lovabutterfly

Send Message

Block

Add Friend

So i am now 4 years out of surgery abd love my body now as much as i did right afterwards, ended up having a baby so my stomach skin is now lioser than it was bit definitely hokding up better than i expected, i had always assumed i would return one day and get my arms and inner thighs fixed to finish the deal but my boyfriend (who tells me to do what i want), also says i should be happy the way i am and has also verbalized his dislike with the first scars i have so i am torn and heartbroken at thw same time. I want to feel as beautiful as he says i am and just hate tgis feeling. I doubt men will ever understand how it feels to be a woman and live in a society where someone is constantly putting young women with perfect bodies up on a pedastal. I just want to feel normal,  i feel as if i am trapped inside a body that belongs to someone 20 years older than myself.......ny breast lift is still amazing but i do have encapsulation, a surgeon from here in the states said it coupd happen again and it doesn't bother me so i see no reasin for a revision. 

I will be one year post-op May 20th which is less than a month away and so much has happened since last time I wrote in here, my scars are lightening up, I'm seeing a new man, I am now able to run a 5k without any problems, still working on toning up my lower butt, its a work in progress. Doing planks is still a little difficult in the stomach muscles, boy I never realized how bad that part would be and how long it would take them to heal, mine had been cut through by a cesarean section before so that may have contributed to the longer healing time I'm not 100% sure, my butt flap augmentation also took longer than I thought before it didn't feel strange when I would try to run, it never did hurt at all like I haf expected just felt odd lol. I am so happy with my results and can't wait to go back to get a AL, TL, small facelift and some more work on the outer saddle bags. Overall my satisfaction is far beyond what I was hoping for. Dr. Sauceda really is a wizard.  

So tomorrow I will 7 weeks out from surgery and I have been stressing over my right implant being higher than the left, all day today both have been a little achy (they do this sometimes), this is wheniI know they are settling more, so I took a look this evening and yup the right is lower and about even with the left YIPPEEEE lol, I have been worried that I would have to have the pocket the implant is in surgically fixed as this can happen with implants one settling and the other refusing to settle leaving you with one high and one natural looking GRRRR.....my right is still bigger than thother left but I am overall VERY happy with mine. My opening that is in my butt crack is almost FINALLY filled in, it was a pretty deep hole, not very big around just deep andjust today it is almost completely filled in, iI may actually get to swim before summer is up after all lol. I have wore my swim suit one time this summer on July 4th and it felt very strange iI did end up putting my shirt back on after just a few minutes, after being obese since i was 16 the body insecurity is still there. My incisions look amazing, very thin and when they fade more won't even be noticeable (to me anyway).....my only complaint right now is where i had lipo at on my outer thighs, my incision due to the damn gravity we have on planet earth has caused it to lower and given me saddle bags once again (causing fire to come outthe top of my head) ROTFL.....it is MUCH better than it was but i'm thinking i may have more lipo when i go back on the outer thighs and a revision of just the side of the hip areas if need be to flatten it out more (possibly), i'm still playing with the idea of what to do about it, i'm gonna work on some toning exercises and see where i'm at later down the road since it will be after school b4 i have anything else done anyway. I also am noticing more cellulite on my legs than i used to have, not sure if thats from the lipo or what but i'm not liking it at ALL, maybe the toning exercises will help this as well. We shall see, Dr. Sauceda has made my body look awesome i do know that for sure, i'm soooo looking forward to joining in on one of the get togethers that come once a year, i'm hoping to be able to go to the Vegas one this next year but it will be very close to after school is out so we shall see. 

my breasts are finally closer in size, the left implant has settled quite a bit but the right is still a bit higher, i am almost 6 weeks this coming monday and am worried about having to have a revision. i will wait to the 6 month mark before i make any final decisions. i read that sometimes the implant won't drop all the way and the capsule that holds it has to be helped a bit :/ i also havethe puffy tummy and i'm almost certain that it is fluid in there, i am going to my doctor monday to see if i can get it checked out, possible aspiration but it isn't so bad that it is effecting my incision i just worry that i may develop scar tissue around the fluid pocket and then i may require another surgery to fix this. when i thought about seromas i envisioned having a ball size pocket that i could easily aspirate myself and this that i have it all down in my lower tummy making me look a little pregnant but it isn't very bad at all. in fact if i find out that it will absorb and be fine i will leave it alone and not even worry about it. My daughter was down last night and has been wanting a breast reduction and lift for some time and her husband has been adamant to tell her NO WAY, well after he was here he has now decided to allow her to get one and i'm very excited for her. she has been so miserable with them for so long and she really needs this. I am paying for her reduction after i am finished with school so she will be going with me when i go get my arms and inner thighs worked on. Right now we don't even know what size her breast are because she always wears sports bras, they are so large while she was in labor they kept her from being able to push my grandbaby into this world, i wear a C or D now after my surgery and implants with Dr. S and i can promise you her breasts are about 5 times larger than mine if that gives you an idea, she has chronic back pain and scoliosis on top of that, this is really going to be a blessing for my baby girl. i worry so much about her having trouble with wounds after her surgery but i will just pray that it will all turn out ok, i know this will be life changing for her to finally have breast that are in a natural position rather than under her arms and touching her belly. i'm just so happy for her right now. I still have the open spot in my butt crack but it is healing slowly but surely and i started my scar treatment a few days ago using my bio oil every time i change my dressings and this evening i started my scar away massaging rollerball thing with gel so i will keep up with my regimen and see how things turn out. my incision around my areola and nipple look amazing, you can't even tell where i was cut very easily and with time it will be non existent. the scar underneath my breast although it is more noticeable, is a thin line and will also be very nice when the redness goes away. I had horrible swelling in weeks 3-4 and thank goodness thatis gone, that was the worse part and the horrible itching, this week has been really good as far as the itching goes, it is much better and i'm no longer being kept awake because of it. I also sleep in my bed now as of this week and my butt flaps from the augmentation really don't bother me that much at all. mostly if i lay on them wrong, i still move slow just to be safe when changing positions and my tummy muscles improve every week, i love my belly button that i have now and when the lower portion of my tummy flattens out it will look amazing.

my incision dressings: cleanse site with saline, pat dry (lightly), apply triple antibiotic ointment or vitacilina, put gauze over incision,I'm using the rolls on gauze instead of 4x4's it is MUCH easier, then instead of taping the gauze to keep it in place use Coban flexible bandage that can be found in the pharmacy section I also started thinkiny yesterday and to save money the gauze could be wrapped with a short thin piece of ace bandage that can be washed to save money. I have used this method because the tape was breaking me out so bad. I also put 1/2 of a 4x4 gauze pad rolled up into my butt crack because i have a spot that is slower to heal in this area. I use the other half of the 4x4 over my belly button and then wrap again with the Coban to avoid tape on my skin. The only area i do tape is the lower portion under my breast where the gauze is, the compression bra keeps the top portion in place without needing tape there. I got my stitches out of my breast and belly button exactly on day 21 and will take them out of my Lower body soon, i'm just watching a spot on my left hip and the spot in my butt crack that have been slower to heal. My incisions look really good. I do still feel a little tight in my incision area in the back more than anywhere and my incision in the bottom of my breast where the garment hits it is very dry feeling and a bit sore but very tolerable, just sore. Iam still sleeping in my recliner because my butt flaps are to sore when i try to lay on my back in bed and to sore to sleep on my side from them also. I have a little less than 3 weeks left to wear my garments. They sure do dry out your skin but they work wonders to keep you from swelling to much, i am still swollen in my genital area (i think from my garments being to tight in the crotch area), and my legs are still swollen but not as bad as it was. my tummy on the bottom portion still puffs out a little so i keep a hand rag in between my skin and the garment for extra compression and it helps tremendously to keep it flattened out, my mons area is swollen also and the hand rag is helping with this area also. Pain has been almost non existent during this whole process most the annoyances are just that, the itching from the tape breaking me out has been a pain in the rear as well as the itching just from being dried out from the garment. The other annoyance was the sheer exhaustion just from doing small things like getting your dressings changed and talking a shower. The exhaustion is about completely gone now, i feel about 75% better. My legs and butt still feel the most swollen and i will be glad when they go down so i can feel like there is improvement in these areas (not that they aren't improved, even with my butt swollen it is smooth and looks 100x better than pre-op). The drains i would say were about the worst part of this whole thing having to lug them around and how they burned with every movement i would make where they entered my mons area. I am so glad they are gone and keep praying that i never develop a seroma or anything. I do plan on going back to have my arms and legs done as well as the tiny waddle under my chin but wont even start planning that trip until i am done with school next year. I am very happy with all my results except my breast, individually they look amazing and i am happy with them compared to what i had but seperately i expected to come out of this with breast that were pretty close in size, my right nipple points more toward my arm pit....i was told this is the natural position so i'm fine with this but my left nipple is straight forward. I do have implants so don't take this to mean this is my final results, i will be waiting until i'm at least 6 months post-op beforei decide if this is what i am going to be left with. They are also a whole size different right now, they have always been a whole size different and i mentioned the size difference during my markup but i don't think he remembered during surgery or something. I'm going to wait as i said and make sure the right isn't just more swollen as i am still bruised in the right side even at 3 weeks out but i think even with the implants settling i'm gonna be left with results that i didn't expect. I am going to email Dr. S soon and see what he says about my breast issue, i know women naturally have different size breast but not a whole size to where i am going to have to stick with my sports bras because the cup size is that different, so i am playing the waiting game right now. I will get them sized after i am healed more and everything is settled. My email is messed up so i won't be able to email the good doc until i get it fixed.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpHPxK9Nz7A&sns=em  this was taken right before surgery  

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMctr7mdPgo  this is my kids helping with my compression garment

I still haven't updated my pictures here in the OH, i I have had some sever itching the last few days because of the paper tape causing me blisters,today seems to be a lot better in the itching ddepartment. I pulled my 2and drain yesterday, it came out easy as the first one did untiI i got to the larger flat portion with holes and then it set me on fire but I pulled until I got it to come out of the hole and then the rest was a breeze, Dr. Sauceda told me to pull it but I haven't done much of anything so that may be why I had such a decrease in the output also. I wish I had waited because I decided to go to town and when I got home my tummy was a bit swollen and felt uncomfortable, I put a hand towel in the bottom portion of my compression garment for extra compression and took four ibuprofen and a benadryl for the itching from the tape and woke up feeling much better. My breast are really sore but I think it is from the settling of the implants. Speaking of implants, during my markup I mentioned that my right breast was larger than my left and always has been but I don't think the extra tissue was taken into account because as the swelling subsides they are still very much different sizes, iI know this is normal but it is VERY obvious and frustrating to me. I'm sure it is half a size possibly a whole size difference. I'm going to wait the full Size months to see where they are at that point but iI am praying I don't need a revision, this has always bothered me and I was hoping I would have more taken out of that breast to make them more symmetrical but I really don't think it is going to go down that much, at first I just thought my right was way more swollen but I'm thinking not. When I was sixteen I would have trouble finding bras that fit because of the difference in each breast and pray that isn't going to be the case now, I am now thinking I should have put more emphasis on the size difference but I figured just the casual mention of the size difference would be enough. I know the good Doc has a partner so I am wandering if he forgot to mention it and the other doc didn't measurother something. I'm sure I'm just stressing for nothing right now but my breast was one of the main things I wanted just for me to feel more like a woman and the thought of a revision just isn't that appealing to me especially since at this point I have absolutely no feeling in the right nipple as it is. this process has been a great one up to this point, my swelling has been minimal, iI have had no wound seperation (knock on wood), I finished my antibiotic and will get my stitches out soon and am not going to get in a hurry to get my last drain out, i I want it to be draining very little when it finally gets pulled so I have a very little chance of seromas or swelling. I plan on even doing some more moving around a few days also just to make sure the output isn't slowed down because of my activity. The butt flap augmentation feels very strange when I go from sitting to standing and also when I am walking around, my butt seems to be the most swollen and I will be so glad when that part gets to be more normal looking, right now my butt and back have become one (yes tthat's an exagerration) but it is still annoying and today seems to be my "I wanna find something to complain about day", I wish I had gotten my arms done also but I'm glad I didn't at the same time. I do want to go back and see Dr. S later for the arms, legs, and maybe the waddle under my neck but it will be at least a year or more before I even start planning that, I am very happy that I chose the surgeon that I did, although the language barrier between myself and some of the nurses was very difficult I managed just fine and with my Auntie that went with me we did just fine. They aren't as clean as the nurses here in the states as far as being sterile when changing the dressing, IV, and catheter stuff. They don'tmind coming into contact with our blood, the first time my dressings were changed the nurse came in with antibiotic cream that has been used before and used it straight from the tube in a non-clean way, now the next nurse I had was patti and she did use gloves and brought in a fresh tube of antibiotic cream that was used only on me so I felt much safer. They are all really good nurses there but they just weren't taught the same way we were here in the U.S.A. would I do it again, "In A Heartbeat", Dr. Sauceda, his wife and all his staff were wonderful.....different than what I am used to on the nursing part but wonderful all the same. Dr. Sauceda makes you feel so at ease and truly has your best health at heart, he actually cares about us and you don't find much of that here in the U.S.A. the doctors here most of the time are worried more about the money than whether they are doing the right thing for you. I Loved my MTY experience and will definitely be doing it again in the future.

Omelet for breakfast was nomilicious, best meal yet. I got up and walked for a minute this day, catheter got to come out woot woot, got to unwrap the goods and shebang it was amazing lol, I was a bit hunched over in the garment and it is hard to breath in but I feel more comfortable with it on. My IV is taken out and I am now able to go pee as I please although I keep forgetting my garment has a butt flap which does fall into the toilet (ewwww), so be Careful and have three arms lol. Clip the drains to the bottom of the legs of the garments to free up that area, don't wear the gown and then all u have to worry about is holding the gauze in the front that is around the entrance of the drains and holding the butt flap out of the way. Voila it is manageable, I am told this evening to be prepared at noon the next day  to go to the clinic, soooo ready for this. 

Dry heaving again this morning, was brought some water, jello, fruit, and apple juice. They gave me some more anti-nausea medicine in my IV and I drank about half of my apple juice a few sips of water and two bites of the lime jello that tasted horrible. Dr. Sauceda came and talked to me about my surgery and said the reason for my nausea is more than likely the amount of medication it took to keep me asleep because I kept waking up, while talking to him I felt the nausea coming back and up it came, apparently he can't handle someone throwing up because he politely made a mad dash for the door as I was vomiting lol. I did manage to get a few hours of sleep after this woke up with a clearer head, slight headache and drank the rest of the apple juice and some water, I did hold the juice down, they served me tacos this evening and I managed to eat the meat out of it, some of the onions and bell pepper. It stayed down as well. While texting later this evening I accidentally pulled out my IV so it was put back into my Right hand. I noticed my catheter wasn't draining well so I had my auntie hand me the bag and pulled the bag apart so the urine could drain from the tubing into the bag. The guy who brings the food was amazing, he asks what you like and even offered to feed my auntie. The other nurses I had we're very sweet but if you need something they aren't as good at coming to see what you need, I would say something to them when I pushed the call light and they would say something back but I couldn't understand them and sometimes it would be a few house before you ever see them. I think it is more of a language barrier thing more than anything because they are very nice just hard to communicate, I did get what I needed across though it just took a little while at times before they would arrive. My biggest thing while at the clinic was how warm they kept it, I stayed stripped down pretty much the whole time, I like it cold lol. I still have no pain this evening and stay up late anyway so about 1:30am me and my auntie go to sleep and I sleep all through the night and wake up feeling much better. 

My markup was Sunday night and went just as planned, we decided on 400 cc implants and i was able to visualize what was going to happen during surgery, i ate a light dinner of crab corn chowder (yukky), I was picked up at 7:30am by Dr. Sauceda with him in his scrubs, white lab coat and smelling delicious lol. We arrived at the clinic (purple and Vanilla) colored building, went to the 3rd floor and once again my tummy is upset, I have gas and have to poop (TMI), I finally get my tummy settled, Mrs. Dr. S comes in numbs my Left hand and starts my IV, she is awesome at this, I am then walking into the OR and told to strip down and stand on a blue pad, this is where Pamela starts washing me from the neck down with the warm iodine, LITERALLY it is a iodine bath lol, she is very sweet about it all even telling you before touching your genital area. We talk while she washes me about me being a nurse and she laughs saying I know what to do which makes her job easier lol, I keep my hands on the back of my head while she scrubs me down to keep from re-contaminating my body. I then go over to the OR table which is covered in sterile blue blankets, i turn and sit while still keeping my hands on the back of my head, i swing my legs onto the table, lay down and pamela places my right arm on a resting place where the Mrs. Dr. S is standing, my left hand just lies to my side. I was given a pill when my IV was started to relax me but it did nothing to calm my nerves in fact i felt nothing from it at all. I told Mrs. Dr. S I was scared and she said you sleep now, and i did lol, i woke up four times that i remember during surgery twice while being rolled onto my sides and then the other two times was during the thigh lipo, i felt no bad pain and wasn't worried i assume because of the meds but i did feel a small amount of burning, each time i would wake up i would look up at the awesome Mrs. Dr. S and she would say night night lol, and back to sleep i would go. I woke up from surgery with them putting my garments on me and wheeling me to my room, which was room 4 with very poor wifi, i would have to lean to the right side of the bed to keep a descent signal.