Worst PS and Recovery

Hi Fran...I had an anchor tummy tuck on Dec 11th.  My doctor tightened my abdominal muscles but didn't cut them.  Lots of skin removal though.  The recovery went very smoothly and the pain (for myself) was not unbearable.  My knee replacement was far worse. 
I am scheduled for a BL on the 8th of Feb.  I hope it goes equally has smooth.
Good luck with your LBL.

I'm glad I found you!  I am going to need a knee replacement myself, probably this year!  I was wondering if I could combine them, maybe a few weeks apart, since I don't think I can go on STD for an LBL.  I have no idea if they would let me do that or not!

SInce you've had both, how would my life be if I had them both a few weeks apart?  Would I be able to do anything??   Why was the knee so much worse?

Hi Fran....If it were me, I would give myself time to recover from the knee replacement or the plastics first.  I had my knee replaced in September of '08.  Of all my surgeries (and there have been many) it was by far the hardest recovery.  Talk to both your orthopedic surgeon and your plastics surgeon and get their take...it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask. 
Btw, I know a few people who've had their knees done and had no problem with the recovery.
Hope this helps.

Oops...I didn't answer your questions.  The tissues around the knee were just super sore. The incision ran into my lower quardricep muscles and the swelling in the leg went from ankle to upper thigh...maybe twice the size of my other leg (not sure how common a reaction this was). 
So I guess, it would depend on your tolerance for pain.  The tummy tuck felt like a cake walk after just a few days. 
The knee really slowed me after surgery.  The tummy tuck not too much...I was up and cooking and less than a week.
Again, I hope this helps.  Feel free to email me.

I have had mostly all of it except breasts .
the inner thigh lift was the most painful

Hi Fran,

By far, the most painful surgery I've ever had was a neck/ lower face lift. My ears swelled so much that I want to chop them off. When doctor removed outer bandages and said I could wash my hair to get dried blood off, I couldn't bare the thought of water touching my ears. I had 4 surgeries in 18 months and after the face lift I had new respect for celebrities who need to do this routinely just to keep their jobs!

I had my LBL in Sept and it was quite tollerable as far as pain goes. I did not have any lipo though and I believe that makes recovery a lot easier. I was back at work in 3 weeks, low energy but I did it.

If you are having the tummy tuck done with your LBL and having the muscle tightening then you feel some discomfort.  If you are not doing the muscle tightening then it's mostly just skin removed and I have found it to be rather pain free.  My only discomfort (not really pain) was in the tummy muscles...they are sore for a looong time.  My tummy tuck recovery was actually one of my best (weird huh).

The rest of LBL has been a gem all along the incision lines...they have healed beautifully and I really had no pain on the incisions at all.  BUT, it has been my worst/hardest recovery because I developed a hematoma on my butt cheek (not near the incision) and so I am dealing with an open wound at this time.  Because I had the butt augmentation (flap aug with my own tissue not a fat injection), it is has been somewhat uncomfortable to sit for long periods of time.  Other than that, no problems and I love my results!

Of course the swelling which is normal has been a challenge and a pain but at least it will go away eventually.

Hope that helps....feel free to ask questions if you have more.
TTFN

For me it was my TT (which was a reverse TT because I had already had the panni removal) because the incision broke down and a lot of tissue turned necrotic, so I had a large 2-inch deep triangular crater in my abdomen that had to be cleaned and packed twice daily and took 6 months to close up.  I now have a "T" shaped area starting right below my breasts that looks like a burn.

Lora