Personal Pity Party

I feel ya!  i'm not to happy with my arms too! Sadly, I was expecting that. I heard that arms are pretty difficult to do and usually people want revisions. Well, I've been reading reviews for silicone gel creams to use and Kelo-cote seems to have good ratings.  My doctor had me put garments SUPER DUPER tight, to where they were difficult to put on (at least when i began using them). These garments are for lymphadema patients, you can look at JUZOUSA.com.  My scars are flat,  i'm surprised. The scars are good, i'm just not happy with the doctor not getting rid of  the little line  that goes up and down  one of my arms, and he left my other arm fatter near the fold of my arm. I dunno, hopefully i'll be happier later.  I DO hope you find a solution :). Hugs!

I can't say positively it will help but it can't hurt. I had raised scars from my TT and they are flat now and I have been wearing a compression garment since Dec. The darker your skin color the more you can scar & have a raised incision. I have olive skin so i can get raised scars
good luck
Susan

I'm going back into the ACE bandages until I can figure out something as a compression garment.  I'm hoping it's not too late for me.... regardless I more than likely will do a revision in the future and that will have to take care of any significant problems if I have any at the end of this.

I'm so fair skinned and normally my scars close and heal very nicely...this is the first problem I've had and I've had a lot of other surgeries (not plastics)!

Thanks for all the great input and suggestions.........I really appreciate it!
Ruth

Hey there, it's me again.  Girl. I feel you on the brachio woes.  Boy do I!  When I had my LBL, I did have a wound opening.  It was distressing for a while but I followed docs orders and it healed so well that I don't even have any evidence that is was there.  Before I had my arms done, the biggest issue I had was a slightly thicker scar from the anchor cut and for some reason, it really didn't bother me that much.  I guess the vision of that hanging belly diffused any real problem I had with the tummy scar.  But I had my brachio in February, along with my breasts and back.  The incision on my back is amazing in how it healed.  My breasts, though slightly uneven, are still very very nice compared to the hanging socks that I once had.  But the arms - jeez.  These suckers gave me a fit.  And they are still not good.  Not because of any wrong doing on the part of my surgeon, whom I think is an extremely talented surgeon.  But because my arms were so large from the start and the skin on the arms is so thin, it was difficult for him to undermine all that tissue and close the incision up since I still have sizeable arms and the pressure and the swelling was so bad that the incisions had a hard time staying closed on the left and the right arm just got pissed off and opened up on me 3 times.  Finally the right arm stayed closed but damn the incision is ugly near the bottom of the incision right before it goes behind my elbow.  Both my surgeon and I were dismayed by this but unfortunately. all parts of the body don't always heal the same way.  When I think of all that I had done, and the condition of my body and my skin before plastic surgery, I am grateful that I didn't encounter even more problems.  Still we want perfect results.  My surgeon said that I need to give myself a while to really heal and for my body to balance itself out again.  I am not as young as I used to be and it takes me longer to recuperate fully after yet another round under the knife.  But doc said that a revision to the arms is not very unusual in the case of arms like mine were so I'm going to have a revision at the end of the year.  This will give me time to heal, and for my body to settle down again, and hopefully with smaller arms to work with the next go round, it will be easier to perhaps go a little smaller and hopefully better healing results.  If you are very dissatisfied with your arms after a little more time, perhaps you can ask your surgeon about a revision and what his policy is on revisions.  For me and my insurance (Aetna), I was fortunate enough to have a brachioplasty as a covered procedure.  So since I am maxed out on my out-of-pocket expenses for the year, I can get the revision without having to pay anything additional and my surgeon will accept whatever the insurance company agrees to pay.  In the meantime, I continue to work on them to the best of my ability and thankfully most of the scars are more or less hidden in normal posing.   

Oh and by the way, regarding the swelling and compression, my doctor just recommended the ace bandages.  I put them on usually at night or around the house to try and keep the swelling down as much as possible.  He prefers the use of the bandages over the arm compression garments because you are better able to control how tight or how loose you need the bandages to be, depending on your needs and comfort level.  I tried an elbow compression garment and it squeezed me too much so I just go with the bandages for now.

Thanks for the suggestion..........I put the ACE Bandages back on this morning.  At least they are holding the silicone strips in place.  I'll just have to deal with the ace bandages falling off all the time until I come up with something else.

THANKS for all the suggestions and encouragement!

I put paper tape over the little fasteners that hold the ACE bandages closed.  That helps them to not come undone or get snagged on clothing.

I hear you on the arms issues.  I had mine done in December and while I am very pleased with my results I did have some problems.  The left arm became so infected I had to go back into the hospital for IV antibiotics.  And the right arm is pretty tight so I did physical therapy on the right arm.  The massage and ultrasound helped a lot.  At some point I will be having a revision that will take the incisio below the elbow.  But overall I am very pleased with my results.

Red

I know what you mean about the incision below the elbow.....I definitely see a revision in my future.....