Swelling Has Increased After Stopping Compression and Resuming Exercise. What to Do?

I agree with the others that this is normal occurrence post-op, and this quickly started flow could be causing this swelling and it will subside.You may need your activity to be a bit lighter than tried initially to allow blood flow to return regularly to your core during full exercise. Be sure to give your incisions and muscles time to recover fully, so after about six weeks you should be OK to increase it again to higher cardio aerobic activity, and then release to full, unlimited exercise at the end of week 8. It sounds like that may be difficult for someone living in your level of activity, but you don’t want to push anything and risk damage.

It’s not unusual for patients who have undergone
abdominoplasty and liposuction to experience discomfort and swelling when they
resume strenuous physical activity.These
procedures have a significant impact on the abdominal wall soft tissue.In many cases, surgical incisions and passage
of the liposuction cannula have resulted in damage to blood supply and
lymphatic channels.In addition,
patients are in the middle of the wound healing process and its associated
inflammatory changes.When
patients resume strenuous activity, they maximally stress the lymphatic
drainage of the area and in some cases exceed its capacity to adequately remove
fluid.This is made worse by the absence
of a compression garment.This can lead
to the swelling that you describe.When
this situation arises, it’s important to be patient.This is a normal phenomena that occurs with
almost every patient who undergoes these procedures.It’s important to go slow at first and listen
to your body.It might be helpful to
continue using your compression garment and start a low salt diet.In some cases, massage is helpful as well.If the
problem fails to resolve, consultation with your plastic surgeon is
appropriate.Under these circumstances,
it may be appropriate to obtain a CT scan to rule out an abdominal wall
seroma.In the vast majority of patients
these studies are negative and patients continue to improve with time.

Don't worry about this too much. It's common for swelling to reappear after you've started exercising again and when you've stopped wearing your garment. This will go away with time, although may reappear again the next time you exercise. However, it will disappear as you progress in your recovery, which could take a few more months.