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For her sixth video blog we rejoin Roberta six days after her muscle repair / abdominoplasty surgery at The Avoca Clinic. She tells us how she’s got her voice back and had her first drain removed at the clinic. She’s still somewhat hunched over and in some pain but is gradually feeling better with time.

She details the process of having the first drain removed as well as having her dressing done at the Avoca Clinic which was her first time actually seeing the scar post operation. She explains how the surgeons are pleased with how it’s healing and that she will need to take it easy for another week. Roberta will be back in two days time when she’s had her second drain removed.

Watch the full video blog below.

Video Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome to my sixth blog for The Avoca Clinic. So I’m now six days post-op and I’ve got my voice back which is nice – not sure my husband is very happy about that as I’ve spent the last week on the couch barking orders at everyone! But no really it’s so important to have family help having major surgery like this and I’ve had so much support from family and friends taking the two girls out – it’s really been wonderful!

“I’ve had so much support from family and friends”

Six days in now I’m feeling good, still quite sore, still walking very hunched over, still haven’t been able to have a shower this is why my hair looks like this! So it will probably be in another two days time when I get the remaining drain out.

So how did it feel to get the drain out? It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I was very nervous about it which is ridiculous as I’ve had full abdominal surgery but I was very nervous about it. The nurse lay me down and told me to relax relax relax! She removed the one from the right side. It was like a gentle tugging feeling, kind of had to go somewhere else in my head because of what was happening but it wasn’t actually that sore, it was manageable. So they just dressed it and left the other one in. I’m not particularly looking forward to having the other one removed but at the same time I’m glad they left it in because the next morning I had about 50mL in the drain which is quite a lot so that fluid would be just settling in my stomach instead of in the drain and if that had happened they would have had to remove it manually whatever that means! Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t need to worry about that.

“It was my first time seeing the scar on my stomach and I’m so pleased”

So today I went into The Avoca Clinic and had my dressing done and it was my first time seeing the scar on my stomach and I’m so pleased – very very happy! It didn’t hurt getting the bandages off or anything, it was a similar feeling to a C-section, there’s numbness but there’s not a whole lot of sensation – so that was good. The surgeon is really happy and really pleased with how everything is healing and just told me to take it easy for a week and I’ll be back in two days to get the remaining drain out and possibly get more dressing on the wound as well.

So I think that’s all and I’ll talk to you again in two days time – thanks!