Unhappy w/ tummy tuck

I had a full tummy tuck February 26 along with  hernia repair.  since surgery I have put on 5 lbs and am noticing that it is collecting in my tummy.  I also notice a bloating look.  It is not completely flat.  When I sit down I still have rolls.  It still looks nice but I was blown away by the comment form the surgeon that they could go in through the belly button and do lipo above where there are fat deposits.  I thought that I would never gain weight in my belly again and why in the heck didnt he take that extra out when he cut me from here to kingdom come.   I am not interested in being under the knife all the time.  I just wanted it done right the first time.  So he tightend my muscles and left the rest.  I dont get this.  Am I wrong here?  Thanks for your input.

I was wondering if u r collecting fluid or do u think it is fat? I do have some swelling in my mons area but it is slowly going down my belly button has a hard mass under it but it is flat ,  I did not see any after pics. I think u need to give your self more time u r stil healing and swollen I did not see any change to my stomach tell like week 14 . I still continue to shrink
Lisa

I agree with Lisa. Remember that swelling can go on for months. I know that I had swelling for about 4 1/2 to 5 months. Everyone is different as fas as swelling goes but then it could be fat deposits that could only be removed with lipo sculpting because cutting away the excess fat and skin does not remove it from the leftover fat and skin that is sewn back together. I would definitely give yourself some time to heal first.

I hope it all works out to your satisfaction.

 

LBL, BL/BA, Brachioplasty, Medial Thigh Lift: Dr Francisco Sauceda

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Give it some more time.  You may be surprised at the difference in a couple of months.

Red

I had exactly the same thing as you on exactly the same day.  I still have swelling and my doctor said it can go on for several more months.  Give yourself at least 6 months to settle into your new body and in the mean time keep your binder ON!!!!  My doctor said until the swelling is gone that skin needs to be as tight up to the muscle as possible so it can adhere.  If you keep the fluids between the two it will never heal properly and then you will have the "rolls"

I went in Feb. 11 for tt & still have swelling/numbness in my incision area.  My dr. said that the "fullness" should be gone at 3 mos.  I am looking forward to that!  Otherwise, I am fairly flat, just that swelling in the lower abdominal area, but it keeps on improving.

I also saw my "before" photo.  Wow, anything is better than that. It's a definite improvement.  Just give it some time, I think. 

I also try to keep my water intake up & now am finally allowed to exercise.  Stretching feels so good!  It also seems to have improved the swelling.

I'm not sure if this will make you feel better or not, but what you see may not be swelling.  I noticed an similar pocket of fat to the right of my belly button, at first we thought it was a seroma but when my doctor tried to drain it there was nothing there.  She explained to me that she did not lipo my tummy, only my hips and flanks area.  She said that if she had lipo'd the tummy along with the tummy tuck it would have given me an increased chance of necrosis.  This way if there is a small pocket of fat left after the tt she can take care if it as a revision.  

Does this make sense, I'm not sure? but I healed great, with only this small issue to deal with.  Do I want to go back under, not really but I have to get rid of this pocket of fat or it will drive me crazy so I'll do it.
 

Hi,

When did you have your tummy tuck? I had mine a little over 3 months ago, and do still have swelling and soreness, but I also know this can take months to go down. I also have some excess skin, my dr told me that some patients can have extra elasticity and that they can only take so much off during surgery. He told me that once I am totally healed (around 6-9 months) he will then do a revision on me to take away this excess skin I have. I do feel great right now though but still don't like seeing this little bit of excess skin when I sit down, but all in all, my tummy is soooooo much better than before surgery. When will you be having your revision and did your dr explain how it's done?

Please stay in touch.

Take care

Trust me, some residual fat that needs to be addressed via lipo is MUCH better than having a huge hole in your belly from necrosis.  I still have a little fatty area around my belly button to take care of down the road... BUT even though my PS did not do lipo, I still had the incision break down and had to have a bunch of necrotic tissue cut out.  It's a disgusting process and after 2.5 months, I still have a 1/4 inch deep hole down my incision line.

Lora

I had my TT at the end of January and I still have SOME swelling most of the time and have periods of time when I go for several days or even a week with a signficant amount of swelling.  I have an open wound from incision breakdown and necrosis, but my PS said the swelling isn't because of that... it's just the normal healing process after a TT.  The paperwork he have me said to expect some swelling for 6-9 months, and possibly up to a year.  So you almost certainly still have some swelling (and when I am swollen, it LOOKS like a small roll of fat above my waist, but when I'm not swollen, it's clear that it ISN'T fat it's just the way the swelling looks especially on days when I wear something with a fixed waistband.

On the other hand, MANY plastic surgeons do not automatically include lipo when they do a TT, so yours may be one of those and therefore some of what youa re seeing MAY be fat.  You'll probably just have to wait out the swelling period to see exactly what's what and then talk to your surgeon about the lipo.

Lora