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Author: foreignhaus | Total views: 76 Comments: 0
Word Count: 1082 Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 8:02 AM

Have You Learned About Breast Surgery Recovery?

Learn about recovery before surgery? You must be kidding! Why not just worry about that when the time comes? Would you like to have an easier and faster recovery? Would you prefer less time away from your normal activities? Less time off work? Less bruising? No drain tubes coming out of your body? No tight bandages or special bras? All of these things are possible, but only if you choose the right surgeon. In fact, all of these are routine in some augmentation practices. But not in all augmentation practices. The only way you'll know is to ask about recovery before your augmentation!

Any operation causes some degree of injury (trauma) to your tissues. The more precise and delicate the surgery, the less trauma, but some tissue trauma is unavoidable. Your body responds to tissue trauma in predictable ways from pain, swelling, bruising, and stiffness after surgery.

To put an implant in your breast, the surgeon creates a pocket to receive the implant. The pocket can be behind breast tissue (retromammary), or behind breast tissue and behind muscle (partial retropectoral). If it's just behind breast tissue, the surgeon lifts the breast tissue off the pectoralis muscle to create the pocket. If you are thin and need more soft-tissue coverage, you need additional muscle cover over the implant, and the surgeon needs to create a pocket behind the muscle (submuscular) or partially behind muscle and partially behind breast tissue (dual plane).

Traditionally, you could expect more discomfort, swelling, and a longer recovery. How much longer? It depends on your tissues, and it depends on how the pocket is created at surgery. Since we developed and published the first techniques in the history of augmentation that allow patients to return to full normal activities within twenty-four hours, you can now recover just as rapidly if an implant is placed behind muscle as if it were placed only behind breast tissue!

Using our twenty-four-hour recovery surgical techniques, manipulating your pectoralis muscle to provide more coverage, if done properly, does not result in more pain or a longer recovery.

Your implant will stretch your tissues and also stretch nerves in and around your breast. The larger the implant or the tighter your tissues, the more pressure the implant exerts on your tissues. This pressure subsides over time (weeks to months) as your tissues stretch to accommodate your implant. But pressure of an implant (especially a larger implant in tighter tissues) can produce more discomfort, more stretch on nerves in the breast, and more temporary or permanent loss of sensation.

The message? Some tissue stretch injury is unavoidable, but excessively large implants in excessively tight tissues can produce excessive stretch trauma that can cause more discomfort and temporary or permanent sensory loss. Consider your tissues when selecting implant size.

Ask if you'll need drains. If the answer is yes, does that mean that the surgeon isn't good or isn't doing a good job? Not necessarily, but it should raise the question "Why do I need those?" Does it mean that the surgeon is doing something wrong? No.

You should consider many factors in choosing a surgeon, but this is certainly one of those factors. Why does the surgeon need drains when other surgeons don't? Why does a surgeon need drains when there are peer-reviewed, scientific publications in the most respected journal in plastic surgery describing techniques that make drains obsolete in first-time breast augmentations? Get answers from different surgeons, and then you decide.

It's nice to have anesthesia when you're having surgery! Having anesthesia means that you will receive drugs. The longer the operation, the longer the anesthesia, and the more drugs you'll receive. When the drugs are discontinued following surgery, your body must break down (metabolize) the drugs before you will feel normal.

Anesthetic drugs often cause some hangover. Hangover can be good if it eases your discomfort immediately after surgery. But once you're feeling better, a hangover that lasts longer is a nuisance because you don't feel normal as quickly.

Many people don't love the idea of being put to sleep. It just has a bad ring to it. Everyone has heard about disasters that have occurred with anesthesia. All the disasters are reported, but you never hear about the hundreds of thousands of anesthetics daily that go without a hitch. So it's normal to think. The less anesthesia the better.

A popular misconception that general anesthesia causes more nausea than local anesthesia is not necessarily true. A second misconception is that general anesthesia requires giving you more drugs than local anesthesia. Again, not necessarily true. A third misconception is that it takes longer to recover from general anesthesia. Again, not true.

Some surgeons feel that a bra holds the implant in place. My question is why do you need to hold the implant in place? If the pocket is created accurately in the right location, the pocket holds the implant in place. Other surgeons feel that the pressure of a bra decreases chances of bleeding and makes patients more comfortable.

I can't envision depending on a bra to prevent bleeding. Surgical techniques prevent bleeding. And comfort? Just ask several women, and you'll get several answers. Some are more comfortable with a bra, and some without. It's a personal preference.

You need a bra, however, when you are engaging in any activity that causes your breasts to bounce, such as running, jogging, aerobics (even low-impact aerobics), horseback riding, etc. Why? Gravity alone, even with a bra, pulls breasts downward. Add the force of bouncing, and the migration will definitely start sooner. No way around it.

If they're bouncing, they're sagging sooner and more! What type of bra will prevent this? Any tight bra that prevents bouncing. Sometimes two jog bras, one size too small. Whatever it takes, stop the bouncing! This rule applies from now on if you want to minimize tissue stretch and potential sagging.

All patients don't respond the same after surgery. Some have a higher tolerance for discomfort than others. Some don't have any tolerance at all for any discomfort. Some follow instructions better than others. Some remember what they've learned better than others. Most are impatient for things to get back to normal regardless of how many times they've been told that tissue-healing takes time.

About the Author

Dave Stringham, the President of LookingYourBest.com writes about plastic surgery in Dallas, Texas and cosmetic surgery procedures such as dallas breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, tummy tuck, facelift, liposuction, and arm lift.