I had consultations booked at two different clinics on July 2nd, but after the first one at The Line I ended up going ahead with the surgery that same day.
The coordinator was calm and really reassuring, and the doctor explained everything so clearly that I could tell he knew exactly what he was doing. Between the two of them, I felt confident enough to decide on the spot.
Scarring was probably my biggest worry going in. I already had a scar from a previous surgery, and the doctor positioned the incision to work with it. Honestly, though, even without that scar I don't think I'd have worried much — the incision is under 5mm and sits low enough that it's hidden anyway. It's still barely noticeable and healing well.
I'd only planned on getting liposuction on my stomach, but after talking it through I decided to add fat grafting for my hip dips too. Looking back, I'm so glad I did. The shape from my waist down through my hips is going to be so much better. Once the rest of the swelling goes down and I stay on top of the aftercare, I think I'll be even happier with it.
When I woke up from the anesthesia I was already in a compression garment in the recovery room. The pain was more of a dull throb than anything sharp, so getting home wasn't hard at all.
The second morning was the rough part. Every time I tried to move it felt like the worst muscle soreness of my life plus the flu, all at once. I have a low pain tolerance to begin with, so even getting out of bed was a struggle.
After two or three days, though, I was honestly surprised at how fast I bounced back. By day three I was taking my dog out for a walk, and by day four I was meeting up with friends. Getting up from a chair was still stiff, but walking around was fine.
I did get occasional sharp tingling while I was healing, so I called the clinic about it. They explained it can happen as part of the recovery process and were really reassuring, which put my mind at ease.
The first week I had a lot of purple bruising. Around day ten it started turning yellow, and eventually there were just a few purple patches left below my underwear line.
By week two there was no pain at all unless I pressed down on it like a massage, and I could really feel the swelling going down — especially my upper stomach, which had visibly flattened out. My lower stomach still feels a little rounded, but they'd told me that's the area that takes the longest. My waistline is slowly coming back too.
I'm a month out now. The bruising is completely gone and the swelling keeps going down. I'm happy with how it's going so far, and since I'm still healing, I'm looking forward to seeing where it lands once the rest of the swelling settles down.