41 Y.o. Female Extended Anatomical Implant - California, CA

This is a bit of a long review because I'm squeezing 16 days of recovery info into one review rather than a few. Sorry so long!

Had a chin implant done a couple of weeks ago on May 5th. It's been 16 days now and I'm finally starting to like the results but I have to say if I knew how painful and stressful it was going to be beforehand I probably would have skipped it. I should probably add that I seem to have swollen and been in A LOT more pain than others who've had the same procedure done.

Had local anesthesia and took two halcion an hour before the procedure. Didn't really feel any pain except for a couple of the injections to numb the area. I also had submental liposuction and upper eyelid surgery as well.

The first few days were pretty miserable. I've had breast augmentation, a tummy tuck, waist, flank, and inner and outer thigh lipo in the past and none of those even compare to the pain of my chin implant. My swelling from this procedure and the lipo was insane.

My doc used a size large implant which I was hesitant to go along with but now, at 16 days post op, I'm seeing he was, once again, right on.

Doc's MA took stitches out on day five post op which surprised me because so many others waited longer on here. It hurt so badly when she took them out I just wept. The stress, anxiety, and pain of that first week just finally all came to a head I suppose :( But as it turned out, taking the stitches out allowed a whole lot of fluid to come out over night and for the next few days, which in turn made all of my horrible swelling go down.

I wore my compression garment for only the first 24 hours and then started again at five days after I got my stitches out and that seemed to help press out the fluid that needed to come out. My doc actually tried to use a needle to aspirate the fluid at the five and seven day appts. I pretty much told him absolutely not and would've ended up in a wrestling match with him in order to stop him, it hurt THAT bad. Glad the fluid ended up coming out on its own.

Took bromelain and arnica, along with using arnica gel for the first week and I swear the arnica helped the bruising tremendously. I'm guessing the bromelain helped but it's hard to say since I was still so swollen.

I stayed on my percocet for a week and a half until I became violently ill and had to meet my doc at his office on a Saturday night. I thought my chin was infected but as it turned out I just had too much percocet in my system after taking it for that long. So after being violently ill and him asking me how he could get me home safely (what a nice doc), he told me I'd be feeling better approximately 18 hours after my last dose. And pretty much, almost to the minute, he was right. But boy what a miserable night that was. Oi.

I've been on 800 mg of motrin every six hours ever since but for the last few days I've been trying to cut back just because I hate taking meds in general but especially when they can have bad side effects after high dosages and prolonged use. I will say though, at 16 days post op, I absolutely cannot go without any motrin. It's still definitely that painful.

Now, at 16 days, my chin still feels incredibly tight but seems to improve a bit at night. The tightness is uber annoying but I am starting feel like the implant is part of my face a very little bit at a time. My husband also says it looks like I'm jutting out my chin when I talk which I'm not doing at all on purpose. Perhaps it's because it's so tight right now?? Not sure. I also still cannot lower my bottom lip yet and my smile looks goofy because of it.

Still have a tiny bit of fluid draining out so I always have to wear a bandaid. I have an appt this Tuesday so I'll have to ask him how long until that's gone. And still have a bit of firmness on my left side underneath my chin which the doc says is from the lipo. That's about it for now!

17 days post op and finally looking better but still swollen. Wondering if wearing my compression garment at night will help some. I had a ton of salty food yesterday at a buffet so in guessing that didn't help.