44 Yrs Old with a Spare Tire. Chicago, IL

I'm happy to report that my rendez-vous with the old flame went fabulously. He told me I hadn't changed a bit!! (Hahaha, if only he'd seen me 3 months prior!!! :)) I saw him exactly 8 weeks post-op. At that point I was down 15 lbs, which was close to where I was when we first met, and I felt about 95% recovered. (I think it does take about a year for ALL the swelling to subside completely.) Since I wrote the review I've actually lost a little bit more weight, so I'm now down 35 lbs since I first saw Dr. Mussat and have been stable at that weight for about 6 months). Weight Watchers REALLY worked for me, but I'm still glad I got the lipo because it gave me a more dramatic hourglass shape than I would have had just dieting alone.

It's pretty amazing to contemplate that a relatively brief encounter with an ex could inspire such a dramatic transformation, but that is the power of pride (or shame, depending on your perspective!). My ex has NO CLUE the impact he's had on my life, but it is pretty wild! I really owe him one!! :)

I got regular liposuction (tumescent I think). I remember inquiring about body jet lipo but I can't remember why Dr. Mussat wasn't a fan of it. I was under general anesthesia. One thing people should be aware of is that you may not be going home as fast as you think after surgery. I've had lipo twice in my life (about 15 years apart) and both times the doctor told me I'd be going home a few hours after the procedure. Both times I ended up spending the night in the hospital, and it was a good thing too! In this case Dr. Mussat told me that she'd taken out more fat than she'd anticipated (9 lbs!!), and I guess this was why I needed to stay overnight. Certainly I was very happy to have nurses to help me getting to and from the bathroom and feeding me. Although with the pain medication I was pretty comfortable lying still in my bed, it was definitely painful every time I had to get up or lie back down. Also, I was leaking fluid like CRAZY! (I don't remember it being like that the first time I had lipo - not sure why.) Poor nurses had to change my gown and wipe up spills on the floor multiple times. Honestly, I would say the first 4 days of recovery were rough. I live alone and although I had a friend take me home and stay with me for a few hours, I was on my own after that, so I had to get in and out of bed without help. That was always the hardest part (lying or sitting still, or walking, are OK - it's the movements that require you to use your core that hurt). Also, the compression garment I'd bought (Dr. Mussat doesn't provide you one, she advises you to buy a cheap girdle instead) was way too tight and terribly uncomfortable to take on and off when going to the bathroom or showering, because you have to squeeze it on and off over your very very bruised skin. I remember I actually cut a hole in the crotch so that I could use the bathroom without removing it, but the girdle fell apart within a day or so of doing that, so I had to figure out another solution. My advice would be to 1) buy 2 girdles, one a size LARGER than you would normally get pre-lipo, because the thing is stretchy and you want to be able to get it on and off easily in the first few days; then switch to a girdle in your normal size; and 2) be prepared for a LOT of fluid leakage in the first several days. Before surgery, roll up any rugs that will be in your walking path, put down paper towels or a tarp or something to protect your floors, and sleep on a bunch of old towels and NOT your favorite bedding in case they get stained and you can't get the stains out. I was not expecting the amount of dripping I experienced! I remember the first couple days it was so painful to get up from a reclined position that I avoided my living room couch in favor of the dining room chairs, because I could sit down in those without reclining back. When I finally did venture over to the couch I put down towels (in case of leakage) and used pillows so that I wouldn't have to lie back too far. Also, I had some swelling in my legs the first few days, which kind of freaked me out. Dr. Mussat tells you you MUST walk an hour every day, even the day after! I'm not sure if I walked that much on day 1, but after that I definitely did, and it helped a lot with the swelling, which only happened one day and then subsided.

In my case (I had lipo all around my waist area, back front and sides), I needed a full week of recovery before I could resume normal activities, and even then I wasn't very comfortable. I remember I had go go back to work 6 days post-op, and it was uncomfortable. Still, no one noticed I was moving stiffly, so it's possible. But I'd say it was 2 weeks before I felt relatively normal, and some numbness/stiffness remained for about 6 weeks or so.