Post-op @ 128

Dec 01, 2009

Well, I was wondering what plastics would do to my weight.  I weighed in on Sunday morning @ 128 lbs.  So apparently, after:

1) removing 2 - 2.5 pounds of skin from my tummy
2) liposuctioning out 600 cc of fat (about a bottle of water's weight worth)
and
3) adding 800 - 900 ccs of total combined breast implant weight into my breasts

there is NO net gain or loss either way.  (Honestly I can't really tell weight wise any difference.)

But, realy it is too soon to tell whether or not I will have a gain or loss.  I'm still so soon out (12 days) that I'm still swollen sometimes and not going to the bathroom quit right yet (still have painkiller in my system that is contributing to a little constipation - a VERY rare thing for me) AND I'm still not back into a regular eating/drinking/moving routine like I was pre-op.  Everything is sort of still moving slowly.  Some days I don't get in all my calories - although when I don't I only miss it by 100 calories or so.  So the next day I make an effort to make it up (since it's only a 100 calories or so I miss, it is easy to just add it to the next day's intake to make the overall intake work and not be under).  But still, I'll be more sure of my overall weight restabalization whenever I'm routinely hitting my goal of 1650 calories every day - instead of 1550 one day, then 1750 the next. 

In any event, I have DEFINATELY lost inches.  I think the most inches I lost was right below my breasts, at the tippy top of my stomach.  I also lost a lot of tummy too though.  When I put my hands on my hips, my hands sit right on bone.  There is NO padding left.  I did ASK him to lip out every bit of fat that there was left in me in my midsection - but that's because I have ALWAYS (even as a kid) been built with a pot-belly.  Even when I lost down too low to 121 lbs and was wearing my daughter's size 0 pants and was about to have to shop in the little kid's section, I still had a pot belly.  So I figured I had fat pockets there that I just couldn't lose no matter what.  You know how some people just have fat deposits like that they will not go away no matter what.  So I told him to lipo every single bit of fat out of me that he could - thinking that that would take the pot belly away. 

Well, he did and said that there was hardly nothing there to lipo - only about 600 ccs.  He took it out of my tummy and hips (everywhere in mid-section region) and I think (hope) some out off my pubic bone.  (Sorry if guys are reading that - I guess I should have typed a warning before saying that or something).  In any event, it's gone. 

Not that I mind putting my hands on my hips and feeling only bone and skin under my hands.  It doesn't look gross or boney or anything.  It's just different.  Actually, I look pretty great.  In fact, I have not gotten ANY negative comments about my outcome.  Every single comment I have gotten has been positive. 

My dad has irritated me a couple of times with his nickname for me "Dolly" because my boobs are so big.  BUT (and this is a BIG but), at the time, I was wearing my pre-op bra which was a 34 D "Body By Victoria" bra from Victoria Secrets.  The whole reason I used to wear that bra is because it made me LOOK like I had boobs when I didn't.  It has about a cup's worth of padding on the inside bottom of the cup to push up whatever you have to make you look a cup or 2 larger than you are.  At the time I was wearing that 34 D Body by Victoria bra, I had walnut size breasts and extra skin that I would "pour" into the cup.  (Mammogram ordered by my OBGYN confirmed that the "walnut sized mass" he felt in each of my breasts were just the only breast tissue I had left.  So do not think I underestimate how small the actual breast tissue under all that skin really was.  I have medical PROOF that there was virtually nothing there under the skin.)  In fact, I could easily have worn (and actually did put one to see once) my daughter's 32/34 B with the skin just mashed down instead of comfortably poured into the cup.  Without the extra skin, I would have been able to go braless without a second glance from anyone.  I could mash down on my breasts and feel all my ribs beneath them.  But I digress.

When the surgeon asked me how big I wanted to be, I pointed to my 34 D Body by Victoria bra and said I want to fit into that bra - but I want it to be breast and not skin that fills the cup.  So he did perfectly.  My breasts fit perfectly into that bra.  But that bra still adds about 1 - 2 cup sizes to how big you look.  So in addition to post-op swelling, I had on that bra whenever my dad made those comments AND I had one a long sleeve tshirt that kind of clung to me.  So with a new trimmer tummy and the swollen breasts w/ THAT bra on.... I probably did look like Dolly Parton. 

So after I remembered why I bought that bra and showed my mother all the push-up padding on the inside, she agreed that that was probably why they looked so big.  So I bought a new all cotton bra this weekend like I used to wear when I had breasts on my own (no walnuts surrounded by skin - actual BREASTS to fill a bra with) and I've been wearing that since.  It is a Bali from Kohls and I actually LOVE it.  It is SOOO comfy.  They say not to buy any new bras for 2 months post-op to give your breasts time to settle and all the swelling to go out.  Bras are expensive.  But I needed at least one that didn't add a couple of cup sizes to me.  So I got it.  I'll probably buy 2 or 3 more just like it when the 2 months is up and I can be sure of my final size/shape/etc. 

In any event, there is a LOT of skin gone from my tummy.  It definately doesn't look perfect - but it never will be.  I don't have an apron of skin hanging over my panties anymore.  I don't have to tuck my skin into my pants anymore.  I don't have entire handfuls of skin that I can pull out from my body anymore.  My entire body doesn't do the wave anymore when I jump up and down.  I don't have pain in my stomach when I jump up and down anymore.  When I lay down on my side, my tummy doesn't lay in a puddle next to me.  That's all great.  So looks wise, I don't have the tight, trim tummy of a 20 year old Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.  But I never will.  And I have a MUCH trimmer tighter tummy than I did have. 

Tummy Tuck w/ Lipo, Breast Augmentation & Implants (and bonus panni lift which surgeon did in w/ my TT)... $10,000
Approximately $$$ spent on various compression/shaper garments purchased until I found one I could live with... $80
Feeling better about myself when I look in the mirror... PRICELESS

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