The story of my scar

I realized I posted my pictures and some of you may be wondering where the huge scar on my abdomen came from. So here's the history on that.

Shortly after the birth of my son, I noticed the right side of my abdomen felt tight. The tightness turned into a lump I could feel under my muscles. Sometimes it hurt, other times I never even noticed it. I thought maybe it was a pulled muscle or tendon in my abdomen being stretched during pregnancy. I went to the doctor a year later and she wasn't sure what it was. She thought it could possibly be scar tissue or a pulled muscle. She ordered an ultra sound but my insurance deductible hadn't been met yet and I didn't want to pay $800 for an ultra sound when it wasn't causing me any major pain. Another year passed and it started hurting more and I could feel it had grown from a small mass on the right side of my abdomen to a large mass that stretched almost to my belly button.

Finally my husband got a new job and great insurance so I got it checked out. The ultra sound was inconclusive so the doctor ordered a CT. It was also inconclusive, but it said there was a possible desmoid tumor. I had never heard of this. I'm a nurse, and I've worked in ICU and the doctor's office for almost 6 years, so I've heard a lot of stuff. My doctor referred me to a surgeon and he had to cut open my abdomen for a biopsy. Being the type of tumor that was suspected, they couldn't do a laparoscopic biopsy. The result came back that it was, in fact, a desmoid tumor. A very rare type of tumor that was caused by the hormone changes during pregnancy. This tumor only occurs in 2 in a million people (literally). How did I get so lucky?

So after it was confirmed, I scheduled surgery for December 20, 2013. I had the tumor removed and I had to have part of my abdominal wall removed. I had mesh placed to help prevent a hernia (but there's no guarantee I won't have one.) All that resulted in a 5 inch scar. After a healthy pregnancy, with no stretch marks or c-section I ended up with a huge scar on my abdomen. But luckily, the tumor was benign. They just had to remove it so it didn't damage any surrounding organs.

I had a lifting restriction for 30 days and I had to wear an abdominal binder that whole time, 24 hours a day. A lifting restriction with a 2 year old makes life very tricky. But we got through it, and 8 weeks later I was cleared for exercise and that's when I started 30 Day Shred. I can tell exercising has made my abdominal muscles and the surrounding areas much stronger and hopefully, building those muscles will help prevent a hernia if I get pregnant again.