Good luck Quinn!! I am sure you will be very happy with your results. I will be going for my first consultation in April.

Yup. :) Ditto for my med support. They had a schedule and gave me meds on time until I said, "You know.. let's try half dose" or "how about I skip this one." Worked great.

I recommend that you start reading through previous posts here - a lot of people have shared their experiences and there's great information to be found. I read through a lot of posts pre-op and felt as prepared as I could be.

I see you expect to get in and out of a bed post-op, that wasn't possible for me until maybe a week after surgery. I needed help to get in and out of a recliner, but getting into bed was too painful.

I could shower with my drains, and I used a lanyard to clip them to so they wouldn't dangle in the shower.

I had a shower stool to sit on and also a toilet seat riser - both were very helpful.

I had someone else manage my medication in the beginning, this was very valuable for me since I was too out of it to deal with it on my own. If you must do your own meds, make sure you have a timer and a place to write what you take and when you take it. Otherwise you risk pain or over-medication.

I needed straws to drink, since I couldn't comfortably drink otherwise. I had a lot of protein shakes post-op since I had a very renewed sense of restriction and wasn't interested in solid food, but needed to keep my protein up for healing.

I used pantyliner for protecting my incision lines once I got my compression garment 8 days post-op.

Keep ahead of the pain - having to play catch up is the worst.

My doctor prescribes Oxy for pain and Valium for muscle tightness. He told me I wouldn't understand the difference between the pain until after surgery. The Oxy helps incision pain and the Valium helps an over all tightness/fatigue in your muscles (more than than just your abs).

The first days when I was taking both are pretty much a blur. I actually functioned pretty well, but now looking back I don't remember very much of it - just clips of things along the way.

Bed is very hard to get into/out of even when propped on a bunch of pillows at first. I hope you have a chair you can hang out in during the day at least, even if it doesn't recline).

I'll be 7 days post op tomorrow from a total body lift, but no fleur de lis. I stopped narcotics two days ago and have been taking 1,000mg of Tylenol every 6 hours. I have continued Zofran because it helps to keep my appetite up and make sure I can consume lots of protein. I'm also taking Valium before bed to help with sleep. The worst of the pain has been my butt/tailbone and pretty much no position is comfortable. The power recliner I rented was very useful for the first 4-5 days. I can now get up/down without any issues from most places. I still need some assistance if I'm laying in bed. I went back to sleeping in bed at night 5. Other Than the literal pain in the butt I have very little pain.

It's been helpful to have easy protein sources on hand. I've been mostly eating whole fat Greek yogurt, nuts, protein bars, chicken breast and other meat (as someone cooks it for dinner).