The following post from our forum is from a woman who had a tummy tuck 7 weeks ago. She is swollen, has muscle pain, sees an indentation at her waist line and is wondering if this is normal after tummy tuck surgery.

Date: 12/05/2011 Submitted by: LizTummy Tuck Waist Indentation

I am 7 weeks post op, wake up flat, swollen at night, still have pain in muscle area, very swollen in bottom. I wear compression garments and I see an indentation where my pants buckle yet don’t buckle my pants. AWWW, so frustrated!!! Is this normal?

RESPONSE

Date: 12/05/2011 Submitted by: Tanner

Liz,

At 7 weeks post op, you are still in the prime healing/recovery phase. Everything that you describe seem like typical symptoms that I have heard other people talk about (except the indentation part) after their tummy tuck.

Swelling can take a long time to go away. My doctor told me “swelling around the wound or incision area should peak at about 3 days and that most of the swelling (80%) should be gone in 2 – 6 weeks and the remainder should be gone in 3 – 6 months”. According to that, you may have to be patient a bit longer for that last 20% to go away.

I would suspect the stomach pain to subside soon.

I don’t know what to tell you about the “indentation”. It may disappear when the swelling goes away or you may be stuck with it a long time. Later (when your doctor gives you the “OK”), exercise might help it fade away or blend into the contour of your body.

Good luck,

Tanner

Follow-up Email
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, what I’m calling an indentation is a groove just below my new belly button, it may be associated with it, when I last went to see PS, he told me to switch up my clothing and not wear anything tight (the fact is that I haven’t even been buckling my pants and I’ve been wearing long big shirts to cover my stomach and open pants). I go back to see him in January, but was wondering if this had happened to anyone else. Liz

Response – Liz,

I haven’t heard of it before, at least nobody has written in about it.

The only thing that comes close would be Hard Protrusion Below Belly Button After Tummy Tuck, but that doesn’t sound like the same thing.

Sorry,

Tanner