So yesterday I drove down to Tilburg (i.e. the edge of the earth) for my 30 day post surgery checkup with my surgeon. I had my 7th tumescent liposuction procedure, on my sides (from armpit to hip) and some bits on my lower back that my surgeon missed when he did my butt a year ago, on 4 October 2017.
How It’s Been Since My Last Post Check-Up Post and Yesterday
My last post surgery post was Day 6 post op. That’s when I decided to be an idiot and go off Tramadol early. Well, I went back on until Day 9 like planned then switched to Diclofenac. I actually only took Diclofenac Day 10 and Day 11 post op and then pretty much stopped completely with the pain killers. I do have to admit that I had to do some serious vaping (with weed) the night of Day 6 to get to sleep since I needed the Tramadol back into my system.
Day 12 post op I usually go back to making office visits with my local Dutch client. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t up to driving an hour to Zeist so I stayed home and worked mostly on writing feature requirements for my Barcelona client. Day 15 I had my husband drive me to my Dutch client because by then I just needed to get the hell out of the house since I’d been cooped up since my surgery.
The following week, I was back to driving. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing to do and I had the flesh on my sides feel like it was burning off sometimes, but I went in to my Dutch client on Day 19 and on Day 20 I even went to the gym. The only things I couldn’t do were the trap pulldown and bench press. Everything else was perfectly fine.
Day 22 I had to go to the hospital for a circulation test to see if a vein or artery had stenosis or some other issue to contribute to my back pain. More on that later.
Day 27 I attended my sister in law’s wedding and Day 28 I was back at the gym only to find out I can do walking lunges for the first time after I don’t know, 15 years. I’m not sure I’m happy about this new development…
Then yesterday, Day 30 post surgery, I went in to see my surgeon in Tilburg only to turn around and drive all the way to Rotterdam to have dinner and drinks with some awesome developers that I got to work on a project with that abruptly ended.
The Post Surgery Check-Up
The check-up went really well. Everything has healed beautifully (I actually took my first bath since surgery this past Wednesday) and the swelling is starting to go down. One of the nurses that was there saw me last year when I started but hadn’t seen me since then and she was shocked by the transformation.
The skin in the liposuctioned areas is still tender and hurts if pressed (as evidenced by the hard hotel bed from last night). There’s still numbness as well, which isn’t strange only 1 month post op. I think feeling typically comes back for me around the 3 month mark.
Now, something my surgeon doesn’t really talk a lot about is the fact he can do skin removal surgeries. However, he will only do it on someone under a certain BMI and that he knows will be compliant 100%. The music to my ears was at this point, he wouldn’t hesitate to do the tummy tuck so I’m over the moon to be able to keep this major surgery with him.
One of the reasons he isn’t hesitating is I’ve also never stopped exercising or watching what I eat. Like I keep saying, my nutrition is important not only for recovering and the lipedema. It’s also how I create and retain muscle. Protein is important and so is knowing how much I’m eating.
So the plan is to wait, recover, let the swelling go down and I’ll see him again in June to make plans for my stomach. At this point there’s still at least 3 liters of fat left over in my lower stomach (maybe even 5 liters). In a hospital setting the surgeon would probably just cut it off but this is a private clinic, not a hospital. So he confirmed what I’ve been thinking and it may be that he has to go in and do an 8th liposuction to get the rest of the fat out before being able to do the skin removal. I’m OK with this plan.
The only thing we have to see now is if we can get insurance to pay for the skin removal. It used to be you had to have 6cm of hanging skin but there’s rumors it’s now around 23cm. I’d have to have been about 250+ kg to get that FFS! But, one of the major boons of having my surgeon do it is he’s tons cheaper than the plastic surgeon I’d be seeing at the hospital and having to stay a few days in the zorghotel is tons cheaper than having to stay in the hospital.
So if I have to have the 3500 euro liposuction to get the rest of the fat in my stomach first then wait (and save money) for another 6-8 months then that’s fine.
What’s Next?
I’ll make sure to do a follow up for the side and lower back liposuction in December. In about a week and a half I’ll be going to Orlando, Florida to see Mickey Mouse and Harry Potter. Don’t worry, I’ll report that in my Post Liposuction adventures!
PetraAnn
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