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Swelling
So you swell, you know you are going to swell and that is why you have to wear the compression garments. I am swelling really bad below where the compression garments come across my stomach. It is to the point that I can't wear anything but sweat pants and it hurts when I touch. Guess the lovely numbing stuff they put has started to wear off. Last week I went back for a follow-up (two weeks post surgery) and she told me the area is swelling really bad and I should get some Spanx or something to wear since the compression garments don't go down that far. I have the drains still in, so that made it really hard to wear something like that. She told me to cut a hole in it for the drain but I have a hard time doing that after paying the 40 dollars for it to cut a hole in it. Probably silly after I just spent a fortune to get the surgery to be complaining about this. Instead I found some that look like underwear and have the drain coming out of the bottom and up. It makes it hard to go to the bathroom, but if the cord is long enough I can pull the underwear and spans down without having to take all the compression garments off. Normally you just wear one, but as I said in a previous post, the first one they gave me was a size small. The second one after I almost passed out was a large. They were out of medium. Since the large is too big and the small is too small, I mix the two. I barely close the small and to hold it in place I put the larger one over it. I hope that is helping it heal faster...if I could just stop moving around so much. I don't do well sitting still all day, just not in my nature. The Spanx are helping the swelling go down, but my doctor did say that is the last area to stop swelling. I hope when this is all said and done, I won't have to wear Spanx again (maybe I should just cut that hole in them after all)
Surgery
The surgery itself was actually interesting. I was taken to the room (my doctor did it at their practice). I was introduced to the anesthesiologist who put the catheter into my arm. Once I was laying down, they put blankets over me and compression boots on my feet (I think to increase or decrease the pressure if needed) and then I was told that I would go to sleep and next thing I know I was in the recovery room. I don't remember dreaming. I was VERY tired when I woke up. It was probably around 6:30PM when I was finally able to go. The surgery lasted 3 hours and I had to be there ahead of time an hour. I think I was in recovery for about an hour before they let you leave. I just remember waking up and being dressed (I wore sweat pants with a button down shirt to make it easier). I kept saying I just wanted to go home and that I hurt. They gave me some pain meds and my husband came to get me. They told me I would walk out but they rolled me out to the car in a wheel chair. I could have cared less how they got me to the car, I was feeling really tired and hurting and sick. I ended up throwing up on the way home, which wasn't good because I think I threw up my pain meds. Since I wasn't sure, I had to wait till the four hours were up so I could take more pain meds. I was able to walk, but with assistance. I was wearing the compression garment and had the two drains in. OK, so the drains. Let's take a minute to discuss what a pain in the tail the drains are. I very much dislike having the drains in. They are painful around the site and they are just awkward. The way they work is that there is a long tube (probably a foot or more in length) that goes inside you. One at the top ab area and then one just above the incision site. You squeeze the bulb to create a suction so that the fluid drains from your wound. I read somewhere that the fluid is similar to when you get a blister. The skin separates and the fluid fills the gap. So when they pulled the skin away and took out the fat or whatever, then my body filled the space with fluid. If they don't remove the fluid then I think it can get infected and takes longer for the skin to reattach. This is my very unscientific guess to what is going on in my body. My body has decided to make a lot of fluid. I was wondering if I drink too much water, but I was told that it really doesn't work that way. I also think I move around too much which that can affect how quickly the skin connects back. That does make more sense to me. If the skin is moving and chaffing then I can see why it would have a harder time connecting. But, in my defense, I have three young children so it is hard to sit around and not doing anything for weeks on end :) Their rule of thumb is that you have to have less than 30ml of fluid draining for three days in a row in order for the drain to be taken out. I thought that after one week I would have the first drain out and the second week the second drain comes out. Because I was making too much fluid, I unfortunately didn't have the drain out till two weeks. I just had my almost three week check-up yesterday and my second drain was not taken out. I am still making too much fluid. It is extremely frustrating, but I understand why they are there. My solution is to use Ace bandages to hold it in place just below my breast so that it isn't as obvious. Unless you want the whole world to know you have had surgery or to gross them out, you don't want them seeing this drain coming out of your body. The other problem is going to the bathroom. Between removing compression garments and unpinning drains, it is not very easy to do this.
OK so back to the surgery. I had to get up several times to take pain meds in the middle of the night. I had three kids but never had a C-section so I can't take to how similar or different this was to that. However, I also realize now that your core muscles do almost everything! I couldn't sit without assistance, I couldn't stand without assistance. I couldn't life my legs to get my pants on or off without assistance. My husband was a rock star. He would help me get in and out of the chair and basically help with everything. The first day after surgery I hurt. I didn't really hurt in the front because they have such lovely drugs they put inside you that you are numb, but my back and sides hurt. I wasn't expecting that. The second day I had to go back to the doctor's office because one of my drain bulbs wouldn't say compressed so it wasn't working to suck the fluid out. Then nurse had to check the drain so she had me sit down to take the compression garment off. I was told I could shower after 24 hours if I wanted so I had planned on doing that. However, when she took the compression garment off, I almost passed out. She told me to sit down and had warned me that some people get light headed after the garment is taken off. She was correct. It is a good thing I didn't try this at home on my own. After everything was fixed, which just meant I had to wear some gauze and tape around the entrance hold of the drain, she tried to put the compression garment back on. Pain, pain, pain! She was trying to grab my side to stretch the velcro straps (mine have three that go across your stomach) back into place. It hurt so bad I thought I started crying. She finally gave up and went to get a bigger one. I have no idea how they got the first one in place unless I was unconscious at the time. Once she got a bigger one, it was much better. I am just glad I didn't try that at home on my own.
So the chair, ah my lovely lazy-boyesc chair. You will become one with your chair because it is really hard to sleep in a bed after this surgery. My instructions were for the first 72 hours to not lay flat. There is no way in this world I could have laid flat because I would never have been able to get up again. Goes back to those core muscles that you just don't have. You feel like a turtle on their back and just can't get up on your own from a sitting position, let alone a laying position. I thought after a few days I would be back in my bed. I am going on almost three weeks and still sleeping in the chair. I have tried a couple of nights in the bed, but my ab muscles were so sore the next day because they got more stretched laying down than sitting up or laying up. If you are in a chair, you are more crouched than stretched. For the first few days I felt like I walked slumped forward and had a hard time standing up straight.
OK so back to the surgery. I had to get up several times to take pain meds in the middle of the night. I had three kids but never had a C-section so I can't take to how similar or different this was to that. However, I also realize now that your core muscles do almost everything! I couldn't sit without assistance, I couldn't stand without assistance. I couldn't life my legs to get my pants on or off without assistance. My husband was a rock star. He would help me get in and out of the chair and basically help with everything. The first day after surgery I hurt. I didn't really hurt in the front because they have such lovely drugs they put inside you that you are numb, but my back and sides hurt. I wasn't expecting that. The second day I had to go back to the doctor's office because one of my drain bulbs wouldn't say compressed so it wasn't working to suck the fluid out. Then nurse had to check the drain so she had me sit down to take the compression garment off. I was told I could shower after 24 hours if I wanted so I had planned on doing that. However, when she took the compression garment off, I almost passed out. She told me to sit down and had warned me that some people get light headed after the garment is taken off. She was correct. It is a good thing I didn't try this at home on my own. After everything was fixed, which just meant I had to wear some gauze and tape around the entrance hold of the drain, she tried to put the compression garment back on. Pain, pain, pain! She was trying to grab my side to stretch the velcro straps (mine have three that go across your stomach) back into place. It hurt so bad I thought I started crying. She finally gave up and went to get a bigger one. I have no idea how they got the first one in place unless I was unconscious at the time. Once she got a bigger one, it was much better. I am just glad I didn't try that at home on my own.
So the chair, ah my lovely lazy-boyesc chair. You will become one with your chair because it is really hard to sleep in a bed after this surgery. My instructions were for the first 72 hours to not lay flat. There is no way in this world I could have laid flat because I would never have been able to get up again. Goes back to those core muscles that you just don't have. You feel like a turtle on their back and just can't get up on your own from a sitting position, let alone a laying position. I thought after a few days I would be back in my bed. I am going on almost three weeks and still sleeping in the chair. I have tried a couple of nights in the bed, but my ab muscles were so sore the next day because they got more stretched laying down than sitting up or laying up. If you are in a chair, you are more crouched than stretched. For the first few days I felt like I walked slumped forward and had a hard time standing up straight.
Picture pre and post surgery
Provider Review
Board Certified Plastic Surgeon
14835 Ballantyne Village Way, Charlotte, North Carolina
She is very professional and put me at ease with the procedure.