Is 3 days too early to go back to work after having an Arm Lift?

Thank you for your question about returning to work after an arm lift or brachioplasty.  Returning to work three days after an arm lift or brachioplasty is much too soon. You could ruin your arm lift results. With enough force, you could open your arm incision, which would require revision surgery.  Revisions can be costly and further take time from work.  I would suggest you return to work two weeks after your arm lift or brachioplasty. If your work requires a significant amount of lifting or carrying boxes, I would suggest you return to work three weeks after your arm lift.   If you have any other questions regarding post-operative healing from an arm lift or brachioplasty, please contact my office.  Sincerely, Dr. J. Timothy Katzen

Yes.  During the first week your arms should be kept elevated on pillows higher than your heart.  Your arms will also be in a wrap and you will have sutures.  You should not be lifting and/or moving your arms about after surgery.  You also will not want to put any unnecessary risk of opening your sutures.  There will definitely be swelling and some pain post surgery as well.   Please link to the below site for further information.

 

The recovery period takes up to three weeks depending on the patient. Your arms will feel tight and swollen for about 2 weeks. I always recommended to wear a compression garment to help with the swelling. The bruising will mostly be gone by 1 week. Avoid any exercise or significant increase in your heart rate for 2 weeks. Hope this helps

Thank you so much for your question! When consulting with patients, I generally make recommendations about returning to work on a case to case basis. However, most of my patients who sit a a desk for work and have light duties, return to work in about  a week. I recommend that they continue to wear Tubigrip (a compression bandage) for a month after surgery so this would be visible if the patient did not wear long sleeves. 

I typically advise my patients that will need a 2 weeks off work but some patients feel ready return to light duties sooner.  It will depend on how you recovery from surgery and this cannot be predicted beforehand.

Arms are involved in so many day to day activities, so it's hard to determine exactly when going back to work is a good idea after brachioplasty. You will want to give yourself enough time to recover from the anesthetic medications themselves, which can really take about a week or so. Other things to consider if you're going to go back to work so early is if you're able to drive without lifting your arms too much. I typically advise my patients, even those who have desk jobs, to take at least 1-2 weeks off. Doing too much too early can affect your long-term results, which is not worth it if you're taken the time and resources to undergo cosmetic surgery. 

After an arm lift, patients can generally return to work about a week later.  If your job allows you to sit and stay off your feet most of the day, does not require you to do anything strenuous with your upper body, and can have some flexibility in terms of your hours, you may be okay returning to a "light duty" position sooner than a week.  Be sure to discuss expectations for your recovery with your surgeon at your consultation - there are also other things to consider (like dressings/scar treatment, postsurgical compression garments, medications, and feeling more tired than usual during the healing process) that may affect your ability to jump right back into work.Hope this helps, and best of luck -Dr. Lim

Most patients will take one to two weeks off work. Light duty work may allow you to return earlier. Keep in mind also the drive and commute you need to get to work. One week in generally more likely, at that time most patients no longer need narcotics and can take other forms of pain medication such as Tylenol.
You may ask your employer if you can work from home as well.

Thank you for your question. We usually tell patients that they will need 5-7 days for recovery after a brachioplasty/arm lift. Every patient heals differently, so you may be able to do light duty after 3 days. Good Luck!

The recovery from different surgeries varies but your arms, especially the scars need support after surgery to prevent or minimize large ugly scars. I recommend using ScaRxTape for your scars to give them support and help minimize scarring. I look at each case individually and cannot recommend when you would be able to go back to work but that may not be unreanable. My specialty is post-bariatric or weight loss plastic surgery and I am president of the American Society of Bariatric Plastic Surgeons.