You’ve been battling stubborn fat for years, and you’re exhausted by large efforts that only garner very small results. To close the gap to your ideal body shape, you’ve decided to explore liposuction, but you’re worried about whether the procedure is painful.
To shed some light on this effective procedure, Dr. Trent Fogleman and the team here at Cosmetic Surgery Center want to spend a little time discussing what you can expect during and after your liposuction procedure.
During liposuction, we thread a cannula (thin tube) through an incision in your skin. As we move this tube around to loosen the fat in your treatment areas, we suction it out, considerably reducing the amount of fat in the area.
We can perform liposuction in most of those troublesome areas that seem to hold onto fat no matter how much you diet and exercise, including your:
As you can see, liposuction can reduce the amount of fat in your body from head to toe.
Before we perform liposuction, we place you under general anesthesia, which means you won’t feel a thing. In most cases, you can return home the same day, but we ask that you have someone drive you as you will be groggy after anesthesia.
Once you settle in at home, we ask that you take it easy for the first week, especially during the first several days. During this period you can expect to feel some mild-to-moderate soreness and pain.
To manage the pain, we may prescribe painkillers, though many of our clients find that over-the-counter medications, such as acetaminophen, work well.
We also supply you with compression garments, which help to minimize the pain as they’re designed to reduce inflammation and prevent too much movement in the treatment areas. Wearing these garments as directed will go a long way toward managing your pain and helping you heal more quickly.
Depending upon the extent of the liposuction, we may also place drains that help to keep fluids from building up. Here again, please follow our instructions to the letter insofar as cleaning the areas to prevent infection.
While avoiding strenuous activities during the first week after your liposuction is paramount, we may also encourage you to get up and move around to prevent blood clots from forming and to help engage your circulation in the healing process.
By the second week, your pain and swelling should be greatly reduced or nonexistent.
Your treatment areas may still be tender to the touch, so protect them as much as you can.
At this point in your recovery, you may consider getting back to more of a normal routine, but do it slowly. We mentioned avoiding strenuous activities during the first week of recovery, and we want you to avoid them for the second, as well. In fact, avoiding strenuous activities for the first month after we perform liposuction is a good rule of thumb.
Rest assured, we’re with you every step of the way, and should your discomfort continue, we’re just a phone call away.
If you have more questions about what to expect regarding pain after your liposuction, please don’t hesitate to contact our office in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
