My arm looks awful after brachioplasty

Well in the past few days my arm wound has shown major improvement. I decided to really up my protein, even though I already eat high protein, and I think it helped a lot. I was afraid I would gain weight eating so much but I actually lost weight. Hurrah! Then again, I pulled a 3" long suture off the arm wound and soon after that the arm got much better. So maybe that suture just had to work its way out. I really don't know. If I remember I will ask Dr. Capella today when I have my 6-week post op. I think this has been the slowest 6-weeks of my life! From my experience after my TT, time should start to move quickly now. I sure hope so!

Here is my right arm wound at its worst at 3-weeks post op compared to a pic taken two days ago at about 5.5 weeks post op. 

The right and left axilla seem pretty much unchanged. I think healing here is going to take a long time. Dr. Capella sent silver nitrate sticks to me and I am waiting for him to call me and walk me through how to use them on the axilla. Also the problem with the limited range of motion persists. 

The incision on the left arm is already turning white and is nice and thin in the upper part of the arm.

Now these are some awful looking arms. I got these from Dr. Capella today, my pre op pix.

At 6-weeks my right arm wound healed, exactly when Dr. Capella said it would. The axilla are small, about 1cm, and I do not have to do anything now, not even gauze. The axilla will take a little longer to heal because I am very active and have returned to vigorous exercise. Dr. Capella and I discussed this several times and I would rather it take longer for my arms to heal than to stop being active. 

At times I have gotten stressed about my arms, sometimes scared. But for the most part I was OK with recovery, which was not as hard as it may have looked at the time. 

Already some of my incisions are thin white lines. It is too soon to tell if the arm wound will need scar revision. I will be sure to post pix at 3-mos and 6-mos so you can see the healing and the scar. Dr. C's brachio patients that I have seen have faint scars. I think that is amazing given how small he gets patients arms. I think it speaks well of the pie crust incision. I've seen some pretty dark thick scars on patients of other surgeons.

Here are my pix from last week after I used the silver nitrate sticks. I am too lazy to shoot pix today... sorry.

Well, I know that I said that I was taking a break from soc med, and I am, but I had to stop by and post a pic that I took of my arm. I know some folks reading this post got scared about having brachioplasty surgery. The arm wound really was nothing. I know it looked super ugly but think of it as a boo boo on steroids. Please do not let my experience dissuade you from having an arm lift, but rather go into surgery being mentally prepared that minor complications can happen -- and I'd say they are pretty common especially if you are having a large surgery as I did (4 procedures).

Here is what my arm wound looked like last week when I took the pic.

Here is a pic of my arms at ~2-mos post op. Despite the swelling, I think they look great. 

I have not posted pix of my arms in a while. I am 2.5-mos post op now - wow, time has flown! So I decided it was time for some progress photos of my arm wound healing. I actually have not looked at them in weeks. They look pretty good all things considered and I am pleased with my recovery. Dr. Capella said he will be able to tell in a few months if I will need scar revision. 

Right arm on Dec 28th - this is the one that looked so bad with the wound. It is amazing how well the body heals itself.

This is the Left arm on Dec 28th

With the incision extending into the armpit, are you aware of the possible complication of lymphedema? if the lymph node or lymph system gets compromised? Same for thigh lift, groin is another major area of lymph nodes.

I had brachioplasty, my situation is very very very different....larger arms lipedema...actually 2x brachio and arms are back to starting size now.

*Edited to add*

You are right that 1. complications can happen to anyone at anytime, for any surgery...there are many factors that can be causes including the **** just happens, overall our bodies are under a lot of stress and post WLS the excess skin and blood supply etc...rarely can anyone pin point the cause 2 so YES these things need to be shared so fellow patients know what could possibly happen.

My PS bluntly told me...risks...infection, etc etc etc...your arms could fall off...or you could DIE....which is TRUE.

I had to look up lipedema. What a horrid disease. I am sorry that the brachioplasty did not resolve this for you. I read that tumescent liposuction works but don't know enough about it to comment. 

As far as my armpits... I no longer sweat and no longer need deodorant. I no longer have hair there, either. So when he removed that wedge of tissue, I am not sure what he removed with it... Sweat glands, lymph nodes, ? I will have to ask him. 

What we did discuss was my concerns with the disruption to the lymph nodes and he assured me it was safe and there were no risks. My concern was exactly as you stated, lymphedema. He bases his decisions largely on studies/evidence in the clinical literature. I understand that philosophy. BUT as you probably are aware there are many things that are true that do not have a study or clinical data to back them up. 

I have put my body through a whole lot of trauma this year with these surgeries. Geez, first I abuse it for decades with morbid obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, and poor nutrition. And now I abuse it some more to try to correct the deformities left from that former abuse. You have just given me a reminder to keep pushing proteins and water and supplements in addition to the healthy foods that I eat. Thanks!

There are several surgeons in Germany who are better experienced with liposuction on Lipedema patients, once does tumescent the other WAL (water assisted lipo) there are surgeons in US who do both, but not neccesarily familiar with lipedema or the lipedema patient and any surgery poses risks to further damage the lymphatic system. I have met many patients who are traveling to Germany for lipo, most however have Stage 1 or 2 without the added lymphedema as I have, one person I know like me did recently go over in Oct-Dec and had 3 rounds of WAL, so I am interested in following her progress, the lipo isn't immediate result for lipedema it removes the damaged lipedemic tissue and there is still compression needed, etc...surgeon said 18-24 month for full recovery/results. The good news is there is a groups of surgeons in NYC who are going to be trained by the German doctors to perform WAL here in US with the knowledge of treating lipedema patients. So things are looking up for possible treatments.

Yes, good you are aware so if you notice swelling you know to get it checked as soon as possible, etc. Health is a life long journey...never know what will be tossed in our path.

I truly hope you can find relief. I am glad they are making progress for treating this rare disease. I have some experience with rare diseases and I am painfully aware how often under served the patients can be as far as treatments and therapies that will bring relief.