A question that comes up quite a bit is “what is liposuction recovery for a stage 3 lipedema patient?” Hate to break it to you, but there’s no clear cut answer because there are a lot of factors that will come into play to dictate how YOU will recover.
- Age: more than likely, the younger you are the easier you’ll heal.
- Health: the fewer issues you have the better your recovery. This includes everything from losing all of the normal fat on your body to trying to have good cholestrol numbers. The more diseases and conditions you have, the more risks there are of complications and slower recovery.
- Lifestyle: not smoking not only gives your tissure a better blood flow, but it’ll ensure a better chance of your skin snapping back somewhat. Also, not being an excessive drinker, etc.
- Fitness level: plain and simple, the fitter you are, the easier time your body will have with recovery because it’ll have to use less energy healing.
- GA or LA: the type of anesthesia matters. If you go under general, you’re not going to be up and out of bed the second surgery is over. You won’t be walking immediately. You’ll probably feel sick and sluggish. Meanwhile with local anesthesia, you’re going to be walking the minute they release you and there is a HUGE benefit to this. The more you can walk, the faster things tend to go.
I Have Some Sort of Mutant Super Healing Genes
My recovery has been stellar. Every single surgery so far, I’ve been 2-3 weeks ahead of the predicted recovery curve and my surgeon can’t be happier. Why is that? Well, aside from the fact that I must be a mutant (and upon talking to my mom, fast healing apparently tends to run on both sides of my family so maybe that gene is real), here’s what I do with myself:
- Age: I’m 38 years old though I don’t act like it.
- Health: I tend to eat a low carb (usually keto) diet which keeps my metabolic health in check. I’ve lost all the normal body fat I can. I don’t have any other conditions or risk factors that could slow down my recovery.
- Lifestyle: I’ve never smoked in my life and try to limit how much I’m around second hand smoke. I don’t tan. I only drink occasionally and usually not to excess.
- Fitness level: I’ve always exercised in an attempt to lose weight. However, when I found out about lipedema (about 4 months before diagnosis), my heart was already set on liposuction. I knew at that point I absolutely HAD to be the healthiest I could be so I re-hired my personal trainer and started seriously lifting again. I also increased the number of days, and kilometers, that I went out cycling.This has paid off both in recovery, but in being independent through all my surgeries. My husband has been around to mop up after me when I leave my murder trails (bless tumescent liposuction) and to offer a hand if I really need it. But, it’s my awesome strength that has allowed me to get up and down, squat over the toilet, get in and out of the car on my own, etc.
- Local anesthesia: I opted for tumescent liposuction under local anesthesia. General is a risk to anyone, but it increases the heavier you are and the more impaired your lymph system is. So why risk it? I’ll have to go under general in the future for skin surgery, so I rather limit it now. What this means is the second I got home, or to the hotel, I was walking. I probably walk 1-3km in total in my hotel room (according to my fitbit) to push out the tumescent fluid.The added benefit to walking is it helps with swelling and generally helps with recovery.
If You Plan On Getting Liposuction, Start Getting Healthy Now
Don’t worry, you don’t need to go on any crazy diet or start any insane exercise plan. However, if you smoke, quit today.
If you drink a lot, start cutting way down.
If you eat horribly, start changing that.
If you don’t exercise at all, start doing something. Even if it’s walking out to the end of your driveway and back. Something is better than nothing and you’ll be in better shape when you go into surgery.
So just remember, even if you exercise daily you may or may not have the same recovery as me (I know someone who is a fitness instructor that had a hell of a time a few days post op but then her body went into recovery overdrive… so her fitness level DID help). Even if you talk to someone who has the same stats and same lifestyle who did horrible, it doesn’t mean you will.
It’s individual, but you can do the best you can for you.
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
