Circumferential lift & lipo 4 days out

 Had sleeve sept 09 and lost close to 115 pounds. Just had a circumferential lift and lipo done on inner thighs. Surgery was about 6 hrs long. Stayed in hospital for 2 nights, I wish I would have stayed a whole week! I have 4 drains. Two on each hip and I have to stay in an elastic garment . The pain is removing it every time I need the restroom and pinning the drains. I can't do anything alone. My mom has to hook my garment on and off each time which is very painful. I have to use a raised toilet seat and sleep in a recliner i can't miss a dose of pain med or it makes it almost impossible to stand up. I can only hope this pain gets easier to deal with and I'm open to any suggestions. On a good note, my butt is raised and smooth, I have no love handles and my stomach is flat :). My next two surgeries will be a thigh lift and breast lift. Then my arms

It does get better!  It took me about 12 days before I felt like I turned the corner on the pain.  Different people heal at different rates.  The pain meds were a wonderful thing during that time.  Keep plugging along and give yourself time to heal. 

I pinned my drains to my compression garment.  When I showered or need to take the compression garment off, I'd pin the drains on a strand of mardi gras beads around my neck.  You don't get ideal drainage by pinning them to a necklace, but it was a great way to "hold" them temporarily until I could pin them to their normal spots. 

Kay

Hi,

I'm 10 days out from a LBL, BA & TT and it does get better each day.   My goal today is to wean myself off the raised toilet seat.   I could probably do it, but I've grown to love my higher throne.  LOL.

I'm still taking pain meds about every 4-6 hours, and the second prescription is actually a smaller dose and I'm doing fine.  Yesterday we went to a festival downtown for a couple of hours and I stood the entire time or walked slowly.   I was tired more than anything.   Came home, took my usual dose and rested in my recliner for a couple of hours and then the family came over for dinner.  I lasted from 6-10 and finally went back up to my chair until my adult kids finally left at 11:30 (they did the clean up and I love hearing them laugh, so I loved having them in the house). 

Let's just say I slept well last night.   I usually wake up every 3-1/2 to 4 hours and went 6.  Took a pill, went to the bathroom, walked around and stretched a bit then went back to sleep an hour later for 4 hours.  Did the same thing again and went back to sleep for another 2-3 hours.  So I'm feeling great now.  My goal is to go to the NCAA First Four games Tues & Wed (the road to the Final Four starts in Dayton - and President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron will be there tomorrow night),   Unfortunately that might work against me because we'll have to allow extra time for security and traffic.   But fortunately we know the UD Arena staff well so if I need to rest for a while in a comfy chair, they can let me hide in one of their offices for a bit.

Based on my experience, you should be turning the corner soon.   I personally don't think I was mentally prepared for the pain of this procedure so I'm feeling like I'm behind the curve, but my doctor is thrilled with the progress and I cannot believe how much better I feel from just Thursday when I saw him for my first check up.  He removed the 3 tubes then, tomorrow he'll remove the staples and clean everything up.  I can't wait to get the staples out because there is no way I can think of sleeping back in bed until they're out. 

Hang in there.  At 4 days I was wondering why the hell I did this to myself.  I just took progress photos and compared then to the before ones and I'm thrilled with my torso.   I have a flat old lady butt for now and my right boob still looks a little deformed on the underside, but we'll discuss that tomorrow. 

I think I'm glad I did everything at once, I don't know that I'd be willing to put my body through any more after this one.  We called a truce with each other and I've agreed to love it for what it is, and if I can't make the changes I desire through natural means and exercise, I'll just accept that I'm in my 50s and it's time to start growing old gracefully.    That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Hugs

tg

 I'd love to see pictures if you decide to post them. My starting weight was 276 and my highest was 282 and now I'm 151 and starting on my plastics journey. 

 Thanks for all the inspiring words!! I feel like such a baby compared to most on here! Have any of you ever split an incision ? I had to cough twice and almost died from the pain. It hurt and burned so bad. I can't wait until I can say I'm glad I did this, bc at this moment I'm so aggravated!!