My name is Tammy and I'm happily married for 14 years now. 14 years and 4 beautiful children later! I've always considered myself a somewhat "fit & thin" person. Matter-of-fact in high school, I was teased all the time when they called my "twiggy". When I got married, my wedding dress was a size 0...yes size 0...and I tell you it's not all it's cracked up to be...I had NO figure at all, I was like Olive Oil. It wasn't till I got pregnant with our first child that I weighed over 100 lbs. in my life!
After our firstborn son was born, I was so happy with my weight and actually looked healthy, and could find clothes to fit easily. Well...then came child 2, then 3 and lastly #4! After each pregnancy my shape just became more distorted, my abs would not go back down and I always looked about 3 months preggers, I hated that! Not only did I not want to wear a swimsuit in public...I just could not find fitted slacks or jeans that fit comfortably when I needed a size 9/10 in the waist and a 5/6 in the butt-area! It was all about stretch/lycra and elastic jeans for a long time!
When our daughter turned 2 years old and I knew we were threw having babies, I became interested in putting things "back in order" again. I joined a gym! I worked out, and crunched and crunched, cardio this and that etc....but my "baby belt" just would not budge! But...there was another thing that bothered me worse!!! My breasts were just GONE after carrying and nursing 4 babies. I located Nicole's site at www.implantinfo.com the morning of my breast augmentation surgery and learned so much about the recovery ahead of me as well as making some fantastic friends! It was at www.implantinfo.com that I found LipoSite that ImplantInfo had linked to her site. So for about 2 years I would wander over to the LipoSite discussion board and just start to "lurk & learn" about what all was involved with liposuction on LipoSite.
I have to admit that I was scared to death of lipo! At my next PS's visit for my BA checkup, I talked to my PS about whether or not I was a good candidate for ab lipo. He said he would do a "contouring" on me and my waist and abs could stand to lose about 2000ccs. Basically taking my down to the muscle. Yeah...he said I had quiet a bit of padding there even though I'm not considered overweight for my height. So we started to save so we could pay cash for the procedure. My surgery fee was 3150.00. I scheduled my surgery in fall, when it wasn't going to be so darn hot here in TX and I am so glad I didn't do it in the summertime like I originally planned to! I would have died from heat exhaustion from having to wear the garment!
I had surgery on October 18, 2001, I had tumescent liposuction of upper, lower abs, 2500 ccs, under local anesthesia with heavy sedation. Recovery was pretty rough for the first 48 hours, which I do not remember much about and from what I can understand from my husband and 2 close friends that were helping us out with our household...this was a good thing! I had 2 incisions, one in my belly button and the other just above the pubic bone. I was sent home with a catheter and it was hoped by my PS and his staff that I would just go home and get in the recliner and stay put until the next mornings post op appt.
Well, I was so uncomfortable that they told me that I would not stay still and was up and trying to move around all by myself and dragging my catheter bag all over the house, moving every 5 minutes. What I do remember about that weekend is that I felt like I was in labor and having major back labor. Standing up with my arms around someone's neck was the best way I could get comfortable for the first 12 hours. I had my 3 caregivers worn completely out! I was packed in layers of cotton underneath my garment for a full week. I had hardly any bruising at all. My Husband would tease me since I would leave little cotton dropping around the house, calling me "cotton-tail" LOL!
I was to wear my garment for 4 full weeks. It was a love/hate relationship in regards to the garment since it was just so tight and I felt like it was crushing my ribs, but yet when I did have it off to shower etc. I couldn't wait to get back into it. Once my PS released me from my garment, it was just the strangest feeling for a while and especially wearing anything around my waist. Also...I was expecting to deal with bouts of swelling, but never seemed to have any problems with it. But slowly as my skin would "wake up" and then I would see noticeable shrinking week by week...and I'm now at the "2 month" mark...I'm so happy with my decision and glad I endured all that went with it!
The most things I'm excited about are just being able to put on a pair of blue jeans, and them fit comfortably! Also...the bikinis are looking much nicer now and of course that's a plus too *wink*. I hope my story has helped some of you :o).
Good luck and Go for it!
- Tammy
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