Lazer assisted Body Jet in Scottsdale

I am more than a month out on my abdomen and approaching 3 weeks on my back bra and flanks. I have elected to continue to wear my compression garment beyond the required 2 weeks. I have a desk job and I noticed that when I didn't wear it to work on Tuesday I came home with an oddly shaped belly and additional hardness.

I started doing some light cardio over the long weekend and it has helped immensely with the inflammation that has been so deep. I got a little too brave and tried to full on run on the treadmill, I lasted about 45 seconds and gave myself some swelling and new bruises- lovely. The added brisk walking however has really made a difference in my appearance. I noticed that after the ultrasounds (I have had 3 so far) that the inflammation would reduce dramatically but I would re-swell in areas and I smelled like I was sweating out lidocain and became very tender again in the inflamed areas. The esthetician who preforms the ultrasounds in dr malans office has been on vacation all week so my next ultrasound is 10 days from my last one but I think she will comment on the drastic reduction in hardness to my abdomen and mons pubis. I am thanking the exercise for this because I didn't have the extra money for the recommended lymphatic massage treatments while she was gone.

I found myself swelling the first couple of days I tried to go without the compression suit and I immediately worried that I had ruined the process by vacating the "body prison" compression garment. Its not really an uncomfortable thing, but after a few weeks of trying to hide it under my clothes, I just really want to put on a bra and panties.

I weighed myself at the gym on Saturday and was down a few more pounds to 174. I haven't weighed in since but I am noticing a large difference in the way my clothes are fitting. I don't think I am down any full sizes yet but I look much much less bulky in my current size and I am not getting any love handle or side boob action.

I'm a week out now and dr malan says everything is healing well. While I'm not terribly swollen I do have some deep inflammation that is very hard and feels almost bone dense in some areas on my hips and especially on top of my pubic bone. I have also started going in for ultrasound treatments for the inflammation and had my second one today. I noticed an immediate difference in softening of the inflamed areas. Especially after the second treatment today, the ultrasound is not painful but the pressure in tender areas on my flanks left me with some soreness for a few hours. Overall the treatments feel a lot like someone working out a kink in your back or rubbing on a bruise, it hurts a little but in a way that feels good and totally right because you feel better and softer immediately. I weighed in at 177 today and my presurgery weight was 181. Dr malan said that if anything at this stage I should be weighing the same as presurgery if not slightly more simply as a result of the fluid and swelling so that fact that I am weighing in lower already is a very good sign.

This recovery has definitely been harder than from my first visit. My mobility has been vastly more limited and I definitely needed my boyfriends help to take my compression garment on and off and I have a lot more entry sites this time than from the abdomen area. The abdomen recovery was painful to the skin mostly, I assume because of the volume that was removed, but it hurt much the way a deep bruise does. With this round however the pain is much more related to the entry sites and feeling more like I was lashed than anything else. The drainage lasted a day and a half this time compared to only a few hours on the abdomen. Overall I am completely beyond satisfied with the results at this point. When I was able to remover the garment to shower I looked in the mirror and gasped before breaking down into to extreme tears. For the first time in my entire life the body I saw in the mirror matched my mental image of myself. I finally feel like I'm in my own body.

My first inflammation reduction ultrasound is tomorrow, I will update again after some of those results.