30 days out!

Today is officially 30 days since my tummy tuck! I’m loving my results its amazing looking down and seeing my feet and not sad helpless hanging skin!!! Week two I got may drains out I felt like a new person but by week three I had developed a seroma. What is a seroma you may ask?? A tummy tuck seroma is a pocket of fluid that forms in the body after tummy tuck surgery. During the surgery small blood vessels are ruptured causing seepage and pooling of blood plasma. Tummy tuck seromas are common after surgery and do not affect the end results of the surgery. So this meant I had to go back to the doctor and get it drained. Not a big deal right? Until I saw the turkey baster they were about to stick in my stomach ( how appropriate considering the up coming holiday). Seriously the needle and syringe they used looked exactly like the ones sold at Wal-Mart to inject marinade in to turkeys!!! I almost passed out! It really wasn’t as bad as it looked the Doctor gave me a numbing shot and pulled 125cc of fluid out of me. This Monday I had to go back and he pulled out 80cc which means I’m producing less fluid and my body is absorbing more the way its supposed to! Hopefully I won’t have any taken out next week. He said I still have a lot of swelling but that wont start going away for 6 to 8 weeks. My Doctor and his nurses were all very impressed with my scar he said for 4 weeks out its incredibly light and smooth which made me feel pretty good. One thing I have not seen explained in other tummy tuck blogs is how uncomfortable it is when the feeling starts coming back in your stomach. I have been virtually numb for the past three weeks and now I’m faced with dull aches and sharp twinges but it’s more then worth it! I’m looking forward to the day when this recovery is a distant memory and I can see the full results!

14 days out!



Bandage is from the drains.



Still swollen but looking pretty good! I'm not even sucking in!

 Today is day 14 I’m feeling pretty dang good went to the doctor today and he FINALLY took my drains out (thank God) they were starting to get painful! When they were pulling my drains out I thought I was going to jump out of my skin it felt like a snake was slithering through the inside of my body sooo gross! On the up side almost the second the devil drains came out I felt like a new person! I can stand up straighter(although not all the way up yet), move better, my clothes fit better and most of all I can sleep in my bed and cuddle(kind of) with the hubby! My incision is healing nicely Doctor says that he thinks most of it is going to disappear altogether(yay!) he also gave me the go ahead to start putting coco butter on it! I’m putting up some pictures of the incision now because it doesn’t look as scary as it did as you can see I’m still pretty swollen BUT well on my way : )!

One week out

still really swollen but getting better!!

side view again swollen and bruised

So today its have been officially a week since D-day and I feel a lot better! I went grocery shopping(not for long) and even walked Boo home from school! I also have laid off the meds. a lot I still need the muscle relaxers to relieve the muscle tightness. While today I felt amazingly better, Sunday I over did it I went to Wal-Mart and was out all day! By that night I was helpless and I defiantly found out what the pain-ball was for, my incision site and drains(that are sewn in) are incredibly uncomfortable! lesson learned. I’m going to focus on what I can do not on what I cant. Mil is here taking over for Mom and she is cooking 2 weeks worth of meals and throwing them in the freezer for the family! Big shout out to Mil and Mom they have been such a huge help I’m so grateful and big shout out to hubby for putting up with my cranky butt! I’m so blessed to have such an amazing family and support system! Tonight’s Halloween and I’m going to take Boo and Boogie trick or treating but I’m going to work hard to not over do it we don’t want another Sunday! I have another appointment Friday my drains are draining less and less so hopefully Doc will go ahead and take them out. That would be awesome!

Day 5

before

before side

 after side

after( keep in mind im still super swollen)

So today is day 5 the 1^st day I have felt well enough to blog. Today was also my 1^st Dr. appointment and the unveiling of the tummy tuck. The past few days have been a bit of a blur I’ve been in and out of a drug induced coma trying to keep the pain at bay its actually not as bad as I expected! What I did read about but didn’t really give a lot of thought or worry to was the tightness of my abdomen, it burns, I cant stand up straight(which makes my back hurt) and its abit hard to breath kinda like someone is sitting on your belly. To me this is by far the worst part! OK back to my Doctors appointment today. I was super nervous not only because I was getting to see my tummy for the 1^st time but because he was removing stitches and pulling my pain ball out( pain ball is a tiny tube that was sewn in to my groin area that administered pain medications) Anyway I was worried about that for absolutely no reason it didn’t hurt at all!!! When all the bandages came off to my pleasant surprise besides looking like I was beat in a gang initiation my tummy was amazingly flat no rolls, no stretch marks no tattoo! My Doctor said I looked awesome and its only going to get better! Hopefully I will be able to get my drains out next week(another pain in my ass) but I cant wait to see how things smooth out in the next few weeks!

Last cup of coffee(for the night anyways)

Sooo tomorrow is the “big day” I thought I would be crazy excited and raring to go. I have been looking forward and working toward this for a long time. Its just the opposite tonight I’m still excited but more nervous then anything. I’ve come to the realization that its really happening. I’m really gonna be cut open poked, prodded and carefully stitched back together! There is along road ahead and if you would have asked me yesterday I would have told you how ready I am ….BUT tonight ummm yea no turning back! Right? I called my Aunt Terry who knows from experience she told me what to expect(lots of pain) but assured me it was well worth it! So I think I’m going to enjoy my last cup of coffee (they wont let me have any tomorrow) and prepare for a long (well worth it) recovery ahead! Wish me luck …………..Before and after pictures will be up as soon as I’m functional again.

To cheat or not to cheat???

Today I got up and I’ve lost another pound! I’m so excited things are going in the right direction even if its only a pound or 2 a week! Good morning dilemma today is my cheat day! I have a “cheat day” once a week I still do my normal work out but I eat whatever I want for one day …Tonight we will be getting together with friends having a few drinks, some good food and I face the internal fight I normally do every week! Do I really want to cheat this week I know tomorrow I will wake up and have gained at least a pound in water from all the beer I will drink tonight…is it worth it? Then again I know if I deprive myself Tuesday night at midnight I will be stuffing my face with carbohydrates and chocolate for an unplanned cheat and I wont be able to have a good cheat on Saturday when everyone is wanting me to…………..So the big question is to cheat or not to cheat? I usually look forward to my weigh- in and cheat day every week even though I love eating healthy! I love my fruits and veggies, proteins and whole grains but sometimes it feels good to just eat junk, or work really hard for something you have been craving all week. I rationalize during my work outs “If you just push a little harder then you can have Freebirds and a beer on Saturday” it really does keep this food addict working hard! But on weeks like this when I don’t have any cravings its like as of today I feel like I could go another week with out cheating but, what am I going to feel like tomorrow? Then again there are weeks that I cheat and I gain one pound from it but the next day when I’m back on it I loose 3 lbs by the morning! I haven’t really been able to explain this its happened often the only thing I can think it might be is the sudden change in diet from good to bad right back to good again spikes my metabolism tricking my body ? So maybe cheating is not always a bad thing ???
Decisions..... Decisions?

CQ Boo Hoo?

Ok, so its not Cq anymore now that hubby is a sergeant its staff duty but staff duty doesn’t rhyme with a anything! Now I know some of you are wondering what Cq or staff duty is? Cq is a 24 hour duty that most all Army service members have to pull every once in a while! I feel bad because I should be really missing my hubby while he is working! Most of the time I really do miss him and would be bitching about the army, but tonight I’m kind of enjoying the down time. Again I feel like a horrible person because I’m seeing on face book where my friends husbands are deployed and I know they would give anything to have them home, here I am wanting alone time! While I love my husband sometimes its just nice to have a day where I don’t have to worry about a set schedule like when he will be home for lunch or when I have to get my workout in so I can get dinner cooked etc. etc.…So when the cats away the mouse will play! I didn’t workout till almost 11pm last night I took all day to do the laundry and clean the house I even let Boo stay up she helped me clean and slept with me, we watched bolt and left the TV on all night that would never fly if Daddy were home! J I did miss Hubby as soon as I slowed down enough for my head to hit the pillow it reminded me of the lonely nights of deployment. I will be glad to have him back today ……On another note I have some very exciting news my CAA got approved so I submitted my FA last night and if all goes as planed I should be starting school around July 8^th !! I’m so excited to open this new chapter! I know I have A LOT of work to do before I can call myself a “Master Personal Trainer” but what awesome motivation to finish my weight loss journey!

Fiesta Turkey Burgers
What you will need:
I small can of green chilies
1 packet of taco seasen
1 lb of ground turkey
Pepper jack cheese
Red onion and avocodo
Buns or ice burg lettuse ( I prefer to wrap my burgers in lettce)
Drain green chilies then mix together in a bowl chilies, taco season and turkey
Form into burgers cook on the grill or stove …then top with pepper jack, red onion and avocado they are SO simple and SO good gives you all the flavor without all the greasy crap J ! Like I said I prefer to wrap mine in ice burg lettuse but good whole grain bun is just fine ENJOY!!