Thigh Lift - 1 week out

Hello All!

So one week out from my bilateral thigh lift.  All in all, doing well.  Got my drains removed yesterday (YAY!!) and my doc seemed please with how I am healing.  I have some pretty good swelling going on.  Still working on getting that to reduce, it is so tender.  My incisions are butt ugly, but I expected that.  What I didn't expect is that my incisions look different on each leg.  Same general area and look, but how the skin is reacting is different.  One is smoother the other is bumpier.  The cresent incision in the groin are the worse.  And man o man they are tender.  I feel like I have a burn there, which is probably somewhat acurate as there may be a friction burn from the compression garment.  The garment is crotchless, which means that the edge of the holes for that rub against the incisions every time I walk.  Ouch.  My hubby is off to Target to get me some men's boxer briefs (or boys depending on the size).  My thought is that if I put those on, they will help protect those very tender incisons.  Using dressings didn't help, I couldn't get the dressings to stay in place good enough.  Not to mention that I got major tape burn.

So my lessons learned so far:

1. I should have taken more time off of work.  I can work from home and I essentially went back to work on Monday (my surgery was Friday).  It makes for a very long day and I think it is contibuting to the swelling since although my feet are raised, they are not raised that much.
2. The female urinal has come in VERY handy.  For the $8 on Amazon, it was a Godsend when I had the drains in so I didn't have to take the compression garment down to pee. 
3. Drains, although a necessary evil, are still indeed evil.  I hate them.  (even if I am thankful for them)
4. A compression garment that goes down to calf level is so much more comfy than the one my doc provided
5. Tape burns hurt more than the 3 feet of incisions.  No lie.
6. After getting the drains removed, I had more pain in my legs than before.  Although I hate taking pain meds orally, I am going to have to take some to help manage.  My script calls for 1-2 Percet every 4 hours, yesterday I did 1/4 of a tablet 2x a day and that takes the edge off.  I don't mind uncomfortable, I do mind pain. So I have to stop being stubborn about this especially now that I don't have the painball. I miss my painball.  
7. I've had a few pity parties this past week.  A few "WTF did I do????" moments.  I know that will pass and I'm not going to get discouraged.  But since the results of the thigh lift are so less dramatic than those of the lower body lift, there were times that I thought "Is it worth it??"  - I'll let you know that answser in a few months I guess
8. Sleep is so necessary to a good state of mind.  Nights I have problems sleeping turn into days I feel the pain more.  More pain equals more pity parties and WTF moments.

So all in all I am hanging in there.  I am going to try to take some pics this weekend to share. 

Sounds like all is going well.  Yeah, no two sides ever look or heal exactly the same.

Tape is the worse and I try to use as little of it as possible.  I glob on a good amount of bacitracim (or whatever antibiotic ointment I have) on a non-stick pad, and between the ointment and the compression garment, the pad stays in place with no tape at all.  If the underwear doesn't work, try using a mini-pad sanitary napkin in the crease area and see if you can get it to stick to the compression garment.