Surgery

We're very happy to report that I'm now 3 weeks post-surgery and feeling great!

My operation was on June 14th and took around 2 hours. The procedure started with my oncologic surgeon removing my tumor, some surrounding skin, the underlying fat, the underlying fascia (a fibrous covering over muscle), and a thin rind of gluteous muscle. All in all, I ended up with about a 4 inch diameter "hole" over my left hip/butt. Then, my plastic surgeon rotated a flap of skin from next to the resection site to cover the defect. The technique is called a "rhomboid flap" and is explained here (with not-too-graphic pictures).

I had general anesthesia for the procedure, so I was asleep and intubated (i.e., using a breathing tube) for the whole thing. In fact, as I received a couple milligrams of Versed in the preop area, I have no recollection of ever being in the operating room at all. I "woke up" in the recovery area with a sore throat and 37 stitches in my back side.

I was in the post-op recovery area for a couple hours and did need some narcotic pain medicine. However, from then on, I was surprised at how little pain I had; I only needed Tylenol for a couple days, then nothing. I stayed on the inpatient surgery floor Monday and Tuesday night, mainly for observation (i.e., to make sure the surgery site was not bleeding and healing properly), and then went home Wednesday morning.

I was up and walking the evening of my surgery. However, I was instructed not to flex my left hip or sit down for one week, as this would put tension on the sutures. To help "remind" me not to bend the hip, my surgeons put me in a knee brace. Interestingly, if you can't bend your knee, you tend not to flex your hip (unless you're a Rockette...). So, I spent the week at home either standing, reclined on my right side, or lying on my belly. This got old very quickly.

Once I was out of the knee brace, things were pretty much back to normal. I gradually increased my hip flexion and now have enough range-of-motion for walking and sitting, although the skin is still a bit tight (it may take several months for this to go back to normal).

Who would have thought I'd already have my first butt-lift at age 33??