Day 23 - Back to the gym

I started back at the gym this week. The front of me isn't really sore, but my lower back still feels bruised, sore to the touch, and a little numb, so I decided to do my cardio workouts on the elliptical as opposed to running. Everything went fine as far as cardio. I lifted with my trainer on Tuesday and he kicked my butt! I was really sore for a few days aftwerwords. The pictures above were taken on day 23 (Tuesday after I worked out with my trainer). I look very swollen, especially the small of my back.

I'll post more pictures next week before I go to the gym so all the swelling won't be there.

I'M FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a follow up with my Dr. today and everything went pretty well. I can start exercising as much as I feel comfortable with beginning on Monday (3 days from now) and I DON'T HAVE TO WEAR THE GARMET ANY MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!! He said he may want to remove a little more from the area below my belly button, but that it is swollen still and he won't be able to tell for sure for at least 2 more months.

He told me that 2450 cc of fluid was injected into me and that they removed 2600 cc of fluid and fat. He said 25-40% of the stuff removed is pure fat and he said I was probably closer to the lower end of this, which would mean 650-1004 cc of pure fat was removed! I fount out that fat has a density of 0.9 g/ml (1ml = 1cc) and I'm just gonna assume he removed about 800 cc of fat...which is 720 grams, which is about 1.5 lbs of pure fat!

That doesn't sound like a lot when I think about it and I can't believe that 1.5 lb of fat made such a big difference in the shape of my body, but 800 cc is also over 3 cups (to put it in units we can understand). I'll never look at the baking instruction "add 3 cups of flour" the same way again!

I feel amazing not having to wear the garment and am excited to get back in the gym again! What is my personal trainer going to say??? I'm going to ask him to weigh and measure me this Tuesday, I bet he'll be surprized! I think I'll let him do all the measurements, then tell him what happened!

I'll post more pictures next Tuesday evening.

Day 16 Post Surgery

The "After" pictures above were taken today (16 days post surgery). I'm feeling great and I see my Dr. tomorrow for a checkup (my first one in 2 weeks). I can't believe how much the shape of my body has changed already! I was completely BLOWN AWAY when I tried those grey pants on!

If you look at the pictures in the underwear, you can see the marks down my legs from the garmet. Again, this is after a shower and being out of the thing for about 1/2 hour. It is brutal. I CAN'T WAIT to get out of this thing! I put a circle around the swelling on my lower back. I think the top of it is where the tight, top band of the garmet ends...I think all the swelling is just getting stuck in that one spot. I don't really feel like the front of me is that swollen.

I'm hoping to start going back to the gym next monday (depnding on what the Dr. says) I "jogged" to my car this week after work because it was pouring rain and I felt some discomfort in my lower back (still feels bruised), but I feel like I could do the elliptical without pain. I also mowed my lawn this weekend and carried the grass clippings up-hill to dump them.

I'll post again tomorrow after the Dr. appt :)

9 More Days with this Garmet...

I'm feeling better all the time and wish I could start doing more physical activity. I feel like I'm going to gain weight if I'm not exercising. Although, it would be hard to exercise wearing this garmet and it would get really sweaty and gross and probably rub half my skin off.

I've determined that one of my garmets (I have 2) is actually smaller than the other one. It is smaller at the leg openings and is noticeably smaller in the waist.....so I plan to only wear this one while the other one is being washed and dried. I wore it to sleep last night, but had the hooks closed and the zippers undone.

My stomach looks pretty good, the swelling insn't very noticable but the small of my back is REALLY poofy. I think this is b/c of the way I sit @ my desk at work and I've been sleeping on my back a little bit, which kind of squishes the waistband of the garmet into my back. I hope it begins to go down. I was thinking of icing it but wasn't sure if that would really help. I've also been trying to sleep on my stomach a little more.

I have a little lump underneath one of the incisions under my breast. I have a feeling its some kind of scar tissue that will hopefully go away, but I want to ask the Dr. about it next week when I see him. I have a few questions for him and want to make a list so I don't forget any of them. I also want to ask him how I should start easing myself back into my exercise routine.

I'll post more pictures next Tuesday.

Day 8 - Post Surgery

8 Days Post Surgery and Before

The pictures above were taken this morning after I got up and showered. If you look closely at the pictures you can see the outline from the foam pad on my stomach, and the seams from the garmet on my sides...remember, this is after I've been up for a while AND taken a shower. Did I mention I hate the garmet? I'm liking how everything is looking so far.

I see quite a difference already, which is good! I'm a little paranoid that he didn't remove quite enough from the area right below my belly button, but obviously have to wait and see how things look in a few weeks. I want to bring it up to him when I see him next week though, just to see what he thinks.

The rest of my first week post surgery was pretty un-eventful. I had my stitches out 4 days after surgery. I have some marks left over from the band-aids I was using to cover the stitches. Those look worse than the actual incisions! I have a bad feeling I'm going to have some scarring from a couple of those marks, but feel that the incisions will be barely noticible rather quickly.

I stopped taking the vicodin around the 3rd day after surgery and took some tylenol, but didn't see any advantage to that, so I stopped taking that as well. The 3rd and 4th days after surgery I had nausea and just felt gross. I slept a lot and then felt even more gross. I think I had gotten dehydrated and vicodin makes me constipated, so I drank lots of fluid and about a day after I quit the vicodin I started to feel better and have felt fine ever since.

I went back to work 1 week after my surgery (yesterday). I made it through my full 9 hour day which I was proud of. It was a little hard b/c I sit a lot and this stupid garmet is very uncomfortable for sitting upright. It feels better if I can lean back in my chair, which is what I did as much as I could. I was told my maximum level of swelling will be around this time and that it should only get better from here. Let's hope the Dr. is right!

I feel more uncomfortable in the garmet from the swelling/bruising some days more than others. It is very annoying when I have a bad day because it can be VERY uncomfortable. Today I had a rough day at work. I had to drive back and forth to another site which is about an hour away (each way) and then sit (upright) in a meeting for a couple hours. This made for a very uncomfortable afternoon. I feel like some parts of the garment dig in at times and is very uncomfortable w/ my bruising. When I got home from work today, I took the garmet off to look at my skin, and it looked very puffy on the small of my back. I'm also quite itchy. Most of the itching is centered around the seams on the garmet, but I am itchy in other areas too. Can you tell that the garmet has BY FAR been the worst part of this experience to date? ugh...

Other than this stupid garmet, I feel good and wish I had permission to start doing more activities. I'm bummed about missing this much time at the gym! I mowed the lawn this weekend (riding mower) with no troubles and can't wait to start doing more. We'll see what I can get permission for when I talk to the Dr. next week.

Day 2 - Post Surgery

I had an appointment with my Dr. for a wound check today. I had band-aids on all my incisions and he didn't look at those. There is a small lump just to the left of my belly button I pointed out to him. He said it may be an area that needs touch up later, but he said it was way to early to tell. He said that he had been pretty aggressive with that area and that he would be surprized if I needed touch-up there. He was happy with the way everything looked and I don't have to see him again for 2 weeks. I need to go back in 2 days and get my stitches out.

I'm a little more sore today and I feel more tender everywhere, but I'm still not in any great pain. Its just uncomfortable. So far so good. I'll post again in a couple days with some more pictures.

Day 1 - Post Surgery

Here are a few pictures the first day after my surgery. I have circled my incision sites. This is just after I took my first shower and before I put my garment back on. The bruising is starting, but I'd still say its pretty minimal so far. I go to my Dr. for a wound check tomorrow. Only one of the incisions is oozing, so I put a larger band aid on that one.

Before Pics & The Surgery

Here are some before pictures I took the night before my surgery. Good riddance to the tummy chub! I especially like the pictures w/ the leopard bathing suit...if that image doesn't make you want to never go to the beach again, I don't know what would! I took picture of the grey pants b/c they fit me fine everywhere else, just my belly squishes out over the top...quite annoying.

The day of my surgery finally arrived. The surgery center was very nice. You wouldn't have known you weren't in a hospital from the inside. The staff was very nice and professional. When I woke up in recovery my throat was sore. They told me they had a hard time getting the tube down my throat. I've been sucking cough drops ever since. The pain I felt when I woke up was like a period cramp. I also had a catherder in, which was extremely uncomfortable. I couldn't wait to get that out!!! They gave me a ginger ale for the road and I was on my way. I didn't have any nausea. I had a couple pieces of toast as soon as I got home and took my fist vicodin and antibiotic.

I felt pretty good that day, rested for a few hours, then my in-laws came over and brought some dinner for us. I ate my whole plate of chicken parm w/ no problems! I slept ok the first night and was able to sleep on both sides and my back. I woke up very early though (around 3:30) and finally decided to get out of bed at 5:30.

The Decision

My sister was having laser hair removal at this place and I was checking out the website one day and saw that they offered lipo. They did it in house under local anesthesia and used a laser before and after surgery to reduce swelling and decrease healing time. I'm a bit of a gadget freak, so I thought this was very cool. The laser technology is pretty new. The FDA-approved Erchonia® Niera 4L™Lipo Laser™ is the tool they use in case you were wondering. This is differernt than "laser-lipo" which involves a laser on the end of the cannula. This laser is completely external. All this grabbed my interest and re-fueled my desire for lipo. I knew I could never have the body I want unless I severely restricted my eating and started working out like a maniac, which is highly unmaintainable.....

Anyway, I called them up and scheduled a free consult. I didn't get to meet the Dr., but the nurse was nice and answered all my questions. I didn't end up choosing this place b/c the facility had more of a spa feel than a Dr. office or hospital and the Dr. was only and MD, not a board certified plastic surgeon. I was kind of bummed b/c I was excited about the laser, but I decided to get a second opinion from a board certified PS.

I went to see Dr. George Chatson in Nashua, NH in April. He and his staff were very nice and worked out of a regular Dr. office, so I had a better feeling about it. He is affiliated with a couple hospitals and runs an office in Nashua, and Andover, MA, and of course is a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon. After the consult ($75) I decided to schedule the surgery and the first available date was June 9th, 2008.

Why Lipo for me?

I had been thinking about liposuction on my waist area since high school or college I'd say. Its ALWAYS where I've carried my weight (thanks Dad and Mom...). I had always said while I was in college that it was the first thing I was going to do when I got a job and money...well, this is my 7th year working since college, and other things came up that I needed my money for and it kind of slipped my mind.



I went back to grad school full-time (work paid!) in the fall of 2006. I finished my Master's Degree in May of 07. When I went back to school I was working w/ a personal trainer and was in some of the best shape of my life. I weighed 125 and had a lot of muscle. My abs looked good (for me), but still had that stubborn fat all around. I would wear a bikini w/ no quams, but not a cropped shirt (NEVER!!!). Anyway, I did pretty good the first semester back at school w/ my workout routine...then winter hit and laziness set in...by the time I was out of school, I had gained that Freshman 15 all over again (and then some!). I was up to about 145!!! I think my heaviest weight ever (I'm 5'4" tall). Needless to say, I grew right out of my "fat" pants and had to get "even fatter" pants :( My ideal size is a 4. I have never fit in a 2, and my "fat" pants are 6s. My even fatter pants are bigger.



Last October (2007) I got back in the gym and started working w/ the personal trainer. I wasn't as hard core as before and am now down to about 135. I'm not in my skinny pants, but am sort of in between those and my regular "fat" pants, which is ok w/ me. I'm in good shape and my arms and legs are toned enough for now. My stomach was just so discouraging to me b/c no matter how much I work out it just doesn't get much smaller. I usually lift 2x per week and run about 10 miles, and do the elliptical for 45 mins 1 day a week.