subject: How Long Will It Take Me To Fully Recover From My Liposuction? [print this page] Liposuction (also called lipectomy and lipoplasty) is typically billed as a quick-recovery procedure. It is far less invasive than many other types of cosmetic surgery, and because of this, the recovery time is drastically reduced. However, a number of people want to know exactly how long they can expect their recovery to take. While exact amounts of time will be largely dictated by personal factors such as personal health, surgeon skill, area and amount of fat removed (and possibly even luck), some ball-park estimates can be made.
Immediately upon coming out of your surgery, you will most likely feel somewhat woozy and possibly lightheaded as a result of the anesthesia. Out of safety concerns, you will need someone to drive you home after your surgery. You will probably want to spend this day relaxing and resting. Your body has been through a lot, and it will do you good to let it rest some. In the evening, you may feel up to a short walk, but you won't want to tax yourself too much.
The next day may well be when you experience the greatest amount of pain. By now, your anesthesia will have worn off, but your body will not have had a chance to truly begin the healing process. If you experience discomfort or pain, realize that most people experience their greatest pain in the day or two after surgery. After that, the amount of discomfort tends to go away predictably day by day. With that said, if you experience unusually sharp or excruciating pain, it may be a sign that something is wrong, and you may want to contact your surgeon just to rule out the chance of problems.
You will likely be able to return to work within several days of your surgery. This will depend somewhat on your own personal health and some on the nature of your job. If you do work that is physically demanding, you may need to do wait longer to return to your job.
You will probably experience a fairly large amount of drainage in the days after your surgery. The tumescent fluid used during your procedure needs to drain out of your body, so some oozing from your incisions is actually a positive sign. You will probably also experience a fair amount of bruising and swelling. The bruising will go down over the next few weeks, and the swelling over the next few months. The swelling will most likely completely disappear somewhere around 3 months after your surgery, although you will probably be able to see significant improvement before this.
The last step in your recovery is the tightening of your skin. Your skin will need to tighten up over the area where you have had fat removed. This will happen gradually, but will probably hit its peak somewhere around 6 months after your surgery.
