Flat

It's been eight days since my tummy tuck and I have to say this isn't as hard as I feared it might be.

I still have two drains in my abdomen, dressings and a ACE bandage-like binder to contend with, but the pain isn't so bad. The recommended dosage for my percocets is 1-2 every 6 hours. I never had to take two and am now taking one about every eight hours. We keep stretching the time between doses and I think very soon, I will not need them at all. I don't have PAIN, per se, as much as a pulling sensation and occasional burning at the site of my left drain incision. There are pins & needles sometimes, that feeling you get when your foot is asleep then you step on it. However, I am heeding the warning of not doing too much too soon. Just because I'm not doubled over in pain doesn't mean I should go out and do another half marathon next week.

The procedure itself went very well. My PS requested that I bring before-and-after photos with me, so I did. He showed them to the whole surgical team.It only took 3-1/2 hours and my PS said he took off 13 pounds. I guess he knew what he was talking about when he was estimating! Erich was told the amount in kilograms and miscalculated so I announced 14 pounds on Facebook, but that isn't technically correct. One pound difference, splitting hairs - right? That's a pretty amazing amount. At my first check-up, my PS said a little 100-pound Filipino nurse had to lug that 13-pound thing off the table and was having trouble! LOL!

After they took me to my room (of which I have no memory) I slept most of the day and night. I remember telling Erich to go around 9:00 pm, that he needed to eat something and get some rest because all I was doing was sleeping anyway. Or at least, I was trying to. I had a semi-private room and of course, I drew the roommate from hell. Five or six people with her all the time, making tons of noise. Another fuzzy memory from last Monday was angrily saying "Shhhh!!" at them so I could get some friggin' rest. I'd drift off then her daughter's cell phone would ring. The woman acted like she was DYING - the grunting, moaning and groaning...YIKES! - except when her family was there, then she was loud, animated and chatty. They shrieked at each other in Arabic, I think. Yeah, it was not good. Ah well. I spent about 24 hours there, then we were off to the hotel.

I vaguely remember the nurse asking me if it was ok that Erich see the surgical site. She needed to pull up my gown. Of course it was ok with me. What I DO remember is the look on his face the first time he saw my flat stomach. "It looks GOOD," he told me. I took his word for it and went back to sleep.

They did the usual "you must pee to be discharged" thing and that was my first A-HA moment. For as long as I can remember, I've had to lift up my stomach to wipe after I urinate. Now I don't have to do that. Again...the little things most people take for granted.

In the van on the way to our hotel, I looked down and could see the tops of my thighs for the first time. I kept staring down. Crazy. The shirt I had on was much baggier than when I arrived.

At some point that day, Erich was helping me to the bathroom at the hotel room and we passed the full-length mirror. I was naked except for my binder and Erich stopped me so I could look at my profile. Ok, lemme say this: I didn't know I had an ass. Like, my stomach is flat and my ass jutts out. You know, the way it's supposed to? My boobs jutt out in front, my stomach is flat and my ass jutts out in back. Like a normal woman. "Oh my god! Is that me??" I was seriously stunned. I stared at myself for a little bit, amusing my husband. I now have to move my boobs out of the way to see my torso. I used to have to move my stomach out of the way to see my feet. At the beginning of all this, I bought a talking scale because I COULDN'T SEE IT TO READ IT. Craaaaazy stuff.

It's still too soon to feel the full impact of the change, of course. I haven't even really had clothes on yet. I'm pretty much living in my nightgown except when the home nurses come, then I pull on panties, pj pants and an old shirt.

I've been very happy with my PS during all of this until last Monday. On at least three different occasions during the day, I was asked if someone had come with me to the hospital and of course I always said yes. However, Erich waited and waited for my PS to come speak to him after my procedure and he didn't come. Finally, Erich saw on the electronic board the hospital has in the waiting room that my surgery was over, so he went up to my room (they already told us what room I'd be in). Eventually, we had my PS paged and he spoke to Erich on the phone. He apologized and said he didn't know I had anyone with me, that I didn't mention it. HELLO?? This made absolutely no sense to me. I didn't know it was my job to tell him, "Hey, my husband's in the waiting room," before they put me under in the OR. I'd told others. He said he didn't see it in my file. I don't know if I believe that - several people would've had to have been out to lunch that day, not doing their jobs. And even if they had...still doesn't excuse it, in my opinion. This was the first blip I had with him personally and not his assistant. Then...he never came to see ME, the patient. Didn't come that day or the next. Tuesday morning, another doctor doing rounds came in and said my PS called to check on my chart and said I could go home. Um, what? This was at like 7:30 am. His office and clinic are in the hospital. He couldn't come to see me, to talk to me himself? Really? I never saw him or talked to him until my appointment on Thursday. BIG BLIP. I wasn't impressed by this example of bedside manner at all. It seemed so different from what I know him to be like in his office. His assistant called and checked on me when we were in the hotel, but still. I wasn't impressed.

In any event, all is going well at least in the physical sense. I am not used to sitting around so much and it's starting to get on my nerves. But I have lots of things on the DVR to watch and I'm reading a book called "Heft" by Liz Moore. Check out the link - great story.