Abdominoplasty: Week Three Update

Back to Work

I’m 23 days post op as of publishing this post and I have to say I’m really glad I had two weeks off to recover before going “back to work” downstairs in my workspace.

I WAS however supposed to work 50% but that didn’t really happen. A lot going on, a lot of stress, and it was super difficult to work 50% when there were so many challenges to overcome.

Once Friday hit though, I went into full on relaxation mode. So hopefully that helped balance things out a bit.

So far, So good

Still can’t really complain much. Never really had a lot of pain and that is still the case. The swelling is super irritating, but not much I can do about it than what I’m already doing.

So, what am I doing?

A LOT of supplements. A lot of water. Trying to limit carbs and have more protein intake. Ice packs and warm packs. And… compression. A lot of compression.

I realise you haven’t seen “before” pictures. But at least this “during” photo you can see the swelling I’m talking about and the incision line itself. My navel is also healing and a bit red, but I’m really happy with the shape of it!

A few highlights

  • Had my second manual lymph drainage massage. Does it help? Not sure.
  • I can now get my garment on by myself. I know this sounds like a lame highlight but as an independent person I prefer to dress myself thankyouverymuch.
  • I started my scar gel and massaging the incision line. The “wrinkles” at the end of the scar already look better now.

A few lowlights

  • Around Tuesday, right above the centre of my incision, the swelling had become also warm to the touch and red. On Thursday I decided to contact the clinic. I was able to go in on Friday and it turned out to just be an irritation from the dissolvable stitches that hadn’t dissolved (and not the start of a seroma as I had feared thanks to Dr Google).
  • Unfortunately my cryotherapy session was cancelled because the machine was broken. I’ll try again next week to see if it’s fixed and make another appointment.

Not related to surgery

On Friday, my cryotherapy was cancelled in the morning but I had another appointment to go to in the afternoon – a pedicure appointment! It has been absolute ages since I got my feet pampered and toenails painted. I may have to make this a more regular thing!

On Saturday I walked to #notparkrun and did one round walking while my friends ran the normal two rounds. Afterwards we had coffee and a chat which was really nice. Then I walked home and stopped the clock at 5KM to register my round. My PW for notparkrun! Ha!

On Sunday we did a little late Father’s Day lunch with the kids. We have seen the Young Man quite a few times since we’ve been at the new house, but the Young Lady lives farther away and we hadn’t seen her since several months before lockdowns started, so it was really great to see her again. For me, it’s the most important that Ron have a good relationship with his kids, so our little get together was really meaningful.

Coming Up Next Week

  • Manual Lymph. Drainage on Thursday
  • Hopefully another chance at cryotherapy
  • On Friday it will be 4 weeks and I can go from 23/7 wearing a compression garment to just during the day. We’ll have to see how that goes.
  • I tested out the spin bike on Saturday and it felt ok, so I will do a real test of 15 minutes and see how that goes. If that is ok I’ll do a total of 3 sessions.

Here’s to a new week!

I tried so hard last week to catch up on blogs from the Weekly Run Down. It was super hard with all the work stress. Hopefully this week will be better, and I can check out how everyone else is doing lately!

Comments

  1. Debbie @ Deb Runs says:

    It’s great to hear that things are continuing to go well and that you were able to walk the notparkrun. Yay for cutting back on the amount of time you have to wear your garment this week and for your pretty pedicure!

    I hope your week back at work goes well!

    1. Renée says:

      Thanks Deb! It’s all steps forward, right? happy with that.

  2. Coco says:

    Glad to hear that things are going well. I hope the swelling goes down soon. It’s great that you can walk and hopefully use your bike.

    1. Renée says:

      Thanks Coco! I expect the swelling to stay for quite a while but hopefully I’ll find a few ways to deal with it.

  3. Liz Dexter says:

    Well done, glad the redness and swelling was just the stitches (my dissolvable ones didn’t, one dropped out on its own but I had to have the other three out, so not sure whose ever just magically disappear). Glad the scar cream is working and well done on slowly increasing your activity levels!

    1. Renée says:

      I also am glad that my clinic is so accessible and I can just ask these questions and get seen if needed. I’m on some plastic surgery Facebook groups and you would be amazed at how dire the after care is for some of these people! Thanks, Liz!

  4. Darlene says:

    It looks like things are going as planned. Which is a good thing. It seems like you are out and about doing normal things.

    Very happy to read this positive report. You’ll up and biking walking and running again before you know it.

    1. Renée says:

      thanks Darlene! It does seem like things are going quite well :)

  5. kookyrunner says:

    Glad to see that recovery is going well! I hope that the swelling will continue to go down too. I totally understand being happy about being able to put on a garment by yourself. That was one of the things that made me so happy when I had a surgery a few year ago.

    I think I’m going to get a pedicure sometime next week – it was really been far too long, lol.

    1. Renée says:

      Thanks Kim! It really is the little things! No Independent Lady wants people putting their underwear on for them!!

      I actually booked a second pedi for middle of July. such a nice little thing to do for yourself!

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