Two years post surgery and a new job!

I guess it's been a while again.  Now that all three of my kids are in school full time I hope I'll have a little more time here.  I'm thinking I'll post some more of my favorite "healthy" recipes and some fitness tips or just a little of my own crazy life.  

So, I now have three black belts in my own little family.  That's right!  Not only is my husband a 1st degree black, but so is my 11 year old son, and more recently my 9 year old daughter joined the black belt club.  My 4 (5 in 6 days!) year old is working on it, he'll be testing for his green belt in a week... So he's working on that black belt club membership too... I guess I'd better get on that for myself...

Aww, she's so cute!

So, in all these past few months I have had a few fun medical things involving myself come up.  First, I started having really bad episodes of pounding irregular heartbeat, dizziness, headache, and shortness of breath.  So a trip to my doctor turned into a trip to the ER, and now regular cardiologist visits...fun.

So, it turns out I have an arrhythmia called Ventricular Bigeminy, which means my heart likes to make extra beats.  Luckily I've been able to get it under control with medication, and also luckily it doesn't stop me from exercising!

Next, I just found out last week that I'm in menopause... Yep, I'm only 35... That means more medicine by way of hormone therapy, because I'm just too young to be without hormones!  

But even with everything going on, I've had a great recovery from my surgery.  You thought I'd forgot?  Of course not!  Here it is-

Exactly 2 years post surgery and I don't regret a thing.  I'm more comfortable in my body now and having my abdominal muscles repaired has finally allowed me to do ab work without the muscles sliding back.  Meaning I can actually do a sit-up!  More than one even! Hahah😂

Even more good news, I've decided that because videos such as p90x, Insanity, Turbofire, and Les Mills Combat played such a big part in my transformation to this point I have decided to become a Beachbody Coach.  I want to help others find their fitness, work their health muscles, and feel successful like I do. If you have any questions etc you can contact me through here or at www.beachbodycoach.com/AliciaFriedman

This was me about 5 years ago... And now...

I want this for others.  And yes, that's the same kid!  I will be here again soon, so what would you like to see?  Recipes? Fitness video information?  I'll be doing a full month test of Shakology soon, and I promise to post my honest opinion on it.  Until later....

My mommy makeover: Christmas, FrostyVoxBox, and it's been almost 18 months!!

My mommy makeover: Christmas, FrostyVoxBox, and it's been almost 18 months!!

Christmas, FrostyVoxBox, and it's been almost 18 months!!

First off, wow! It's been a long time and I'm sooo busy with three kids at home, I barely have time to pee alone! But it's almost been 18 months since my surgery and everything is going amazingly well.  I look and feel great, I still get a little bit of swelling over my stomach scar if I go a little too crazy on the exercise but nothing severe anymore.  I actually just ran my first 5k just a few weeks ago!

So, pretty proud of that!  Christmas and Chanukah for us pretty much revolved around karate.  Amazingly both my husband and 10 year old tested and received their certified 1st degree black belts, and my 8 year old received her conditional black belt.  Needless to say that kept us crazy busy for a while!  

Just in time for things to settle down a bit I received my second VoxBox form Influenster!  I love getting a VoxBox, it's fun to get to sit down and review things for free (meaning I don't pay them to receive the products and they don't pay me to review them, got it?).  

Fist off I got this e o hairstyles brush in my box.  Now, it looks and seems very cool.  It's made of eco friendly products and is supposed to give me a "full volume" look.  Problem is, I already have really thick curly hair, so if I even tried to use this on myself it would give me a very frizzy full volume look that I rally song want!  So I have chosen to register this to my sister in law, we'll see how much she likes it. For her long straight hair instead!

  Next up I received some Thyme!  A bit of a strange thing to review I think, but hey, I'll take it! So I used this puppy all over the place yesterday in my Christmas dinner...

I used it with a little salt and sage and mixed it with a LOT of butter and rubbed it all over my turkey.  That alone received rave reviews from my family, and it also added a nice flavor to my drippings for gravy.  I also added the Thyme and some garlic and avocado oil on a mixture of butternut squash, mushrooms, red pepper, red onion, and and asparagus that I roasted for veggies... So yummy!  I could eat it all day!

After all that Christmas goodness I got to try out Celestial seasonings Candy Cane lane tea.  A great end to a heavy holiday meal.  A nice, light pepperminty green tea. With a little side of red vines bites to share with the kids, hahaha.  I'm a fan of red vines anyway, but I liked the small pieces and cherry flavor.

Sorry it's sideways, it's the only photo I took before it was inhaled by kids!

 And finally the big combo!  Makeup!  What girl doesn't like to have a little fun playing with makeup? And free is even better.  So yesterday I broke out the makeup and tested Rimmel Landon's Scandal eyes...  I like the look of eyeliner, I really do.  But I have had such issues with the stuff that I hate wearing it.  Every pencil I've tried has been almost impossible to mark on my eye lids, either I can't make a mark without a lot of painful pressure or the line is really inconsistent.  I've tried liquid liner but it's just too harsh of a line for me... But this stuff, the "scandal eyes" was Ah-Maze-Ing!  It went right on, smooth as could be!  I was practically jumping up and down I was so happy and excited.  I will definitely be buying another one of these babies in the future!

Then comes the lipstick.  NYC Expert Last Lipcolor in Sugarplum.  Now although I'm not 100% sold on the color, it's a teeny bit pink for what I usually go for

It was a very nice lipstick.  Both my mom and I tried it and we agreed.  It goes on nice and feels super creamy, which is good.  The coloring is nice and shiny and overall very pretty, and it did last a decent amount of time.  No, it wasn't one of those lip stains that last forever and stains everything, but it did last several hours of eating and drinking and surprisingly did not leave bit lipsticks marks on cups or other people's faces after beeping kissed.  I definitely give this two big thumbs up!

Sorry for the bad photo quality, front camera on my old 4s isn't great!

Now, I hate to do this, but I absolutely have to give a bad review, major thumbs down to one product in my box.  This...

Um, yeah... Gentle makeup remover my foot.  This may as well been water for all of the makeup it removed, which is to say none!  All it did was smudge and near my eye makeup all over, forcing me to rub my eyes repeatedly and I finally had to resort to cocnut oil (which worked wonderfully by the way) to get my eye makeup off since I was out of my usual remover.  It's been almost 9 hours since I used this stuff and my eyes still feel irritated and raw.  A definitely do not buy!

But on the plus side I got a nice creamy serum from Boots No7 to try on my irritated skin this am and it really felt nice.

Now, I've gotten Boots face creams before at Walgreens and I will say I'm a fan.  Everything ice tried from them has been great.  Now with such a small samplei can't really speak to the two week wrinkle reduction claims on this serum, but I can say it smelled nice, not too perfumy and it felt really good going on and my face is soft after.

So, overall my Christmas and Chanukah season has been great!  Writing review has been fun, but I'm definitely looking forward to a few days to relax before New Years!!

GoVoxBox and 9 month post surgery update

A while ago I joined influenster for fun, it's an interesting way to get to try new products!  So today I got my first box, the GoVoxBox, full of interesting health related products to try. This is what I got-

A fun group of things!  Unfortunately I personally connot use half of them...  The food shake mixes look good and somewhat healthy, and my three year old tried the berry one and loved it, but it can't try it because I am currently doing low crab trying to get my post surgery body into the best shape for a bikini this summer (I'll show you that in a bit).  Same is true for the blueberry flavored almonds...can't because of sugars!  I also have no intention of using the platter sport tampons, first I don't use tampos because every time I've tried I get sick, vomiting and passing out, yuck!  And second, they're scented, and I don't really want to stick anything "scented" inside my body.... I'm sensitive enough to perfumes as it is outside my body.  I'll let my kids use the coupon for a free Muller yogurt to try, we really enjoy yogurt!  But I fully intend to use the bath salts for myself!

Haha, my little buddy was sooo excited to get a box in the mail!  "I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes."

Now on to surgery stuff.  I'm what 9 months post surgery at this point, and I know I've been horrible about updating!  I've been incredibly busy!  But I'm definitely working on my new body and enjoying its perks (like bikinis!).  I did gain some weight after surgery, not at first, but after a while because I couldn't exercise then Halloween, thanksgiving, Chanukkah, Christmas, New Years, my Birthday, our Anniversary, Valentines....well, you get the idea!  So my brother and sister in law discovered a new diet called "The Carb Nite Solution", and we all decided to try it.  It's a different type of low carb diet that truly burns fat and not muscle, meaning that the fat loss comes with easy muscle definition and great shape! 

So this is a before and after from the first few weeks.  I've lost a total of about 12lb and several inches! I'm feeling pretty confident about my post surgery body and am actually looking forward to summer!  I still get some swelling just above my scar, but that's sompletely normal until about 12-18months after surgery to completely go away... The swelling isn't too bad, it's just a little "pooch", but I'm definitely looking forward to my stomach staying flat all day, not just first thing in the morning!!

  Now as promised, I got a bikini!  Actually, two, hahaha.  And please ignore my pasty whiteness... 

A few recipes

I feel like sharing a few recipes instead of talking surgery today... In case you're wondering I'm fine, still swelling but fine.

So anyways, it's fall... Or at least according to everything on the internet it's fall.  I live in Arizona and it's October and still 95degrees, feels like fall (insert eye roll here).  But seeing the rest of the countrys fall themed posts makes me feel like baking fall foods.  Why not?  I'm inside in the a/c I can bake whatever I want!!  Of course I went pumpkin crazy and I really do love pumpkin!  It's healthy, can be used as an oil substitute...and obviously it tastes great!!

So I made pumpkin soufflé, and it was really pretty good! Lite and fluffy and smelled and tasted like pumpkin pie... Recipe here!

Then I had to use my leftover pumpkin so I made waffles....and oh-my!  These were fantastic!  My kids and even my husband inhaled them, there were no survivors!  Recipe here!

Finally I needed something non-pumpkin and I found my idea in the frozen foods section of my grocery store...rhubarb!  It looks like red celery and without sugar is quite sour...my mom actually used to eat it raw dipped in salt!  Blech!  I love it with other berries and pretty much every recipe out there used strawberries, and my poor husband is allergic to strawberries.  Plus everything was a pie or a cobbler, and no offense to either but I really wanted a crumble, I wanted a crunchy oath top with a soft but not too sweet fruity bottom.  So I did what and good cook does, I improvised and created my own recipe.  I used frozen fruit but fresh would be fine, and if you really want strawberries go ahead and replace the blackberries.  You could increase or decrease amounts to get the right crust to fruit ratio for your personal taste.  This suited me and my family just fine-

Ingredients-

Filling-
2C rhubarb
1.5C raspberries
1.5C blackberries
1/4C white sugar
1/4C raw sugar
1/4C flour
1t lemon juice

Crumble-
1/2C flour
1/4C rolled oats
1/4-1/2t cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
1/3C brown sugar
4T cold butter

1. Preheat oven to 400
1.  Toss all of the filling ingredients together in a 8x8 inch pan, make sure to cut fruit into fairly even size pieces.

2. In a separate bowl mix all of the dry crumble ingredients. Cut the butter in with fingers until it resembles coarse sand.

3. Spread the topping over the fruit mix.

4. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce oven to 350 and bake for another 40-50 minutes.  It should be golden on top and thick and bubbly on the bottom!

Yum, yum, yum!

Six weeks finally!

Yay I've finally hit the six week mark!  That means that I have gotten past the main phase of healing, the rest of the healing is the slow part, it can take 6m to a year after surgery to stop swelling and see the final result.  

After a few days of not wearing my scar strips the hypersensitivity is gone.  I am only wearing the strips at night now and I haven't had any issues, which is great because I don't know what I would have done if the hypersensitivity had continued.

I had an appointment with my surgeon the end of last week (just after 5 weeks post-op) which went really well.  He said everything looked good and was healing well.  He took some more pictures and said he would take more at my 6m appointment and that by then the swelling above my scar should be gone and my tummy would be completely flat. Woo-hoo!  He also told me I don't need my binder unless I want it anymore...thank goodness because it was driving me nuts!  And I'm allowed to start exercising.  He said I can do whatever I want but to start out slow and listen to my body.

So, Friday I went jogging.  It felt so good to get out and move!  The jog went well, we went a total of about 2miles and I jogged maybe a total of one, trying not to push myself too hard.  Since the jog went so well, Saturday I decided to try one of my easiest videos, and do the "modified" version, so no impact.  Although the video itself went well I could tell by the end of the day that I'd done too much, I swelled so much it actually hurt!  After having Sunday off I went jogging again Monday and again it went really well and I felt fine, so Tuesday I tried a different easy video without impact.  On Tuesday again I swelled big time... Ouch.  So today I decided to see if it was the videos making me swell or doing exercise two days in a row... So I went jogging this morning.  Guess what?  I am so swollen right now. Owwwwwww....  I guess this means that at least temporarily I will jog every-other day and that's it until my body gets used to it again and I can do more.  

Other than the swelling I feel great, hungry, but great.  I am having such a hard time with food.  I don't want to be one of those people who gets a tummy tuck then gains 15lb!!  So far I've been lucky and I only weigh 2lb more than I did the day of surgery, and I'm not sure how much of that is swelling.  But I really need to stop eating so much, I'm constantly starving and I'm craving sugar and caffeine... I think my issue may be that I'm running tired.  With three young kids I'm not exactly getting tons of rest during the day, naps and such.  Maybe sleeping more will help me eat less. I've started each day with the plan to eat healthy and count my calories, and I'm not even talking counting low calories!  I've given myself 200 extra calories above what I normally eat and I just can't stick to it... I think most days I'm eating upwards of 3000 calories!!!  Eep!!  I will, I MUST take control!  I will not gain weight!!

So on to picture updates!  This is from this morning, six weeks-

Sorry they're awkward, I had to do my own photos since my husband had to be at work early.

For comparison this is four weeks post-op vs today-

Wanna see what I mean by swelling??  This is last night vs this morning, HUGE difference!

Four weeks and hypersensitivity.

The past weeks has gone really well.  I've been feeling good and have been able to be more active.  I've cleaned the house and made dinner myself and have even done some exercising.  

Now, the exercising is still really light but I feel better doing it.  I've been trying to "walk" 30 minutes a day on my elliptical, plus I've been using my 5lb weight to do a few moves for my shoulders, biceps and triceps, and doing squats and lunges.  I definitely feel a bit more flabby not being able to do my usual workout but this is a step in the right direction.

I've realized I'm still moving more slowly than I'm used to and get tired much faster.  Before surgery my morning would be get kids dressed and fed, pick up the kitchen, do my daily housecleaning, workout (45min-1hour), and shower... Usually I'd be done with all of this around 10 or 11.  With my new slowness I have a hard time finishing all of this by 12 and half the time I don't get the walk in until the afternoon (if at all)!  At least I'm trying and moving!  I feel pretty good to be doing things for myself.

Sleeping has been getting better, I really enjoy sleeping in my own bed.  Especially with the binder on I've found that moving in my sleep can be difficult, I wake up just to roll to my side and adjust.  That, and getting out of bed reminds me of when I was really big and pregnant because of how I move, lol.  

So last night since I was four weeks post-op I decided to sleep without the binder on.  At first it felt strange and even cold, but after I relaxed a bit I was much more comfortable than I have been.  I am looking forward to wearing my binder less as time goes on, except for one thing, SWELLING.  I have been taking the binder off for 2-3 hours in the evenings after the kids are in bed and I'm mostly sitting reading or watching tv and my waist will gain 1-2 inches in that time! I definitely feel that my swelling is less than it was.  Before this week I bulged out a bit above my scar and even in the mornings my waist was about 31inches (before surgery it was 29) and would grow as the day went on even with the help of the binder so by the end of the day I could be up to 35 inches in the waist!! But the past few days I've been at 29-30 inches in the morning and no more than 32 in the evenings... So definite improvement!

I mentioned hypersensitivity in my blog title here, and it was awful!!  As I've mentioned before I've been having some pretty bad itching along my scar (specifically along the front right side), but Tuesday morning about 30 minutes or so after I put on my new set of silicone scar strips that area started BURNING like I was being attacked by fire ants!!  Any time I moved or something touched that area it brought tears to my eyes, it hurt that bad.  Tylenol did absolutely nothing for it and by the time the kids were in bed I broke down and took a Percocet, which only helped in the sense that I was too loopy and nauseated to care that I hurt, it didn't get rid of the pain.  When it wasn't gone Wednesday morning I called my doctor.  His response... Take off the silicone scar strips!  I had no signs of infection or anything else other than pain, so he feels that I need to wear the strips less.  I have been wearing them nearly 24/7 because the box says to wear them at least 12 hours a day, so more must be better, right?  Apparently WRONG!  He said some people can be a bit sensitive to the scar strips and wearing them for too long causes itching, irritation, and hypersensitivity.  So he has me going two days without any scar strips on and then I can only wear them at night.  Although I feel a bit disappointed because I can see how much the strips have helped my scar already and I want that to continue, but the strips have been off 24 hours s far and already the pain is almost completely gone, my scar is just a little irritated.  

Wanna see some pictures??  I feel so much more confident in my body, I can't wait for clothes shopping!!

This is a close up of my scar, the lower red spot is where my drain came out-

The bumpiness along the top is really just the texture differences with my stretch marks.  There was no way the doctor could completely remove all of my stretch marks, they were all the way up to my ribs... Now they're just above my belly button!  And I honestly don't care about getting rid of my stretch marks, they're reminders of my pregnancies and deliveries.

And here's my four week tummy shot!

Sooo much better!

Wow, three weeks post-op!!

It's hard to believe its been three weeks already...although I do have moments when I could swear its been at least four weeks!  

A lot has changed in the past week.  First, I honestly think all of the coughing I did last week helped with my soreness in my abdominal muscles.  After a while the coughs didn't hurt so much and now even though I'm only coughing occasionally my tummy is only a little sore, mostly right in the middle just below my ribs.  As I have been working on my posture I can definitely feel that the doctor repaired my diastasis recti (split in my abdominal muscles) because I have a hard ridge going straight down the middle of my stomach I did not have before!  That's another thing... I'm finally standing completely upright! Woot-woot!!  And without tons of effort too.  I do find that as the day goes on I tend to slouch a bit, but that's me getting tired and lazy, as long as I focus on my posture I'm straight as can be.  With this lovely posture comes another great thing... My tummy actually is starting to look small!  I'm starting to really see where my end point is going to be and I'm absolutely floored by how amazing it is.  My waist feels tiny to me, which is funny because of swelling my "natural waist" measurement is still bigger than before surgery (although around the belly button even with swelling I'm smaller), I can't wait for that "final" look!

I've been having strange skin sensitivity this past week.  It's never really in the same place for long which makes me think that it's at least in part nerve re-growth.  I had about three days where every movement I made irritated my right areola incredibly...that was horrible!  Otherwise the irritation has moved to different areas around my tummy incision.

I'm also really loving the silicone scar strips.  It says right on the box that results will be seen "as soon as four weeks".... Well it's only been a week and I'm seeing some awesome results!  Before my scar was pretty bumpy and now it's almost completely smooth.  It's also starting to fade from a deep red to a lighter red.  Sorry, I don't have any up close pictures... I'll try to take some soon.  I've also completely stopped all medication other than my arnica Montana (for swelling).  I've never likes taking medicine anyway.

Most days I seem to have a lot of energy in the morning and as the day goes on I start to get really tired much quicker.  But my doctor said to walk and also to start working back into my old routine.  So, this week I've been doing my regular daily housecleaning... Nothing heavy, but Friday is my usual vacuuming day, I'm not completely sure I'll be able to do that!  It has felt nice to be up more and getting the house back to the way I like it.  I also had my husband unfold my elliptical machine.  I haven't used the machine in almost two years, the electricity on it only sporadically works so I can't usually change the resistance.  But I currently don't want the resistance I just want to go for a walk without going outside (seriously at 6am it's over 90 degrees out, I'm not going out there!!), so no extra resistance is fine.  So I went for a nice leisurely thirty minute walk yesterday, it felt really good to move. Now today on the other hand I have been exhausted, I suppose the energy and push I've had the past few days has caught up with me, I can barely keep my eyes open today, I didn't go for a walk, I pretty much sat on my butt all day.

Finally some updated pictures!!  Here I am-

So much better, right?  And just for comparison here is a side by side of am vs pm (sorry I took the pm myself so it's a bit closer) so you can see the swelling.

I'm looking forward to the rest of my recovery, I really can't wait until I'm able to start going back to a more intense exercise routine!

Two weeks post-op and so sick :(

Well, technically yesterday was two weeks post-op but I wasn't exactly feeling like blogging the past few days.  I'm pretty sure I mentioned a few days ago that I had a little tickle in my throat and had coughed a few times.  Monday my cough got worse, not too bad but coughing 2-3 times an hour is a lot when it feels like your abs are on fire every time!  Tuesday morning I woke up and I was freezing... So it took my temperature and it was 103!!  My cough was much worse and I had no appetite and generally felt quite crappy.  After double checking my incisions for redness and heat indicating infection I called my surgeon and let him know what was happening.  He sent a prescription to the pharmacy right away for an antibiotic and cough syrup.  I was taking 1000mg of Tylenol and my fever never dropped below 102.  Finally at 4pm I ended up calling my surgeon again because my fever had spiked up to 104!!  The doctor had me come in immediately and checked my incisions and checked for seroma (pocket of fluid in the abdomen), at this point I was feeling faint if I stood up for more than a minute.  He decided that the fever was at least not related to my surgery and was some kind of chest infection, and I was reacting worse than normal because I was still healing from the surgery.  He told me to continue the antibiotics and asked me to start taking ibuprofen for the fever.  Normally I wouldn't be allowed ibuprofen for a few more weeks after surgery because of bleeding risks, but at this point reducing my fever was more important than the slight bleeding risk.  Even with the ibuprofen it took my temperature a few hours to drop below 104.  During the night I kept waking up coughing and choking on phlegm.  By Wednesday morning my temperature was a nice cool 101, and as the day went on it returned to normal.  I did have issue all morning of feeling dizzy and nauseated, and at one point the nausea and coughing collided and caused vomiting... Sooo NOT FUN.  At least by the evening I felt better other than the occasional random cough.  

Other than being sick my recovery has been going well, I haven't really needed meds for pain anymore and I'm almost standing straight.  I'm still a little hunched, but only someone who looked closely would notice.  This morning I actually felt well enough to start following my doctors suggestion (from before I got sick) to start slowly taking walks.  I only walked around the block and it felt good to be out, I probably could have gone further but especially after the past few days I didn't want to overdo it and honestly it was HOT, almost 90 degrees at 8am.  That's Arizona for you!

Here are a few progress pictures for comparison-

Before-

4 days-

Day 7-

Day 14-

First post-op appointment (12dpo)

I had my first appointment since my surgery today.  The doctor took out my drain, yay!  So glad it's gone!  That was definitely a strange feeling, it didn't hurt much.  Mostly it was a strange "squirmy" feeling under the skin of my abdomen just the exit hole hurt a bit but only for a few seconds.  

On the horrible side I seem to have caught the nasty cough my 9 year old has... No other symptoms, just phlegm and coughing.  NOT the best feeling, coughing after abdominal surgery... It.  Frickin'. HURTS!  Every time I cough.  I really hoped the doctor would give me a cough suppressant but he said that he wants me to cough and that it won't "hurt" me (in other words damage his work), but I can take mucinex (expectorant) to help loosen the phlegm so I don't cough too much.

I have been told he no longer wants me to actively try to keep myself bent, I now have to try to stand as straight as possible.  At the appointment he actually pushed my shoulders back to help me straighten and I that wasn't the most pleasant feeling.  Imagine falling into the splits just a tad too hard... Not enough to pull a muscle, but enough that it burns and hurts.  He also provided me with a binder.  Many doctors provide a binder or compression garment from the day of surgery, but my doctor feels that nothing is needed for the first week or two to allow better healing of the lymphatic system on the abdomen.  So now I get to wear the binder to help keep down swelling, but I don't have to wear it all the time, maybe 12 hours a day or so.  

Look at me all semi-upright! Lol

Sorry for the weird angle and light.

I also get to stop putting bandages on my incisions, instead I get to use silicone scar sheets.  I haven't put them on yet but they sound pretty cool, they're self adhesive and stay on for up to a week at a time!

I've also been told to start walking as much as is comfortable, which honestly won't be much until I'm more upright.  I am to slowly walk more and more, and ease back into normal activities.  No lifting, no hard exercise and of course take it slow and easy...

All About the Poop! (May be a little TMI)

This is probably a bit TMI, but for anyone out there getting this surgery...

With all of the pain meds and inability to really use your ab muscles for a while you WILL get constipated!  Start stool softeners a few days before surgery 1-2 times a day, after surgery 3 times a day.  Take a probiotic, the antibiotics you will be given mess with your system and a good probiotic helps with that, plus it generally helps with the health of your gut.  This is what I take, and I highly recommend this brand.  I've found it at Whole Foods and Walgreens so far-

Also, for a few days after surgery until things get going again I highly recommend a mild laxative like Mira-Lax once a day to help get things moving, once you start going you can probably stop taking it... Last thing you need is diarrhea!  

My final recommendation is to get yourself some flushable wet wipes.  Yeah, I know most people only use these on small children.  But, they are a big help!  You won't be able to twist your torso which means wiping your own ass will be difficult!!  Make it easier on yourself, because when you do start to go it will (hopefully) be very soft which means you're more likely to need a little extra help wiping.  Please use something flushable though, you don't need to clog your pipes!  I really recommend these-

They're found in the toddler or diaper section of the grocery store.  I really prefer these to the "adult" version found in the toilet paper section for a few reasons... First, they're cheaper!  Also, they aren't so perfum-y, and they are a little thicker so they won't fall apart on you easily.

Ok... I think I've given my allotted TMI advice for the day! ;)

One week post op, pictures, bandages

Well, I've made it one week, woo-hoo!  I cannot wit until I can stand up straight, and by them I'm sure I will not be able to wait until the swelling goes away... I want to see my tummy completely flat, fight now it still rounds out above the incision some, it's swelling of course, but still...

I'm no longer taking the Percocet, as of day 5 I have been taking Tylenol instead.  I still take the arnica Montana for swelling and bruising, I honestly wonder if its working.  I have no way of noting if my bruising or swelling is less because of the arnica, I don't have a previous surgery experience to compare this to.  So I guess I'll keep taking it, and hope its helping.

I thought I'd show a little about my bandages.  I am so proud of myself!  I managed to shower, wash my hair, even shave my legs (very awkwardly and not very well), and do my own bandages today without any help!!  Yay me!  Step one towards independence!  Now I just need to be able to stand up, bend over, reach above my head, lift things more than a few pounds, and sleep in my own bed...then maybe I'll feel somewhat like a real person again. So back to the bandages.  My doctor has me starting on day 2, shower and change my bandages every day... It sounds great but manis it tiring!  I bought all non-stick gauze and I'm glad I did, no nasty stuck bandages to deal with, they really are non-stick!  So I use three 3x8 bandages to cover my abdominal incision, one 2x3 bandage on my belly button, one 3x4 bandage on each breast, and one regular gauze square under my drain tube to catch leaks, and paper tape to stick it all to me.  I also have extra gauze squares, I use one with antibacterial soap in the shower to wash my incisions and the other after showering to pat the incision sites dry.  I keep a chair set up with a towel over it set up next to the bathroom counter so that I can sit while I put on some of the gauze and while I set myself up, etc. the towel is great after the shower to dry my butt, lol because that is still hard for me to reach.  This is my some of my setup

I put the gauze pads out with their first strip of tape on them and add the line of bacitracin that the dr says to put on my incision.  That way when I get out of the shower everything goes on quickly, so I'm less exhausted when I'm done.  I also made a little place to hang my drain

 It's a moisturizer in a drawer, the bottle is taller than the drawer so it can't close and it's at just the right hight that I can stand or sit right there without having to deal with moving around the drain or worrying about dropping it (oh, holy ouch!!).  And here's the end product!

And just for comparison sake day 2 vs day 7

Side view day 2 vs day 7

It's a bit harder to take my own picture...so I had to cover some things, lol. Sorry about the lighting differences... No I have not been out tanning!

4 days post-op

So far so good.  I'm really trying hard not to push myself and listening to my body.  I can't stand or walk for more than a few minutes before I start feeling tired and my back starts to really ache.  I know the backache is the big thing I will have to deal with until I can stand up more straight.  I am able to stand up straighter than yesterday, but I'm still very hunched over.  

Yesterday's and today's showers have both gone much better than my first shower on Friday.  I have been able to take my bandages off myself because they aren't stuck to the incisions and today I washed most of my body myself.  I have to say that scrubbing down with soap and warm water feels sooo good.  It really helps when I'm stuck in a chair and funky loose pajamas all day long to actually shower every day.  The showers are still taking a long time, between taking off bandages, washing, and then re-applying bandages today's shower took about 45 minutes... So after 2 hours Friday its getting better...but I have yet to wash my hair.  I am so glad I had it blown out straight before surgery so that I can just brush it every day instead of it turning into a giant rats nest.  Yes, I really do want to wash it, it feels gross, BUT I still can't get my hands up quite enough to wash it myself and my showers are long enough enough as it is... I will wash it soon though!

My stomach still looks great.  A little more swollen and a little bruised now, and these will get worse before they get better but that's to be expected.  I'm really happy with my chest.  I was so worried that I would come out and they would be too big or look wrong, but they don't.  I know they are still high and hard and they will fall a bit and soften in place, but they look good!  They are sore too, at first it was like when i was breastfeeding, the first night the baby sleeps through the night and I  woke  up with painful rocks for boobs.  Now they're just sore like I did 100 too many push-ups, lol. I'm just happy that  I still look like me, just better!  Here's today's tummy-

As you can see the incision looks a bit bumpy but that has more to do with the swelling than everything.  And I also still have some stretch marks.  Because my stretch marks before came all the way up to my ribs the doctor couldn't get rid of all of them, but hose fly that doesn't matter to me, I don't mind the stretch marks they show that I'm a mommy :). I just didn't need the extra skin!

As far as medication goes I have one day of antibiotics left, I am now down to one Percocet every four hours instead of two, taking my probiotics twice a day, stool softeners three times a day, and arnica Montana three times a day.  The arnica is a homeopathic remedy that helps with swelling, bruising and muscles soreness... And based off what I've read and seen of other people's experiences to this point I've either been very lucky or the arnica is really helping!  I've also resorted to taking miralax the past two days because yes,I'm constipated.  Yuck!  So far I'm not uncomfortable, which is great, but I haven't gone in 4 days and I'm getting a bit worried that its really going to hurt when I do!!