Accidentally raised arm over head after breast augmentation. Could I have messed up my results? 290 cc bilateral exchange

Question

I am on day 4 post op and over the last few days I've accidentally raised my arms over my head twice (stretching right when I wake up). On day 2 post op, I accidentally pushed off to get out of bed with my left arm, which is another thing that my PS told me not to do. When I stretched I got shooting pain on my left breast. "Pushing off" didn't hurt though. It doesn't look like the incision opened, but I'm very nervous I displaced the implant or did something to mess up my results.

Marc J. Salzman, MD, FACS (retired) · Answer

While each patient's postoperative instructions may be different due to technique of the surgery and/or thoughts of the surgeon, I can only tell you what I tell my patients. I've been using the rapid recovery technique for 20 years or so and we tell our patients to lift their  arms over their head even before they leave the recovery room and have never seen a problem coming from those instructions. While jumping jacks would not be the best idea, for my patients, lifting of the arms should not be a problem. We do tell them however, to avoid squeezing the arms together to put pressure on the pectoralis muscle for a few weeks. Hope that's helpful.

Accidentally raised arm over head after breast augmentation. Could I have messed up my results? 290 cc bilateral exchange

Answers (1)