Plastic or cosmetic surgery used for modifying someone’s physical appearance. Though I have not had a nose job or a boob job or what have you, and don’t plan on getting any in the future. This is an honest journal of what I went through when I had cosmetic surgery on my belly button. Because my umbilical cord when it fell off didn’t do so without leaving me with a giant cyst that was gray and blue where my belly button was supposed to be. I am in no means a subject expert on this topic. You don’t need cosmetic surgery in order to be happy or confident. It definitely isn’t for everyone. Also cosmetic or plastic surgery isn’t something that should be taken lightly. But if you are honestly feeling like it’s the only option to get past an insecurity like I did when I was fifteen, it is an option and no one should judge you for that. We should all be decent human beings and support one another. Often times people don’t feel like their done after the surgery, it’s a process and there are people out there that can help if you have had a cosmetic surgery but are still going through recovery either physically or mentally.
Now onto my cosmetic story…
When I was really little, I thought the gray and blue bulge in my belly button was just my special thing that no one else had, but when I got older I hated showing off any part of my midriff because of this. I didn’t want to wear two piece swimming suits or any shirt that wasn’t extra-long. In fear of being made fun of for the cyst I had since birth. It didn’t hurt and doctors didn’t want to remove it as insurance companies wouldn’t cover it as it was considered a cosmetic procedure.
Solution was wearing t-shirts or other cover ups over my stomach to hide the cyst.
However, when I turned fifteen my mom knew how uncomfortable it was making me feel and convinced a doctor to call it a possible hernia so it could be covered and then removed. Everyone knew it wasn’t a hernia but realized that a fifteen year old girl was having body image issues due to a cyst that was left over from basically birth. No fifteen year old I can think of would want a grey and blue budge sticking out of their abdomen. So I had all the consultations and ended up having to go into a children’s hospital to have the cyst removed.
The procedure took approximately 30 minutes as they removed the cyst then did exploration in my abdomen to remove the rest of the “hernia” and stitched me up. The entire time we joked about what food we wanted to eat afterwards and if I was going to have my mom let me get a belly button piercing because of all the Novocain injected into my abdomen. Which I never ended up doing but I did get to have a huge lunch at my favorite restaurant since I couldn’t eat for 24 hours before the surgery.
It wasn’t until about five hours later when we had pizza arriving for dinner that I realized how much pain I was in. I stood up trying to get upstairs to get pizza from my room on the lower floor, and I felt a sheering pain through my stomach and ended up sitting on the ground leaning against a wall crying in pain until my sister ending up bringing me the pizza and helping me back into my bed. And eventually the pain passed after about two weeks so I could touch my stomach without wincing in pain. But I still had to put on this gel medication for six months three times a day until it was fully healed. The gel was very oily and destroyed every shirt and tank top I owned. But I wasn’t afraid to show off my midriff anymore and started wearing two piece swimming suits in the summer. So I loved it and felt confident for once in my teenage years! And don’t miss that cyst to this day.
