7 weeks post LBL/BL

Hey Guys!

I think this will probably be my last update for awhile at least. I would say I had an easier than normal recovery from my LBL/BL, but they aren't kidding when they say it's long. Here are my thoughts as of now:

• After about week 4 I noticed I wasn't thinking about it as much or being as gentle when dressing/undressing. I didn't feel as much soreness/stiffness upon standing if I had been sitting for a long period. My butt started to hurt less.
• I still have one opening that has been there due to a spit stitch on the back side of my right hip. It's about 1/4" long and after about 3 weeks is now starting to fill in with skin more actively. I have been keeping it clean and putting Bactroban (prescribed by my surgeon) on it.
• I was cleared to work out at 6 weeks and I ran once and did a little weight lifting, but I am taking it super easy until the last spot is closed up. I noticed it was worse/bigger after that first work out. I'm hoping to try running again Easter weekend with a running club!
• The workout didn't really make me terribly sore, but packing/moving has given me a lot of muscle soreness in my "new" glutes. Specifically the area that was auto-augmented.
• I still have lax skin. I'm so, so happy with my results but I think it's important to note that when you have lost 155lbs, one of the reasons it's so important to pick a surgeon who specializes in massive WL is because our skin is a real ******* and it's never going to be perfect. From the front/side view in pictures, I'm totally flat but there's still skin there when I sit/bend over. I feel like this is something I didn't realize would happen, but it does. I'll be interested to see what happens with working out and even what happens if I gain a few pounds.
• I'm still wearing compression from the time I get dressed until I get into PJ's at night. Nothing overnight though and I'm finally sleeping like I did before surgery. I've tried without compression a couple days and I only make it until noontime before my abs feel like they are falling out or something.
• I'm still very numb. I have numbness in the top of both glutes until about the center of my butt, the lower part of my abdomen near the incision and the right side of my mons. I can't feel anything but the muscle underneath routinely feels like it's itching!

I will upload a picture of the front of my incision at 7 weeks post-op. Note, that I'm laying down in the picture so my stomach looks especially amazing.

YAY! It sounds like you're doing awesome. I can't remember how I was at seven weeks out but similar to you, I think. Feeling really good, back to being "normal" to some extent. I used to just walk in the bathroom butt naked to brush my teeth and look at my new shape! I would marvel at Dr. Ms work. I actually still do, and I am almost 3 years post-op from my LBL I think! I also have found that when I bend over I get a small bunch of stomach skin but man, compared to how I looked before my LBL, it's nothing to even notice. I am so glad you are happy with your results and sleeping well and feeling good. Clothes fit so differently, right?

Ha! I do the same thing. Especially since it never looks better than first thing in the morning before the swelling can set in!

Given I've always been either apple shaped or 'ruler' shaped it's funny to have hips/butt. My butt is not large by any means but it's there now. Also, I put on Jon's PJ pants and realized that clothes cut for men don't fit over women's hips very well - that's not an issue I've ever had. My jeans about 1 size too big now, and I need to shop for some eventually. My shirts fit remarkably the same, but I love not having to worry about wearing an iron bra to hold up the girls. My breasts stayed exactly the same cup size as what they 'packaged up' as before.

I can totally go braless as well if I want. My breasts were always a completely different cup size, so having symmetrical breasts that stay where they are supposed to is a miracle.

How nice to have a nice butt and hips now, right?!

Also, I was thinking about the stomach skin that bunches up a tiny bit and it's really only when I lean forward. In a bikini. Which is a marvel in itself that at 40 I wear a bikini in public. Since I could not wear one even as a teenager. So it's a first in life for me!

I'll take pictures at some point. When I get into plank I still have hang going on, but it's like 1/4 of what I had or less. Sitting in a bikini gives me some pooch, but honestly in order to not rip the skin doesn't that happen to everyone? I truly don't know these things, lol. I've always been big!

Great question! I have no idea if that's normal since I was always big too! So I just think damn I look better now than before and totally don't focus on the things that are not perfect. I mean, my thighs sag, my knees are still fat, my lower arms and wrists are thick. I'm no Heidi Klum! But I feel a million times better than when I would wake up at 350 lbs with aching knees, having to strategize how to not have to walk far, not get sat in a booth, not get a middle airplane seat, etc. So I will take the weird sags and lumps any day! Maybe that should be my advice to anyone getting plastics lol. Don't expect perfection but love what your body is able to achieve :)

I am a lot older than you and had never worn a bikini in my life. Found out I love them. Still shy to wear them in public.

If you didn't have skin when you bent over, you wouldn't be able to stand up straight because it would be too tight!

Yeah, certainly not as much as I have left. I've seen other LBL/TT post op pictures without the degree of hanging I have. Disclaimer: I am not blaming Dr. M for any of that, I realize that it's just it is. I think I probably would have benefited more from a Fleur De Lis but I wouldn't have chosen that given the option anyway, I don't think.

At the same time, it's funny what I can see from my point of view that when Jon takes a picture, I realize isn't obvious to anyone else.

I read a blog for a woman who had an LBL and she talks about the hang she still has when she does planks/push ups. I think it has a lot to do with longitudinal laxity that only a fleur de lis incision would have fixed.