WARNING! This post contains pictures(of myself) with partial nudity. Please open and read at your own discretion.
It feels like its been forever since I did an update for surgery, but there really wasn't much to update on. I still don't have very much to update on currently, but its the 6 month mark for surgery so I thought it'd be good to post some pictures.

Not much has changed since the last time I posted an update. Swelling HAS come down, but its not there yet. I still have swelling above my incision below my belly button. It's still numb below the belly button too, haven't got any sensitivity back there yet.

I'm also still numb along the incision lines under my breasts in the crease but that doesn't bother me too much.

My scar is lightening up. I have been using scar cream but not as much as I should be. I'm supposed to be using it twice a day and sometimes I forget to use it so I think the scars would be much lighter if I was more consistent.

I'm back to exercising, although I'm sure you all know that by now. It didn't take me as long as I thought to get my stamina back after being out so long.

I have an appointment to see Mr Russo on the 5th October so I will see what he says/thinks and whether he is happy with the results. I'll do a quick update after I've been to see him just in case there is any news to update you on.

SO, Now what you probably came here for! Pictures. If you want to see before pictures for comparison, please click HERE.

Front and Side View

Close Up Front and Side

So, as you can see from the pictures, scars are lighter but not quite there. and swelling is minimal but still there and quite annoys me - still a whole lot better than it was before though.

I just hope that Mr Russo will give me some good news. We'll See!

Until Next Time! 

Question: Do YOU have any questions for me? I'm collating a bunch of questions that people have asked into a post, so if you're curious about anything, feel free to ask :)

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WARNING! This post contains pictures(of myself) with partial nudity. Please open and read at your own discretion.
It's been a while since my last update, but that's purely because there hasn't been anything to update you guys on. There still isn't that much to update you on really.

Swelling looks the same as it did 3 weeks ago and hasn't really gone down any. I went for a checkup at the clinic so that they could check the swelling and make sure that it wasn't anything else(like a seroma). The nurse advised me to see Mr Russo(surgeon) for a checkup, so I plan on seeing him this weekend, I'm travelling down to London to see him.

Hopefully, everything is OK and its just swelling. I'm hoping that he clears me to take my binder off and also start exercising properly. I'll keep you updated.

Weight is currently up by about 7 lbs, I'm not sure what weight that is, whether its water weight or something else. It's also that time of the month this week so I'm bloated and bound to be retaining more water than usual.

I have been doing walking consistently as part of the GCC challenge to keep me active. I've definitely noticed a change in my stamina, I think its going to take me a while to get back to where I was with running. I'm out of breath just walking down the street and it sucks.

I've started scar treatment on my stomach. I've only been using it a couple of days so far. I'm using ReGen Oil and Cream which is supposedly for Stretch Marks and Scars. So I'll update on how that goes too.

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WARNING! This post contains pictures(of myself) with partial nudity. Please open and read at your own discretion.
I literally can't believe that its been a month already since I had my surgery. It really doesn't feel like that long. It also feels like a while since I last updated here on the blog about it.

I didn't have a 3 week post op appointment (that's just the way it works for THG) so that may have been the reason I didn't post. I also don't think much has really changed since then so there wasn't much point in me making a post.

I did have my 1 month post op appointment this morning. Good timing too as I started to have some issues that needed to be seen and some concerns that needed to be answered.

Over the last 2-3 days, I noticed that I was getting some oozing from my belly button and it looked a bit red and inflamed around the incision line of it. I had the same problem a few weeks go, which thankfully was nothing to worry about.

Then yesterday morning I noticed a smidge of what looked like blood on my compression garment for my tummy. It was a bit of leaking from my tummy incision, kinda looked like I may have pulled a scab by accident.

I saw my lovely clinic nurse this morning, she cleaned all the areas, said she wasn't worried about it but wants me to come back on Monday just to checkup on how things are going. The weeping point on my incision has been covered with a bit of antiseptic wipe and a dressing for the time being. My belly button isn't covered, air will be better to heal it than covering it up again, I just need to keep it clean and dry.

A concern I've had was that my swelling wasn't really going down at all. She felt all the areas of my tummy and isn't concerned with anything, she says that some people take longer for the swelling to reduce than others.. and I seem to be one of those unlucky people.

I mentioned also that one of my hips seems way higher than the other, again, it's just swelling and probably the garment that's causing the odd shape.

All in all, she thinks that its healing well and the scars look great on both my breasts and tummy except for the 2 problem areas. Nothing she is concerned about.

She says I still need to keep my Surgery Bra(Macom) on until 6 weeks, then I can swap to non-under wired bras until 3 months post op.

The compression garment needs to be on for 6-8 weeks, she is going to check with my surgeon to be sure. Not cleared for exercise until at least 6 weeks.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before the swelling goes down.  I was hoping it would have already gone down at least a bit but I guess I'll have to wait. It's a shame! It's my birthday next week and I hoped to be able to go shopping for new clothes! :/

I hope you've all had a great week and continue to have a great weekend!

Until Next Time! 

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As a pre-warning, any posts from here labeled surgery may contain graphic images from surgery or post operative photos that some readers may not want to see.

The last week has been rough. Reaaaal rough but I'll get into that when I've gone over everything else. This is just gonna be a quick (or quick as) post about whats been going on over the last couple of days.

So, I had surgery scheduled for the 10th April last week. Me and Phillip stayed in a hotel the night before. I wasn't nervous at all about the surgery until the night before when we were in the hotel and I ended up completely freaking out and crying.

The day of Surgery, we were awake at 6 am and had to be admitted to the hospital at 7 am. I wish I'd woken earlier, water restrictions were from 5 am.

I arrived at the hospital at 7 am, was taken to my room by 7:20 am and then had to wait. I had a gown and stockings to change into, I was visited by an anesthetist and a doctor for bloods.

I was supposed to be going into surgery at 10:30 am but surgeons change their schedules and I ended up being marked up at 2:30 pm and in surgery for 3 pm. It was tough waiting for surgery, not only because I had been fasting from the night before, but also because it gave me pretty much all day to be freaking out, which wasn't great.
I don't remember much after getting out of surgery or that night. After that it got rough, I ended up loosing a lot of blood and my body was not building back up its hemoglobin levels quickly enough.

I was very weak and didn't have the energy to even get myself out of bed. I fainted the first two times I tried to get out of bed to use the toilet. I had a catheter (that ended up not working as it should have done) and when they tried to redo, it was too painful so I ended up going without.

I was in hospital for a total of 5 days instead of the usual 2 night stay. I had 3 blood transfusions during my stay for the lost blood and I'm now on iron tablets and need routine checkups for my hemoglobin levels at my GP.
I think to say that I had a bit of a rough time after surgery would be an understatement of the century, however, I cannot thank the doctors, nurses and my surgeon enough for the support that they gave me during the rough time. Everyone was brilliant (bar one nurse as she was horrid, but I wont delve into that any further).

I'm day 7 post op currently, I would have updated about everything sooner if it weren't for the problems that I had. I hardly used any internet whilst I was in hospital. I had my first post op appointment this afternoon and was able to get a proper first glimpse of everything.

I've provided some photos that also include before's of my body so you can see the differences. I'm also still very swollen, so I wont see the full affects of the work until the swelling has gone down.

So, as you can see, everything seems to be well. The nurse is impressed and says that the scars are healing nicely.  I had my drains pulled, that was a weird experience, felt SO odd and uncomfortable, but over within a couple of seconds.

Before and After picture of Stomach

Dressings were taken off and replaced with fresh ones. I was able to get photos of everything in between the change. The nurse was fantastic at the Cambridge clinic. Very professional and patient when she knew I was in discomfort.

All in all, my experience so far with The Hospital Group has been fab and I'd recommend the company to anyone.

I think that's all for my update. I'm sure I'm missing something, but also sure this post is long enough!

But before I end the post, I want to say a massive thank you to Phillip, who has been so supportive and caring of the journey that I've taken and has been there to help me when I've needed it over the past week.

My surgery posts will probably only be every week unless there's something major to discuss. I know that this topic isn't to everyone's interests.

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