POSTED UNDER Liposuction REVIEWS
Had Lipo Yesterday--inner, Outer Thighs, and Above the Knee
ORIGINAL POST
Hello all! This site has really helped me...
MidwestDylanNovember 24, 2011
WORTH IT$5,200
Hello all! This site has really helped me establish expectations after lipo. I had lipo yesterday under general anesthesia. I had tremendous leaking when I got home. I went through about 12 towels to absorb the leakage. My husband that I ruptured one of the stitches. He called the doc and they advised me to put a maxi pad on that spot and press firmly for about 15 minutes. I did this and finally the awful leakage diminished. My garment wa completely bloody. Sorry, it's gross, but thought I'd share my entire experience. Today, a day after lipo, I feel extremely sore. I wish my doc had given me a garment below the knee. I got one above the knee right where they did lipo, too. The inside of the knee was very swollen and protruding out. Luckily, I had a garment I bought years ago to wear under my tight fit wedding dress and after I took my first shower and replaced the gause pads with bandaids, I slipped my old garment on. It was difficult to put on b/c I had a hard time putting it on before the surgery, let alone after. It took me about 10 minutes and I almost fainted a couple times...just from seeing all the brusing and swelling. Last night I hardly slept all. I'm used to sleeping on my side and now I have to sleep on my back. Slept on the couch and got up 5 times to use the bathroom. I've been drinking a moderate amount of water and the color is light but it smells. I dont know if the fuil they injected is coming out of my lymph nodes or if its from all the fruits and veggies I've been eating. For now I can hardly eat anything but fruits and veggies. Those keep me hidrated along with the water as well. I'm just not hungry when I'm not moving around much. I do get up to walk around every 45 mins or so for about 5 minutes or so at a time. When I'm laying down, my legs are elevated-I dont know if they are supposed to be or not, but I'm afraid of the swelling going down into my calves. Hoping this will speed up swelling process. I only took one hydrocodone last night and I will never touch it again. I felt absolutely horrible and I almost fainted several times. I have been taking ibuprofen every 4 hrs or so. Thats to help with the soreness pain and swelling. No other pain besides soreness. I will keep you posted as my healing process continues. I took 10 days off work, and really hope to be able to go to the gym and get on a bike 5 days after lipo. My appt to get stiches out is 6 days from surgery date. I had 6 stitches all together. 3 each leg. They took 3.5 liters of fat and were absolutely amazed b/c otherwise I am very thin. I will post pictures eventually once I can move around more. I hope to be happy with the final results. Any comments are welcome. Thanks!
Replies (22)
November 14, 2011
Yikes! Already back to work!?!? I am taking my time. Keeping hydrated and massaging the areas.
It is now end of day 3 after surgery and I feel much better. Went on a half mile walk outside by myself yesterday. Today I went on about another half hour walk outside w/ my husband.
How are you walking? Did you just get our outer thighs besides your flanks done?? I did everthing above and around the knee. Today it's been pretty tight in my inner thigh. Right where the incision is, it feels like its pulling. Now I just have bandaids and I put neosporin on the stitches to keep them hydrated and hopefully prevent scarring. Although the incision are about 4 mm.
I continue to drink a ton of water. However, I my urine still smells sweet. I don't understand why and can't find anything online except that it may be a sign of diabetes?!?! I eat extremely healthy and watch my weight, so I don't see how it would be so coincidental that I got diabetes day of surgery. I highly doubt its that. I still think its the fluid and toxins being flushed out through my lymph nodes. I massage the area several times a day. With my hands and also a heated hand held massager. I keep pushing towards the inner groin area to help with the flushing.
I am really amazed how much the swelling has gone down from Saturday to Sunday and surgery was Friday.
Bruising looks like its starting to diminish. I actually had a lumpy outer thigh area but with massaging for about 15 minutes as I just mentioned, the next day it was gone!
You are lucky your husband washed your garment for you. My husband almost puked when he saw how much leakage I have. I think the leakage is a good sign because the fluids arent staying inside your body. But it was really gross! He covered the couches with garbage bags and a ton of towels until the leakage/bleeding (I am 100% it was a combo of both for some reason) stopped.
I am extremely careful what I eat esp. now. I am extremely picky about how much sodium something has. I am planning on staying this way b/c I refuse to put on weight elsewhere.
How much do you weigh now? I weigh 1.4 lbs more after surgery than before. I try to weigh myself in the morning before I eat breakfast.
I was 133 lbs day of surgery and now I am 134.4 lbs. I am 5'7" and am pretty thin everywhere else. I just had bigger thighs gentically.
I'd be interested to find out your diet and your height and weight.
Good luck with going back to work!!
It is now end of day 3 after surgery and I feel much better. Went on a half mile walk outside by myself yesterday. Today I went on about another half hour walk outside w/ my husband.
How are you walking? Did you just get our outer thighs besides your flanks done?? I did everthing above and around the knee. Today it's been pretty tight in my inner thigh. Right where the incision is, it feels like its pulling. Now I just have bandaids and I put neosporin on the stitches to keep them hydrated and hopefully prevent scarring. Although the incision are about 4 mm.
I continue to drink a ton of water. However, I my urine still smells sweet. I don't understand why and can't find anything online except that it may be a sign of diabetes?!?! I eat extremely healthy and watch my weight, so I don't see how it would be so coincidental that I got diabetes day of surgery. I highly doubt its that. I still think its the fluid and toxins being flushed out through my lymph nodes. I massage the area several times a day. With my hands and also a heated hand held massager. I keep pushing towards the inner groin area to help with the flushing.
I am really amazed how much the swelling has gone down from Saturday to Sunday and surgery was Friday.
Bruising looks like its starting to diminish. I actually had a lumpy outer thigh area but with massaging for about 15 minutes as I just mentioned, the next day it was gone!
You are lucky your husband washed your garment for you. My husband almost puked when he saw how much leakage I have. I think the leakage is a good sign because the fluids arent staying inside your body. But it was really gross! He covered the couches with garbage bags and a ton of towels until the leakage/bleeding (I am 100% it was a combo of both for some reason) stopped.
I am extremely careful what I eat esp. now. I am extremely picky about how much sodium something has. I am planning on staying this way b/c I refuse to put on weight elsewhere.
How much do you weigh now? I weigh 1.4 lbs more after surgery than before. I try to weigh myself in the morning before I eat breakfast.
I was 133 lbs day of surgery and now I am 134.4 lbs. I am 5'7" and am pretty thin everywhere else. I just had bigger thighs gentically.
I'd be interested to find out your diet and your height and weight.
Good luck with going back to work!!
November 16, 2011
Day 5:
Still have tightness in my inner thighs. Makes it kind of hard to work. It's really getting to me. My measurements are the same as day of surgery pre-op. It feels like I still have major fluid under my buttocks. I've been trying to massage that more as well with a handheld heat massager. I can feel the fluid in there when the massager is vibrating over it.
Had a hard time sleeping last night again. I decided not to elevate my legs while not sleeping. Wish I could find a happy medium. If I elevate while I sleep, I lose circulation in my toes and that wakes me up. Last night while not elevating, swelling built up in my upper thighs. Ugh! It was hard to get up. I didn't take any meds before bed either and was on the elliptical for about 15 minutes about an hour and a half before bedtime. It feels amazing to be on the elliptical. Really starts to stretch my muscles and warms them up, reducing pain.
I'm still on the low down with medications. I did start taking 2 OTC Tylenol and then alternate that with 1 Ibuprofen Rx every four hours. I still have not touched the Hydrocodone and will not.
I am hoping to in a day or two to wake up and have the stupid swelling in my inner thighs gone. I hate the feeling. Funny thing, the leg that did not have the major leakage like I talked about above (in my left leg) is the one that has more swelling. Obviously most of the leakage was the fluid they injected. In hind sight, I wish the same thing had happened to my other leg. I think it would have seriously helped with the swelling by now.
Still have tightness in my inner thighs. Makes it kind of hard to work. It's really getting to me. My measurements are the same as day of surgery pre-op. It feels like I still have major fluid under my buttocks. I've been trying to massage that more as well with a handheld heat massager. I can feel the fluid in there when the massager is vibrating over it.
Had a hard time sleeping last night again. I decided not to elevate my legs while not sleeping. Wish I could find a happy medium. If I elevate while I sleep, I lose circulation in my toes and that wakes me up. Last night while not elevating, swelling built up in my upper thighs. Ugh! It was hard to get up. I didn't take any meds before bed either and was on the elliptical for about 15 minutes about an hour and a half before bedtime. It feels amazing to be on the elliptical. Really starts to stretch my muscles and warms them up, reducing pain.
I'm still on the low down with medications. I did start taking 2 OTC Tylenol and then alternate that with 1 Ibuprofen Rx every four hours. I still have not touched the Hydrocodone and will not.
I am hoping to in a day or two to wake up and have the stupid swelling in my inner thighs gone. I hate the feeling. Funny thing, the leg that did not have the major leakage like I talked about above (in my left leg) is the one that has more swelling. Obviously most of the leakage was the fluid they injected. In hind sight, I wish the same thing had happened to my other leg. I think it would have seriously helped with the swelling by now.
November 16, 2011
*I meant its getting hard to walk, not work. I am not back to work yet. Still off for another 4 days.
November 17, 2011
Day 6 post op:
This morning before breakfast I was still about same weight, only a few oz difference.
Had my stitches taken out today. I discovered I had four incisions in each leg--what a nice surprise! The extra ones were in a crease under my buttocks. No wonder it hurt like heck to sit down! It took a little bit to take the stitches out--nurse was having problems getting them out. Said they were pretty tight.
Doc said swelling and bruising is as expected. In most areas it's turning greenish yellow, hopefully meaning it's nearing the end stages. However, on the inside of my knee and by my crotch area, it's still pretty purple, but getting better. Kind of turning pinkish.
Doc also told me to massage the areas in the shower with soap and water. I just did this today more than before and its still a bit tender to the touch of course, but I kept massaging. I was prob. in there for about half hour.
Nurse said to keep the incision areas dry--no neosporin and/or bandaid, b/c that can trap bacteria. She said to just put mederma or something like that on the scars. She advised maybe not quite yet b/c the incisions are still healing.
She also suggested to make sure and massage the areas where the incisions were to help with the healing of scars and also soften up the tissue.
I have another follow up appt in 3 wks. I am guessing they will take after pictures then.
This morning before breakfast I was still about same weight, only a few oz difference.
Had my stitches taken out today. I discovered I had four incisions in each leg--what a nice surprise! The extra ones were in a crease under my buttocks. No wonder it hurt like heck to sit down! It took a little bit to take the stitches out--nurse was having problems getting them out. Said they were pretty tight.
Doc said swelling and bruising is as expected. In most areas it's turning greenish yellow, hopefully meaning it's nearing the end stages. However, on the inside of my knee and by my crotch area, it's still pretty purple, but getting better. Kind of turning pinkish.
Doc also told me to massage the areas in the shower with soap and water. I just did this today more than before and its still a bit tender to the touch of course, but I kept massaging. I was prob. in there for about half hour.
Nurse said to keep the incision areas dry--no neosporin and/or bandaid, b/c that can trap bacteria. She said to just put mederma or something like that on the scars. She advised maybe not quite yet b/c the incisions are still healing.
She also suggested to make sure and massage the areas where the incisions were to help with the healing of scars and also soften up the tissue.
I have another follow up appt in 3 wks. I am guessing they will take after pictures then.
November 17, 2011
How are you massaging the areas of lipo? I wasn't advised as of yet to do any massaging, just to keep my garment on unless i'm bathing. I have of course rubbed my areas a little bit, just to make sure I can still 'feel' something in that area, but no massage. I'm not sure how you are doing in without the hydrocodene,b/c that helps me more than anything. When I'm at work, I break the pill in half and take it if needed..but when i'm at home, if the pain is intense, I will take a full pill. I have found 2 incisions I was not aware of on my outer thighs, so I have a total of 8. They itch like crazy, and again, I never had any leakage out of mine. My surgical tape they had orginally put on is still in place. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing, but it's still there.
Are you finding it difficult to remove the marker that they drew on you with? I am!! It of course is dissapearing slowly, but I thought it would be gone by now!
I have written a blog like yours if you are interested in reading it! Of course I will keep updated with your progress as well!
Are you finding it difficult to remove the marker that they drew on you with? I am!! It of course is dissapearing slowly, but I thought it would be gone by now!
I have written a blog like yours if you are interested in reading it! Of course I will keep updated with your progress as well!
November 17, 2011
I use Lever2000 soap in the shower. I was advised to use that rather than shower gel 2 weeks prior to surgery. I do the massaging in the shower with soap and water. It helps if you rub a bit of soap in area where its not too tender and then just massage the other areas. It's easier obviously b/c it's slippery rather than rubbing just dry skin.
I'm a bit of a nature/health nut and feel that I'd rather have leakage than not b/c I think it helps with reducing the swelling. I am still experiencing some leaking from my inner thighs after stitches were removed today. I put a gauze pad and some clear surgical tape. Sounds gross, but in my right leg, it's leaking through the gauze a bit. I don't really mind that. I will just have to change it more often.
I see that you're from Texas and I'm surprised they do things a bit different there...as in you have dissolvable stitches, etc. but it could be that you had lipo in different areas.
I'm still only doing about 2 Tylenol every 4 hrs andalternating w/ 1 Rx Ibuprofen. As of today, I'm losing track of time and haven't been consistent w/ taking them.
Like I said, I didn't have a good experience w/ Hydrocodone, so I just stopped that right away. Make sure your tummy is always full before you take that stuff. I'm already gettin gripe from my hubby for taking the Tylenol and Ibuprofen. I will keep on taking Ibu. for a bit here so hopefully it helps with the swelling to go down.
I would think by now you could start massaging. I think for you esp in the stomach area what might be good to try is a thermal handheld massager. I bought one on Amazon by Wahl for like $15! It's pretty awesome. Its got different attachments and it vibrates. I actually did this day after lipo. I was determined to get this swelling out. However, today the nurse did say that the peak swelling occurs 10-14 days after surgery, so I think I need to be more patient.
I will read your blog as well.
Keep in touch! And happy recovery!
November 17, 2011
Some of my areas itch, too. Some are numb as well, esp. under my buttocks where I discovered today I had extra incisions down there. Yikes!
I didn't realize you had 3 kids, wow! I would love to see pictures! I don't have any kids but despite eating healthy and exercising, I was prone to saddlebags and heavier upper legs genetically.
Can't wait to hear more...
November 20, 2011
Day 9
(I skipped a few as not much has really changed)
However, the tightness in my inner thighs is getting better. After my stitches were taken out, I continued to have some leakage. I guess I was just destined to have it. In reading, many people did not have lakage.
Anyway, I am happy to report that I have lost 2 whole lbs. since day before surgery. I probably have eaten more now than before surgery, but the food is very natural and healthy. I'll have either oatmeal for breakfast with just a few raisins and some cinnamon. Some days I'll have an egg or two with an all natural, fat free, chicken sausage, seasoned w/ some herbs. I also just tried Palenta from Trader Joe's with low fat cottage cheese and that I also love. I'll have a snack about 3 hrs later. Greek yogurt with a little granola on top or I will just have some walnuts, almonds, or even buttercup squash, which I have a major addiction to! :)
And the day goes on healthy as well. I usually eat something different every day for lunch and dinner.
On the bad note, I am still pretty darn sore. I am going back to work tomorrow and am a little worried. I still can't fully sit down on a chair. I still feel like I have balloons under my buttocks.
Also, for the last 4 days or so, I feel like I have fluid in my knee joints! It really hurts! Also, my inner knees are still killing me. They are still a deep purple. The front of my thighs and outer thighs really don't bother me anymore. They are about a yellow bruise color now. The green is fading away.
I don't know if I mentioned already, but I bought a different compression garment. It was about $40 at a dept. store and it goes down below my knee. The one I used before seems to either have lost elasticity or my swelling is finally starting to go down.
Anyway, I will try to keep posting when I have time.
(I skipped a few as not much has really changed)
However, the tightness in my inner thighs is getting better. After my stitches were taken out, I continued to have some leakage. I guess I was just destined to have it. In reading, many people did not have lakage.
Anyway, I am happy to report that I have lost 2 whole lbs. since day before surgery. I probably have eaten more now than before surgery, but the food is very natural and healthy. I'll have either oatmeal for breakfast with just a few raisins and some cinnamon. Some days I'll have an egg or two with an all natural, fat free, chicken sausage, seasoned w/ some herbs. I also just tried Palenta from Trader Joe's with low fat cottage cheese and that I also love. I'll have a snack about 3 hrs later. Greek yogurt with a little granola on top or I will just have some walnuts, almonds, or even buttercup squash, which I have a major addiction to! :)
And the day goes on healthy as well. I usually eat something different every day for lunch and dinner.
On the bad note, I am still pretty darn sore. I am going back to work tomorrow and am a little worried. I still can't fully sit down on a chair. I still feel like I have balloons under my buttocks.
Also, for the last 4 days or so, I feel like I have fluid in my knee joints! It really hurts! Also, my inner knees are still killing me. They are still a deep purple. The front of my thighs and outer thighs really don't bother me anymore. They are about a yellow bruise color now. The green is fading away.
I don't know if I mentioned already, but I bought a different compression garment. It was about $40 at a dept. store and it goes down below my knee. The one I used before seems to either have lost elasticity or my swelling is finally starting to go down.
Anyway, I will try to keep posting when I have time.
November 20, 2011
Oh and I forgot to mention that for the last two days I have stopped taking Ibuprof and have started taking Bromelain. I take 2 capsules in the AM w/ breakfast and 2 with dinner in the PM. I have read good reviews about it and am hopingn that it helps the swelling and bruising.
I have also been massaging my legs, esp. my inner thighs. I massage my scars w/ Bio Oil 2x a day and also do the same thing with my legs with just some Jergens firming lotion. I massage the inner thighs and some spots feel doughy, so I try to massage the tissue a bit deeper and spread the lumps of fat around. (Sounds gross, I know).
I still take 2 OTC Tylenol 2x a day. In the morning w/ breakfast to help me throughout the day and then before bed so I can sleep calmer. I've been itchy like crazy the last 2 or 3 days also, so the Tylenol helps me calm down.
I have also been massaging my legs, esp. my inner thighs. I massage my scars w/ Bio Oil 2x a day and also do the same thing with my legs with just some Jergens firming lotion. I massage the inner thighs and some spots feel doughy, so I try to massage the tissue a bit deeper and spread the lumps of fat around. (Sounds gross, I know).
I still take 2 OTC Tylenol 2x a day. In the morning w/ breakfast to help me throughout the day and then before bed so I can sleep calmer. I've been itchy like crazy the last 2 or 3 days also, so the Tylenol helps me calm down.
Interesting to read about the supplements you are taking. My doc never told me about anything like that.
Do you take that along w/ your regular Multi-Vitamins?
I see one of the supplements thins the blood. So if I find them at Target today or tomorrow, I will prob. replace the Ibuprof. w/ one of the supplements.
I'm so glad I read that. I hope the swelling goes down faster.
Thank you!!