One Week Follow-Up w/Photo!

I am also doing the lanyard trick and it helps a lot. I showered by myself a few days ago and will try it again tonight. It looks like my incisions are just stitched together so I think they should be fine. If I'm allowed to rub Biocorneum on them, I figure some water won't hurt. Just to be on the safe side, I have been avoiding using soap near it or my drains.

My drain output has remained the same for the last week so I'm finding it really hard not to get discouraged.

Thank you. I may just shoot him an email because this swelling issue really has me down. I feel like it's a large contributor to this post-op depression I have developed.

I have a shower chair, which has come in handy, but sadly, do not have a hand held shower head. It's something I wish I invested in prior to surgery.

My surgeon didn't give me any specifics about showering, so I will have to ask what his recommendation is. My tummy tuck incision is all stitched up (no tape left), but my breasts still have tape around the incision lines. Mostly, the drains are my biggest concern. I may include those questions in my email to him.

I got paranoid and went in to see my surgeon. Thankfully it's neither a hematoma or a seroma. Just uneven swelling. Very happy about that! It's also subsided quite a bit, which I'm super happy about.

Of course, last night, I accidentally ended up pulling out the stitch that is holding one of my drains in place. Ugh! I have the tube taped down with medical tape and padded with gauze. Thankfully, the tube didn't slide out really at all, and it's still draining/ has suction. I'm going to try to hold off calling my doctor since I already have an appointment with him in 2 days. I'm hoping that one drain can just be removed then, since it's been draining less and less. Oyy!

A friend had a tummy tuck years ago (15+) and she says she's still numb. She even had her belly button pierced and felt absolutely nothing.

I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that. It's hard enough to get used to all the weird numbness/altered sensations on my arms.

Yikes! Hopefully some feeling will come back to me over time. I hate how it feels to touch. The incision line, I get but the belly area? Ick.

For some reason, with all my research pre-op I didn't discover this would happen. Not that it would have changed my mind, but still...

I can say that over the last 12 weeks, I have gotten accustomed to the numbness on my arms and it doesn't squick me out nearly as much as it did for the first few weeks. I'm sure that will be the same for your tummy over time, even if it never regains full sensation.

Awesome! I'm near 6 ft also. Do you think it's realistic that when I stretch out my upper body, that I fell fuller? I have a lot of skin and some fat too that needs removing, so it pushes up on my pouch from gastric bypass and then makes me feel my food more.

You'll probably find the opposite to be true if when you undergo plastics, and they do muscle tightening. Pretty much if you have had children, or were obese for a looong amount of time (like me), chances are your stomach muscles will need to be plicated.

Since they have done this, I actually feel food and full SO much more than before. It's like I got a second sleeve! Hahaha! My surgeon advised me that this is normal since the muscles are taut and don't have as much space for stuff to push up on. But it isn't permanent.

And hooray for tall girls!