How many days should I hire a caretaker after butt implants and breast implants surgery?

Thank you for your question.

A caretaker/caregiver would be very helpful in case a friend, spouse, or family member won’t be there to help.

If you are receiving breast and butt implants within one day to one week of each other, you will be facing soreness and discomfort making it difficult to carry out most activities in the first few days (i.e., first 4 days). This is why following your surgeon’s recovery instructions will be crucial to achieve aesthetically pleasing results without the complications.

For most people, the first two weeks following surgery can be difficult. After breast augmentation, most patients are able to return to a desk job after 4-5 days (a week). After 2-3 weeks, you should be able to begin your light exercise routine, such as brisk walking, and aerobics. You should not use your arms to lift anything more than 10 pounds for at least 2 weeks. Point to note is that you want to avoid using your chest muscles and you use your chest muscles for many things such as dressing, washing your hair, driving, opening a door, carrying things, etc. After receiving butt implants, it is advised not to sit on you buttocks for 2 to 3 weeks. When you start sitting down after 2 weeks, it is always a good idea to periodically stand up for 30 seconds every 30 minutes to relieve the pressure. You should be able to walk, and you will be required to sleep on your side to avoid putting pressure on either of the implants (breast and butt). Considering all this, most patients would require a caregiver for 1-2 weeks, but it truly depends on you and your needs (e.g., your healing process and your lifestyle). For example, you may have children who need to be cared for, or pets who need to be fed and walked. You may require someone to cook food, or do the dishes, or doing the laundry, etc. Increasing the activity level is dependent on your own perception of how well you feel. Any minute you feel an activity is causing pressure or causing you to feel stretch in your breasts or incisions, then stop the activity. Same goes for the butt implants. Hope this information helps.

If you are having these surgeries at the same time you will be very sore in the post-operative period. Luckily, you live in a city with multiple options for great post operative care that is reasonably priced. I would recommend a week at one of these facilities (Serenity in Santa Monica is great as is Pearl Recovery in BH). Good luck! Dr. Meghan Nadeau, Seattle, WA