Hi friends. . . I made it through week 2 and am feeling pretty good.  One day at a time.  I had some big progress this week which was very exciting so here are all the details from my Mommy Makeover: Week 2.  If you missed Week 1 you can read about that here.

MOMMY MAKEOVER: WEEK 2

Week 1 was just something you have to get through.  Luckily you are pretty sleepy, on lots of meds and still have some anesthesia left in your body so while it is the worst week, it is kind of a blur.  Week 2 you are much more alert.  I really think I hit a turning point at exactly 7 days post-op. 

POST-OP APPOINTMENT

I went for my post-op appointment on Tuesday (8 days after surgery).  I was praying they would remove my drains.  To me, the drains are one of the worst parts.  They are gross, they sting and you just cannot feel normal with these giant plastic drains hanging from you.  The rule for getting them removed is you had to have less than 30cc’s of fluid in each one for the entire day for 48 hours and I was meeting those goals.  While I was so excited to have them removed, I was also very nervous.  When I arrived at my appointment, I met with the post-op nurse and she had me take all my garments off so she could look at everything.  At that time they removed my bandages from my liposuction and fat transfer sites (there were 5 of these. . .2 by my knees, 2 on my upper thigh and 1 on my butt).  They are very small incisions, but they had a stitch in them.  I was nervous about her removing the stitches, but it didnt hurt at all.  The areas were very numb.  She checked out everything, went over the log sheet I had been keeping from week 1 on my drain output, fluid/protein intake, etc.  After looking at the logs, she said we could remove the drains.  Yay and oh crap. . .she said it wouldn’t hurt, but I have heard that before.  Honestly, she was right.  It didn’t hurt, but it felt strange.  I took a deep breath when she pulled them out to kind of distract me.  You could feel pressure inside your stomach where the drains were placed which was a strange feeling, but no actual pain.   I was very glad when that was over because I was no longer attached to anything finally!!  That is a huge step in feeling better in my opinion.  Some people keep drains in for weeks depending on how much fluid they are collecting, but I was so happy I was able to get mine out after a week.  Everything looked good, she answered my questions and I was on my way.

EXCITING THINGS THIS WEEK:

LOCAL FRIENDS (DFW area). . .One exciting thing I did this week was I got a mani-pedi. I hired a company called Cherry to come out to my home and do my nails.  It was driving me crazy not having my toes polished and I couldn’t reach them myself so this was the perfect option.  I just downloaded the app, booked the appointment and a really sweet nail tech showed up at my house and did my nails.  This was a nice little treat.

Tuesday night the dads took the kids to dinner and some of my best friends came over to my house.  They made the most amazing cheese board and we were able to all hang out just like normal.  I LOVED it.  That was good for the soul.  I sat on my butt pillow at the dining table and I looked crazy with all the foam under my clothes, but these friends are like family so it was all good.  If you are feeling up to it I highly recommend this.  Helps with the cabin fever feeling.

I took my 2nd shower.  Typically this would not be an achievement, but after this surgery it sure is.  Feels so good to shower, but it is a lot of work.  This shower was so much better than the first one (where I thought I was going to faint), but I still got pretty tired after it.

Saturday night was so much fun.  We had some of our best friends come over with their kiddos and just hang out at our house.  We ordered in fajitas and talked for hours.  Again, not only is this fun, but makes the whole situation feel more normal and like you are not on house arrest.  These friends are like family so I didn’t care if they saw me looking crazy.  I put on a giant maxi skirt and sweatshirt over my crazy foam and compression garment and was able to hang out like normal.  Well, not exactly like normal (I was stilling on a butt pillow and not moving), but you know what I mean.

MEDS:

The beginning of week 2 I was able to reduce all my meds.  I took Tramadol 4 times a day and a muscle relaxer right before bed.  I had been working really hard to get off all my meds so I would feel more clear minded.  By mid week I was able to get off all pain meds for 2 days, but then I decided to go back to 1 Tramadol before bed because pain got worse at night (since I wasn’t moving much) and I was having trouble sleeping.  I still took 2 stool softeners, 1 iron pill and Miralax 2 times a day.   

PAIN:

The pain is ever evolving.  Everything is manageable, but it keeps changing. In the beginning the muscle pain was the worst.  I couldn’t even feel my breasts or my incisions.  Now that I am in my 2nd week, the muscle pain has gone down a bit and I can feel my incisions and breasts more.  The numbing meds that they put in during surgery has worn off and you can start feeling other areas that you didn’t at first.  The drain sites sting.  Even though my drains are out, there are 2 holes there that I have to cover with gauze, but they sting a little bit.  My stomach incision is so tight that when I stand up it pulls on that area.  My back still hurts because I cannot stand up straight, but that has improved a lot since the first week.

WORST PART:

I honestly think I would say the worst/hardest part of this procedure is the longevity.  I like to get in and rip off a bandaid in something and move on.  This process is just long.  You are not going to bounce back and feel 100% normal for a while.  They said at least 6 weeks to feel more normal and sometimes you don’t see final results until a year out.  That is a hard thing to wrap your brain around.  I will say it is constantly getting better, but still, it is long.  The pain is manageable.  It was actually better than I was expecting.  Being mentally tough is super important if you are considering doing this.  Just remind yourself that even though it feels long, it is a blip on the radar in the big scheme of things.  To help with this I set milestones.  I like checking off things.  For example. . .get through surgery, make it through week 1, get drains out, hang out with friends, get off meds, get through week 2, remove dressing tape, get through week 3, drive, remove foam, remove compression garments, etc.  These little milestones, keep the process moving a long for me.  

GAME CHANGER THIS WEEK

Yall, I figured out a game changer for me this week.  I am now sleeping in an avocado pool float.  WHAT??!!!  Yes. . .you read that right.  I wrote about it in my MOMMY MAKEOVER MUST HAVES! The first week I was sleeping in my lift chair.  It was way to hard to get up and down without it.  The lift chair was a life saver.  As the pain started to settle down it was getting so uncomfortable trying to sleep in that chair because I was not able to recline it all the way due to the fat transfer in my butt.  If you just had a tummy tuck the lift chair would be fine.  You can recline it all the way and probably sleep pretty well.   Since I had to also sit on a butt pillow, you cannot recline all the way or the pressure ends up resting on your bottom which is a no no with fat transfer/BBL.  Pressure on your bum can kill the fat cells or mess up the shape.  So, all this being said I had to sleep sitting up and it was uncomfortable.  I started to do research online looking for another option and discovered that some people were sleeping on an avocado pool float.  This seemed very strange, but I was willing to try.  I ordered it off Amazon for $19.99 and it is my new BFF.   There is a hole cut out where the pit would be so I am able to lay on it with my butt in the hole and it keeps all the pressure off.  I am finally able to lie down and sleep.  Getting a full nights rest is HUGE!!  It is making me feel so much better.  If you get a BBL, I highly recommend getting this float.

 

These week really was a huge turning point.  Started the 2nd week off feeling much better and was able to start doing a few more normal things like hanging out with friends.  Thanks for following along with Mommy Makeover: Week 2.  Check back for my week 3 recap coming soon.

CATCH UP ON MY OTHER POSTS

MOMMY MAKEOVER: PRE-OP & SURGERY DAY

MOMMY MAKEOVER: WEEK 1

You can check out all of my plastic surgery  & weight loss posts here.

**If you’ve had or are interested in Gastric Sleeve surgery or Mommy Makeover type of plastic surgery join the HOH Private Facebook Community where we can all share our stories, get questions answered and cheer each on during our individual journeys.  I am hoping this will be a very helpful resource for everyone considering/or have had these procedures.