Karidis, my story (new pics added!) and advice please

[thetodd]

Maybe theyve changed their ways, if thats what theyve said then follow it. It may vary from patient to patient i had twice the amount of fat removed than you so that maybe why i had the extra week on top.

the swelling does cause a droopy effect, my pics never really picked it up but on this pic (7 weeks post)



If you look on the left its a bit swelled up, but the right hand side was way more swelled up and had a large wack of scar tissue. But then like a year later this was the result



granted, the lighting is different and ive lost weight but trust me dont feel down a few months in things change

[PecDec]

thom86 just give it time, let your body do it's thing.

I'm 17 days post op now and been gently massaging the area for about a week.

Early I know but I think i've responded well to it.

Most of the swelling is gone and I haven't been massaging the area close to the nipple.

Just around the chest area where scar tissue has formed.

I feel behind the nipple its still little bit swollen.

I'm still wearing my vest and usually massage with it on or if not put it on straight after the massage to control any swelling that may happen.

theTodd why would you say massaging isn't good for recovery?

[thetodd]

Massaging works as long as your doing properly, when your told to.

The concern i have is that if it was ok to massage after a week theyd say it was but i was told stricly not to do it before three weeks because it will do more damage than good. People seem to be wanting to speed up the recovery process, its a bad idea in my opinion

[PecDec]

Karidis office told me to massage 2 weeks after surgery. I will admit i did start before then but only gentle massage to get the blood flowing around the area. Started to increase the massaging effort but not too much, when I felt any pain I stop. As I've said in other posts its good not too massage too early but at the same time you dont want to leave it too late. Always listen to doctors advice but I'm big believer in listening to your body. If its too painful stop, if you react well to something then keep doing it. Hard to judge but I know my body better than anyone else ( my girlfriend may disagree

[thom86]

Hi guys, apologies for not being on for a few days - went away for a couple days and been busy catching up since!

Anyhow I'm now two weeks post op and I'm still wearing the vest, not nice in this hot weather! Still sleeping on my back and today started some gentle massaging, using Arnica cream, does this sound right?

As to the results, well the scar tissue is most definitely forming at a rate of knots! My left side is far worse than my right, creasing, still sagging, swelling and loose skin plus loads of scar tissue! Sounds a mess, and i suppose it is a bit, but it's way better than what was there before and it's still very early days recovery wise and I haven't even got back to the gym yet so just going to keep watching the progress. To be honest I think it's going to get worse before it gets better as still have swelling which will no doubt turn to scar tissue as well...

The only slight thing that's maddening as it's so close is that if i lift the skin at the top of my chest just ever so slightly my chest looks amazing as you can see the pec, it's just all sagging a cm too low at the min Will hope this picks up but if not then that's life!

Will upload some pics over the weekend for you guys

Thanks again for the help!