Thigh/Knee lipo

I’m a little over 2 weeks post op and I can say things have gotten so much better. The first week was honestly difficult, but after that it’s been getting better everyday...I’m back to my regular routine except biking, but I started going out for light walks yesterday. I still have some swelling and a lot of bruising, my legs are still sore and itchy but it’s mild compared to what it was. I’m a side sleeper and I’m still having to sleep on my back, but at least I’m sleeping without having to take any pain or sleep meds. I’m also starting to see my results but I’m hoping it it will get better after all the swelling resolves.

Wow, this week has been rough. Pain, stiffness, itching, burning, limited mobility, trying to pee through the compression garment hole into a cup at 4:30am (not always successfully) Yeah, it’s been a lot harder than I imagined. Yesterday the fluids started to migrate from my knees to my feet, and today my feet are about to explode, my sandals almost don’t fit anymore. But I feel a little better in general and at least I can now bend my knees a little. Hopefully I’m turning the corner and it’ll start to get better from here....

My surgery was yesterday at 7:00am. I only slept one hour the night before (and I took anxiety medication) I was absolutely terrified. I am a nervous person who is afraid of needles, and I easily get dizzy. So to say that an awake lipo was terrifying to me is an understatement. I told Dr Su and his nurse Essence how I felt, he went over the procedure, allowed me to ask questions and I felt much better afterwards. I felt like I was in good hands and everything was going to be ok. Dr Su and Essence are really amazing. They made me feel at ease and my anxiety level went down tremendously. Well, now let me tell you what the surgery is like without sugar coating it. The numbing part is definitely the worst, like almost every other reviewer has said. It really does feel like bee stings, they hurt in some areas more than others. Then he injects the fluids, and that doesn’t really hurt, it’s just weird, it feels like’s something in crawling inside your legs. Then the actual lipo starts. Some people say that part is totally painless, but in my case it did hurt some when he got close to the edges of the numbed areas. He offered more lidocaine in some of those areas, but I can tolerate pain much better than those bee stings (I’m afraid of needles and anything that has a stinger, including bees) so I told him to keep going, since the pain never got to an intolerable level. The whole procedure took about 2 hours. I did not get dizzy at all, which was surprising, so I didn’t need to take a break to eat a snack. During the procedure you will constantly change positions and flex your muscles, Dr Su said it was going to be a boot camp, and it definitely was. So I would describe the whole thing as not easy, but not as bad as I had imagined. If I could do it you can too. Eating a big breakfast with lots of carbs definitely helped a lot. I think I would have gotten dizzy if I had eaten a normal breakfast. It will also give you energy, which you will need. Ok, then on to the recovery part...I live about 1 hour from Tampa, so I got home and felt fine, my legs were still numb. I took 1/2 a Percocet and took a nap. When I woke up and felt the need to walk to the kitchen to stretch my legs...BIG MISTAKE. I started feeling dizzy and held on to the countertop, I knew I was about to pass out. My husband had stepped outside the house and thank goodness he came back in just in time. He helped me walk back to bed but I passed out in the middle of the living room. I regained consciousness about a minute later, but I gave my husband the scare of his life. So don’t be a fool like me and think that you can walk around the house for the first 24 hours. You need to stay in bed and rest and you’ll be fine. If you’re flying from another state I would advise you to bring someone with you or hire someone to be with you the first 24 hours. I don’t know how I could have done this if I was by myself. The first night wasn’t bad at all. I took 1 Percocet and slept soundly from 10:00pm to 5:00am. When I woke up that’s when I first felt the pain. My legs felt like concrete columns and extremely sore, I could barely move. I took my nausea medicine, had breakfast, then the antibiotic. I waited until 10:00 am to take one Percocet. My post op appointment was at 11:30am and that was perfect timing. Taking off the garment and putting it back on was a painful but bearable. Dr Su said I already had a lot of swelling for day 1 post op. Ok, last but not least, the results. When I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time right after the surgery, I thought it looked amazing. However, I when I look at my before and after pictures I can’t see a huge difference in the front, but I definitely do see it the back. But like I said, in the mirror it looked much better. I really don’t know what to think about that. So I’m going to reserve judgement until my swelling has come down. I’m not saying it wasn’t worth it, I certainly hope it was! But I need to wait until I’m fully healed to really know. I hope this review will be helpful to some of you, I’m trying to be as honest as I can. I really appreciate the other reviewers who also took the time to write about their experience, the good, the bad and the ugly. I would not have had to courage to do this without RealSelf.