Exchange City

wow, my PS did not tell me to back sleep only. He's not a good communicator. He and his PA did tell me to wear a sports bra or the surgical bra and my lypo corset 24/7 for the first 4-6 weeks... ugh!. After that, the scar sacks should be formed and I can go bra free, forever if that floats my boat.

Sleeping on my back was the only comfortable option for much of my time with TE's.

Sounds like we all end up sleep deprived through this process. I'm sure that doesn't help us heal.

I find taking a sleep aid (Benedryl) has helped. But even with that help, I'm lucky to get more than 4 hours of deep sleep per night. I wear a Garmin fitness band, it tracks movement. My sleep patterns have been awful while dealing with this process!

Can't wait to return to sleeping on my side, fear that is a long way off...yawn

G-night ladies, hope you all are able to rest.

LRGO

Hi all! I empathize with the sleep issues! I just had my exchange 17 days ago. I'm feeling really good, but I HATE sleeping on my back. I have already started cheating. I put small pillows under my armpits so that I am sort of on my side. I just can't get a good night sleep, and I wake up with back pain when I sleep on my back all night.

But I am happy with my implants so far! They are already more comfortable than the expanders. Right now they look pretty good (well, not GOOD like actual BOOBS, but you know, they are symmetrical and in the right place).

Also, it's only been 17 days and I am so sick of these Spanx in this hot weather! It was 100 degrees yesterday. My PS said to wear them for 8 weeks. UGH. Then he relented and said after 4 weeks I could go down to half a day for the second 4 weeks. I have bought 4 different kinds and they all drive me crazy by the end of the day. And I have been wearing the surgical binder at night, but it is so itchy!

That's funny!I just bought some of those high waisted underwear body shapers on Amazon. I am also having issues with my binder, so have just been wearing a huge ace bandage around my abdomen. Not sure if it's enough support though. Yes my foobs are huge too. I am six days out though and I actually think they, and my belly may have gone down slightly. I have some slight oozing ( gross I know) at the site of the stitches under my chest. But, called PA about it and she said as long as the area doesn't seem extra red it's probably okay.

LRGO2016 and Sanfrankitty

Yes! Swelling is all part of the game! Especially if you had pocket work. It takes months for things to settle down. They have to settle in place and depending on the type of implants you have, drop and fluff. I have annatomicals so they don't drop or fluff, but they do soften. Give it time and remember, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should "

Blessings, Robin

I don't know anything about "drop and Fluff" yet. But I am curious since I have round saline implants.

Drop and fluff involves the relaxation of the pocket a bit post-surgically which allows the implants to look less flat and move forward and look softer. Anatomicals do this less because they are form stable, but that is not to say that the look does not change over the period post-surgically as swelling subsides. One thing that some do is take a weekly photo to track the changes.

Jessie - I have had a number of fat grafts and at one point my Ps used the "muffin-top" area - sort of the flank at the hip. The best compression garment for this area - or upper butt and thigh, is Spanx-type shorts as long as there is no donor area above what would be the normal waistband. Unfortunately, this type of garment doesn't lend itself well to having a snap crotch - so you may need to pull them down to go to the bathroom, and it may be a bit uncomfortable for the first week or so.

Thanks for sharing ladies, and happy that surgeries and recoveries are going well. I have my exchange this friday morning. Trying to get psyched up for it. I have three teen-agers and the oldest just left for college, its not just my emotions that i am trying control. Cant wait for this part to be done.

Jessie, my PS said he was going to take fat from my belly, but my love handle area ( close to flanks) is really bruised up, so he seems to have gone in there too. I am fairly lean at 5'6 and 117 lbs and an ectomorph body type. I think he didn't find enough on my belly so he went for the love handles. I have stitches on my belly button and hips too. I haven't seen him yet to ask, just the PA when I got my tubes out.

I only wore the surgical bra for less than one week. Then I just moved to a sports type bra. Honestly it felt like more support than the hospital one. The compression garments I've been mentioning are for the fat grafting from my abdomen. But I am small on top, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

JCS - I had one fat graft done bi-lat when I had two implants, one year after exchange, for aesthetics. I did well with the one - didn't need more as I retain very well. I subsequently lost the left side implant after a disastrous allograft repair surgery, so had two FG done to the flat side to improve skin integrity, done 6 months apart. I just had the fourth FG done with exchange/implant swap surgery this past May. I will probably have the last FG done in December, so six months later. The idea between allowing time between FG is to let the vascularity take hold so the fat stays. If you disrupt that too soon by repeating FG at a shorter interval you risk losing the grafted fat. It also depends on your donor site - it takes 6-12 months for that to return to normal.

trmtab - I have not been in any garments post-surgery on the breasts, but some have ace wraps or surgical bras put on right after surgery before you wake up - definitely no compression on the chest after FG as you don't want to squish that area. Most of the compression discussion here has been in regard to the donor sites for FG.

I wore the surgical bra and ace wrap after EX for one week. Then had to wear a sports bra 24/7 for at least 6 weeks. I wore one most of the time because with anatomicals, they have to adhere to the chest and muscle so rotation is not an issue. I just felt more comfortable in a very lightweight sports bra and now love to wear the bralettes. I found a really nice one at JC Penney for $12 on sale. It is their brand. I am almost 18 months post EX and when I hit the year mark, I finally felt like they were a part of me and not a foreign object! You will get used to the "new normal". You must be patient and not obsess in the mirror.

Blessings,

Robin

My PS put me in a surgical bra after EX, with a healthy amount of gauze over the incisions. The surgical bra is not nearly as confining as my sports bras and is not providing much compression. From there down is a different matter! I was wrapped in a surgical compression garmet made of stiff elastic and velcro. I'm short waisted, so this garmet was folding and puckering uncomfortably by the time I got home. By the second day, there were large areas of my (very tender) sides that had no compression at all because of the creases. So I swapped it out for a corset I bought at Macys. They carry an extensive line of Spanks and spanks-like compression garmets.

The corset is much more comfortable, does not crease (has stays) and is providing even compression. I must say that it was very uncomfortable not to have the compression, even for the few moments it takes to spong bathe. So you will definitely want some form of compression garmets.

Fat was taken from my "muffin-top" zone and a bit from my stomach. He filled all the deep divots, put in 495 cc implants in my 450cc pockets, and with the swelling, my boobs look huge. By comparison my waist and sides look amazing! Even though I'm obviously swollen, my figure hasn't looked this good in over 10 years! My husband has nicknamed me "Barbie".

I laughed harder than I have in months at that!

I am curious if anyone else has numbness at the donor sites? Is that a normal and hopefully a temporary state after lyposuction?

I already have large areas of my torso that have limited sensations (hysterectomy bikini area, both breasts BMX, and now sides from lypo ). I'm hoping some feeling returns so I don't have to look/check every time my Dogs scratch me when we wrestle. Not that I'll be playing rough with them for a while...

i am numb in my abdominal fat grafting area too. At first I thought maybe it was just because of the compression garment being so tight I guess I wasn't expecting that numbness . It's not as numb as my boobs from MX or my toes from chemo.It seems it isn't as much as it was last week so I'm hoping it's still going to improve.

I have numbness where my fat was taken too. I figured it was because of swelling.

I am wondering how you are doing ( or have done ) with slowely trying to get back to your regular schedule pre surgery. I am still sleeping in every morning but have promised my husband I would start getting up with our daughter this Friday again like I normally do. I am already meeting her school bus in the afternoon and doing homework with her and stuff. I'm not cooking or cleaning because I'm trying not to lift anything heavy. Last night I cut back on pain pills in the evening and had a terrible night sleeping. I have been using tylenol or ibuprofin during the day and just my narcotic pain reliever at night. It's had me sleeping like a baby. Stopped last night and things didn't go well. Now I'm stressing out about getting it together for Friday when I'm not sleeping well I'm supposed to drive her to piano that day too.

I am 8 days post op today.

How long is recovery if you don't get FG