Day 5, Pictures

Yesterday was day 5 post tummy tuck.  Showering still is not an easy "do it yourself" task, so I have to plan them out, and last night was another shower night.  My second since surgery.
I'm not sure if I've explained how the whole shower situation works (as my first few posts I was on quite a few pain meds) but I basically have a stool that I sit on the entire time.  My drain tubes just sit at my feet, and my husband has a hand held shower head that he uses to rinse me off with.  Like the amazing man he is, he washes my hair, and then soaps me up, then rinses me off.  Honestly just getting into the shower and out of the shower is huge for me, everything is still so damn tiring.

I'm not supposed to "wash" my stomach area just yet.  Just soap up my shoulders, boobs, arms, upper chest, back, legs etc and then let the soapy water wash down my body.  I think the jerking motion could cause issues, I don't know, I didn't ask and don't really give enough shits to ask now.  When the tubes come out, I can start washing everything like normal, and I'm good with that.

The shower went a lot smoother than the first one, probably because I wasn't in tons of pain and knew what to expect and how it would go.  (I also got brave and felt my incision which if you know me, that's a huge thing.....I never touch my wounds)

Anyway.  I can't dry myself on the incision yet because of the damn drain tubes, so I still have to just lie there and air dry.  We decided to take a few more pics.

This is my left side.  I'm not really sure why this side is so bruised up, but holy damn. 

Right side, not so bruised, actually pretty much no bruising at all.  I am still unable to stand or sit fully erect.

This was after the shower, I can see a bit of a difference between my day 2 photo and this one (day 5).  I mean, a huge difference is that the crease underneath my bellybutton is opening up and looking more like a regular stomach.  yay!  Tubes of course are still in, and my incision still resembles the crimped edges of a pie crust.  Annnnd, I still look like I swallowed an entire pumpkin, my midsection is extremely taut and hard from all the swelling.  I am very much hoping that I see a partial reduction in the swelling soon.

This is more of a full body shot, still laying down.  For comparison I want to point out here, that previously (pre surgery) when I would lay on my back *slightly propped* I had skin that hung down and that blue towel there wouldn't have been needed.  

So these are my day 5 after shower photos.  My next doctor appointment it tomorrow afternoon and it seems likely that my tubes will be removed.  I will also be asking a few questions in regards to the swelling of my midsection and when I can expect to feel like I actually had something worthwhile done to it.