Surgery Before and After July 27th 07 -- opinions please! --

[gettingrid]

Its now 5 days post op and I got to have a look at whats underneath all the packagaing...here goes. Hope the progress seems decent.

28 yo, 6"2 213lbs had the surgery on Friday evening.

Before photos

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa161/gettingrid/before/

2 Hrs after surgery...the PS has put something which feels like packaging tape right on the skin very tight (probably some kind of IoBan dressing...then some foam which explains the large size followed by the compression vest. Due to the amount of ccs removed it will probably be a week before the reveal. Will post more pictures then

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa161/gettingrid/onedaypostop/

Loads of pain initially went away with Vicodin but need to take it on time every 5 hours. Dont wait for the pain to come back as it can be horrible. No drains were put in....having gf to help out really helped...very nauseous but went away in 24 hrs

5 days after surgery...looks decent to me hopefully will get less swollen with time.

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa161/gettingrid/fivedaypostop/

Also posting my op experience in case it is helpful

Nothing solid to eat after midnight. Only clear liquids till 6 hours before surgery
Doctor advised Bromelaine and Arnica supplements to help with bruising and swelling. Started some days before surgery and continuing.
Reached hospital at 2pm, registered, paperwork  30 mins. Went into prep room with gf.

Nurses took vital signs etc changed to hospital gown,Doctor came and marked the area, anasthesia ppl came and explained that a sedative will be given with the IV drip to make me unconscious after which they will put in a tube and use gas for general anasthesia so throat was pretty sore post op. Signed some release forms. They put something on the legs as well to monitor blood pressure and gave the sedative. Took me to OR ...put arms on sides and attached monitors and was chatting about a trip to Hawaii and didnt realize when I slept off. Woke up two ours later in some pain...told the nurse an 8 on the pain scale and the painkillers worked pretty fast at making it better. Had some apple juice after an hour in the recovery room....then another hour of resting in another room with gf where they put hot towels to make you warmer and make sure you are able to urinate after having some liquid...then got dressed and came home....all in all not a very daunting experience. I expected it to be more harrowing than it finally was.

Post op pain suddenly came back very very strong so immediately took vicodin which made it ok in around 10-15 minutes..taking antibiotics for 5 days as well. Drinking water/juice to replace lost fluids.

My weight was 6 pounds more than pre op although a large amount was lipoed out. This happens due to the tumescent liposuction and IV etc . Weight fluctuates a lot post op so dont worry about the scale it should be back to preop or less soon. In the morning it was back to being only 3 pounds more than preop.

Hopefully whats under the bandages is good! Trying to bide time till next week finishing up all the free episodes on abc online...

The hard part is sleeping on your back...its painful to sleep on the sides atleast up until now.

Day 1

Nausea couldnt eat much due to general anasthesia..lot of pain

Day 2

Could eat lot of pain

Day 3

Eating almost normally...pain down to 3 vicodins per day

Day 4

Pain down to 1 vicodin....back is now paining from sleeping on my back
Running out of tv to watch and getting bored:)...starting from the morning there is the daytime talk shows, still standing, malcolm in the middle, reba, local news, primetime, leno, conan, infomercials...got a real overdose of tv.

Day 5

Removed foam stuff kept on the tape dressing till next monday...took a normal shower with the tape and felt immediately better. It was too much doing sponge baths for 4 days.....

At this point no vicodin and the antibiotics are done....main need : somehow sleep on the sides sleeping on the back is now officially impossible....need a good mattress...my great tempurpedic which is at home in Indiana would have come in handy right about now but unfortunately I am stuck in a crappy sublet in Pittsburgh.

Day 6

Going back to work today...

[gettingrid]

hi all

I'm 10 days post op now.....removed the plastic wrap with great difficulty and there is a lot of adhesive residue on the chest....tried olive oil, acetone and rubbing alcohol to get it off nothing worked well...its going away with time though...

Put some before and 10 days after pics..would really appreciate your opinions.....thanks

[steve6161]

Major improvement. Congratulations!

[**Gynefor**]

It's so much better now, congratulations mate !

[mizuno]

Looks good it should look better after a few months.
Did you have gland removal and lipo ?
Who was the surgeon.

[gettingrid]

thanks for the comments....it is getting better over time.

Looks good it should look better after a few months.
Did you have gland removal and lipo ?
Who was the surgeon.

I had only lipo with the vaser ultrasonic machine but a lot of it 2800cc. I didnt have gyne when I was normal weight and nothing behind nipples so did not have the gland excision. Hope that decision wont come back to bite. Looks ok for now.

Surgeon was by dr agha at the hurwitz center in pittsburgh. www.hurwitzcenter.com