Rebecca Hale

I thought about a tummy tuck for years before I had one. After two pregnancies my lower tummy never went back, however I ate or trained, and there was a gap down the middle of my stomach muscles that no amount of core work would close. When I finally decided to go ahead, I realised I had almost no honest idea what the operation and recovery were going to be like.

What I couldn’t find was anything written straight: clear about the choices, full, mini, fleur-de-lis, muscle repair, honest about the risks instead of glossing over them, and realistic about how the days and weeks afterwards genuinely feel, from the bent posture and the drains to the swelling that comes and goes for months. It was all either a clinic with something to sell or an unverifiable forum thread.

So I kept a diary, week by week, and it became My Shape Back. A consultant plastic surgeon keeps the clinical detail accurate, and the week-by-week reality is mine. I’m not a doctor, only someone who’s recovered from one, and who’d rather you weren’t surprised by either the result or the risks.