Diastasis Recti Surgery Series – Week Two Post-Op

This is part five of the Diastasis Recti Surgery Series. If you’re new to the series, be sure to start at The Introduction!

Well, we made it through the second week! Things are steadily progressing.

First Post-Op Appointment

The week started out with my first surgeon’s appointment since the surgery. Since my mom also traveled two states’ distance to help, (yay Mom!!!) we left the boys with her, and my husband, daughter and I went to the appointment.

The surgeon inspected my drain. I was hoping she would say it was time to take it out, and she did. Yes! She quickly pulled the tube out of the little hole poked in my side (gross, right?) and tossed it in the trash. Gave me a bandage and that was that. I had no idea the tube was so long. Apparently it started all the way up at my sternum, at the top on my incision, and traveled down and out the side. We decided since I no longer had a belly button, the hole left from that would be my new one. Haha.

Anywho…I asked her about the surgery, how it went and if it took very long. She said it went great, and didn’t take very long. She explained what she did: she made the incision, and actually lifted up my stomach muscles out of my body. I was astounded. I didn’t think they would, you know, go that far. She placed the mesh down and then placed the muscles on top of it. She said she did that so that I could still have a six-pack. I really appreciate the gesture, but the thought of that really makes me laugh.

Then she sewed the muscles together with stitches that would eventually dissolve. This made me so happy. I didn’t want sutures. So by the time the stitches dissolve, the mesh will have already fused with my stomach muscles. I asked her if the mesh would ripple and she said it wouldn’t.

Then she said she just cut out my belly button and got rid of it, because, “It really wasn’t pretty.” Haha! She was cracking me up! After a double hernia, I had to agree! She then went on to tell me again about how some people will pay eight grand to their plastic surgeon to have their belly buttons taken out, and they call it the Eve Look. My question is, isn’t there going to be a scar left there for people who do that? Hm. She said she gathered the saggy, overstretched belly skin a little for me and left me with tight skin, something I thought I’d never see again there. I told her I really appreciated it and I was so happy with the surgery results.

And I am. She did great. She was so thoughtful to take up my skin a little, to think of putting the mesh underneath my muscles instead of on top. She really went the extra mile to make sure I was going to look as normal as possible once it was all said and done.

She told me I should be back to exercising, walking, soon and don’t try yoga or Pilates until six weeks. This surgeon, she is a regular comedian!

We made another appointment for a month down the road and that was that. Not too bad.

Back to Real Life

The rest of the week went pretty well. I’d be in bed a good deal of the time, and my mom and husband would bring me the baby back and forth to feed, and just generally ran the whole household. They did so great.

I do want to mention something. I wouldn’t normally bring up things like this, but I feel it is important if you are going to go through surgery while breastfeeding. The whole second week, I lightly spotted. Again, I have no idea why. I’m still clinging to the hope that my period is not going to start up again. But we shall see.

I was almost out of my pain meds, and wasn’t sure if I needed to call and ask for a refill. I decided not to. But let me say, it hurt. Everything does hurt, unless I’ve taken some meds. My stomach, naturally, but almost more so my back. In constant spasm. I so can’t wait for a nice good back-popping.

I still have a long way to go. Read on to Week Three.

You can view before, during, and after pics here.