Ladies, After A Breast Augmentation, How Long Till You Were Up And About?
I’m getting a breast augmentation in October. Getting it placed through my armpits. How long till you were up and walking around? And how long till you were lifting things as well?
Any input would help.
I’m getting the surgery done in Thailand, so I really want to see if I’ll be able to enjoy myself while I’m there.
Thanks
hi! congrats on the upcoming additions! twins are awesome…haha!
i had my girls in april, i had 450cc silicone, under muslce, crease incision.
The first 3 days after surgery were pretty bad. i pretty much just slept and took pain meds. i couldnt do anything for myself. my arms were basically useless. Suprisingly, most of the pain was in my armpit area. I couldnt even reach up to scratch my own nose for a couple of days!
around day 4-5 i was able to move around a little more. my arms were still pretty useless, i could move them a little more so that i could even brush my own hair but i had NO strenght. i couldnt open a pill bottle or get out of a chair or bed without my husband lifting me out.
it was about two weeks until i was not taking pain meds around the clock.
it was over three weeks until i could even sleep at night. the back pain came about a week or two after surgery and it just got worse and worse for another couple of weeks. the back pain was because i was sleeping in an upright position on my back for so long and because my posture was really bad (slumped shoulders because of pain!) i eventualy went and bought a new recliner to sleep in, that really helped for a few days.
alot of it is blurry to remember but it was not a very fun recovery. i think it was worse than i expected. be sure to talk to your surgeon about pain management. some surgeions give very low dose pain meds after surgery. Im not sure why but i see it alot! I am in my last month of nursing school and i have seen many many post-surg pts with very low strength pain meds that DONT cut the pain. Because pain control is very important to recovery, i am very firm about pain control for myself. When i was a teenager i had a very complicated wisdom teeth extraction. I needed reconstruction of my nasal cavaties and he had to cut deep into my jaw bones,the surgeon gave me tyelonol 3 only. This is clearly a JOKE in relation to the level of pain that i had. After another similar experience, i have become VERY pro-active in asking for pain medicine. I am not a junkie and i HATE how i feel when i take pain meds but it sure beats the alternative of pain!
so my last appointment before the actual augmentation i talked to my surgeon about pain control; he said that he was going to give me sustained release oxycontin only. I was not ok with this because it is taken q12hrs ONLY. When you have a major procedure, it is typical to have a 24hr sustained pain control med AND a break-thru pain med. I asked him for a short-acting med in addition to the sustained med and he was more than willing to give me percocet. After surgery something as small as getting up to go to the bathroom can cause major pain, so you should take a break-thru med about a half hour before you know your going to have to shower, get up, change bandages, etc. so that it is working by the time that the pain intensifies. your doctor shoud be willing to accomidate this.
anyhow, unless you are going to be in thailand for a couple of weeks after surgery…i wouldnt plan on enjoying too much of the country….
lastly, do you have post-op bras?? some people say to just wear sports bras but they really arent good enough support. you have to have somehting that closes in the front. you will not be able to wrestle a sports bra over your head! check http://www.makemeheal.com. i bought 4 or 5 from them. I had 6 weeks in the surg bra.
best of luck! if u have any other questions, email me!
m
everyone is different however, it is possible that you will not need a break thru med or maybe you will only need it. my girlfriend got boobs the same time i did and she was just fine taking percocet only without a susutaiend release med.