Breast augmentation is one of the most popular types of surgery in North America. The surgery itself is not very challenging, but recovery can be.
Making sure you spend the right amount of time recovering is crucial to a successful surgery. Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly asked questions for breast surgery recovery. In this post, we will provide some of the most important breast augmentation recovery tips.
If you need further advice or want to talk to someone about breast augmentation recovery and are based in the Montreal area, contact us here.
1.How to Sleep After Breast Augmentation
Getting the correct amount of sleep after breast augmentation is essential. Although a healthy eight hours of sleep a night will allow your body to recover, you also need to make sure you sleep in the correct position. Sleeping on your back with your upper body slightly elevated is the best way to sleep after breast augmentation. This is best achieved by sleeping with a stack of pillows behind you or in a recliner chair.
2.When You Can Start Sleeping on Your Side
Typically, you can start sleeping on your side two weeks after surgery.
3.When to Start Showering
Most doctors recommend avoiding taking a shower for up to 48 hours after your surgery. They also recommend avoiding still water such as swimming pools for some time after surgery.
4.How to Get out of Bed
There are several ways to get out of bed after breast augmentation. The safest way is with assistance. Ask someone to support your back as they push you up. They should never pull you up by your arms.
Alternatively, swing your legs over the edge of the bed and use the momentum to help you get up instead of relying on your upper body strength.
5.The Tightness Goes Away
Your plastic surgeon should give you some tips on how to reduce tightness immediately after the surgery, but you can expect it to begin to go away between a week and ten days after your surgery.
Prepare in Advance by Living a Healthy Life
The recovery process is incredibly important and one thing you can do to ensure that your recovery process goes as smoothly as possible is to prepare for it as well as you can. This means making sure that you live a healthy life in the build-up to the surgery. Making sure that you eat and sleep well and that your body is in optimum condition before the surgery will mean that it will be able to recover quickly.
Avoid Intense Exercise
One thing that you should make sure you do is to find out your recovery timeline from your surgeon. Once you know this, you will be able to work out when you can become active again.
It is vital to your recovery that you avoid working out for the first few weeks. This period normally lasts for around a month but there is always the chance that it could take a little longer, so it is best to speak to your surgeon about this to ensure that you are taking the correct amount of time away from your usual workout routine.
Exercising can be particularly damaging because your breasts may still be tender and swollen. There is a chance that it may damage or tear any surgical incisions which could be extremely painful and would be a major setback.
Do Not Drink or Smoke
From a medical perspective, this can be one of the most important things to do when it comes to your recovery. Most surgeons will advise that you give up both drinking and smoking prior to your surgery. If you cannot give up drinking and smoking entirely, you should definitely take a break.
Smoking can have a big impact on your respiratory system and this can slow down your body’s rate of recovery. There is also a chance that it could cause bleeding or infections, both of which will set your recovery back considerably.
Drinking alcohol after breast augmentation can have the same effects and it can also render medication like antibiotics useless. This could not only leave you in a lot of pain but could open you up to the chance of infection as well.
It is typically advised that you abstain from both drinking and smoking for at least a month after your surgery. While this may be difficult for some people, your surgeon may be able to provide you with some useful tips to help you quit.
Be Ready for Pain Management
The toughest aspect of the recovery process is the pain that you are likely to feel in the days following the surgery. Being well equipped to get through that can be a huge benefit, so it is important that you make sure you stock up on your prescription medications before you have the surgery.
A lot of women will rely on over-the-counter medicine during this period and while these may help, the chances are your doctor will be able to prescribe you something that is going to prove to be much more effective.
Have Plenty of Healthy Supplies
During the recovery process, especially if you live alone, going shopping and stocking up on food is not going to be a comfortable experience. There is always the chance of aggravating the pain and making things worse.
The best way around this problem is to make sure that your kitchen is well stocked up and ready for after the surgery. Try to freeze some meals before you go into the hospital. It will be important that you maintain a healthy diet during the recovery process so that your body can heal quicker.
Rest
This one may seem incredibly obvious, but it is surprising how many women simply don’t bother to rest up properly during their recovery period. The idea of sitting around in bed all day watching movies and sleeping sounds like a dream, but a lot of people struggle to do it.
Don’t feel guilty if there are chores that need doing or that you are taking time away from work. Your body needs to recover from the surgery and the best way to do that is to rest up. After a while, you can begin to take small walks and slowly start to do easy household tasks.
Have Assistance Ready
Breast augmentation surgery can take a while to recover from and day-to-day tasks can be extremely difficult during the recovery process. It is vital then that you have somebody – whether it is a partner, family member, a close friend or even a caregiver – there to help you with basic tasks during this recovery period.
This person should also know how to help with your bandages and medication and should be available if you encounter any issues.
By following these simple breast augmentation recovery tips your recovery should be speedy and you should be able to get back to normal fairly quickly. We wish you all the best.