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Confused About Liposuction After Care

I had Smart lipo and traditional lipo 4 1/2 weeks ago. I had a lot of bruising, which has almost completely disappeared but have soooo many questions with regard to my healing!! I have done HBOxygen and Dermawave treatments as well as lymphatic drainage massages. I am now thinking of doing Triactive to help with swelling and tightness in my abodomen and waist.

I have a hard stomach, which I am told is due to swelling. But, I've also been told that excess protein will lead to scar tissue!! I have been wearing my compression garments non-stop and wonder if that is actually slowing my recovery down (constriction of lymph nodes, etc.) My fear is this tight stomach (due to fluid) will somehow solidify into scar tissue!!

I am doing self-massage and trying everything I can to have the best possible outcome from this surgery. I do not want areas of hardness (scar tissue) to remain. Am I doing the right things? The doctor says to wear the compression garments for 6-8 weeks now. Beforehand, he had said 6 weeks, and maybe less if I did the extra treatments (HBO, Dermawave, etc.) Today, he said I'd wear them until the firmness (fluid) went away. That could take MONTHS!! Ugh.

I am just so confused by all of this. Now, he said to start exercising unrestricted, but wear the compression garments (Spanx)...but make sure nothing leaves a mark on my waist that might remain. When do I have to stop worrying about marks? Frankly, everything leaves marks. Even the corset leaves marks. They go away, but... I am just confused by all this. I want to do everything right. Am I doing the right stuff here?

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1 month post-op aftercare

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8 Doctor Answers | Asked by Pbachi in Wellington, FL

Doctor Answers (8)
Community Comments (4)

Sounds like you need some answers.

Most plastic surgeons are going to tell you to wear a compression garment for several weeks after the procedure. All of this other stuff may help to some degree but it also seems excessive. What type of Hyperbaric Oxygen are you doing? Are you really going in an oxygen chamber under physican observation and being pressurized? There are many "pseudo" hyperbaric oxygen therapies sold by doctors who either don't know or don't care about the science of hyperbaric oxygen. Simply going in... more

You are overdoing it.

Hello, Post liposuction care other than a good diet, sun avoidance and a good compression garment is money poorly spent at least in my opinion. I am not sure if your doctor sold you on all that stuff, but it is probably not important. Skin tightness is not frequently achieved with liposuction. Either your skin is elastic enough with a good blood supply or it isn't. Massage can help swelling come down more quickly, but there is no good evidence that this changes the outcome of the operation.... more

Liposuction

Alot of questions. In general, I tell my patients that they should wear a compression garment for 4-6 weeks. If there are areas of firmness, then I tell them that they can do gentle massage over the area for lymphatic drainage. Otherwise they have no restrictions.

Steven Wallach, MD

13 reviews

Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

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Post liposuction care

It sounds like you are doing all of the right things in the post-operative period. As for Smartlipo, I usually tell my patients to wear their garments for at least 2 weeks and longer if possible. For traditional liposuction, the healing time is longer, and the garnments typically need to be worn longer. You will continue to heal and see improved results for up to a year so don't get discouraged. Those supplemental treatments can help, and I have seen some good results with some of them, but... more

Liposuction after care

Whoa! This is a lot of anxiety and expensive extra treatment for a liposuction. This is what I tell my patients: Wear the garment for 6 weeks or longer if your body feels better wearing it. At 4 weeks, rolling the tissues with a massage roller, gentle lymphatic massage and swimming in a warm (and clean) pool may help.. Be patient. Around 6 weeks swelling starts to go down. It keeps going down for about 6 months. If your doctor has you so confused, consider a... more

It should be a lot simpler

Assuming your Smartlipo and traditional lipo was uncomplicated, it sounds like you are doing more than we would recommend in our practice. Most of our traditional and Smartlipo patients wear a garment for 3-4 weeks after surgery and that is pretty much it. HBO, Dermawave, lymphatic drainage and any adjunctive treatments would be extremely rare in our practice. From time to time (5-10% of patients) we may recommend something like Endermologie or VelaShape to supplement or enhance a... more

Proper recovery after liposuction.

Your recovery is somewhat slower than average. I think the telling sign is what you describe as a lot of bruising. This most likely (in absence of any medical conditions that you might have) represents excess trauma during your surgery and/or sub-optimal application of post-operative garment. Fast recovery after a liposuction surgery required proper pre-operative planning by your surgeon, proper execution during your surgery, proper garment application and... more

Minimal post-operative care after liposuction.

Hi. As my colleagues say, it should be a great deal simpler. We don't even use compression garments for most liposuction patients. Lymphatic drainage massage does help.

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Comments (4)

Sophiagor
27 Dec 2012

Hope you get the right answer b/c i have exactly the same questions. i am only 1 week/1 day post op lipo and everything leaves a mark and answers are all over the place regarding the compression garments. best of luck

mevina
26 Sep 2012

Thanks for sharing your experience.

A protocol for pyronie's patients to soften scar tissue is high dose Vitamin E (800IU-1000IU daily) and high dose Potaba, a B vitamin.

Once the bleeding stage is past even Vitamin E alone added to good nutrition with high protein high and low processed carbs can help minimize scarring during healing. And there are no known side effects from too much E.

As the B's work together and are water soluble take at least a daily multi vitamin/mineral with B complex, and extra C helps everything, e.g., soft tissue resilience and forming new collagen.

Finally, although you don't want hard scar tissue, you may want soft scar tissue at least in places adhering skin to underlying muscle, especially if you have submental lipo (as I did almost a couple weeks ago).

These adhesions help keep desirable skin placement and skin shrinkage for a beautiful end result--which everything I read says takes 6 months to a full year for the body to completely show.

mevina
26 Sep 2012

One more thing you wrote, "I've also been told that excess protein will lead to scar tissue!!"

I'd ask the doc about that. As I understand it the body needs abundant protein to heal or it will steal protein, wasting your muscles.

Physio on Brunswick
23 Aug 2012

I got to know about Liposuction through your blog. I’m very thankful to you for it.

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