Abdominoplasty | Two Week Recovery Update

Hello from the other side! I’m excited to share more about my Abdominoplasty and my two week recovery update.

First, I want to thank you for your support on my post sharing why I had an Abdominoplasty. In that post and my IG post, I called it a Tummy Tuck. I got a bit of pushback on my IG post, and I understood it. “Tummy Tuck” is very misleading – and as many women pointed out, I didn’t have anything to tuck. My reason for doing the surgery was to repair my diastasis recti and restore my core. I have heard from numerous women sharing that they, too, are smaller frame, but had an Abdominoplasty because their core never recovered after pregnancy. I also had a layer of fluff that never felt right to me, and had only appeared after growing my 3 beautiful babies. I’m not ashamed to share that I wanted that gone.

In a culture focused on body neutrality, it can be easy to feel the need to be silent about wanting to change our bodies. I get it. I was afraid to share, expecting overwhelming backlash and judgment. And while I did get some of that, the response was overall one of support and gratitude. It turns out, many women related, but were constricted into silence by shame and fear of moral damnation.

We contain multitudes. We can at once love our precious bodies, while yearning for the days of tight muscles and strong cores. That is OK, and it doesn’t make us any less worthy of self love or compassion.

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor and this post isn’t medical advice. This post shows blood and healing progress. If you’re squeamish, skip this one.

(This post contains affiliated links.)

Nothing like posing before surgery with a garbage can in the background.

My surgery was on a Friday and I was the last surgery of the day. Turns out, if you’re the last surgery of the day, your surgery often gets pushed back. So, we has to wait a few more hours than we expected. My nerves were high and I’m glad The Mister was there to talk me through it.

The surgery itself went well. (Not that I remember any of it lol.) I woke up very sick from the anesthesia, and it took longer than normal to wear off. They tried to get me to stay overnight at the hospital, but I was determined to get home to my bed. We stayed until the last possible minute and finally headed home around 10 pm.

4 days post Abdominoplasty

I’m going to spare you the photos from the first few days after the surgery for a few reasons: first, they’re gross. Also, I wasn’t able to stand on my own and take a photo in the mirror. So, this is the first upright post surgery photo I have. And, it’s still pretty gross. I had two drains, and my incision is from hip to hip. It’s crazy that the incision isn’t what is painful. That whole area is numb – I still can’t feel it.

Here’s the thing: the first 3 days after an Abdominoplasty are brutal. I kept hearing this was a really rough recovery, but it’s so hard to know until you go through it. My biggest advice if you have this on the calendar is to make sure you have around the clock help for the first week at least. I’m so thankful for my husband and mom who really kept things going. The first few days, I felt like I’d been run over. It hurt to move, lay still – everything. I couldn’t sit up and had to slowly roll to one side to get out of bed, and even then I needed a lot of help. I was in such a fog, too. The anesthesia was still doing a lot, and I took pain meds for the first 3 days. After that, I was fine with extra strength Tylenol during the day and a muscle relaxant at night. I stopped that after day 5.

I’m tie-dyed! 6 days post Abdominoplasty

While the purpose of this surgery for me was to repair my Diastasis recti, my doctor recommended I do lipo on my sides to keep the proportion and refine my waistline. I wasn’t expecting that to be super painful, and I was…wrong. Lol. My sides are still sore 2 weeks post operation, but they’re getting better each day.

10 days post Abdominoplasty

Freedom! My first drain (the right side) came out 5 days post operation, and the second one came out 8 days post. Man, it felt SO good to have them out. They’re a pain to have to strip and empty every few hours, and sleeping with them is tough. Also, the first few days I would forget about them and they would pull a little at the entrance site, and that definitely didn’t feel good. Getting them out was easier than I’d expected – I actually had quite a bit of anxiety about it beforehand. The idea of having a tube in me and having it pulled out gave me the willies. The right side was also uncomfortable while it was in – you could actually see it poking under my skin right under my breastbone. Eeew.

At my second post op appointment (8 days post op), my doctor gave me my compression garment. I wear it 24 hours a day (except when I shower), for the next 4 weeks. At first, I kind of freaked out. I mean, how the hell was I going to sleep in this thing? And wear it for 4 weeks?? Surprisingly, I love it. Since I’m still so swollen, it feels really good to have something hold me in. I’ve been wearing these underwear underneath it and they’re SO comfy.

13 days post Abdominoplasty

I woke up the morning of Day 12 feeling a lot like my ol’ self. After being in pain and not being able to move much, it felt SO good to get up, go downstairs, drink coffee and not get super tired and have to lie down. I have a lot of my mobility back – I can totally stand up straight and bend down. Twisting at my core is still tight and painful, so I’ve tried to avoid that.

Now, I just feel very swollen and bruised. It almost seems like the swelling is moving down my torso and settling above my pubic bone. It kind of feels like early pregnancy when your belly is bloated and hard. I tried wearing jeans 2 days ago and could only stand them for a few hours. It felt like I was going to burst through them. Sweatpants it is, for a little while longer, at least.

Slowly but surely, my waistline is returning!

I will continue to keep you updated on my Abdominoplasty recovery journey! I know you probably have a lot of questions that I didn’t answer in this post – leave them below in the comments and I’ll include them in a Q + A post in a few weeks.

Thanks again to everyone for your support. This can be a scary thing to share, but I felt strongly that I wanted to be honest about it. So, here we are. 😉

ABDOMINOPLASTY RECOVERY MUST HAVES