Hopefully the last question - exact help after LBL/arms?

I'm having a lower body lift and brachioplasty on Monday.

What help can I expect to need? I plan to spend most of my time in one of those anti gravity lawn chairs. Will I need help standing up? What is the best way for a person to help me to stand up?

I know I'll need help getting in and out of my garments and that I should lay down during both of those processes. I assume I'll need help washing my hair and I have a stool for the shower plus a shower wand so I can sit.

I'm assuming I'll be able to wipe myself after using the toilet, since no one has led me to believe otherwise!

I know I won't be able to drive until I'm a) off narcotics and b) feel up to it.

I figure I'll need someone to actually shake my protein shakes for me, since I use blender bottles and shaking those might not feel/be so awesome for my arms.

Is there anything else I might need help with? I live with two guys and they're both fairly fit, I'd just like to be able to warn them ahead of time of what they might expect in the way of Gwen Duty post-op.

I did not have arms and lbl done at the same time so I am not sure how to have someone help you. When I had my arms done, I was wrapped tight like a mummy so my arms were straight ahead. I must have been able to bend them to wipe myself or my kids would be reminding me that they had to wipe me. When I had my lml, my mom could help me get up by grabbing my arms. Not sure if that is possible for you.

My arms I did alone. I did not really need any help after day 3.

For my lbl, I needed help getting in and out of the recliner for about a week. I needed help getting out of bed for the first few days. By day 5 I could do my own drains, get in and out of my support garments, and change all my dressings alone.

I had a lot of ready to drink shakes on hand because they were easy and I did not want to eat. My stomach muscles were pulled so tight and there did not seem to be any room in my pouch for food. Plus I was not hungry. I did make myself drink shakes to get my protein in.

Remember that pain pills can make you constipated. I think my family had to listen to me whine for about a week about needing to poop and being scarred if I did poop, I would split in half. You may want to warn your partners about that

Thanks! Your comment about wiping is hysterical. I'm sure my partners would never let me forget it either. :P There have already been a lot of jokes made about maybe I should just get adult diapers. Nooooo. :P

Last night, after I made my post, we worked on figuring out a way to get me in and out of my recovery chair. Art's first inclination was to grab my arms but, yeah, I don't think that will be possible. Lance then thought, "maybe we can flip her out of the chair" (lolz) by pushing the back up, but the chair isn't sturdy and it's too heavy with me in that to sort of make it into a manual lift chair. Art tried grabbing me around the upper back, but I quickly veto'd that because I don't want them to screw -their- backs up helping me! So then I had the idea of getting a yoga strap (which I couldn't find) and settled on this weird huge thick rubber band thing that my dad got for physical therapy at some point in his life. I put that around my upper back and someone stood in a staggered stance in front of me and pulled on the band. We practiced this a few times, both Art and Lance tried it, and it worked GREAT. They could easily, with only an estimated 30 pounds of effort or so, pull me into a standing position with me using no arms or core at all, just legs. (It's a good thing I'm pretty fit and have strong legs, I'm sure!) But the forward momentum was just the help I needed and it's not going to screw their bodies up like trying to lift me would. So YAY!

I really appreciate the timing information for your arms and LBL with recovery. That's SUPER useful. I know we're all different, but that will be good info to pass along. And I really need to make sure I'm keeping a journal of my recovery so that I have that information to pass along to future plastics-seekers.

I don't like any ready to drink shakes, sadly, but I have stocked up on protein powder and the guys have instructions on how to make my shakes. Thankfully Art works from home and Lance -can- work from home if needed, so I'll have someone home with me as long as I need someone. Except when they need to go out for stuff, but that should never be for more than 2-3 hours.

I started stool softeners two days ago and I've ramped up my Miralax in the last two days. I'm hoping I'll be pretty cleaned out by tomorrow morning and that I can keep on top of things but I will definitely warn them :D The thought of being constipated and then knowing that when you do poop you'll have to push because of the constipation..... that sounds scary. I'm totally worried about the splitting in half thing! I heard someone on a podcast once saying that she'd had a medial thigh lift and "split like a zipper" when she moved the wrong way and OMG, I know I'm going to have that stuck in my head for all of my reconstructive plastic surgeries! Thanks for nothing, podcast :P

I was thinking something like a yoga strap would work. Good call.

At the 4 week mark I split my backside shifting over in bed. It was about the size of a dime. I did think I would unravel. It was scary. So be careful even later out.

It sounds like you have everything ready. Getting rid of the skin was a mental necessity for me. It finally gave me peace.

I am so happy for you!!

I remember reading about your split just yesterday. That might have actually been the post that inspired this post... (I've made it to posts from July 2015 in my reading back through the plastics forum.)

I tell myself that the #1 reason I'm doing this is comfort. I don't want to have to wear compression gear from elbow to knee whenever I do anything active and, you know, I'd actually like to be able to do jumping jacks some day. Right now I can't, even with compression gear. I'd like to go to random.aerobics class and not have to do modifications due to excess skin.

But there's definitely a mental component too. I feel like I won't know just how much of one there is for me until after I've recovered, though.

Thank you for all of the information and support. It's been super invaluable. And OMG I saw pics of your arms yesterday and WOW. If mine look half as awesome I'll be thrilled :D

You will definitely feel better exercising without having to worry about the extra skin. I did wear compression garments for a while after surgery just because I was used to doing so. It took me a while to wean myself off of them. I do still wear them when I am going to a formal event just to smooth everything out a little more.

I love my arms and get lots of compliments on them even from people who don't know my story (I used to think the compliments were just from people thinking, "Wow. Your arms look great for an old lady who used to be 200 pounds overweight" kinda thing). Thanks for the kind words.

Good luck today! I'm sure it will go well!

Thinking about you today! Hoping your surgery goes well!!

That chair is hard to get out of - may not be good with LBL. Look on craigs list for an electric recliner. I got one for $40. I tried the antiigraviy beach chair($99) thing with shoulder surgery. Even with a pad - I had high pressure points. Not very comfortable. I slept in it for 3 months. The

For arms

• take stuff you will need out of cabinets and put it on the counters for easy access.
• I could not bend my elbows and fed myself with a long wooden spoon and barbarque fork for the first week,

Interesting! I've had no problems with the antigravity chair. I started with two pillows to make the drop lower but now I'm down to none. Yay progress!