June 28, 2016
Today I had my third post-op appointment. Besides the drain removal, this was one of the most anticipated doctors’ visits for me because the nurses finally removed my surgical tape & breast stitches revealing my scars; and I have to say, I am very pleased. My tummy tuck scar and breast lift anchor scars are perfect. My horizontal tummy tuck scar is perfectly curved; and my nipple scar is as round as can be! One of the biggest fears I had about my mommy makeover surgery was the final scars. I was so afraid of having jagged-dark-raised-bumpy scars that I see in so many online photo’s; and one of the reasons I picked Dr. Soto as my surgeon was because of the beautiful scars on his before/after photos. Well he did not disappoint. I am BEYOND pleased!
If you think the scars look great now, they are only going to get better. Dr. Soto has an amazing wrinkle cream that he likes to use for scar treatment! I know what you are thinking …. Why a wrinkle cream? Well, as the scar heals (and wrinkles-up) the wrinkle cream helps smooth-out the scars and the dark color that usually accompanies a new scar. Unfortunately, this wrinkle cream comes with a pretty price tag; but if it yields the scars that I’ve seen on his before/after photos, then I believe that it’s worth the money. And at this point, I’ve already invested in getting my pre-baby-body back, I might as well finish the final look with light-beautiful-scars.
One of the criticisms I have is that I have a vertical tummy tuck scar. Apparently, I didn’t have enough excess skin to pull down to completely remove my belly button during the tummy tuck procedure; so my original belly button needed to be cut out. The scar is jagged – like a “z” – but Dr. Soto assured me that it will lighten with the wrinkle cream and will barely be noticeable in a few months. Luckily, the vertical scar is still covered by most panties and bathing suit bottoms.
The other criticism I have has to do with my breasts. Before this mommy makeover procedure, my breasts were covered with stretch marks; you just couldn’t see them because of all the excess skin and sagging of the breast tissue. So now that I’ve had some of the excess skin removed, my stretch marks are much more noticeable. As you can see from some of the images, I have stretch marks all around my breasts. The one unfortunate thing about surgery is that you can’t take away stretch marks – surgery isn’t magic. But even with the stretch marks, my breasts are still 100x better then what they were before surgery – and I am very happy.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the scars and am looking forward to watching them heal through this long process. But now that my stitches are out and the surgical tape has been removed, I have become extremely itchy. I seriously can’t stop itching and scratching. I know it’s a part of the healing process, but it is just so annoying. I am having scratch attacks all the time and cannot wait until this itchy healing process resolves.
The tummy binder has been rubbing so tightly on my hips that I’ve developed a few blisters. And the bra that I’m required to wear after my breast lift / implant has given me another blister on the underside of my breast. This is soooo annoying…. and painful. So far, 3 of my 4 blisters have popped and are oozing. Hopefully the big-ole-blood-blister won’t pop and will heal on its own. So in in the meantime, I have excessive medical padding and 3 layers of cloth on my hip blisters all compressed under my tummy binder.
It could be swelling. Dr. Soto said that my stomach compression was not as tight as it should have been. In fact, he seemed extremely disappointed as he undid my compression garment saying “you didn’t follow our instructions”. This really brought my spirits down. I could swear I was doing everything correctly. But, if the issue is swelling, then it should be an easy fix.
The other issue I’m having with my stomach is below my belly button. It seems that I now have a vertical skin crease. I know I’m being too picky, but it looks like I’ve got an extra vagina lip on my lower abdomen. Dr. Soto said it should resolve itself as my swelling decreases over the weeks of healing.
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