About three years ago [when my youngest was two], I started watching plastic surgery videos on TikTok about getting axillary breast tissue removed. It took me down the rabbit hole about various plastic surgeries you can have after children. I saw that you could get rid of a significant amount of stretch marks with a mommy makeover. I was like, This is something I think I would really appreciate and now is a good time for me to do it.

I met with plastic surgeons all over Texas, but no one really clicked until I met Dr. Rednam. She was a referral through a cardiologist friend, who had, in her own practice, seen a lot of Dr. Rednam’s breast work. It was a very in-your-face first meeting. You’re in a gown and Dr. Rednam walks in and then you get naked in front of a mirror. She examines everything, you discuss what you would like for your end result, and she goes over what would be realistic. After that consultation, there was no going back for me.

The first few days after surgery are easy because you’re medicated, so you don’t really feel the pain. You’re just walking like an old lady, hunched over, because the stomach feels very tight. And being in that position strains your back. That lasted a little over a week. I slept in a recliner the first three days, but on the fourth day I just got into my Tempur-pedic bed and I was able to sleep lying down.

The drains were the hardest part. I actually only had one, but it’s still very uncomfortable getting dressed when you have a quarter-inch tube coming out of your stomach. I was happy when they removed it after three weeks.

Week three was my turning point. I was feeling a lot better. I was off of all the medications, even Tylenol. I was just taking my herbal remedies—organic turmeric and arnica tablets for inflammation and a plethora of vitamins. By week four, I was back to my normal routine, except for carrying groceries because you’re not supposed to lift anything heavy. I got tired pretty fast so I would take cat naps.

Around that time, the scars got really itchy. You feel this dire need to scratch but you can’t because you don’t want to disrupt the healing. So I did cold compresses and topical Benadryl when necessary for about a month until it stopped. [Ed’s note: She started taking it a month after surgery, and stopped about two months post-op.]

One of my armpits took longer to heal than the other one. About two months post-surgery, that incision kept opening up and it was really frustrating. It set me back emotionally. I tried limiting the movement in my arm so it wouldn’t open. I had it re-stitched, but that didn’t really work either—it opened back up after a few days. So I was like, I’m not going to focus on this. I’m just going to be patient and let it do its thing and, sure enough, two weeks later it had healed.