excitement to dissapointment to depression

Apr 16, 2005

4/16/2005 A WHOLE NEW ME! I had my thighs lifted, breasts  augmented, liposuction around my waist and lower back. and a tiny tuck/lift /lipo to the pubic area. It was a little puffy after the LBL. I am wrapped in ace bandages & abdominal binder from my armpits to my knees. It's a little hot & tight feeling. I am definitely very! very! sore! Thank God for Lortab, LOL. the girls are supposed to be a C, but with the swelling look more like a DD. I am not allowed to remove any of the wraps until I go to the DR's office Tuesday, they will do it. I feel like a little kid at Christmas, all the presents are under the tree & I'm not allowed to open them.
the gastric bypass was all about my health, this is to look as good as I feel. I have been working very hard to lose and maintain and I feel like I have earned it. (in more way than one, lots of extra hours at work to pay for it too.) I took out loans on my retirement that I will be paying off for the next 3 years.
I was to have had a traditional  breast lift, but just as we were going into the OR my Dr came up with a new plan to do the breast work differently.  he decided he could just remove a little strip of skin below my breasts and place the implants and stitch in the crease under my breasr to hold it all up.  I agreed to it, but I think it is a little wierd for a Dr to change the surgery plan we discussed for months,  literally minutes before the surgery with out really giving me a fair chance to think it over.


4/25/05
I had a thigh lift on 4/19 (9 days ago) so it is all fresh in my mind. Along with it I had liposuction on my lower back outer thighs and waist, an area of my LBL revised (lower front pubic area) & breast augmentation. I did it as an outpatient. I went into surgery at 10 am, 3+ hours surgery, was home around 5 pm. My husband was not home (he had an attack of diverticulitis and was hospitalized) so my 22 y/o daughter stayed with me, to keep an eye on me, bring me food, water, pillows etc. I slept in the recliner with pillows all around me, for several days, I simply could not face trying to lie down and worse, get back up. The first couple days sitting on the toilet was the worst, don't plan on being comfortable on any uncushioned surface for a while. When I had the ace wraps removed 3 days later my legs were so swollen I was HORRIFIED! to say the least at the swelling. My legs were twice their normal size. It has been rough physically and emotionally. the areas I had lipo'd look bigger than before also from all the swelling. I went into surgery weighing 132, came out at 145. (fluid retention) 9 days later, still 139. That is really hard for me even knowing it is fluid. every day I remind my self, it is swelling. Of course I am paranoid about my weight and work very hard to make sure I eat right and exercise. Now of course exercise is out and I have no appetite and have to force my self to eat. I usually don't do protein supps but am during this recovery. Inadequate protein will increase swelling and water retention and inhibit healing. Do you need someone with you? well, I had surgery on Saturday and by Monday was basically on my own all day. I survived with out anyone here, but I tend to be very self sufficient. On the good side it did force me to get up moving faster than if I had some one to "wait" on me and we all know how important getting moving after surgery is.

5/1/2005 the swelling from the plastics is going down. It has been rough, both physically and emotionally. I was not doing well on Lortab, and the pain was intense. The Lortab made me depressed and unable to sleep. Changed meds (to Darvocet) and I'm feeling a little better, at least I have gotten a couple decent nights of sleep. Tylenol was just not adequate, and as we all know Ibuprofen is out of the question. My thighs still look bad. the upper part of my thigh is tight, looks ok, the lower half looks like elephant skin, loose and wrinkly. I am seriously disappointed. I return to the Dr. 5/10 and I need to find out what can be done to improve them.

As far as the breast lift and implants, well, still some swelling there and the implants take a while to settle in and drop. Initially they looked just huge, but 34C fits perfectly and that is just what I asked for. My shirts and dresses still fit, but much smoother on top, not at all to tight or slutty looking, so I am happy with the size even though it looks a little bigger than I expected.




This round of plastic surgery has been much harder on me physically than I expected and with the disappointment in my outcome on my thighs, it has been emotionally hard. I went into this thinking there was no way I will ever again let my body be cut again for anything other than a life threatening illness and now I really believe my thighs will need to be redone. I feel like I have worked so hard for this and what I worked for has been taken from me. I calculated that for all I have paid out of my pocket on plastics it comes to over 700 hours of work.

I have always been an emotional eater and had been doing really well recently. But now Here I am now throwing a pity party for my self and eating cookies.

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