u/Remote-Journalist522

TLDR: Can you be swollen post-op in terms of inches on abdomen without being up in weight?

REPOSTED with NSFW tag, sorry about that mods!

Hey there, I had my tummy tuck with muscle repair (and breast aug) 13 days ago. Overall, recovery has been going really well, I'm so grateful to be on the other side!

Pre-op, I was about 130 lbs, 5'3", pretty fit with low abdominal fat. My main concerns were a severe abdominal separation from three pregnancies (including twins), loose skin, and deformed belly button with umbilical hernia. Doctor said he would do minimal or no lipo. In surgery, he found my diastasis recti was very significant, apparently 10 cm!

I'm in a faja/board/foam most of the day, but when I get to peek at myself I'm excited by the smooth skin, flatter contour, and new belly button (still needs to heal, but looking good).

Here's my little area of mental challenge right now: I feel like I look thicker across the middle than I did before, especially from the side profile. In fact, I'm not crazy, because I took my measurements and they ARE bigger. My waist at smallest point went from 28" pre-op to 30.75" now, underbust also from about 28" pre-op to 31" now, belly relaxed at widest pre-op is about the same as widest point now (something like 33"). So, I would assume I'm swollen/inflamed, and this will go down? However, I've already been at my normal weight for over a week, so it doesn't seem like I'm holding some big amount of water weight...

Has anyone experienced this? Being up in inches early but not up in weight, and then your abdomen calms down later and slims down somewhat? I guess my hope would be my waist goes back to it's normal diameter and the belly looses at least a couple inches from what it was before. Is that realistic?

I will be working out again when able and am trying to do what walking I can now. I know I'm being impatient, but I'm so sensitive about my silhouette, it's probably the main reason I did this procedure, so I'm seeking reassurance I'm not going to be a block from the side profile forever 😂

TLDR: Can you be swollen post-op in terms of inches on abdomen without being up in weight?

Hey there, I had my tummy tuck with muscle repair (and breast aug) 13 days ago. Overall, recovery has been going really well, I'm so grateful to be on the other side!

Pre-op, I was about 130 lbs, 5'3", pretty fit with low abdominal fat. My main concerns were a severe abdominal separation from three pregnancies (including twins), loose skin, and deformed belly button with umbilical hernia. Doctor said he would do minimal or no lipo. In surgery, he found my diastasis recti was very significant, apparently 10 cm!

I'm in a faja/board/foam most of the day, but when I get to peek at myself I'm excited by the smooth skin, flatter contour, and new belly button (still needs to heal, but looking good).

Here's my little area of mental challenge right now: I feel like I look thicker across the middle than I did before, especially from the side profile. In fact, I'm not crazy, because I took my measurements and they ARE bigger. My waist at smallest point went from 28" pre-op to 30.75" now, underbust also from about 28" pre-op to 31" now, belly relaxed at widest pre-op is about the same as widest point now (something like 33"). So, I would assume I'm swollen/inflamed, and this will go down? However, I've already been at my normal weight for over a week, so it doesn't seem like I'm holding some big amount of water weight...

Has anyone experienced this? Being up in inches early but not up in weight, and then your abdomen calms down later and slims down somewhat? I guess my hope would be my waist goes back to it's normal diameter and the belly looses at least a couple inches from what it was before. Is that realistic?

I will be working out again when able and am trying to do what walking I can now. I know I'm being impatient, but I'm so sensitive about my silhouette, it's probably the main reason I did this procedure, so I'm seeking reassurance I'm not going to be a block from the side profile forever 😂