Swelling after LBL

I'm 12 days post op and yesterday I was suddenly swollen beyond anything I would have ever imagined! Is this normal at this point? It's mostly around my lower abdomen. I look 7 months pregnant and I am miserable. Feel like I'm going to pop. Any thoughts on this are appreciated. I know swelling is normal but didn't expect such a huge change when all was going along so nicely. Thanks, kacey

Welcome to my life. I'm almost 7 weeks out and swollen like mad. Go to your PS. You may have a clogged drain if they're still in. Or you may need to have fluid removed. I had to have a 2nd procedure at about 4 weeks out to have a thicker drain tube inserted because I kept clogging the small ones.

That tube is out now and I'm swelling again. :(    Right now I look about five months pregnant.

Welcome to swell hell!  Yes, it really does get that bad.  I got to the point where I had trouble breathing and would have to lay down to let the swelling subside a little.  That's the bad news.  The good news, it doesn't last forever - but expect a few weeks of bad swelling.  I'm over 6 months out and still swell a bit in the afternoon, but nowhere NEAR what was happening at the 3 week mark.

I am only a week out, so I haven't experienced that yet.    Is there anything one can do to prevent it?   Does over-activity exacerbate it?    I am a music teacher/choral conductor, and am on my feet all day.  I will be returning to teaching on September 2, and I'm really worried about swelling up like that feeling miserable during the school day.   On the other hand, I'm a DS'er, and I've had my share of gas bloat from eating carbs, so I know what that's like!

I don't think there's anything that stops it.  It seems to be a phase of healing, and some people get it worse than others.  Other than a few days when I had trouble breathing when I was sitting down because of the swelling, the rest of it was just uncomfortable - really, really uncomfortable.  If you're going back to work, see if there's somewhere that you can lay down if you need to.

Ugh, there's not.    And it's not like I can leave a classroom full of kids, or a rehearsal to do so anyway.   I guess I'm just going to hope the worst is over before I go back, which will be six weeks post-op.   I figured I'd really lay low on the sodium, because I've noticed that people say it's worse when they eat salty foods.   I'll also be very careful with the carbs, because gas bloat on top of swell hell sounds like...well.....pure hell!

At 6 weeks, you should be fine.  The worse seems to hit around week 3, although there's no real schedule for it.  Yeah, low salt and lower carbs is definitely the way to go to keep a bad situation from getting worse!

I was in swell hell for over a year, some of it may have been DS/carbs, but mostly it was by the end of the day/evening.  I wore my compression garment most nights so that I'd look good for the morning/afternoon. 

I didn't have the same problem with the upper body lift and was out of my compression garment at 6 weeks, but still wear a tight top at night.

Gas bloat on top of swell hell is like your are ready to deliver a 10lb baby and didn't know your skin could stretch so far.  But, by morning everything is flat again.

You can try lymphatic massage, arnica Montana, bromeline, and compression to help reduce swelling 

I'm 4 weeks out today and I haven't experienced swell hell yet. I see that some ppl are having it at 6-7 weeks so we will see. I am much more active than I anticipated.