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Today is the official six week OTR for my BR and TT.  I do have about four open spots on my TT incision, three are small to where I keep polysporin on it and just a small bandaid. One is about the size of a warped quarter and this is the one where you can see the 1.5 inch of the stitch that PS says I had an reaction to. You can see the healing around it, but it is still oozy and bleeding. Today I went from the pantyliner and polysporin covering the whole area to individual bandaids and polysporin, with a bigger patch bandaid over the large one. I can tell that I am getting feeling back in the area between my belly button and pubic area. Scar still looks red, not fading, but since I developed open spots, I stopped with any massage and lotion, only doing some massage with antibacterial soap in the shower. In this area, the skin is now NOT looking shiny/slickish and super firm/hard. So maybe things are loosening up a bit? Is this normal? And today I have a pair of my "cute" jeans on, but cannot wear the granny panties with firm support. Every once in awhile, I kinda feel strange in the TT area. Is this normal because I do not have any firm pressure there? This is not a daily thing, just the outfit I chose to wear today. Also, to those of you TT'ers who are months out, did you gain back any weight? How did it affect your TT? What exercises did you start doing when able to keep this area looking good and when was that time period in your healing process? Right now I have a little bulge between IBT's and TT area, and I would like to get that down before it is too late. My neighbor has a son who is a personal trainer and the next time he comes up, I'm asking his advice also. Keeping up with my protein and eating healthier, but I'm not going to try any exercise until 1-open spots are gone and 2-PS says I can. Next appt. is Feb 8th. Thanks for any imput!  -- |
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OH yeah. When I get home from work, or on weekends when I am just at home, I still wear the compression garment all night until morning. It just feels good for that tightness after not having it all day, but at times does get uncomfortable. -- |
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Hi Susan, Happy 6 week anniversary being in the''flatlands and over the rainbow."Over the rainbow" refers to your breast reduction and the 'flatlands " refers to your tummy tuck. You are still very early in the recovery and will have many wonderful changes take place as your body recovers at it's own pace. Sometimes we don't see complete results for six months to a year or more depending on your medical history. Please continue healthy lifestyle, drink hot lemon to release more fluid, watch your salt intake, rest as much as possible, and most of all Follow doctor's recovery plan for best results. I'm sending healing thoughts your way.Take Care of yourself because we all care for each other. Shirley
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Hi Susan - time is flying by, huh? Yesterday was 8 weeks for me so I'm not too far ahead of you but I'll tell you what's up with me. Fortunately I did not develop open spots, but my TT incision is not as happy as my BR incisions. My BR incisions look relatively fine and pale; the vertical and circular incisions have faded pretty well. The anchor incision is redder and thicker. Maybe because it's got the bra sitting on it or because that area has more stress on it? The TT incision is healing fine but is redder and more irritated looking, especially by my hips. My incision goes really far - maybe because he used that incision to do lipo on my hips. I've been massaging the breast scars in the shower in the morning with regular unscented soap for sensitive skin. At night I massage with either Aquaphor or Bio Oil (I don't really like the smell of the Bio Oil). When I saw my PS at one month I asked him what I should do to help my scars heal well and he said nothing. I don't see him again until 3 months after surgery but I'll ask him again then. I did scar massage last year when I had shoulder surgery. The surgeon didn't tell me to do it but the physical therapist did. I'm just starting to massage the TT scar - I don't massage very much, I just rub lotion on it. It still feels weird to touch that area, especially in the center. I started getting some feeling in my stomach back a few weeks ago. I'm still numb in a lot of places, but I noticed my right hip has feeling now (left one still doesn't) so hopefully it will continue to improve. Still have a lot of numbness in my breasts. I do think it's normal to feel weird in the TT area. It's like when you have novocaine in your mouth and it's half asleep/half awake. It probably also feels very weird to you to be without CG or support undies since you've been wearing them. (when I saw my PS at four weeks he said I didn't need to wear anything, so I took off the binder and haven't worn it since. Just wearing regular underwear because I've never found supportive underwear that is comfy. Still wearing the front hook stretchy bras most days. I've tried to find some soft cup bras that fit but they give me horrible shape. I'll probably just wait a while and then try an underwire; I know it will look much better.) I have a handheld magnifying mirror tht I use to check my incisions/scars. The other day I noticed that I still have some purplish color along the TT incision. The area where the tummy meets the pubic area is still hard (I assume that's swelling) and feels weird. But it's better than originally when everything was swollen! Yes, I'd say the fact that your skin is not shiny, smooth, and hard is a good thing. Hopefully the skin is getting back to normal. As far as exercise, I need to start on that slowly. I horsebackride and that requires tremendous core strength, so I'm hoping that when I start riding again that will help get my abdominal muscles strong. You might want to look into Pilates if you've never tried it (once you're healed of course). It is really good for strengthening and firming the abdominal area. I'm hoping that I will be motivated to exercise and eat better (poor nutrition is my downfall) and drop some weight (I'm still heavy, the TT just took away the seriously excess abdominal skin and flab) so that I am healthier and look good all over. My biggest problem right now? I can't find jeans that are cut right for me. I've always had a big waist and I still do but now my hips are much smaller so the jeans that seem to fit slide down. I also have excess fabric in the crotch. I can't wear the really low cut jeans, but the higher cut ones have too much fabric in front (I used to have so much weight in my stomach that it filled out the jeans). Good luck with your healing Susan. I'm sorry you're dealing with the open spots. If you need to, try the non-stick gauze pads and don't pull them off - let them fall off in the shower. That's what I did right after surgery when I had some weepy spots under my breasts. -- |
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Thanks for responding LauraAA! My TT incisions look worse than my BR. It seems like its darker red, almost irritated. I don't know why, you would think that the BR would because there is more direct contact with the bra. My open spots have gone down from 4 to 2 now. I started NOT using the panty liners as the covering, and went to bandaids, latex free, sensitive skin and only changing them twice a day, lots of polysporin underneath. The two spots healed after two days using this. The biggest one still looks yucky, that is the one that has the stitch showing. I use bar soap in the shower and alternate between anti-bacterial and Dove moisturizing. And the bar soap does my massaging. But out of the shower, I've quit using any lotion or creams until all the spots are closed. I also had lipo on my hips and that area is still pretty numb and swollen. Also the sides of my breasts are still pretty swollen, probably from the lipo there too. I wonder if there is anything I can do for that swelling? Funny, I have a small hand-held mirror to check my incisions too! LOL And I check them every morning and every night. The one thing I find is on my Lefty, it is still pretty purplish. This is the one that was the sorest and more swollen. I'm hoping it will go away. I was at Wmart and just bought an underwire in the 40D, which is what three of my others are, and it is too small! Especially the band size. Very tight. Kept the receipt. I tried on 40C's at Pennys this weekend and they are too small. I guess I will have to pick a day to just do bras, take my daughter and keep sending her out for this size or that brand. I really need another black bra. But I have been having fun buying tops! I, too, am having problems with my jeans. One pair I am washing in HOT and drying on high heat to get them to shrink up some more. I guess I should be somewhat happy that they are getting big on me, but I haven't lost that much weight lately. I'm tall and it is really hard to find jeans in my size that are "long". And I have no butt, so nothing in the rear to hold stuff up. LOL. May have to go to the men's section again. When I was a teenager, that was the only jeans I wore, boys/mens, because I was so skinny, no butt, and tall. Girl jeans never fit me right. Looking forward to going to the PS Feb 8th. Have more questions and having him look at this TT incision, tell me why it looks "mad". I don't know how the open spots affect the scar. Oh, another from my shopping weekend, something I've never been able to buy before. Went to Dillards to find a bra, just look at them. (Lady asked if I wanted measured, but I don't think so just yet.) Anyway, didn't find any non-wire bras I liked and went over to the nightie section. They had a sale rack on some lingere. Youngest daughter (23) was with me, and kept giving me funny looks. I picked up three skimpy ones, went in and tried them on AND THEY FIT!!!! Never had I been able to buy this stuff before. PLUS, they were on sale, usually $45 and up, but were around $17, so I thought, why not, Valentine's Day present for DH. Went to pay for them and they were $8 each. Not only on sale, but %% off the sale amount. For $30 I got three new nighties, sexy ones too!  And also got two pairs of "flirty" panties to wear with my low-rise jeans, in LARGE and not XL! (Happy dance). Funny, DH and I were down at my parents visiting them and DD/GD, mom wanted to see what I bought. Showed her, DH walked in, shook his head, and I ended up showing not only DH, mom, but dad too. Everyone just laughed. Mom told DH that it looked like he was in for some fun times. -- |
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