Thigh Lift and Arm Lift. San Antonio, TX

I think that everything is going very well. I mean, face it, healing is a [RS bleep]. It isn't pain that is an issue for me. It is the discomfort, inconvenience, low energy, boredom, depression etc.etc. I am a high energy person, so it drives me crazy to not be busy. Other than my necessary daily activities of eating, bathing, dressing and a few emails, this is the first day that I have felt like doing anything else. I really wish that I could get the drains out. Those things are a pain but I am still draining too much so I am thinking the two week point. My swelling has gone down a lot and I think I look great. I know that I will still go down a lot more but can tell I am a lot smaller. There has been one small development that I will be calling Dr. fisher about tomorrow and that is that I have a small wound opening in my groin that happened a few days ago. I was hoping this would happen, but it did. It is kind of scary but because I had the other opening on my thigh, I knew it wasn't an emergency. I cried anyway, just for the heck of it. Thank God for my supportive husband. The opening on my thigh has already closed a lot and in the just the way JoAnne told me that it would so that is encouraging. I think the 2 weeks point is going to be a real turning point for me. I would tell anyone preparing to do this to expect to be down for two weeks minimum.

Yesterday I had a low energy day. I mostly slept the entire day. I am still just taking the advil during the day and just the one Percocet at night. I wouldn't describe what I feel as pain but uncomfortable and difficult to get around. Because I had the lipo with the thigh lift, I also have low energy when I try to go to the bathroom. My drains are doing well also. One of them is already at 30CC total for the day. The other one is a little higher so I probably can't get them taken out when I visit tomorrow. I had a lot of drainage from one leg, not from the drain but the actual wound site. This morning, I pulled my garment down so I could take a look and the incision had opened about two inches. I called Dr. Fishers office and spoke to JoAnne. She said that this happens sometimes and for me not to be alarmed. She recommended that I put some Neosporin on the wound and cover it with gauze. I am to go in and have the Doctor look at it tomorrow. I was concerned because the opening is right at the knee where you wouldn't want a bad scar. JoAnne reassured me that the wound heals from the inside out so the scar will not be worse. That was a relief. So today is my depression day. I am having thoughts of why did I do this and every other negative/grumpy thought I can muster up. So, this is normal from what I have read from others on this site so I am just going with the flow. I will have to say that I have had absolutely no pain from the arm lift. I could reach for things and move my arms from the very first day. Overall, things are going as they should. I have had very little appetite. I don't feel like chewing and have only wanted soft things so I am sticking to smoothies, greek yogurt, soups, etc. Healing just takes time. Also, I need to mention again that the rolling bedside table is a life saver and also the lifted toilet seat with the arms. I got both of those at Walmart. I purchased a bed side toilet and a walker at a senior citizens resale shop. I haven't had to use the walker. I am also a lot more swollen today so that is something to expect as well. I'm not even trying to look for results because I am larger now then when I went in. In my stomach area also where nothing was done. Well, I'll sign off now and go back to healing and being grumpy. My poor husband.

I completed the surgery on the 4th. The procedure took about 8 hours which was less time that Dr. Fischer originally thought. I remember feeling very sore when I came into the recovery room but I would not describe it as pain. The nurses kept asking me what my pain level was and It was difficult to give them an answer. I think I mostly said 3. However, I did keep up with the pain medications for the night I was in the hospital and the next 2 days, every 4 hours except only one Percocet instead of the 2 the Doctor prescribed. I did not use the morphine pump while in the hospital at all. I only used the oral medication that was supplied. The only reason that I am waiting until today to update is because I didn't really want to write a review while on the pain meds. My husband did tell me that I was repeating myself a lot. Today, is Saturday and I have only taken the advil as directed and the antibiotic as directed. I think I will take one pain killer tonight just to make sure I will sleep well. I was really scared when I went into this surgery. I was crying as they wheeled me in. Mainly because some of the reviews that I read on this sight were frightening. I would say if you are reading these reviews that some of them should be taken with a grain of salt. Try to ascertain which reviews are being accurate and which ones are being overly exaggerated. I did learn a lot from this site and I think that I would not have had some very helpful items on hand if I had not read this site. Those were, a rolling table for bedside, a lifted commode seat with handles and also the washable bed pads. The bed pads were helpful to put on the car seat for the ride home. Actually, at this point I am really amazed at how little pain or discomfort that I have had. When I expressed this to the nurses at the hospital, they said that they hear this often from Dr. Fishers patients. I have not been able to look at my scars as I have strict orders to keep the compression garments on. Of course, I can tell that I am very swollen but not as swollen as some people have described on this site. I did, however, follow a no salt diet for a week prior to the surgery and am I am also following it now. I will update later as I progress. I would like to give a big shout out to Forest Park Medical Center. That hospital was absolutely awesome. It is a new hospital and the staff was excellent, the food was excellent and very healthy. I did fuss at them for waking me up too much and I apologize for that because they were just doing their awesome job.