Before and After

Here are the results of my new body. It is still swollen and bruised so it will look better I'm sure in a few months. The wierdest thing is my new belly button. It doesn't really look like a belly button but it may later. They cut around my old one, lifted up my skin, pulled it down and made a new hole for the belly button to come through. And that is just a little part of the reconstruction. I'm sure John would yell at me if I gave you all the gorey details of the whole operation. So if you want to know details just talk to me about it later. I have drains in and have to wear a corset wrap around my waste so it's a little tricky to sleep at night. Plus, I have a lot of bruising as you can see in one of these pictures. My ribs hurt and my whole back feels like it's bruised, but other than that I'm good as long as I keep up on my pain killers. If this wasn't a medical necessity I don't think I would voluntarily go in and get this surgery done. It is quite painful and extensive. I'm just happy to have my abs back together. They are holding in all that was being pushed out before. And by the way, the before pic of me at the top was when I was flexing, haha. It's amazing to me what technology they have these days that can put your body back together. I almost cried when I first saw the results because I was so happy to finally have a core again. Thanks to everyone for coming to visit, help out, and bring us food. You rock!

Pregnant Again?

No I'm not five months pregnant in these pictures. Over the past couple months my stomach is getting bigger... and I'm excercising every day! So I decided to go in for a consultation to see what was going on. I went to three surgeons (one general and two plastic) and come to find out I have something called, "Diastasis Recti" which is a seperation of the ab muscles. This is mainly from having twins. After you have a baby the muscles usually go back together but from having twins and then another baby, my muscles went kapoot! Come to find out, by exercising I was making it worse. When my ab muscles were strengthening, they were going outward instead of together and pushing everything outward. So the saying, "My guts are hanging out!" wasn't an understatement.

John and I went through hours of trying to get our insurance to cover this procedure but it is coded a "diastasis" and our insurance does not cover it. Basically, you have to get your face blown off in order for them to cover anything. But we felt good about going with a certain doctor and paying for the procedure even though it will cost us six grand.

So... after much praying, we decided to go through with the procedure and I had a full abdominoplasty on June 8th. It took the doctor three hours or so and he said it was the biggest diastasis he has ever seen. My abs were seperated seven inches! It was an outpatient procedure so I stayed in his facility for a couple hours and then went home. The first day I felt totally nautious because I had way too many pain meds in me. I also had a pain pump inside that sprayed pain meds to my abs. John took a week off and now my Mom and Sam are here to take care of me. I have had numerous meals brought in from neighbors and John just let me rest all week which was much needed. I have had two c-sections and would say this surgery is probably the same as those if not worse because it is dealing with a lot of muscle. But every day is getting easier and my results are amazing. I am going to post more pictures of my after results within the next couple days so stay posted.

After seeing my end results (even though I am still bruised and swollen) my son Enoch said, "Wow mom! You look like a teenager!" So keep in touch!