Six Months Update

OK, let me just start by saying

HOLY SHIT HOW HAS IT BEEN SIX MONTHS?

Yowza.

Honestly, a lot has happened in the six months since my surgery and I feel like I’m really hitting a groove with how I feel in my post-op body. Some notable improvements:

I almost never have back pain
My hips have stopped aching
I’m able to do exercises I haven’t felt confident in
I’m lifting heavier
I don’t pee when I run, sneeze, etc. (though yelling and jumping during playoffs/final hockey games remains an issue… 😉 )

Vanity certainly weighed into the decision to have my abdominoplasty but the muscle repair element was entirely about strength and function. I can’t clearly articulate what the physical improvement in core strength and stability means to me.

I went back to the gym in January, around 8 weeks post-op and I eased into exercise again. At the same time, I signed up for my gym’s Transformation Challenge, an eight-week competition where participants signed up to either lose body fat or gain muscle mass. Since regaining muscle post-op (and in general – hi, not getting younger over here!) was important to me, I chose to focus on muscle mass increase.

And did I ever increase my muscle mass!

In 8-weeks, I gained a whopping 3lbs in muscle for a 5.24% muscle mass increase. What this means is I’m currently the heaviest I’ve ever been outside of pregnancy. But, I’d also argue, I’ve never looked or felt better in my body.

I’m religiously wearing my silicon scar tape (removing only for a shower + sometimes for the gym) but the scar is still pretty red. Sometimes this bums me out but I’ve been reminding myself that we all heal at different rates.

My belly button scar is still pretty noticeable to me but the feedback from friends and family is that it looks normal to them! I take this as a win. 😉

I’m developing a fair bit of scar tissue beneath the little vertical scar which I’m sad about but cautiously optimistic that some treatment will help break that up and flatten it. Fortunately, it’s really only something I’m exposed to – even the scar redness is a non-issue since it’s easily hidden by my bikini bottoms! (Photos below)

Now that I’m passed the initial six months, I’m focusing on rebuilding ab strength. Until now, I’ve been modifying all of my core exercise to align with prenatal and post-natal recommendations to build strength without adding stress to the internal stitches or aggravate the healing process.

Anecdotally, adding muscle and shape to my glutes has been much easier and noticeable since having the Diastasis Recti repair! This feels like the BIGGEST win because ya girl’s been trying to grow a butt for two decades.