For those of you who have known me for years, you know my journey. For those of you who haven’t known me long, WELCOME, you have a lot to learn but here is something NEW in my life. I have been sharing the entire journey on my IG: @AshleyLMolitor
Her (my mom sag) tombstone would read:
RIP Felicia the flap.
Gone but not forgotten.
I worked hard for 6 last years on my mind & body.
When I first started my journey, it was a struggle mentally to accept & embrace my mom sag.
But with a whole hell of a lot of thought work & daily practice I got there.
I no longer had shame over it. I would literally tuck that shit in & go about my day. It was apart of me & my story. It was the skin that protected my belly that grew 2 tiny humans.
So what made me take the leap?
I had embraced myself & was happy with my body.
Crazy right?! It sounds like it makes ZERO fucking sense but I could have stayed just like Ashley on the left & been fine!
That feeling of acceptance or happiness doesn’t come from the size or shape of your body, it comes from what you think about yourself. I knew those thoughts were available to me as the person on the left & still are as the person on the right. BOTH versions of me are equally worthy of my own love & acceptance.
Happiness. Acceptance. Embracing who you are. That is an inside job, y’all.
No change on the outside will fix what is going on, on the inside.
Start there.
And from that place of love, you do things because you WANT TO not because you think have to in order to feel better.
I owe my surgery credit to Dr. Judith Gurley.
April 12, 2021 (left pic, the morning before surgery) - April 22, 2021 (right pic)
Swelling will get better over the next 6 weeks but some of it may linger a little longer, totally normal.
There is ointment in my belly button in the new pic. This is currently my reality. Ointment. Non adhesive bandages. And girdles, hence the lines on my stomach. It is my BFF, I wear it all day/night except when I am showering. And the drains WERE my friend for a week, thank god those are out.