Tummy Tuck - One day post-op

Well it's one day post op from my tummy tuck now and I have to say that this is pretty excruciating. I'm not enjoying it at all. I am so glad I have been told my many people that the first 3-4 days are complete pain and torture but that after the 4th day I will be feeling a lot better. I again had trouble with the pain management in recover and at home. When I had my breast reduction 12 years ago the morphine wasn't working on me at all and I was screaming in recovery over how my chest felt like it was on fire. Then none of the oral pain meds they gave me worked at all either. I reminded the doc and let the anesthesiologist know so they would try me on something else this time.. So in the hospital they gave me IV dilaudid which did NOT work at all. They maxed me out in recovery omit just as they had done for my reduction. No help. And because of the 3 full doses they gave me my oxygen kept dropping from 100 to 50 and they kept yelling at me to breath because I kept forgetting to breath. And while not being totally with it I just kept saying it was because it was sooo hard that it hurts less if I don't breath. The nurse guy didn't really let me get away with that. Seemed logical to me at the time though. Lol.

Finally I got my breathing under control after they told me if I didn't I would have to spend the night and that would cost me money. Finally got to go home but I will tell you. My ab muscles were in soooo much pain I couldn't stand it. I was a complete mess. Got home to my moms house and was on and off ok. Still lots of pain and although I felt very alert I can't actually remember much now. I found the recliner to be the most comfortable spot most of the afternoon and early eyeing but then agreed to try the bed out. They have me in these long tight stockings that are just cutting into my skin making me extremely uncomfortable even when I'm laying still my my abs aren't hurting.. I want these things of!! I'm supposed to wear them for 3 days though. I can NOT wait to get these things off. Well last night I woke up the first lime at 1 a because I had to pee pretty bad. I kept calling out for my mom and she slept straight through it. Ugh. So I managed to get my self up off the bed along but wanted to cry and scream from the pain of stressing my ab muscles. Finally get myself back in bed and wake up again at 4am. So I call and yell for her a few more times and nothing. I text her hoping that will wake her and nothing. So I painfully get out of bed on my own again to pee. Ouch!!! And unfortunate by the time I get comfortable again I realize I need pain pills and the were in the kitchen on the other side of the house so I was screwed till mom woke up hours later. The pain pills I have are the pill form of the IV drugs they gave me as we'll. the pharmacist, doctor and anesthesiologist all told me these were the best and strongest drugs around. Haha! My butt they are. Maybe to a normal person whose body can actually acknowledge pain meds. To me they were a joke though. Still taking them though cuz it's better than nothing.

Getting in the jeep for the trip to and from post op appt today was absolutely horrible. I was in tears trying to get in the seat both times. I didn't get to see my tummy yet when the nurse checked it out. My mom said she would prefer I wait a couple of days so I didn't see it at its worse stage. But they did tell me how it was concaved and beautiful. So I am pretty pleased about that.

I am nor back to being camped out in the recliner. Much easier to get in and out of instead of trying to turn my body not the side to get in and out of the bed. I plan on chilling here for the next few days till I'm feeling a touch better and ready to go home and be on my own. I ate a full meal today. Two actually. Yesterday I had one cup of applesauce that took me from 3pm to 4 am to finish. And even that was forced. Today my mom managed to get me to eat regular meals. She bought me some smart ones egg mcmuffins so I had one for breakfast. Then for much I had a bowl of soup and for dinner she made me some really light and healthy chicken fajitas and a quarter chip of rice. I am soooo full that these newly tightened ab muscles are feeling even extra tight right now. Weird thing is. There wasn't very much on my plate. Maybe only half a cup worth of chicken and bell peppers. Guess it doesn't take much for me to get fun now ,so that's a good thing.

I am also being watched over by one of my Mom's cat. Her very very skittish cat who is now all of a sudden very trusting an loving. So cute. Well I'm exhausted and soooo. Tired and I lots pain right now so I'll be signing off for the night. If I can and am feeling p to it I will write more tomorrow. Good night everyone.

Tummy Tuck - Night Before Surgery

Well....  This is it.  It's the night before surgery and I can officially say I have moved past being excited to being really freaking nervous!!  I have been running all around the house trying to get everything set up for when I get back home for recovery.  I am also trying to get my bag packed for the next few days at my mom's house.  I have a couple of jammie bottoms,  a couple of tops,  medications, tooth brush. deodorant, and hair ties.  I think I am good.  Everything else my mom should have there for me.  Ok.  I am finishing my dinner which is a yummy salad and some whole wheat chicken nuggets, with some water and some new Orange Crush Water flavor enhancer.

So, real quick I just need to tell you that I went to the store last night to pick up some last minute stuff (like a 2 week supply of cat food and cat litter for my munchkins) and I saw that EVERYONE seems to be jumping on this water flavoring band wagon.

Goodness!  There is not only Mio and generic Mio now but also crystal light, dasani water brand, koolaid and crush orange and grape soda flavor (without the carbonation)  and all of these are sugar free.  I grabbed the orange crush and gave it a try and I am super impressed.  IT is some good stuff. 

I am just waiting now on a friend to come pick me up and give me a ride to my mom's house so I don't have to leave my car there even after I get home till I am cleared to drive.  Once I get to her house I need to try to go straight to bed so I can be up at 530 in the morning to shower and be ready to leave by 6am.  Check in time is 630am and surgery time is 8am.  So here we goooooo.  This time tomorrow I will have a flat (yet swollen) tummy with no more flabby saggy lose skin and rolls.  Yay!!  But it's also pretty likely that I will also be very unconscious too.  LOL  Well Good night everyone.  When I wake up  will get to see my personal hero, Dr. Phillip Dahan and he will work his magic on me.

Talk to y'all later!

Bento Lunch 2-20-13

My normal turkey and reduced fat swiss cheese sandwich, but with a slice of reduced fat cheddar cheese added to it this time.

6 mini cheddar rice cakes
hard-boiled egg
applesauce
carrots


This one was prettyfilling.  Wasn't able to eat it all, plus I had a couple of clementines as well so pretty filling.

Tummy Tuck - Pre-Admit / Lab Work Appt

Today I had my appt at the hospital to do all my registration and blood work for my surgery on Thursday.  Oh my goodness! It is getting so close.I almost have everything I need ready at home.  I got a plastic chair for my shower so I can shower sitting down.  I have a small plastic shelving unit for beside my bed to put helpful items on such as:
my meds
lots of bottled water
batteries
mirror
hand sanitizer
wipes
medicine cabinet items
remotes
and anything else I can think of to help me out while I am in bed.

I have my sheets washed and some bed liners ready in case my incisions leak.  I spend several days making crock pot meals and portioned them out and froze them so I would have plenty of homemade freezer meals ready instead of the high sodium versions from the store.  I bought some extra water flavoring for the tons of water I need to be drinking to keep form swelling up too much.  I have lots of sweats and comfy clothes ready to wear and change into.  My mom will be driving me to and from the hospital and will be taking me back to her house to recover for the first few days.  after about 3-4 days She will bring me home to be pretty much on my own.  I have a small group of friends who have offered to help me and come by or bring me things if I need them.  So that will be a large help.  Other than that I have my bedroom set up with lots of movies and with Netflix so I will be comfortable and entertained.  I also have my iPad, my laptop and my kindle.    I am hoping after the first complete week I will be feeling well enough to go back to some normal things around the house and hopefully be able to walk around the block.  or at least tot he end of the street and back.  I would really like to get back to my walking as quick as possible after the surgery.  So As I think I may have mentioned before I did take some before pics.  I need to crop them still and get those posted but there is a pretty good possibility that those won't get posted till after surgery.  Sorry.  But I will have some progress pics taken too so we will be able to watch the transformation during recovery.

talk to y'all soon.  Have a great day and wish me luck on being able to fall asleep tonight. LOL

Bento Lunch 2-19-13

Today's Bento Lunch was my normal

Turkey and reduced fat swiss cheese sandwich on light wheat bread.

mini cheddar rice cakes
carrot sticks
grapes
gogo squeeze applesauce

Tummy Tuck - Pre-Op Appt

So I had my pre-op appt today.  I find it funny that they schedule you a week before surgery for this appt and at that time give you a list of things you needed to stop doing and taking 3 weeks ago.  Good think I hadn't been taking some of these supplements but still.  Geeze.  Y'all could have mentioned that to me when I booked the surgery.  Well I am ready for next week now.  Sooo excited.  I have soo much to do at home still though to get ready and all I have been able to think about are all these projects around the house that I need to get done before I won't be able to bend or lift for a while.  LOL  Not that they are even all that important right now since they have waiting this long already.

Ayway....  off subject.  went in,  got my pre-op before pics taken.  I asked for copies but she said she couldn't get them to me till later and most likely after surgery so I will take some pre-op pics at home to .. eeks!! share on here.  I paid my remaining balance owed for surgery and signed my life away.  Now I am ready to go.  I have my pre-admit appt for labs at the hospital on Tuesday then Thursday is the surgery.  Almost time!!!

WW Celebration Cake

I just have to say that these are the most amazing treats EVER!!  I love them.  They are the perfect amount of frosting sweetness.  I definitely need to stock up on these soon.

Bento Lunch 2-11-13

Today's lunch is a turkey and reduced fat swiss cheese sandwich on light wheat bread, a clementine, a hard boiled egg and a .5 oz bag of Pirate Booty's.

Freezer Meals

My two BFF's and I got together on Saturday to make some freezer bag crock pot meals.  We made a Chicken Parmesan one, chicken chili, and cilantro lime chicken. I am so excited about these.  first of all they smelled amazing with all the spices and seasonings while we were making them.  Mmmmmm.  So easy and fast too.  The three of us made up these three meals in less than an hour.  The idea is to cook these up and portion them out in glad ware for the freezer so I have easy frozen dinners to pop in the microwave while I am recovering after my surgery and I don't have to worry about full blown cooking each night.

So today I decided to start by making the Chicken Parmesan meal.  Added the sauce to the crock pot,  then dumped the pre-made chicken mixture in it then topped it off with fat free shredded mozzarella cheese.  Yum!!   This made 6 servings when done.  Oh!  and it smelled AMAZING!!!!  I had to sneak a tiny bite when it was done and it tasted just as amazing.  Here are a couple of pics.  First picture is the crock pot ready to be turned on.  Then a picture of them portioned out with some frozen broccoli.  I thought I could just make a half cup of pasta when I'm ready to eat it. Hindsight tells me I should have done the pasta at the same time as the rest but dang it.  I never think of that stuff in time.  LOL

Bento Lunch 2-7-13

I haven't done these in a while.  about 4-5 months actually.  Things were kind of hectic and crazy for a little while and I was very distracted from life.  But I am starting it up again.  I seem to do much better when I am structured with my meals.  Not to mentions when I am obsessing over them.  LOL   Ok, so today's lunch was a left over turkey and ham subway sandwich from last night.  They are having their $5 foot long deal going on, so I ordered a foot long and asked them to wrap up each half separately and leave one half with no condiments so it wouldn't get as soggy.  Then I packed it for lunch and added mustard when I was ready to eat it.

Sick leave has been approved.

So I have gotten the sick leave approved from work now.  I will be off for 2 weeks and go back to work on the 11th of March.  I will be staying with my mom the first 3 days so she can care for me 04/7 those first days then I'm heading home to be on my own.  My BFF will take a couple of days off to help me out when I get home but after that it's all me.  I think I will be fine though.  Once I am past the beginning I should be able to get around ok and if I need anything brought to me then I have a couple of people I can call.  I am getting excited.  Gonna start picking up some thing on my list for my recovery time at home.   I've done a lot of research online about what things to have readily available.  So I will soon post the list I have made.

Change of date

Ok. so my Dr's office called today to reschedule my surgery.  At first I was scared, thinking, "how much longer are you gonna make we wait??"  but it turns out that it is now going to be a day earlier. It turns out that Dr. Dahan has a conference in Miami that weekend so he needs to leave on Friday and won't be able to do surgeries that day.  So I am now booked for February 21, 2013 at 830am.  This of course means I (and my mother) need to be at the hospital at 630am.  That's ok.  Could be worse.  Could be 5am.

Surgery is Scheduled!

Ok, so I called the office today and paid the deposit and booked my surgery.  It is February 22, 2013 @ 3:30pm.  Oh my goodness!!!  It's really real now!

My Consultation with Dr. Dahan

12 years ago I met with Dr. Dahan for a breast reduction.  Although the surgery and recovery were not my fondest memories, the aftermath most certainly was.  Dr Dahan became my life time hero and I have thought so highly of him ever since.  The breast reduction was the best decision I ever made next to the Plastic Surgeon I chose.  Dr Dahan was the nicest and most compassionate doctor I had ever met.  I feel he did the most beautiful job and I have referred dozens of friends and family to him over the years.  Every one of them who have had surgery performed by him have come back with glowing reviews of his work and him as a person.  I went back to him for a scar revision seven years later which he did for me pretty much right then and there.  He remembered me and my mother very well as soon as he saw me sitting in his waiting room.

My mother also had a breast reduction along with a tummy tuck by him just after I had my surgery.  At that time I was impressed and touched that he remembered me so well after all of that time.  I know I waited a long time for the scars to be fixed but hey, life kind of gets away from you sometimes.

Well Today I went in to see him again.  This time it is for a tummy tuck.  I have been wanting this for a long, long time.  I lost a substantial amount of weight over the past few years and have a lot of lose and sagging skin that will not tighten up again.  Too much yo-yoing I guess.  So as I was sitting in his lobby waiting on his assistant to call me in for my consultation appointment, he came walking by me and at first glance recognized me again.  Even at 70 lbs lighter.  He came over and chatted with me for a while while I waited.  We caught up on life and he asked how my mom and I were both doing.  He even remembered the last time I was in for my scars.  WOW! My consultation was with his assistant because consultations with her were of no charge but with him were $60.  So I opted for her when I made the appointment.  Well as it turns out she was running pretty behind so he came back out with his laptop and called me in to a meeting room to do my consultation himself since I have such a long history with him and am most comfortable with him.

We discussed many procedures I was interested in and showed me what he would be able to do.  Afterwards he set me up in his assistants office to go over prices and options and made sure to tell her to take very good care of me.

After going over many options on procedures and combinations of procedures I took my quotes and went home to hash them over.  Although I would love to get them all done, financially it just wasn't an option, so I stuck with my main concern. The tummy tuck.  I called my mom to discuss them with her and to go over the best time for the surgery.  I needed to make sure it fit in with her schedule as well since she would pretty much be caring for me 24/7 for the first 3-4 days.

Looks like I am finally getting my beautiful flat tummy.  After all of the hard work I have done I am so happy and excited that this dream is withing an arms reach now.  I just have to call next week to book a date and pay my deposit. YAY!!!!

Tummy Tuck!

Ok, so for almost a year now I have been on Weight Watchers.  I have lost 50 lbs since the beginning of 2012.  I am extremely proud of myself although I have to say.  I don't  really see the difference in myself as much as everyone else does.  I still think of myself as the old me so it's awkward to get all of the compliments and be able to fit in smaller clothes.  But I am happy none the less.  :)  

Well as a reward to myself I have decided to finally go through with what I have been working so hard for and what I have wanted for a very very long time.  I am going to schedule a Tummy Tuck!  Yes.  Finally gonna do it.  Since, although, I have lost 50 lbs this past year.  I will be honest and tell you that since I quit drinking in 2008, I have actually lost a total of 70 lbs.  So that leaves a lot of not so attractive skin.  I am excited to finally feel good about myself for the first time in.... Oh I don't know how long... LOL

I have been researching like a crazy person online for EVERY ONE'S experiences during their tummy tucks and recovery's.  I am so exited and nervous at the same time.