40 Year Old with Hereditary Neck Fat - Macon, GA

I have always had excessive neck fat (all of the women in my family have double chins and poorly defined jawlines), but after I had a baby 3 years ago, it got significantly worse. I am very slim, but you would not know it from looking at pictures of me from the shoulders up. I realized that it was only going to get worse with age, so I decided to have neck liposuction as a 40th birthday present to myself. My goal was to have a defined jawline and get rid of the prominent roll of fat under my chin.

Day of Surgery - Got to the surgery center at 7:30am. I changed into the gown and was given a robe to help me stay warm while I waited. After receiving a visit from the nurse and the anesthesiologist, the doctor came in to answer my last minute questions and to draw on my face.

I was under general anesthesia for my procedure. I felt some moderate discomfort when I first woke up and sat up, but the nurse gave me something through the IV that took the edge off.

I left the surgery center heading home around 10:30am. The ride home was a little uncomfortable due to the bumpy road. I started taking the Percocet as soon as I got home and took it every 4 hours for the first 24 hours after surgery. I had no pain or discomfort at all. I was a little tired, but was able to work for a few hours that afternoon (I am a computer programmer, so I work remotely online).

Day after surgery - Took off the bandages and got my first look at my chin/neck. I was really impressed by what I saw! It was better than I expected. It might seem like a subtle change to others, but it looks SO much better to me. I had the typical bruising and the sutured areas are starting to go numb, but still no pain. I showered with no problems. I took the Percocet every 6 hours on this day. The swelling seemed to have gone down a lot overnight. My jawline is the most swollen and bruised area.

Days 2 & 3 post-surgery - Only taking 1 Percocet every 8 hours. The whole neck area is partially numb now. The ONLY thing that hurts or causes me any discomfort is the compression pad. I wouldn't be taking any pain medicine if I didn't have to wear this thing. It is about to drive me crazy. I was given a thick piece of foam to place under my neck and a very long foam wrap to secure it in place with. I have had a great deal of trouble getting the pad positioned and getting the wrap on. The wrap goes over my ears and makes them hurt. I think I had it on too tight yesterday and got a terrible tension headache. I also had some muscle spasms in the back of my neck. I took the compression pad off for a couple of hours last night and put it back on looser and I feel better. The pad is slightly tacky and sticks to my skin. When I move, it pulls on the skin and makes it sore. I have had to take it off and re-position it several times. It takes me about 15 minutes to get the thing back on. I am not even sure I have it on correctly. I am stressing out about this because I know I need to wear the compression garment, but it is causing me a ton of trouble and pain. I have ordered a real compression garment from online because I don't think I can deal with what I have now for much longer. I tried to find one in a store, but I couldn't. Hopefully, it will get here in a few days. If you are going to have neck lipo, order a compression garment with velcro before your procedure because you do NOT want to have to go through what I'm going through now! Ugh!

I’ll update again in a few days after my follow-up.

I felt SO much better after a shower. The bruising is not as bad as I had expected.

I saw the Nurse Practitioner today. She said I was healing nicely and only need to wear a compression garment at night for a couple of weeks. I go back in 4 weeks for another checkup.

I am feeling some tingling sensations, but no pain. My neck is stiff from wearing the compression garment and it feels really good to stretch. I'm still pretty numb directly under my chin and near my ears. I'm a bit more swollen in today's pictures but I still look much better than I did before surgery.