Before I got pregnant, I weighed 125 lbs. By the end of my full-term twin pregnancy, I’d shot up to 184. The girls were born after 39 weeks of pregnancy at 6 & 6 1/2 lbs respectively – which thankfully kept them out of the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), but what that left me with was….
Diastasis Recti.
Basically, my abs did a vertical split and now my guts protrude. Alot. I look like I’m perpetually pregnant. My abs are shot and now my back muscles have to do double duty! This leaves me feeling pretty tired and achy all the time, not to mention having to be careful of my protruding guts.
You’d think that this would be treated as a legitimate medical condition and that insurance would cover the outpatient surgery needed to correct it, but you’d be wrong.
The surgery is generally known as a “cosmetic” proceedure for people wanting prettier tummies – a “tummy tuck” – and on your own dime it’s about $25,000.
Exercises can only do so much (and not much at that) to reduce the gap through which your guts protrude, and binders, cinches, corsets and other shapewear or compression garments are also limited in the actual support they provide.
One of the constant dangers is that your guts will herniate, twist and ‘strangulate’, which means you are in deep doo-doo.
Well, guess what happened to me?
Yep, I coughed a little too much during my recent bout of bronchitis and something went SPROING!!
Hurt like frickin’ heck!
After a few days of lotsa pain, I went to see my doctor who told me that my intestines are herniated – oh joy!
And that I need surgery for it.
The good news, however, is that now that I’ve graduated to an ‘actual’ medical condition, most likely the insurance will cover the surgery to repair the hernia and the diastasis. Hooray!
Good thing my husband’s got some vacay time saved up! He’s the one getting saddled with the kids while I have the surgery and recover from it.
