Liposuction swelling - how is your recovery?

I'm day 16 after inner/outer thighs and inner knees. Days 5-10, I had AWFUL swelling above the back of my left knee. Made it really challenging to resume light activities. Sitting at work really exasperated it. The swelling is much better now and most bruising is gone. I have some hard lumps that i massage daily (this REALLY helps!) and some numbness and tingling/burning (mostly on inner thigh area). I can kneel for brief periods of time and go up and down stairs with a little stiffness. Have used Arnica orally and topically since 3 days before surgery. Am still in the stage 1 compression garment (which is falling apart and too big for me) while I wait for the stage 2 garment to arrive in the mail. I tried wearing compression running pants for a day, but after sitting through breakfast on a wooden bench, my legs started to swell and the stage 1 garment was quickly put on. This has been a much slower process than I had anticipated. I'm relatively fit (can easily run a 5k and do 20+ burpees on demand) and am a fast healer with, what is normally, a high pain tolerance. But, heck if the past 2+ weeks haven't sucked. I don't do well feeling like an invalid. All that being said, I can see a very positive change in silhouette already. Saddlebags and inner thigh fat deposits i inherited from my maternal grandmother and have had since age 12 are gone. I am excited for the rest of the swelling to go down, as it can only get better from here on out :)

5 weeks PO TT and Flank Lipo

Andrea, the first few weeks can be really tough. If you just accept it as part of the long process, it will help. I live in a very rural area and didn't have benefit of massages or other help, and I really struggled with a balance of pain, meds, nausea and swelling. I'm ten months out and very glad I did it. I have an overgrowth disorder that causes my fat to keep growing on one side of my body, so I have to do this every two years or so. Each time is worse because of the scar tissue. Yet, it is what I need to do to stay in balance and not throw off my back too much. I have some continued numbness in a few areas that have had multiple surgeries. For most people, that numbness will fade and become a thing of the past. Keep drinking lots of water, wearing your compression garment, moving slowly, eating healthy and pampering yourself with sleep and good care. Take care.

I am Day 7 and looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. I had lower abs, flanks (majority of lipo here), inner and outer thighs. Finally starting to get excited to see the final results but feel like they are so far away. The swelling is so strange because I have a lot of loss of sensation. So when I try to feel how swollen I am with my hands it feels weird. There is a constant pins and needles sensation around the saddlebag are that drives me nuts. My inner thighs are sore and huge. Oddly enough the lower abdomen is not so bad. The first couple of days it felt like I was ripping the skin off my abs anytime I moved but now it's fine and there is hardly and swelling. It is FLAT! The thing that is the most surprising for me is my emotions. I feel like i have extreme PMS. I read that for women we store estrogen in our fat and when it is removed can upset our hormonal balance. My poor boyfriend...Does anyone know when you can sleep on your tummy? Can anyone farther along offer words of encouragement about the weeks ahead? I am excited about the final result, just a little impatient I guess. Hehe...

Today had another massage. Plus she gave me Lipo cream with all kinds of oil including arnica and V-K which will help a lot in healing. You use it 2x a day. I actually am feeling a bit better. I walked slowly through home depot for about an hour...yikes.. We have to fly home on Sunday and I am freaked about sitting in a plane for 6 hours. I will be walking the aisles a lot. Swelling am freaking about !

Update went for my 1 week Dr appt. Yikes...Great nice professional Dr ina gorgeous cancun hospital. He has his own office and nurse. He told me I had a small seroma on the right side and took out 2 syringes of liquid. 40CC. The third one I screamed. All the stitches out. He told me to wear my compression garment 24/7 for 1 month. Absolutely. Then the best to have ultra sound massage 10 but I can only fit in 2 before we leave. Had to adjust my meds for the 3rd time...ugh..I dont do well on meds. At the spa I strip down and the poor little Mexican girl. Sooo gently she massaged my whole body even the Va jay jay..ultrasound and gel... It was so hard to get the compression garment back on and I laid in the car and slept all the way to Tulum.Today I feel a bit better but the pain meds he gave I had nightmares. So I might just try Advil now but lots of meds for swelling and inflammation. This is a huge test of my endurace.

Thanks ladies. The poor little mexican nurse looked and gasped at my Va Jay Jay and ran and got a pad. I stuffed it in and compressed it. So no hanging just rock hard solid with so much swelling. I guess when men get it done their testicles swell up like golf balls and turn black. Mine is swollen so much I cant get my legs together. I see the Dr tomorrow and maybe has some idea. I have been icing with peas. My back is more sore today and of course the inner thighs are like rocks...oh we hope this is worth it and I know you do forget about pain...yikes

I had lipo full abs, whole back upper and lower, inner thighs. I take arnica 4x a day but still lots of bruising and swelling, Day 7 today. My right legs swells more than left and my Va Jay Jay is so swollen and hard I cant sit on the toilet. I use peas to ice , I can see huge results but still so swollen. My Dr used stitches to close as he said little scarring. I go tomorrow for appt. Didnt think I would feel so sore . Meds they gave me made me feel real sick for 3days after. So we had to change it all. I was very depressed at first and thought what did I do to my body. I am 60years young. But day by day tiny little by little it gets better. He said after 1 week I can go to my stage 2 garment. Yahoooo..

I had a full tummy tuck with muscle repair and liposuction to my hips and thighs (a bit on my back, too, to even out the results from my tt...no muffin top, lol). My surgery was Jan. 2. I feel like I'm in total swell hell right now. Someone please tell me it's going to get better!! I'm scared and feeling kind of depressed, too. My stomach looks great. Nice and flat and perfect. A bit of swelling there but not too bad at all. My hips and thighs are another story! They are super swollen. Even bigger than before my surgery. Right now, the only pants I can wear are a pair of old sweats. I desperately need real pants so I can venture back out in the world, but the swelling is killing me. I don't even know what size I would need to accommodate the swelling! I wear my compression garment 24/7. I tried moving to a stage 2 CG today (16 days PO), and it was much too snug. I managed it for about 5 hours before resorting back to my stage 1. I drink LOTS of water and monitor my sodium intake very carefully. I need some reassurance this will get better. How long will I be super swollen like this? It's making me wish I'd never done the lipo. I've been badly bruised, too, but it's starting to fade, finally. Oh, and the pain from this lipo has been much, much worse than the tummy tuck! I'm feeling so down right now. I want the swelling to go away. :( I want pants that I can actually wear. :( how much longer will I be this swollen? Anyone?