One Week after Plastics....

OK, so I went to MY PS for my one week check-up today.  Everything is healing well.  I am moving around a lot better and already see some improvement in my body shape - although it kinda looks like I was in some sort of horrific accident.

For the past week I have been moving around with dressings coveing everything and a wrap around my chest and both arms.  I felt like the Michelin Man again.  I couldn't put my arms by my side - I felt like one of those overbuilt muscle zombies.  I walked around looking like I was trying to constantly flex.

I have a practically 360 degree scar around my chest at the level of the crease under my pecs.  It stops on either side just next to my spine.  I have incisions up each side and on the inside of my arms from the elbows to the arm pits.  

Since surgery I have had these nipple covers stitched on to protect the nipples while the blood supply reestablished itself.  I got to see my chest without the flower shaped bandages on them today.  They were the most amazing shade of purple.  Its only fair they get the black eyes for a change, after years of hitting me in the face, LOL.

Seriously though, it was an amazing feeling to be able to look down and see everything on my chest WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE.  One day soon it will be not only where it is supposed to be, but the correct color too!

As for the arms and the sides, I cannot believe the difference.  Yesterday I got to stop wrapping the arms.  I can immediately see the improvement.  No extra skin, definition where it should be.  My Armpits even look human again.  The only thing with the arms right now is some remaining bruising and a little swelling.  The swelling isn't so bad honestly.  The wraps seemed to make that worse.

As for pain, I haven't really had much.  The pain from this procedure is a lot different from the LBL.  There was a lot of muscle and deep tissue pain with that.  This is mostly burning incisional pain and stiffness form the healing on the skin.  I stopped taking the pain meds yesterday.  In alot of ways this was more irritating than the LBL.  Right now I have been in the "itching" stage for a couple of days.  Thats driving me crazy, and I have started taking benadryl for that.  It should also be better after the dilaudid leaves my system completely - that causes a histamine reaction that causes itching as well.

So again, I will let you guys know - All the pain and expense has been totally worth it in my book.  If you have plastics or any other operations - apply the rules you learned during weight loss to help you heal.  Move around as much as you can.  Maximize protein.  Drink as much as you can.  After all the surgeries I have had over the past two years (hernia, mouth, both eyes, 2 rounds of plastics, sleeve) I can tell you those clearly are the keys to getting well quickly.  It works for me every time.

So glad to hear you are healing well with little pain.  Oh, and Uber jealous too.  Congrats and thanks for checking in!

Deb

Glad you are doing ok. Hoping you heal fast so your life can return to normal, whatever that is, lol.

Soo happy your healing well!!

Glad to hear you are doing so well and I particularly appreciate the info on the recovery- great timing for me to read that :)  I hope you continue to flourish and the final results are fantastic!

Are you able to have insurance cover any of your plastics?  About 5 years ago I had the brachioplasty done after losing weight through WW.  Insurance wasn't covering it so in order to save money I had the surgeon do the procedure in his clinic instead of the hospital.   This saved me lotsa $$$ by not having to put to sleep.  Yes, you read that right, I was awake for the whole procedure and watched him do it.  He just numbed the area with a needle in several areas up and down the arm.  What was so great is that I felt good when I left his office (heavily bandaged) and went straight to the casinos with my mother.  Did not even need pain meds.  I would like to have it done again but he won't do it in the clinic anymore, says I would have to go through the hospital.  I work at the University of South Alabama in the Health Services Foundation and through my health plan and using a teaching doctor I can get the whole procedure done for $2300 which is great compared to the national average cost. 

Insurance covered none of this.  I have heard of policies covering brachioplasty in cases where it creates a job safety impediment.

 

In my case I work on computers.  Unless I had literal batwings it wasn't going to reach that level.  

 

Insurance covered none of my plastics even though initially they said they did.  BCBS invented new criteria after I started the pre-approval process.

Rob, great to hear from you, and great to hear that you are having such a good recovery.  I was thinking about you yesterday.

Can I ask you a question?  I don't know if your batwings were epic like mine are, but your comment about your armpits caught my attention.  I describe mine as looking like the Grand Canyon on either side.  It interferes with my girly-girl personal care, IYKWIM.  Were yours like that as well?  BTW, it's so cool to ask you if yours WERE like that.  :)  TIA for your help with this if you don't mind.

I had pretty pronounced bat wings - hence the incision down to the elbow.  I literally could fit my fist into my bat-cave arm-pits.  Now they are somewhat normal. If I will have any armpit hair left over when we are done, I will see.

Total with my brachioplasty+mastopexy they removed 3.5 lbs of skin.  I had a lot on my back too.

That's amazing.  So happy for you!