Mike... are you still regretting it? If you knew THEN what you know now, would you have still had the op? Very inspirational posts
Good question and the honest answer is I still would never have had the operation had I known now what I didn't know then.
I am not saying that I didn't listen to people, do some research and chat it through with my GP but I was under the impression I suppose that it would be a week in hospital, a couple of weeks of being "uncomfortable" and then back to work and get on with my life. For me though it has been much tougher than that and it is now 2 months since the operation and I am still very swollen around the middle, still can't stand up straight and generally feel really rough most of the time.
When I decided to have the operation I used to stand infront of the mirror and think how bad the "loose" skin looked and although everyone who saw me in my clothes said it looked like I hadn't got any I really knew that it was under my jeans and I used to buy clothes specifically to cover the skin and not too tight trousers that the skin would hang over the top, anyway I used to stand infront of the mirror and think it looked bad, but now I stand and look at a 19 inch scar, a lump of swelling, two dog ears, numbness from my nipples to my knees and it looks a lot worse than it did before.
Of course as well now I am looking at the two dog ears at the edges of the scar that stick out and hate them already, apparently you can have another operation to have them removed but had enough of operations so suppose I am stick with them, if I wear a tight t-shirt then they stuck out of the T-shirt and look weird. The scar itself is pretty good and hasn't broken and will silver away and should be ok but always going to be visible to me in the mirror which I have to get my head around.
The swelling in my groin and up to my belly button is still not good at all, still feel like I have been kicked in the bits and the fact the skin is so tight down there it pulls things forward means it is uncomfortable to sit for any period doesn't help.
I would hate for my posts to have put people off of the operation but I would say that unless you really really need it then think it through carefully, calling it a tummy tuck makes it sound like a quick thing but for some it isn't and you might be unlucky !! I think had I have needed it for infection reasons etc then it would have been worth it but I was given the operation on psychological reasons because it was depressing me but I seemed to have replaced one problem with about 5.
Will I ever be happy with myself??? No!! Not sure that I ever can be happy as if the result was perfect then I would move on to my ears, teeth, wonky nose etc etc as I was always under the impression that I couldn't be happy until I lost weight but being big is a sympton of being unhappy and not the actual reason, if being big was the sole reason for being depressed then you would never have got big in the first place, never realised that losing weight merely meant you have to try and find out what is wrong in your head that made you use food as an outlet for that problem.
Anyway too deep !! Maybe I need to self analyse less and that would help....
All in all though I would just say to anyone who is thinking of cosmetic surgery then do your research and make sure that your expectations are realistic.
Mike
