Lipo of upper abdomen, lower abdomen, flanks, and lower back

31 yrs old . 5’1” 128 lbs. went to dr Cohan at the oc low centers and he was the 3rd person. Consulted with. This facility only does lipo under local anesthesia which I never wanted to do until I read about the risks of general anesthesia. I spoke with some of his former clients and they all said it was painless and easy. Going in for my prep today and my appt os scheduled for aug 16. I took many photos of many different angles so that you guys can have a good idea of what the results will look like.

i was instructed to eat a full meal prior to the procedure i think because i was going to be given a ton of medications and they didn't want me to pass out. My procedure was at 8 am and i had breakfast at a nice restaurant at 6:30 am in Newport beach overlooking balboa bay in an attempt to calm my nerves. I was a mix of equal parts nervous, excited and anxious. I tried to be as calm as possible and i kept telling myself that the pain is not that bad lol. i read a lot of mixed reviews on real self about the pain levels and i really didnt know what to expect so that got me pretty nervous. i asked a ton of questions and did so much research and that helped a ton. I get to the clinic and they had me urinate in a cup to see if i was pregnant and i went ahead and cleared my bowls so that i wouldnt have to go during the procedure after that big breakfast (i was paranoid of that happening so i was happy that i had to go before lol sorry tmi).

i was then taken to an exam room and i change into a gown, paper undies and a hair cap. they take my vitals and then doc marks up my body, takes photos and instructs the nurse on how much medicine to give me. i was given one 10 mg valium, one 10-325 mg norco, one prevacid, and 2 benadryl. i then put my booties on and nurse D takes me to the operating room where she sterilizes the area dr cohan will be treating. i lay down and the hand a partition in from of my face to block what they are doing and so that i know where to keep my arms. dr cohan then injects my stomach in several areas with numbing injections then goes in with a more potent numbing solution and a tumescent fluid using a cannula. i barely felt the initial injections and i didnt really feel the fluid going in and if i did feel something it was a stinging sensation that lasted a second. dr cohan was very thorough and kept asking me if i was ok because he wanted to make sure i didnt feel any pain. the then went in with the cannula for suctioning in the fat and lastly did the smart lipo laser to melt fat and tighten the skin. this was done on my upper and lower abdomen, flanks, love handles . there were times where i did feel a stabbing pain maybe once or twice but dr quickly added more numbing solution and it was completely fine. he did warn me that there would be a stinging pain that would last 3 seconds and then go away. he said not to worry about that pain and it happened maybe 8 times and went away very quickly but if the pain lingered then he would add more numbing injection. it was not a problem for me. there were times that i had to turn on my side and adjust my legs to get better positioning to sculpt the hips. i was happy about that. he finises up and the nurses help me to sit upright and they wrap me in poise pads and extra large absorbent pad to seal it all in, then they put the compression garment on me with a foam square to make sure everything was flat. they give me a protein bar and a protein shake and nurse walks me to the car with my boyfriend and i was on my way home! the whole procedure took about 4 hours and i would say the pain was about 1/10 for the numbing injections, 0/10 during most of the procedure but the stabs that i did feel were an 8/10 but that only happened a few times.

before i left, dr cohan took some photos of me on the exam table which i will upload.

overall i felt great and i didnt really notice the lidocaine wear off since i was in and out of naps. i previously had coolsculpting done on my lower belly so i had sharp pains there but dr cohan said it was completely normal. i had a lot of leakage right on my pubic area since he did not stitch that area my boyfriend and i were prepared and we were able to seal everything up efficiently. He covered his entire bed in plastic wrap just in case but i didnt leak at all since i was wrapped up so nicely. i was instructed not to remove the garment for 24 hours but all the pads i had on were soaked so i removed it and placed new pads on it. i cut up regular pads and taped them over my incisions so that they were not so bulky. i then held the foam board in place while my boyfriend applied my compression garment. after that, i tucked a pad right under the compression garment long ways to cover the heavy leakage area, the put on an adult diaper to hold in in place and tucked that into the compresson garment then put another adult diaper over that for extra protection. to use the restroom, i remove the outside adult diaper, then with the diaper that was tucked into the compression garment, i cut a flap so that i didnt have to remove the entire thing, then just flipped the pad holding the pubic leakage up. i really hope that made sense because it helped me a lot. some people may not need to do this, it just depends on your incision sites.

i then ate some food, took half a valium then knocked out.

woke up feeling amazing and in very little pain. i wouldn't really call it pain its more aof a soreness like i did a good ab workout. i can take a shower today so i will document what it looks like without the garment. i know there will be a lot of swelling. i will post a photo of what the garment looks like and the set up i have going on. it aint pretty