Getting SmartLipo on abs, love handles and arms next week

Hi everyone, Im taking the SmartLipo plunge next week. Im planning to take some before and after pics and post here with a detailed account of my experience. Would love to here any pre and post op suggestions anyone may have. My doc is doing my top and bottom abs and love handles as my priority surgery and then my upper arms if I have enough Lidocaine. I really want to get everything done all at once but am concerened tha we will run out of Lidocain and he will have to do the arms on another day. Either way, Im excited and welcome oyur encouragement and suggestions!

Comment on this

Comments

dmn7656
16 posts
5 Mar 2008

roughly 24 hours after my surgery and I've already cooked breakfast, changed my sheets becuase they were stained with tumescent fluid, and washed a load of laundry. Im taking a vicodin but not really sure that I need it. I am sore and walking slight bent over but I feel good. I even too pics today and I can already see a difference even with the swelling. Almost no bruising. I will post my before and after pics soon. I felt very little discomfort during the procesudre and and when I did they gave me more lidocain. They also gave me a sedative3 callede Adovan so I was falling asleep in and out of surgury. At one point they even sat me up on the table to do the back of my flanks. I'll let you know hoe things progess!

iDrG
19 posts
23 May 2008

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm having mine done on July 7th (u/l abs, flanks) - have you posted any pictures yet? I'd like to see your results. Thanks

dmn7656
16 posts
28 May 2008

3 months later.......well, I have mixed feelings. I had my upper and lower abs, flanks, and arms done. I should clarify, that I mean the meat that shakes underneath my arms when I raise them and shake. I did not have circumferential arms done, which some doctors do. As you can see form the pics, I had alot of fat in my ab area. My measurements before the surgery were, waist 37.75", right under the breast was 34" and my arms were 13" around. I weighed 160lbs. Im 40 years old and have never had children. So, the day of the surgery, I was relaxed and excited. They gave me a Sedative called Adavan (love it) and a small shot of Adavan about 3 hours into the surgery when i started to become more alert. I didnt feel anything. I listened to my ipod and cracked jokes with the doctor. We started at about 11 and we were done by 4. I did not have the arms done that day, only the abs and love handles because there is a very finite amount of lidocain that the body can take and the doctor will not exceed that amount. SO, he told me I would have to come back for the arms because he was using all of the Lidocaine that was appropriate for my body, during that surgery. At one point, I got up and we all ate a light lunch. This was during the middle of my surgery. I felt no pain and was comfortable enough to have lunch right there in the doctor's office! Towards the end of the surgery, the doctor sat me up on the table and acessed what additional areas needed to be addressed so he could have a better view. When I was done, I felt great. They put on the compression garment and the waist cincher and I was on my way. I was still very swollen with fluid and still quite fat. Now, here is the tricky part. Many doctors opt to leave your incisions open to allow for ample drainage. My doctors noticed that my incisions were fanning open during my surgery so they decided to give me one stitch at each of the 6 incision points on my stomach, but leave the two incision points in my lower back (flor the love handles) open to allow for draininage. They told me later that it was the first time they did that, but they didn not want me to scar so I appreciated that they considered the scarring factor. However, what they didnt know was that I sleep on my stomach. SO, the fluid could not drain from the incisions in my back. The next morning, I got up to go to the bathroom and discovered that my Vaginas was about 4 times the normal size. Apparently, the tumescent fluid had settled below the incisions and pooled in my vaginal area. I looked like I had a cows udder between my legs. Fortuantely, I didnt panic and suspected that is was just fluid. I called the doctor and went in and he had to smile and say that he never though he would see this happen. However, he solved the problem quickly and easily by prescribing me a strong dieuretic. I was good as new in about 48 hours. I went back 12 days later and had the arms done. There was not as much fat there so the area was a little more tender and I felt a few small pinches during the surgery. Since then, I have worn my arm garment, compression garment and waist cincher 23 hours a day for 3 months with the excpetion of two days in Vegas that I just had to free myself of those garments for. I had a sieable amount of itching for the first two months. My doc said that was a part of the healing. I too had the hard lumps but most of those have evened out and I have very little lumping. SOme hard spots, but not many. I also put Mederma on my incisions everyday for two months to help with any possible scarring. The incisons that had the stitches are barely noticable but the two on my back with the stitches are still dark and fairly prominent. So, now Im at the three month point and while I feel they removed a susbtantial amount of fat - I think 2200 cc, I still have a sizeable amount of fat in my ab area as you can see. My measurements 1 week after the surgery showed that I was 6 pounds lighter even with a little fluid left. Today, I am still 154 and my ab measures 35". Roughly 3 inch loss in the abs. I do not have anymore love handles. However, when I look at how extended my stomach still is, I cant help but feel a bit disappointed. While I looke substantially different with a marked improvement, the truth is, I still look fat. Just not AS fat. SO, Im going to see the doctor for the 3 month visit next week and see what he thinks............stay tuned. Im posting pics in another review because I cant figure out how to post them here....

View 1 reply
reply

dmn7656
16 posts
7 Jun 2008

hi ymiller, congratulations on your decision to do smartLipo. My arms did very well. Much better than my abs. However, my abs look substaantialy better. With that, my doctor offered to do my abs again. We are both stumped as to why I didint have better result with my stomach but Im confident that it will be awesome after round two. If you send me your email address, Ill send you more pics including the arms.

ymiller
16 posts
8 Jun 2008

Thanks for the response. My email address is ym59@comcast.net. I can't wait to see your arm pics. Again, thanks for responding, Yvonne

Result oriented
4 posts
8 Jun 2008

I had my abs, chest and flanks done 3 weeks ago tomorrow. I plan to do a full post with pics soon. I know that this procedure is very easy for a lot of people but I think it depends on how extensive the area is. I had 4600cc of fat removed. That is a LOT! If you are having a large area done I suggest that you take more time off than you planed to. I scheduled two days post surgery but ended up taking an entire week to recover. Also I suggest Arnica both oral and gel. It really helped with the bruising and has helped my skin to feel better.