Deffenatly mundane, pointless, but I wanted to share anyway. The hard part is done. The staples and drain tubes were removed today. The actual surgery was 2 weeks ago. I had abdominoplasty (aka tmmy tuck) surgery performed.
To toot my own horn just a little. I had some serious weight loss a few years ago. I lost 214lbs of 425lbs when at my lowest weight. I put on 35lbs from that over the last 18 months, mostly muscle from working out more and more. My skin didn’t retract all the way back, and I had a large flap of skin that hung from my belly button down to the hair line of my pubic reigon.
I didn’t really care much about the flap. Being large my entire life I have an aversion of going around partially dressed so nobody would see it anyway. My wife didn’t mind as she also had a similar problem from her weight loss.
So if I didn’t care about it why did I have surgery? I am in the military, and when I joined I was at my lowest weight, and just skimmed under their max weight limit. Now they I put on 35lbs I have to have a body fat measurment done, and one of the measurments they use is the waist line, right over the flap of skin. I ended up with a 30% body fat with an allowed limit of 22%
I talked to the doctors here on post, and they agreed that not only does the excess skin cause problems with the body fat measurments it is a minor health problem. They put me on the waiting list for the surgery which as I stated above was performed about 2 weeks ago. Total waiting time was about 6 months from when I first saw the doctor about having it done.
As to the surgery itself it was interesting. I had never had any kind of surgery before, never even a broken bone. My wife had already had the surgery to remove her skin as she is also in the military and had the same problem with her body fat measurments. I kind of knew what was going to happen from when she had hers, but being the patient is alot different.
They did all the boring pre-op stuff on a Friday. Had to give blood samples, have x-rays. Talked to the anesthesiologist. I had to show up at 0730 on Monday for surgery. Once signed in, and in the staging room (I know it has another name for the room, but don’t remember it) I changed into the hospital gown and got put on a wheeled bed. They started an IV, and shaved the area that would be worked on. The surgeon came in, and had me stand up, and drew lines on me where the major organs were, the center line of my body for relocating the belly button, and where she was planing on cutting the skin away. Then I got rolled into the OR, and moved to the surgical table. I remember talking to one of the OR nurses, and then waking up in ICU trying to throw up.
After that they moved me to the normal recovery wing (MCU) where I spent the night. 3 hours after getting moved into the MCU I was out of bed, and walking. I walked laps around the halls where the rooms for MCU were, and the nurses station. Having spent alot of time there when my wife was in the hospital I already knew the nurses, and everyone that worked there. I was so bored I offered to help, but they turned me down. I tried to get a race going between me, and the guy that just had knee surgery, but the nurses killed that idea. I was shown how to drain the tubes that were used to keep fluid from building up, and how to change the dressings. Then I was given my pain medications, anti-biotics, and was able to leave.
Spent two weeks sitting around watching movies. I couldn’t get online because my computer was down. I used my roommates computer sometimes, but it just isn’t the same. I would visit my wife when I could (she is stationed at a different post than I am). The train rides were not fun as if anyone bumped my middle it hurt.
Today I saw the doctor again, and the 50 staples that held the incission closed were removed. Also they pulled both drain tubes. I haven’t been on pain killers for several days, but I was warned by my wife that it hurt to have the tubes pulled out. I took some about an hour before my appoitment, and I am glad I did it. Now I have an appoitment with the doctor in a month to make sure everything is doing OK.
For some strange reason I had to share.
-Otanx