Smart Lipo: Stories

I decided to undergo smartlipo on March 29, 2011 to reduce the size of my love handles and abdomen areas. I dropped a significant amount of weight after my second child was born. I went from 172 to 122 pounds which took 5 months to achieve—but I still had those annoying love handles that made me feel self-conscious of my body. I was not looking for a miracle after smartlipo but I wanted to get a good result—not a perfect one since that is not possible.

The day of the surgery I was given something to take my anxiety away, a pain pill, and also a lollipop which contained a medication to “help me forget”. I should have never taken the lollipop because it did exactly what it was supposed to do—I forgot the majority of the surgery went. I just remember bits and pieces. Though I remember the beginning of the surgery completely since that medication was not yet in my system.

I remember that was very uncomfortable and painful as they put in the tumescent fluid. It felt a lot of tugging accompanied with painful zapping pinches. After that, they lazered the fat and then suctioned it out—this is the part I don’t quite recall. I just remember seeing some fat going through the tubes and seeing the containers of fat/bloody fluid at the end of my procedure. I was told that they removed somewhere between 1000 to 1200 cc’s of fat. I was hoping for more though but I was too out of it to say so at the time. I paid $3,500 for my flanks and abdomen—they had a monthly special.

Night of the procedure:

I was in a good amount of pain even after taking the vicodin that the doctor prescribed. The medicine eased some of the pain and made me extremely drowsy. I was draining a lot that night and I was also so nauseated that I vomited like two times that night.

Day 1(first day after procedure):

I was still nauseated so I vomited once more but after that it stopped. I was finally able to shower that afternoon. I remember that my incisions on the back stinged when the water hit them so I had to hold gauze pads on them while showering to ease the stinging pain. Most of the drainage had stopped by that time. I remember that it was very painful to put the garment back on while trying to put pads on the incision areas. I was in pain and felt really sore on the areas that were worked on. Started taking bromelain for swelling and arnica to reduce bruising.

Day 2:

The drainage had completely stopped at this point. I took my garment off to shower and my body looked a lot better than before the surgery. At this point there was no swelling so this was probably why I liked the look of my body on this day. The only thing that worried me was that one flank was a bit larger than the other. But overall I remember being somewhat happy with the results so far—even though I knew this was not the final result. Same amount of pain and soreness.

Day 3:

On this day the swelling began which made my body look almost the same as before surgery which was upsetting. I just reminded myself that it was swelling and this is normal after any surgery. The pain eased up a bit on this day but not significantly. I was also getting weird pains when I was trying to get comfortable in bed. They are stitch like pains or like something got detached for a second or so. Very unusual pain!

Day 4:

Feeling a lot better in regards to the pain. It only hurts when bending or trying to get comfortable in bed. I am also very very sore to the touch. So sore that it even hurts to carry a purse since it taps me at times which is painful. I have to be very careful when getting in and out of my truck because of the soreness. The swelling is getting worse even though I am taking bromelain. The arnica pills have helped tremendously since my bruising is not bad at all.

Day 5:

The pain is much less today but the soreness makes up for that. I can’t even carry my two year old because of it. The weird pains are still there when moving around in bed. Today I started having difficulty breathing for some reason. I thought my garment was too tight because of the swelling so I took it off for a little while but I was still having trouble breathing. This was the most of my worries at this point since I heard that liposuction carries a risk of pulmonary embolism but that is really rare.

Day 6-7:

The swelling is horrible and is making me have doubts about having this procedure done since my body looks the same as it did before surgery—well at least to me it does look like before. I am still worried that one flank looks bigger than the other. Still having a bit of trouble breathing at times—mostly when I think about it haha. I am still really sore to the touch. My abdomen and some areas of my flanks feel really hard, numb, and warm to the touch. I was told this was most likely some tumescent fluid that was still in those areas and that I should drink lots of water to flush it out.

Day 8:

I went for my 1 week check-up today. I was told that I was healing properly and that my love handles should even out as the weeks go by. I just really hope that does happen! I also told my doctor about my breathing troubles and he told me that he never heard of that happening after smartlipo. I told him about the risks of embolism and he told me not to worry and that if that were the case then I would not be standing in his office since I would probably be in the ER instead(he was not rude about it lol). I am still swollen and sore to the touch.

Day 9-10:

I am feeling more mobile now and the soreness is not as bad but it is still bothersome. I am bending over without much pain at this point. My back incisions have finally healed. The breathing is still a problem but hopefully it is just because of the amount of swelling that I have. The weird pains are lessening now.

Day 11-15:

During these days, the pain has subsided significantly and so has the soreness. I can actually massage the treated areas without too much pain. Don’t get me wrong though—I am still somewhat sore to the touch but not as bad as before. The swelling varies day by day. Some days I am really swollen and some days I am not too swollen. I have my “I feel fat” days and my “I feel skinnier” days. Some days my love handles are even and some days they are not?? I am also still hard, numb, and warm to the touch in some areas. I was told that this should go away by the 4 to 6 week mark. My breathing issue is getting better now which I am relieved about. I still get the weird pains here and there.

The verdict is still out on seeing if “smartlipo was worth it”. I will update this just as soon as I feel that I have gotten the “final results”. I hope that I am happy with the results because I don't want to feel like I wasted that much money on something that didn't give results.