Thigh Lift- Groin Incision - Jacksonville, FL

As a quick update, my surgery went well yesterday. I went in at 5:30 and I believe I was back home by around 2:00 (memory is a little fuzzy). I spent most of yesterday laying on my couch catching up with my neglected DVR, although by today I was back to working from home. Yesterday I unwrapped my thighs because it is completely impossible go to the bathroom with ace bandages on your legs. I’ve been obsessive about making sure my incisions are super clean after every bathroom trip which makes what usually takes a minute, about a 10 minute process. Blah. My thighs are still swollen so it’s hard to see what the final result will be.

This morning I decided I needed a shower, so I got myself out of all of my compression and finally got to check out my arms. My doctor had placed the incisions exactly where I wanted them- not in the bicipital groove, not along the posterior of the arm, but almost in the middle so they are so well hidden I think I hurt myself a little trying to see them in the mirror. I am VERY pleased with the location of the scar and I am so lucky to have found a surgeon who not only listened to my very specific directions on where I wanted the scar, but then executed it perfectly. I was extra worried about the brachioplasty because of all of my scars it is by far the most visible and trading one deformity for another didn’t seem like the greatest plan. So far, I’m glad I decided to go for it, despite being on the fence about the arm lift for a few months.

Outside of that, I haven’t had trouble doing anything. I can’t lift my arms up high enough to get stuff out of my kitchen cabinets, but I stood on a chair so that solved that problem. Brushing my hair is a little awkward, but it was completely possible. As of right now I’m about 6 hours overdue on my next Percocet and while the thigh incisions don’t hurt at all, my arms feel a bit like they are on fire- a solid 5 on the 1-10 scale. The pain is tolerable without drugs, although I totally plan on taking one before bed.

While it’s only day one after surgery and I look a little like the Michelin Marshmallow from all of the swelling, I’m optimistic that once I return to a normal, non-fluid filled person, I will be extremely pleased with the results of this surgery.

The first two weeks after surgery have went well. I have to say though, the whole going to the bathroom while keeping the thigh lift incisions completely clean has been an epic PIA and has given me new appreciation for a normal bathroom routine. On a good note, I have the cleanest lady bits in the whole city thanks to the epic routine of helping the incisions stay away from any excretory matter that might have caused an infection. Super glad that part of the process is over!

My legs are hopefully still healing and ideally they still have a bit of swelling. The incisions are very well placed so that they should be hidden under bathing suits and they are as well done as the few thousand other sutures my surgeon has now fixed me up with. I have been slathering them with BioCorneum so that the scars flatten out a bit and hopefully fade well.

I am still a little jury’s-out on the thigh lift procedure. My doctor is awesome, but if we give Picasso a toddler’s crayon drawing and tell him to turn it into a Cubist masterpiece, we need to keep our expectations realistic. I opted for the groin incision version, which I was warned throughout the entire process would not fix my fat knees or portions of my thighs, however I did not want the scar running down the inside of my legs either. As such, I am holding out my final opinion of whether or not I made the right choice in going for the more conservative procedure until the swelling is fully resolved. It seems I will not be walking the Victoria Secret runway this weekend, but here’s to holding out hope for next year, or given my level of patience, next month, haha.

As for the rest of my surgery, my arms are healing well and are happy so far with their Embrace therapy. The arm-lift review is separate from this one, so I left most of that info on the other page located at this address: http://www.realself.com/review/jacksonville-fl-arm-lift

The bit of lipo the doc did on my stomach was exactly what I needed for my prior abdominoplasty to be even more awesome than it was. I LOVE my new stomach and at 3.5 months post-op I am so happy with those results.

Countdown: 17 Days Post-Op