Swelling

[finallydidit]

Lilysaidwhat: OK. Maybe my abdominal muscles are weakened... But when I went into surgery, my stomach was flat with normal muscle tone, and by the time I got home 10 days later, my muscles no longer hold my belly in? It is just weird, how does that happen overnight?

Texas Marine Mom: Any ideas? Thanks!

[DebbieM]

Hi all, interesting how we have this belly issue. I am over 3 yrs. out and it still has not gone back to the way it was pre-surgery. I would love to know what we could do to fix this. I am seriously considering lipo surgery. I have to hold my stomach in when I go out, otherwise I look pregnant :-/

[Confusedmom]

Do you think it could have anything to do with the added lordosis they give you? i.e. if your back is curving in more, your belly is sticking out more?

I am not looking forward to this added "pouch" thing, as I already have one I'm not too happy about!!!

[Lilysaidwhat]

Confusedmom, I read up more on this yesterday and yes, it looks like Lordosis correction definitely plays a part in it.

My lordosis and kyphosis degrees were within the normal range, but I have next to no "small" in my lower back. My surgeon said I will now have "only a slight" small, but not much of one since I'm already basically in-range. So I wonder if I will have this issue or not?

Did any of you guys have a lot of lower curvature/sway to your lower back pre-op? I swear, I feel like every one of us is such a unique situation that I can't even hazard a guess as to what my outcome will be like. Argh!

[finallydidit]

OK. I just talked to my scolio surgeon about this as I am unhappy about going from a flat belly to what I have now. This is what he said:
There is a lot of swelling and fluid initially after surgery. Sometimes it just never goes back to what it was before. This is from the cutting, etc. in the anterior part of the surgery (in my case), and it is partly the muscles and partly the abdominal wall parts that hold a person in/up, and also just plain stretching (from the swelling). He said that had I been younger when I had this surgery, I might have noticed less of it. He seemed to think it was very common. I also talked to the nurse and she said that she has heard complaints from other patients. He said at 1.5 years out from surgery, mine isn't going to go away or go down :-(

[LindaRacine]

OK. I just talked to my scolio surgeon about this as I am unhappy about going from a flat belly to what I have now. This is what he said:
There is a lot of swelling and fluid initially after surgery. Sometimes it just never goes back to what it was before. This is from the cutting, etc. in the anterior part of the surgery (in my case), and it is partly the muscles and partly the abdominal wall parts that hold a person in/up, and also just plain stretching (from the swelling). He said that had I been younger when I had this surgery, I might have noticed less of it. He seemed to think it was very common. I also talked to the nurse and she said that she has heard complaints from other patients. He said at 1.5 years out from surgery, mine isn't going to go away or go down :-(

Hi...

What your surgeon is referring to is an incisional hernia. If you do a search here, you'll find several other threads on the topic.

Regards,
Linda