I am now 6 weeks out from my body lift surgery and I should be starting to feel a lot better and maybe even getting back into exercise by now. Unfortunately I seem to have overdone it in the last week or two and I have set my progress back a few weeks. I feel as sore and bloated as I felt at about 3 weeks post surgery and I have no one to blame but myself.
I am terrible at saying no to people and I constantly worry I will disappoint or offend someone by not being who they want me to be. I go along being all chirpy and normal and everyone thinks that I am OK because I hate for people to fuss or worry about me. Unfortunately that can lead to doing way more than I should be doing when my body is recovering from major surgery.
I am back to not sleeping because of the pain and discomfort of the swelling, which was fine when I was at home on sick leave, it's not fine when I have to maintain a full time job! I can barely stand up straight and my scar is burning like it is on fire in some places. I am very lucky that the damage isn't worse and that I haven't split any of my scars open.
I am really quite pissed off with myself because it is utterly stupid to put my body through so much when it is crying out for me to stop. Now with my birthday, Christmas and New Years in the next couple of weeks surely it'll be easy to put my feet up and rest... ha ha!
So enough of the 'poor me' carry-on, the more important question is how am I looking? Here is a photo I took of myself last week. This is the first (and only) time I have gone out without my compression garment. I did still wear a (cheap Target version) spanx bodysuit underneath my clothes, but I was much happier when I got home and could put my full compression suit back on. My surgeon has said that I don't have to wear the compression garment any longer if I don't want to, but I am much more comfortable with it on 24/7!
One thing is for sure, I have got to put the sweets away if I want to keep my flat tummy because I am a chocolate/ice cream/gingerbread/toffee eating machine right now. I am looking forward to a fresh start in 2013, but in the meantime I need to limit the damage!
You look great! I hope you get some rest. Seriously your body has been through major trauma...be kind to yourself!!!
ReplyDeleteYou look great! I hope you get to feeling better soon! Take it easy! And thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou're looking gorgeous as always but take it easy :)
ReplyDeleteYou need to take things easy. You are still recovering. And yes, you need to learn to say no.
ReplyDeleteI'm catching up on your blog posts. I'm so sorry that you had to go through the night terrors. That's horrible,, especially when you need to be clam and concentrating on healing. I'm surprised the nurses didn't sedate you! Though I am glad that stage passed quickly.
ReplyDeleteThankyou so much for posting all of those updates. You might have been concerned they wwere boring, but I thought they were great. I laughed at your admration of your belly button. ITs a little thing, but I totally get it.
I loved the gift pack from the surgeon. How lovely!
Honey, props to you.
I have a few questions though.
Did the rolls under your boobs go away too?
How long were you off work for?
How long did you wear the compression garments for?
Sorry for the late reply!
ReplyDeleteThe rolls under my boobs did go away about 85%. I wouldn't mind pulling the skin up a little tighter if I ever went back for a boob lift. I figure the surgeon might be able to pull the skin up when he makes incisions under my breasts for the lift. If I ever have the money for more surgery that is!
I took 4 weeks off work and I enjoyed every second of it. I wouldn't want to go back any sooner than that because you are still tender and get exhausted quickly. I did work from home a little bit though from about a week post-surgery.
I am still wearing the compression garments at 9 weeks out from surgery. I only had to wear them for a month, but I felt better wearing them, I have just recently stopped wearing them to bed and plan to stop wearing them during the day soon.
Hope that helps. :-)