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You May Relate to Beyonce’s Vogue Interview If You’ve Had a Hard Time Recovering From Surgery

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Beyoncé has been known to flawlessly declare, “I woke up like this.” But during a recent interview with Vogue, she shared a different confidence-inspiring message, this time about recovery after surgery.

In her interview for the September cover of the magazine, Beyoncé talked about the difficult pregnancy and delivery with the birth of her twins, Rumi and Sir, in June 2017. After a month of bed rest and complications from toxemia — a condition also known as preeclampsia — she needed an emergency C-section for her and the babies’ health.

The singer also told Vogue she felt obligated to return to work immediately following the birth of her first daughter, Blue Ivy, in 2012. This time around, however, her pregnancy complications required her to take extra recovery time. She told Vogue:

After the C-section, my core felt different. It had been major surgery. Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery. I am not sure everyone understands that. I needed time to heal, to recover. During my recovery, I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier. I accepted what my body wanted to be.

Surgery can change your body in both fundamental and noticeable ways. It takes time to physically and emotionally heal, adjust and get “back to normal.” This is something Mighty contributor Roberta Elaine discovered while recovering from open heart surgery, which she shares in her piece, “Post-Op: What I Learned After Having Major Surgery”:

It is OK to not be OK. After you have had major surgery, you are expected to be “OK now.” This cannot be any further from the truth. Sure, you might be fine physically, but emotionally you are not OK. Your body just went through one of the most strenuous operations possible. You are having to rewire and adjust your brain to living with something that has always been there and is not there now or vice versa.

What Beyoncé said about recovery may be relatable if you’ve had surgery or a long road to recovery following an illness or pregnancy. Recovery is a process. It takes time and everyone heals differently. In the meantime, as Queen Bey learned, self-acceptance is key. “I was patient with myself,” she told Vogue.

Image via Wikimedia Commons/Kristopher Harris

Originally published: August 7, 2018
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