subject: What Will My Liposuction Recovery Be Like? [print this page] Thinking about getting liposuction but worried how it will affect your life and body afterwards? The post-surgical recovery for liposuction is generally shorter and milder than people think.
Here is the general information on post-operative life for the average lipoplasty patient. However, as with all surgeries, each individual's recovery process will differ, so make sure you discuss the specifics with your surgeon.
After liposuction, you should arrange for someone else to drive you home, as you will have just undergone surgery and some resulting blood loss. For the next several days, surgeons recommend getting as much rest as possible and taking showers as opposed to baths.
Some patients claim they experienced pain the day after their surgery. However, the pain should be minimal and can be reduced with a regular, over-the-counter pain reliever.
Most lipoplastic surgeons will require you to wear a compression garment, or elastic piece of clothing, under your clothes after liposuction.
The compression garment is intended to reduce post-surgical bleeding and is usually worn for three to six weeks, depending on the type and severity of the surgery and also the type of anesthesia used, since some methods are already designed to reduce and eliminate surgical bleeding.
Make sure you ask your doctor how long you need to wear the compression garment, as too much or too little time wearing it can be dangerous.
Most liposuction patients are able to go back to work and their normal routines after one to two weeks. At this point, the swelling and bruising will have mostly gone away, though some people still experience some discomfort.
At some point during the recovery process, your surgeon will likely want to follow up with you. If the surgeon used stitches, you'll need to schedule a time to return and have them removed. If stitches were not used, your surgeon may think a phone call will suffice as a follow-up.
Also, you may find some small bulges in your skin around the area where you had surgery. This is generally normal, but if they do not seem to go away after the first few weeks, ask your surgeon about them, because they may require some corrective surgery.
Though the first couple of weeks are the hardest part of recovering from liposuction, the full recovery process extends over a few months.
Swelling will continue to go down, but around the site of the surgery the skin may seem loose, especially if you had a lot of fat removed. However, most patients reported that their skin tightened after about six months' time.
