How long after liposuction can I start exercising, driving, and sitting in front of the computer?

Dear Olga,The obvious first answer would be to ask your Board Certified plastic surgeon.That being said, if you were my patient, I would tell you that you could begin light exercise on the 5th day post surgery because the small clots on the capillaries that were injured during the liposuction have solidified by the 5th day and light exercise, to include light yoga, should not interfere.On the other hand, sitting at a computer is a completely different situation.  At 5 days post liposuction, there are many free fat cells floating around, especially in your abdomen.  Because your belly button is anchored to the abdominal wall, free cells can settle out both above and below the belly button leading to ridges of fat in one or the other, or both areas.  These ridges may last a very long time and be very disconcerting.  If you were to wear a post surgical girdle and put a piece of foam rubber (I prefer Reston foam) stuck to the girdle and touching your abdominal wall while sitting at the computer, this will equalize the forces on your skin and therefore make it less likely that fatty ridges will appear.  As a sidebar note, I would certainly not recommend wearing standard panties for the first month after liposuction of the abdomen or love handles.  The elastic in this underwear creates the same ridges that one might see while sitting at the computer with an anchored belly button.  In my practice, we recommend all our female post liposuction patients wear panties referred to as Lace which has lace as opposed to elastic to hold it in place.

In my own practice patients may return to any activity when they feel up to it after liposuction. However, this is a question that should be asked of your own surgeon.

I suppose you have answered your own question regarding driving.Patients should avoid driving if taking prescription narcotic pain medication or if they feel like they cannot handle driving safely.This includes being comfortable looking sideways for traffic, etc.I typically ask my patients to get back to normal activity as soon as possible.I also tell my patients to not engage in any physical activity that causes discomfort during the healing phase after surgery.Milder daily activities is usually easily tolerated within a few days.Full-on exercise, especially jumping or running, may take as long as three or four weeks.There is a large variance of tolerated activities after this type of procedure.Please check with your plastic surgeon to see what his or her recommendations are.Best of luck, Mats Hagstrom, M.D.