Arm Lift / Breast Implants in 2012

Today I am 3 days post-op. I cannot believe how pain free I am! From the day I came home the only way to describe any kind of pain I was having was that my chest muscles felt as if I'd bench pressed a lot of weight. For me, muscle soreness is a good soreness so I am not complaining about that at all. My hands looked like little sausages after surgery. The right hand is down but my left hand is still pretty swollen. The doctor said that he did a bit more work on that arm so I assume this is the reason for the swelling. It's very annoying because it feels tight but when I am up and moving around it does get better. Tomorrow is my post-op appointment. I hope when he removes the dressing that all is OK. I have 2 drains. The left side drains more but not excessively.

My arms look 100% better even all wrapped up and swollen so I am happy already. I cannot wait to see them unwrapped tomorrow.

I had a breast augmentation/lift as well. They wrapped me up pretty tightly and I am ready for that constriction to be off. It makes my ribs hurt sometimes. Because my breasts were unevenly sized and my skin was so stretched the doctor told me that the size of the implants would be determined by how they fit in my breasts. He said that if he only put a certain size in and it didn't fit well that the skin would sag over it. I have a bigger size that I really wanted but I understand why. I am really eager to see them!

I am slightly worried about my recovery of my upcoming body lift surgery. I am really hoping that the incisions are like my arms and don't really hurt. Getting out of bed, using the toilet and walking are going to be a challenge. I think I'll go back to review some of the other blogs for any tips/suggestions about it.

I have already asked myself what the hell I am doing? But...the result is what matters. I waited so long to do this surgery because I didn't do anything to lose the weight I felt that the excess skin was my cross to bear. Losing the weight was a gift from God for me so I really felt selfish to do anything about the skin. Now, I will have scars and these will be my cross.

Today I had my post-op appointment at 4 days out. I was so glad to get all the bandages off. My arms look amazing! I cannot believe that my Dr was able to tighten them up so much. No more wings! As for my breasts, wow! I am going to have to get used to them. LOL They are bigger than I wanted but because I really didn't want an incision there he had to put 400 cc in my smaller breast and 375 cc in the other. My left breast (375 cc) is perfect and I will have to massage and work the larger implant down about a centimeter. Overall, they are the same size and look great. I just have to remember that I have boobs now! LOL

I'd pre-bought a compression garment and chose one that was for arm and breast combined. I could barely get it on today. I did try it on when it came to me and it fit. Today my left fingers were turning a little blue. It seemed to fit perfectly everywhere except the arms. Now I'm out $80 because there is blood on it. I'm not sure if anyone else had this problem but the web site recommended measuring myself and ordering based on those measurements. They said I should order a size S which I did but also got a M just in case. When they arrived I tried them on. I could barely get the S on and when I did it felt like I was being squeezed to death. The M seemed fine...until today. Now I need to order another one and get something for my upcoming LBL. I will go with a larger one than I think unless someone reads this and tells me differently.

So far I am very pleased with my decision. I still cannot believe how pain free I have been.