Be patient

Pain is expected after liposuction especially in the abdomen where the abdominal muscles can get quite irritated from the mechanical trauma of the act of suctioning. There are a few superficial sensory nerves that can be injured or at least irritated depending on where exactly the incisions are. Usually the pain is electrical or burning in quality.

As far as asymmetry, it depends on what exactly was done. In general, if you did the liposuction after gaining weight, (you said you were in good condition and then didn't exercise), there is more margin of error since the total volume of fat is more. As you gainweight, the contour besomes less well defined in terms of problem areas as everything tends to blend together. Of course there is not much you can do at this point except be patient and continue to ask your doctor questions of concern

Good luck.

Helpful?

Contact the doctor

Pain is normal after liposuction.  you definitely need pain pills so you are not in severe pain.   it sounds like you are not taking prescription pain pills.  typically the more fat removed then the more pain associated with it.  Some physicians only take alittle amount of fat out and send you home on tylenol which is sufficient for the minimal amount of pain but if you have a truely thorough liposuction, then you will need prescription pain pills and especially the abdomen hurts the most.  Neck liposuctions don't ususally hurt much so that is the one exception to the rule.

Suturing the incisions are an older method of liposuction done 10-20 yrs ago since the canulas were so much bigger than the microcanulas we use now.  Now days we want the canulas to be smaller so the holes are smaller and therefore the scars are tiny.  The smaller the canula then the smoother the results also and less waviness and dimpling.  We want the holes to drain the excess fluid out so the swelling goes down quicker.  The fact that you have stitches tells me you are not draining fluid out therefore the abnormal swelling you are experiencing is probably expected.  I sure hope you are in a compression garment that is not too tight as that also contributes to the excess pain and excess swelling. 

As a rule, at one week you should see a little improvement in the overall results.  At 1 month you see a big improvement and at 4-6 months you see the end results.

Don't worry and trust your physician's advise.  What ever technique he or she is doing, they will know the usual and expected symptoms you should have along the way to recovery and advise you appropriately.

Also you should keep a positive attitude since your speedy recovery depends on it and don't worry so much since almost everything in liposuction is fixable.

1 of 1 found this helpful

Helpful?

Contact the doctor

While pain is very subjective and everyone has a different threshold, pain is very normal after liposuction. As far as it being sharp, the abdominal and waist/hip area is particularly sensitive for a lot of patients.

In general pain should continue to get better day by day, but if it seems to be getting worse or not improving, definitely let your surgeon know. Although it's rare, you just want to make sure there is no infection - things you want to look for are persistent redness or any drainage from the wound.

As far as your right side being bigger than your left, it's most likely just swelling (assuming you were even before and the same amount of tissue was removed from both sides). Just be patient, and see what happesns.