I'm excited to see how the results keep progressing!

I wanted to start my review on the day of the surgery, to give people an idea of how the procedure itself works while it's still fresh in my mind.

I had Airsculpt of the full abdomen as well as the lower bra roll in the Denver EBS office. Dr. Zadoo was really open and straightforward, and even advised me against getting certain areas done, which I appreciated.

The procedure was more stressful than the cheery promotional videos make it seem, but I fully attribute this to me and my crippling fear of needles. Nurse Kathy Tran was amazing, she even brought me two stress balls to squeeze when I had a mild panic attack on the operating table. They also gave me two Xanax beforehand, but I do have a very slow metabolism (part of how I ended up at AirSculpt lol), and they didn't really kick in until halfway through the procedure.

They also provided laughing gas, but since I was more hyperventilating into it than actually breathing, I don't think I got the full benefit. All this to say that I definitely did not have the experience people talk about where it feels like a vibrating sensation or a massage - I was pretty aware of what was happening until about halfway through, when the Xanax and copious laughing gas caught up with me and I fell asleep. The parts I did feel were...not pleasant. Definitely not like having a limb cut off or anything, but I was pretty uncomfortable.

Kathy and Dr. Zadoo were incredibly patient and kind, even though I kept squirming/flailing/moving my arms (at one point I think I even touched Dr. Zadoo on accident, which definitely is a surgery no-no).

They showed me the pretty hefty amount of fat they took out and then brought me to the recovery room where I fell asleep pretty much immediately. At some point they put me in the onesie with a bunch of padding in it, but I honestly don't remember much there.

I opted to go with their post-surgery concierge Danielle Shah, and if you are in Denver I can't recommend her enough. She gave me great advice on the days leading up to the surgery (increase iron, protein, and Vitamin C intake) as well as taking Zinc, Bromelian, and Arnica supplements to help speed up the healing process. She picked me up from surgery with water and Vitamin C lollipops, then did a lymphatic massage. It seriously looked like a crime scene, but she was AMAZING. I haven't had a ton of leaking since, because she was able to get so much out during the massage.

I fell asleep standing up while she was massaging, and so she helped me get into bed, made sure I had all my medications and supplements, as well as plenty of water.

I woke up several hours later feeling pretty sore, but I took one of the industrial Tylenol they gave me and that helped a lot. Then I fell asleep for another few hours, and woke up to texts from both Danielle and Dr. Zadoo checking on how I was feeling.

At that point, having had some time to sleep off the medication, I understood what they meant by their advertising claims of being able to go out to dinner the same day. Although I had incisions on my upper abs, back, sides, and who knows where else, I felt mostly fine. The only part of me that is in genuine pain is the incision they made by my bellybutton, as I had surgery that went through the same area in 2018. Unfortunately since it is a pretty central part, it makes standing up and lying down hard, but the rest of my body is completely fine.

I'm excited to see how the results keep progressing! Right now it's impossible to tell what my body looks like because I have about 6 inches of foam and pads shoved in the faja haha.

Woke up this morning feeling pretty sore all over, especially my bellybutton area. I had to do a kind of slide out of bed thing to get on my feet. Didn't have any leaking beyond the padding last night, BUT the pads were all completely soaked through.

I had a second lymphatic drain massage with Danielle scheduled for this afternoon, so I didn't feel too bad about taking the faja off to remove the padding. To say I was horrified by what I saw is an understatement. I had a pretty bad rash on my left side, and my lower stomach was completely filled with fluid, you could see it swishing around. I also have a lot of stretch marks on my lower stomach thanks to a massive mental breakdown a few years ago where I gained 60 lbs, and they were absolutely disgusting - they looked like swollen worms. I called EBS to see if I was overreacting, and they suggested Benadryl and Benadryl cream. I couldn't find Benadryl cream, but a combo of Benadryl and Cortizone cream seems to be doing the trick. My second drainage massage was an experience for sure. There are two types of post op massage apparently - one where they kind of gently guide fluid into your lymph nodes so it's expelled naturally, and one where they straight up push it out of the incisions. I had the second option, and if the idea of someone pressing fluid out of you sounds disgusting, it absolutely is. I wouldn't recommend this route if your pain tolerance is low or if you get easily nauseous. I had to take a couple breaks because I could see myself turning green in the bathroom mirror and my stomach turned over a few times when I saw liquid literally squirting (and I do mean squirting) out of my sides. In hindsight though, it was completely worth it. I should have taken a pic after Danielle was done with her massage, because the liquid in my lower stomach was pretty much gone and I looked so much better. However, she was pretty eager to get me back in the faja and helped adjust the foam pads to help with my horrific bruising. I felt a million times better after the drainage. I tried to go on a walk this morning, but made it about a half block before I had to turn around. I was also walking like a hunchback because my bellybutton hurt too much to stand up all the way. After the massage I had a lot more energy and was able to walk around no problem. I did go back to work this morning, but I work remotely so was able to take my meetings camera off in bed. Not sure if I would have wanted to walk into an office. I also opted to stay in a hotel to recover so I didn't get my nice furniture disgusting and so my dogs didn't jump on me until my incisions closed. I would highly recommend doing this if you're able. My only regret is that I went with a pretty sketch budget motel because I didn't want to leak fluid all over a nice place, but given that I've managed to keep the leaking under control with pads, I think a non cheap motel environment would have been way more relaxing and enjoyable. Warning that the pics from today are pretty gross, but that's really been my theme of the day.

It's too bad AirSculpt has leaned in to "you don't need prescribed narcotics!" as a thing that sets them apart, because my first waking thought Day 3 was "Dear God I wish I had some narcotics".

One of the things that made me choose AirSculpt over Vaser was their quoted 48 hours downtime, 2 weeks to full activity when Vaser clinics quoted 7 days downtime, 6 weeks to full activity. I suspect AirSculpt has the exact same healing process, you just don't get any useful painkillers out of it.

I left the hotel and got back to my house, greeted by pretty excruciating pain as soon as I walked in the door when both my pups jumped up on me at once to say hi. My husband suggested a "light hike" to see if that helped, but I could barely get out of the car. I did get 2 miles of walking in over the course of the day, but it wasn't pretty or all at once.

Then I took my first shower in over 48 hours and it was so nice not to be covered in blood and fluid and who knows what else. I weighed myself afterwards even though I knew I shouldn't. I gain weight really easily when I'm stressed out, and I gained 8 lbs in the week before my appointment, despite the fact that I work out 5 days a week, 2x a day for three of those, and was being really mindful of getting proper nutrition before surgery. The second heaviest I've ever been in my life was the morning of surgery. The absolute heaviest was yesterday, when I'd gained 2lbs. So that leaves me at exactly 10lbs heavier than this time last week. I realize it's not a weight loss procedure, but I wasn't expecting it to be a massive weight gain event either, especially almost 20k later.

This morning I woke up feeling fine, but that disappeared pretty quickly. I also started my period today, so in all I've gone about a thousand steps and spent most of the day sprawled out in misery on the couch. My back, abdomen, and sides are all in constant pain that 800mg of Tylenol doesn't make a dent in. I took an edible a few minutes ago so crossing my fingers that works. No picture updates because everything hurts too much to remember to take them.