I kind of left this hanging, didn't I? Well, things have gone so extraordinarily well after the second operation that I just haven't thought about it as much. Healing went great after the second surgery, and because it didn't include the hernia repair, I was better much faster. In fact, about three weeks later I took the kids and myself down to Texas for a week, without help. I even helped put together a new swingset at about the same time.

It took a while before I stopped having pain in the area of the hernia repair. I finally started doing crunches regardless of the pain (after checking with my doctor, of course), working through it, and within a week the pain was gone. I feel completely normal now.

The cosmetic end result is not perfect. I have "dog ears" on my hips at the ends of the main incision. I have a dimple in front where my old belly button was. I've been told that minor office procedures could be done to clean these up. In addition, the lower front of my belly is very uneven, lumpy and bumpy. This is from the necrosis and tunneling that led to the second surgery. In that second surgery, the doctor went in and scraped out the dead tissue, which left the hollows. To fix this, I will likely need liposuction sculpting.

I don't know if I will do this or not. The imperfections are small, and they don't show at all with my clothes on. Maybe if I have a couple thousand to blow some day, I might fix it. Until then, I still plan to get my navel pierced and keep showing off my tummy with pretty skirts!