Two Weeks Today! This Time An Actual Surgical Update

14 days from this very minute, surgery had started and I was on my way to the most amazing makeover of my life.  I had wanted this surgery for so many years, but didn't understand really how fabulous it was going to make me feel.  This picture of the stomach above the belly button is from yesterday.  There's still swelling and distortion...that will last several weeks yet...but to me it looks amazing.

Two weeks.  The liquor embargo is over today, so technically I could be snarfing down the Breakfast of Booze from Epic Meal Time (http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicMealTime#p/u/4/wZDv9pgHp8Q  this is offensive, don't visit unless you're amused by really gross foods being prepared by an overbearing ass). 

Liquor is off-limits for four weeks perisurgically; peri meaning around so two weeks before and two weeks after, as it increases bleeding and bruising.  Boxhead has been 4 WEEKS without a mojito, which previously was my natural source of hydration.  The DTs and other withdrawal symptoms at the beginning weren't so bad.  Now I'm not sure if Boxhead can go back to indulging myself Hoff-style because of the calorie impact. 

Its still another four weeks (6 weeks total) until I can go back to full exercise, using salt and using recreational street drugs and nicotine.  Any kind of lifting exercise could harm the inside healing within my breasts and stomach, and we don't need that.  Street drugs and cigarettes can cause necrosis (death) of the healing skin, and that isn't an attractive concept either.  Salt increases post-op swelling, and the swelling that comes from procedures this extensive is really quite enough without salt.

I can forego the street drugs and cigarettes and can even (with difficulty) stay off salty foods, but I can't be entirely without exercise.  So, naturally, Boxhead has come up with a clever plan!   As the pain (discomfort) has subsided, I have been experimenting with exercises that only engage the leg and butt muscles...plies and grande plies (ballet squats), the warrior poses and similar.  Yes, it looks ridiculous still being a little bent-over from the abdominal surgery and doing plies, but nobody sees me and this way my leg and glute muscles don't lose tone.  I want them toned for when I get that thigh and butt lipo.

Now, for those of you whose fingers are already itching to start in with with suspicious electronic lectures accusing me of violating the post-op rules, Boxhead HAS checked with her surgeon's office. HA! Provided the exercise doesn't engage the abdominal muscles or in any way affect the pectorals and breast lift / implants, its fine.  Granted, its a little early, but it isn't like I'm doing hours of these exercises yet.  Its good to be active.  God, some people that get this surgery are still languishing around in a painkiller haze...I suspect these are valium freaks though using surgery as a way to gain access to a new drug.  I would seriously kill myself if I couldn't be a little bit active.  Sure I get tired easily, but tired is better than suicide ideation, no?

The surgical tapes (steri-strips or micropore tape that protects the incisions) are starting to loosen.  These usually remain in place for about 12 days, and given that its the weekend I don't have a follow up appointment until tomorrow.  Late last night I cut away some of the loose ends of surgical tape, and the small areas of incision that were revealed are astoundingly kick-ass.  Smooth and nice and narrow.  No rumpled area at all on the far left side and the teeniest one on the right, which is evidence of such careful surgical close.  Normally the furthest edges of an abdominoplasty closure appear as a little 'dog-eared' at the start, and then gradually smooth out over 6-9 months post-op.  We'll see what the rest of the incision looks like tomorrow and I'll post photos on the Lipofat site for those that want to look.  Of course its a big incision that goes from hip to hip, and it won't be pretty until it fades away to just a thin white line.  But in the realm of abdominoplasty incisions, this one looks awesome.

The breast tapes also come off tomorrow, so I'll be able to see how the peri-areolar incisions are too.  That's the kind that heals best, with the least visible scarring over time.  I really didn't want the frankenstein-style major breast lift scarring, but since I luckily didn't ever have major breasts I could get away with the around-the-nipple style of operation.  For those of you that may be contemplating a larger breast lift procedure, even the scary-assed frankenstein scars do fade over time.  And scars just open up another surgical or treatment avenue:  scar revisions, scar lasering, etc.

I honestly couldn't be happier.  Even this far in, the surgery makes me feel so much better about me.  When I tried on bras the other day, I actually felt attractive (exhausted, but attractive) and I don't know if I've ever felt that way before.  Certainly not in many years.  Even though I'm still swollen and a little bruised and taped up, I feel so much better...its like having years of therapy AND magically looking better at the same time.  Yes, there is a few weeks of discomfort, and a few days of mild actual pain, and then about 6 weeks to complete recovery.  WORTH IT.

I've heard of so many people languishing around complaining about pain, spending a week or two in recovery, using ice to stop the throbbing of their breasts etc etc.  I totally understand that people have different pain thresholds (or, stated differently, that many people are whiners).  I'm the first to support a hard morning's bitching and complaining whenever it makes sense.  This combo surgery is the biggest one there is short of reconstruction-style extreme makeovers, and it genuinely hasn't been been bad at ALL.  For those of you that want this operation (and I know at least four of you do), pain should be the least of your concerns.  Unless of course you are whiners that have cleverly managed to conceal that side of yourself from me all these years. 

Pictures later today and then again tomorrow after the tape removal.

Last thing, an update on the endometrial ablation from earlier in December.  LADIES, DO THIS.  IF YOU HAVE TO FABRICATE A FEMALE PROBLEM, GET IT DONE! I'm having my first post-ablation 'period' and it is seriously nothing.  People aren't even supposed to realize the full results of an ablation for 3 months or so until the uterus is entirely healed, but for me it is incredible.  I can't even imagine how good it will be 3 months from now.  Best thing ever, thank you my heroes Dr. V and Dr. W.
Love,

Boxhead