready to get out....3 words  of advice BRING A CHAIR because if i couldn't have sat down after that i think i would have hit the floor! when i did get out and sat down i was shivering soo bad and i'm not sure if it was from my back hurting so bad or if i was really cold either way i was ready to be done with the whole thing. Putting the binder back on was so nice because it gave me that feeling of security again. I finally am back in my recliner waiting on time for my hubby to bring me a pain pill so i can drift off into a great sleep! I did happen to snap a picture of my extremely swollen belly with out the girdle! FYI my pain pump is still bleeding but i just put a dressing over it every so often and just deal with it because the doctor said to apply pressure and it would stop but that didn't work so i'm just going to let it do its thing.

Day 1 post op

Well today has been and okay day. I am still taking pain meds every 4 hours just to stay on top of the pain. My sweet hubby informed me that if I keep taking 2 pain pills every 4 hours I am going to run out before Monday. Well with that in mind I decided to try only taking 1 at a time.....FAIL!!! I wasn't a happy camper at all....I will still take 2 for the rest of the night and try again tomorrow to cut it down. I also changed my dressings on my incision today...that wasn't the most fun thing in the world but it wasn't awful either. My incision is very low which makes me really happy but I do have a vertical scar where they had the old belly button that he couldn't pull down any farther because my skin wouldn't stretch that much. I knew this was a possibility before having the surgery so its no big deal because after it heals it's probably going to blend in with my remaining stretch marks any way.  I was surprised that i still had so many stretch marks left but overall i am pleased with what i saw when changing the dressing today. I have been eating all normal food today without any problems and i haven't even had to take my nausea meds at all which is great! I want to get a shower tonight but Chris doesn't think its a good idea to do it so early but the Dr. said after 24 hours i could shower. I guess I will take a sponge bath and call it a night. I am really ready to take these Ted hose off because they are aggravating as all get out! some more good news is that my drain isn't draining as much so i might be able to get that out sooner than he had said (which was 1 week) but i have heard horror stories on how bad it is to get the drain removed. I know i shouldn't go looking at that kind of stuff but I wanted to be prepared for what i was getting into. hopefully i will have some better pics tomorrow when i get a shower of how my stomach looks but for now this is the only one i have.
GRAPHIC PIC BELOW SO IF YOU DON'T WANNA SEE IT THEN CLICK THE X BUTTON AT THE TOP OF THE SCREEN!

I did have one little set back today which is that my pain pump started bleeding where it was inserted into my skin...not sure what caused it but it made a mess and i think it is still bleeding but I have faith in God that he will make sure everything is fine and healing great....Praying that i get some better sleep tonight and actually sleep more than 2 hours at a time! Praying for a better day tomorrow too1

1st night home.....

Last night was a pretty good night! I finally got to eat some rice cakes around 9pm which didn't make me sick at all so today I'm going to try some waffles for breakfast to see how that goes. I have been dozing in and out because of the pain meds. Sleeping in the recliner isn't the most comfortable but it works...Pain pump is still in and working well...boy am I going to miss that thing when its gone! The only thing that really hurts is when i have to get up or down but even that isn't as bad as i thought it was going to be. I know i may be fine now but after the pain pump is worn off it might be a totally different story lol. It takes me about 15 minutes to get up and use the bathroom but my husband is great at helping me and we have got us a little routein down and it works pretty well...my only complaint is that since i am drinking soo much water i am having to  get up every 2-4 hours to pee. Walking is a litttle painful but at least i'm up moving around and not getting stiff in the chair. Chris set his alarm and gave me all my meds through out the night like my own private nurse which was great!! One thing i learned about getting up is not to have someone try to lift you up but for you to use them as a lift...in other words use your arm muscles instead of your stomach muscles because whenever you strain your stomach muscles you will scream!! Hopefully i will have as good a day as I had a night! thanks again for all the support!

Enjoying my rice cake while walking around the house lol

My View for the next few days....i can do this!

I'm home!

Well the surgery took a good 3 hours and we were at the surgery center from 12pm-5:30pm. I am feeling really sore but it is bearable at moment. I am really tired and groggy from the anesthesia but other than that i feel good today. All the nurses and the Dr. said they are very pleased with my results and that i'm going to love it. I am super excited that i didn't get sick from the anesthesia! i have 1 drain and a pain pump attached to me at the moment which isn't too comfortable but i'm not complaining. It absolutely sucks to get up an down but i'm still working on figuring out a routine on how to make it easier to do that lol. One thing that is going to suck about the girdle that i have to wear is that it has a button up crotch and not being able to bend and move makes it hard...lets just say I love my husband and he is doing an awesome job so far with taking care of me...God Is Good! I also have on ted hose that come up to my crotch lol which i cant take off until Saturday so i guess I'm going to be doing sponge baths for a while!

                                                                  just got the IV in

Before surgery just got the Ted hose on lol

Being wheeled out after surgery feeling good!

                                                         these awful ted hose

                                                         barf bag i didn't need....yet lol

                                                 Fanny pack for pain pump

                                                                       Girdle thing

                                                                     Drain tube



Thanks for all the support and prayers! Going to take a nap now lol....pray for chris to have patience with me too because he has already cocked an attitude

It's Here!

Well today is the big day! I'm starting to get a little nervous but nothing like I thought I would be. I think my hubby is more scared than I am lol. Honestly I'm more worried about how my children are going to do when they aren't here for 2 days and how bad they are going to be off their schedules and how my FIL is going to do with Tenley getting up 5-6 times a night. I know those things should be the last of my worries today but I can't help but wonder and pray everything goes ok with them. I will update more later today when I get home and I will let you know how it goes and try and get some pics if I am able. wish me luck and send prayers my way! Thanks everyone!!!

Before Pics

Well I talked to the surgery center about the time for my surgery. I have to be up at the surgery center at 12 noon tomorrow and surgery will take about 2 hours and I will be in recovery for a little over an hour. Still not nervous yet....I know that God will keep me safe and if he decides to call me home tomorrow I will be more than willing to go spend eternity with him in heaven...I am going to post the before pics on here now before I forget...most of my friends and my gym mates have seen "flappy" as I like to call him but here is his last set of pics EVER!!!

                                                                       Back View

                                                                       Front view

                                                                    Side view
current weight 144
body fat: 15.9%
PS....sorry if I just grossed ya'll out :)

1 More Day!!

well tomorrow is the day that I am scheduled to have my long awaited tummy tuck. I thought I would be a nervous wreck by now but I'm still pretty calm and excited. I'm not exactly sure what time I have to be there yet but I should find out this afternoon. Today is my last day at the gym for a while so I'm going to make the best of it and go hard today! I got  up at 4:15am and did 8 miles already which makes me feel great! other than gym time and spending time with the girls and hubby today I have nothing else planned. Wish me luck!!

INTRO to me!

Hello everyone this is my 1st blog EVER and I am very excited to be doing this!  I wanted to share my journey of getting my tummy tuck because when I enjoy helping people decide what the right choice is for them. Before I decided to get my tummy tuck I did a lot of researching and I  looked at a lot of other peoples blogs to help me decide what was best for me. Let me give you a little back ground on my life and how I came to making this decision. My name is Madison and  I am 25 years old and happily married to my high school sweet heart! I have 2 girls ages 4 and 1.5 and they are the best thing that has happened to me! Through out the years of pregnancy and nursing school I had put on weight like anyone would and at my highest I was 218 lbs. When I had my first daughter in 2009 I knew that my body would never be the same and I would eventually need something done so I started saving money here and there to help pay for my very distant tummy tuck. I actually never thought I would see the day where I would actually be going through with it. My husband and  I talked after my 1st was born about it and we made a plan and decided that after we had all the children that we wanted and I had reached my goal weight and we had saved the money that I could take the final steps into getting the tummy tuck I had always wanted. Well 4 years later and here I am 2 days before my scheduled tummy tuck! wish me luck I will update ya'll later! I will also post some pics of my lovely family and some before pics soon!