Forget SmartLipo, do traditional - Charlotte, NC

I wanted to sort of journal through my days of smart lipo.

Yesterday I went to see Dr. Bruce Marko in Charlotte, NC for Smart Lipo of the upper/lower abdomen and love handles.
I am in my upper 20’s. 5’1” tall. Doctor’s scale said I weighed 128, my home scale says 125.
I do want to state, before I say anything else, that I did do research on him. I did not find any bad reviews on him. He is NOT a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, but he is Board Certified in other specialties and I feel he has had the hands on experience long enough. He has been around the area for a while and had been doing this procedure since it was first available. Minimum of 5 years. I did see his before and after photos and asked as many questions as possible. I felt confident he would do a great job so I went along with him as my surgeon.
Operation Day (June 14th 2012)

I went in and had my weight and before pictures taken.
First he gave me a small injection of a numbing agent in 2 areas. I already had a scar on my back so we agreed he could use that and make the small incision on my back side, and then he did one really low below the belt line in the center. From there he started injecting the numbing agent into my sub fat layers. After that had time to set in he cranked up the Smart lipo machine and went to work. First he lasered over all areas and then he went in with the suction and suctioned out everything. I could see in the canister they got 800mL of fluid out. Not all of that was fat of course. 100mL they could see distinctly so far was solid fat. The nurse told me it would take some time for it to completely separate and when I came back for my post op in a week she could give me the official mLs that were just fat.
The nurse helped my sit up and showed me how to put on my compression garments. One is like a small lycra body suit that is crotch less and goes from my thighs up to just below my breast. The second is a elastic band I wrap around and then Velcro. It goes just around my mid section. I had drainage therough out the rest of the day at home as they told me I would. Went through about 3 super maxi pads on the back. Maybe ½ a one on the front. Total from after surgery til the AM. At night time when I put on my fresh pads before bed I was super swollen below the belt in the female areas. It looked scary and ridiculous at the same time. I knew this was just swelling and where the fluid had migrated so I wasn’t worried and I went to bed. Sleeping the first night was fine.

Day 2 - Recovery
I haven’t leaked any more from the front according to my maxi pad this morning, but I had filled up the one I put on the back before bed. When I was in the shower I saw some of the pinkish fluid go down the drain from the back part. I’m getting a little sore now, it is 3pm. But still nothing unbearable. Just feels like I have bruises on my back maybe and like I did too many sit ups on my upper abs. no more swelling in the female regions below. That makes things much more comfortable. I have had no problems working today. I have a sedentary job, but I have been up and about as much as possible to keep the soreness from setting in and help my metabolism stay up to metabolize the fluid and liquefied fat that the suction left behind.