Welcome back to my plastic surgery journey! If you need to catch up on what’s happening check out this page!
Now that you’re all caught up let me fill you in on what has been happening since Week 2. I felt like the biggest changes were from Weeks 1-3. My energy went up, my mobility went up, I got off the major pain meds and switched to Tylenol, and I went back to work (online). It became a little easier to sit up, which helped immensely with my return to work. I have NO CLUE how people would be able to go into an office before week 3. Being online and having to stay awake consecutively was hard enough without the physical demands of getting ready for work, driving to the office, interacting in person with people, etc.
Showering on my own for the first few weeks still made me a little nervous so I usually had someone on standby to make sure I wouldn’t fall and to help me clean my back from the oil my lymphatic massage therapist used. It’s getting better as the weeks go on, but I am still nervous about falling in general.
This last week (week 5) I transitioned to sitting at my desk again. It was kinda difficult to do that for full days so once my big meetings for the day were over I would take my laptop back to bed so I could recline a bit more. As the week went on it got better. Hoping to be able to sit for full days at the desk this week (week 6).
The pain is more like soreness now and is mainly in my back where the more aggressive lipo was. My stomach is mainly only sore when I sneeze/cough/laugh but manageable. It’s as if I had a really good ab workout type of soreness, not fun, but sneezing is possible now instead of me stifling the sneeze.
My incision is almost fully healed so I have started to use my scar cream on the healed areas. My bellybutton is a little bit on the slower side of healing but we are making progress there as well. My doctor instructed me to use Neosporin on it twice a week so I think that has been helping. I am mainly off pain meds now with only the occasional Tylenol if I had a more active day.
I’ve been trying to do a bit more every day, but I can definitely tell in my energy at the end of the day when I have been more active. Hoping my energy increase significantly within the next month or two since right now going to the grocery store (with assistance) creates the need for an immediate afternoon nap.
I am still realizing the need for a low-sodium diet. I have accidentally had a few days lately with more sodium than I intended and can totally tell a difference in the swelling vs the days where I eat low-sodium. I’ve heard this referred to as “swell-hell” which is pretty funny to me. Now that I am back home I’ve gotten a new lymphatic massage therapist, but I don’t see her as often as I saw Tiffany in Miami since I am further along now. Potentially will increase my visits depending on how my swelling/healing comes along.
I am working on a FAQ post so if you have any questions please feel free to either leave a comment or message me on IG!
Happy Reading!
-Savvy