The following post is personal, very personal about liposuction on my right thigh. Not only am I sharing what it is like to go through tumescent liposuction for lipedema, but I’m sharing the pain, my body, and my experience as there is very little current experiences from women going through this out on the internet. I think it’s very important that if you’re considering surgery, you know what you’re in for.
Please feel free to share the link to my post, the only thing I ask is my blog to be given credit. Thank you, Petra.
Yesterday (June 22, 2016), I once again faced liposuction for lipedema. It was time to finally become symmetrical and get my right thigh done.
My husband and I once again booked a room at the Rotterdam Citizen M, but I did something different this time. For this surgery, I went ahead and made sure to book a disabled room. Part of me really hoped I wasn’t taking it away from someone who couldn’t use it, but it did 2 things for me.
- By getting a disabled room, it really cut down on the “Stuff” I had to bring along.
- Having handles on either side of the toilet was freaking brilliant. I was able to hold right leg up off the toilet long enough to do my business. Good thing I’ve been hitting the upper body hard at the gym for the past 8 weeks! It paid off.
The Start of Surgery Day was Just Like the One for the Left Thigh
Really, the day of surgery was just like last time. So I’m not going to go into that part since all I’m doing is repeating myself. Instead, please go and take a look at Liposuction for Lipedema: The Left Thigh (surgery day) for more information.
The biggest difference between yesterday’s pre-op and last time is I didn’t bother with the barely there black thong that they were just going to rip off my body. Oh, and they were having a little trouble with the scale. It was giving people’s weight in stones, which was kind of funny since it was frustrating the heck out of the nurses.
Oh, and there was one other difference this time around. When I got into the liposuction room, the nurses completely removed my gown and I was on the table buck ass naked (aside from the privacy strip they put on your crotch). Honestly, this wasn’t the worse thing in the world since yesterday it was 70 degrees, rainy, and 92% humidity. Buildings in the Netherlands rarely have air conditioning and when they do, they can’t really keep up with this high of humidity. So I at least stayed cool through the ordeal (they’d have covered my chest with a blanket if I was bothered by it, but I go to nudist camps and co-ed spas where everyone is naked so being naked in front of medical professionals is really not my highest concern ever).
Infiltration on Right Thigh Hurt Like HELL This Time Around
I don’t know what was different between the infiltration of my left and right thigh but it hurt.
The only thing I did different between this time and last time is go to the sauna (which is like a big spa complex with all sorts of whirlpools, baths, saunas and steam rooms) so maybe the heat did something to my leg that lasted more than 14 hours? I don’t know.
What I do know is this time it hurt like all freaking hell, from making the puncture points to the actual infiltration. Usually after some of the tumescent solution gets into the limb, the burning and stabbing sensations I was feeling would ease up. Nope, not this time.
I was so glad when that was over and the nurse let me roll onto my left side while the solution set in since my back was killing me from laying in a strange bed the night before.
The Tumescent Solution Infiltration Wasn’t the Only Thing that Hurt. The Liposuction Hurt Too!!
Once again, I’ve no idea what the difference was between my left and right thigh when it came to the liposuction, but the tumescent infiltration wasn’t the only thing that hurt like a SOB. The actual liposuction part hurt like hell too.
I don’t know if there wasn’t as much local in the solution that was mixed up, if they didn’t leave it in long enough (I know they left it in for about 30-40 minutes as opposed to the 20 minutes of last time, so maybe they left it in too long, IDK), if too much leaked out, or what. But there were only a few areas that didn’t hurt at all and that was pretty much the top of my thigh. Everything else, it hurt. Like an 8 and sometimes a 9 on the pain scale type hurt. The only thing I had going for me is the nurses once again gave me some squishy balls to destroy and when I had to roll over on my stomach and couldn’t really hold on to the balls, they let me destroy the pillow.
There were a few spots, specifically the big fat pocket in my upper right thigh, that I thought he was going to poke the cannula straight through my skin. It kept poking the rather tender skin on my other thigh and I had to ask him to please stop it.
One thing I did notice this round though is he didn’t bring the vibrating infiltration wand or the vibrating cannula straight over my knee this time. So I’m hoping it’s not going to swell up as massively as my left thigh did and I can walk relatively normally.
Overall, between infiltration and liposuction I was in the liposuction room for about 3.5 hours.
Afterwards was A LOT Different than Last Time
Last time I didn’t have any pain directly after the liposuction and was just fine. Apparently this time I was pasty white, shaking, and very nauseous. The little bit of broth, tea, cream cheese wasa crackers and this typical dutch breakfast food called ontbijt koek brought some color back to my face and calmed the shaking and nauseoua.
Unlike last time where walking was easy, it HURT. So getting off the surgery table and into the recovery bed hurt like the dickens. And, getting out of bed, down the stairs of the clinic and into the car. And getting out of the car and getting into bed at the hotel where I promptly passed out with the great garbage bag wrap they once again put over my leg to keep my right thigh from leaking.
When I woke up, my husband helped me get the garbage bag off my leg and there was A LOT of fluid in it. And then I undressed and prepared myself for the murder trail that I was about to produce. Except….
There Was Very Little Leaking This Time Around
Oh, don’t get me wrong. There were baby murder trails, but it was nothing like last time. I think this is actually why things hurt so much this surgery. Either a lot of the tumescent solution leaked out while the doctor was waiting for the tumescent solution to set, or there wasn’t as much solution pumped in as there was last time. And, it was pretty clear by the amount of liquid in the garbage bag when we took it off, I managed to leak quite a bit from the pressure on my leg with the way I had been sleeping.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to walk as much as I did last time because it hurt so much. So instead of getting up about every 30 minutes to walk, it was more like every 1.5 hours. Mind, it was still a lot of walking and there wasn’t much fluid left at the end of the day (not much to begin with I’m almost convinced) so at least it was good for keeping DVTs at bay.
However, I can say I was doing a lot more sleeping than walking. Must have been the Tramadol that I was taking the second I got out of surgery.
This Time Around, Sleeping Was Much Better
The only improvement over the liposuction on the left thigh is sleeping wasn’t an issue since I normally sleep on my left side. So I was comfortable and I wasn’t trying to roll over on my right side at all, which would make my right thigh HURT. Thank goodness for small things
And the Numbers are in for My Right Thigh
My left thigh was just over 7 liters in fat that was sucked off, this time it was exactly at the 7 liter mark. I thought it would have been 6 something liters since my right thigh is slightly smaller than my left, but I guess not. So here’s the results so far (and keep in mind that my thigh was already starting to swell slightly when I took these measurements):
- Amount of fat lost: 7 liters
- Size just above knee: Went from 22 inches to 21
- Mid thigh: 28 inches to 26.5
- Upper thigh: 34 inches to 29.5
And stay tuned for the recovery phase. I’m more than happy that the liposuction phase is done and in the history books because folks, this one hurt. It’s obvious even though it’s still a thigh, every surgery is going to be different.
PetraAnn
Latest posts by PetraAnn (see all)
- ABDOMINOPLASTY WEEK 6 POST-OP - January 29, 2020
- ABDOMINOPLASTY DAY 20 POST-OP - January 7, 2020
- ABDOMINOPLASTY DAY 18 POST-OP - January 6, 2020
2 thoughts on “Liposuction for Lipedema on Right Thigh”