Breast Augmentation Recovery: What to Expect
Surgeries take time to heal, especially if you get them around a sensitive area like your breasts. There are many reasons why you may need a breast augmentation. These can include aesthetic reasons, like making your breasts symmetrical, or reconstructive purposes, such as repairing scarred tissue. Following your procedure, you need to focus on making a full recovery, but what happens during this time?
Once you go through this extensive process, there are certain factors you need to watch out for and arrangements you need to make to ensure you are comfortable as you get better. Normal healing time after surgery is between 6 and 8 weeks. It could take a while longer, depending on how you recover and your general health. If you’re worried about your recovery, discussing it with your surgeon is best, as everyone is unique.
What to expect during breast augmentation healing is discussed further below. But first, let’s talk about how to ensure you have a safe procedure.
How to ensure a safe procedure?
Breast augmentation involves using breast implants or transferring fat to increase your breast volume, and it is an FDA-approved procedure. Therefore, you need a professional to deliver the desired outcome without botching up your surgery. An augmentation can end badly if your specialist is inexperienced and doesn’t know how to work with all types of breast tissue.
Where to get the surgery?
Los Angeles is a mecca for all kinds of cosmetic surgery, and it’s no different for breast augmentation. It is an expensive procedure, so you’d want to ensure you’re not wasting your time and money on just any place and look for the best breast augmentation clinic in Los Angeles. Like any patient, you would want the best implants in your body since cheap alternatives can cause infections and possible rejection. So take your time to find the best doctor, make sure you ask your questions on what to expect, and schedule an appointment right away.
Now, let’s discuss the recovery timeline and what to expect after surgery.
- Understand Each Patient Is Unique
Every patient has a different recovery timeline. Generally, a cosmetic procedure takes about six weeks to heal, but factors like the implant’s type, size, and position can impact this duration. While some parents heal faster, others take longer. It is natural to feel puffy and swollen a few days after your expected recovery period. Nonetheless, if these symptoms persist and you don’t feel better, you need to see your doctor immediately. Pain, soreness, and redness that does not dissipate even after six weeks need to get physically evaluated, to expose the underlying cause and rule out potential risks.
- The Recovery Timeline
Immediately after surgery, you will feel tired and sore; it will take a while for the pain to kick in since you will still be under the effects of anesthesia. There will be a protective bandage around your chest that you cannot remove. You will also be on pain medications that can make you feel disoriented, so if you plan on going home after your procedure, have someone drive you. The first four days of your recovery can be uncomfortable. You may feel tight and irritated, which is entirely natural.
Around this time, you will take various medications, including muscle relaxants, powerful antibiotics, and narcotic pain medication. If you are using pain medications that are highly addictive, you need to handle them according to the doctor’s prescription carefully. Also, follow your doctor’s advice to T and wear suitable bras, use suitable bandages and take care of your wound correctly. If you have leakage, bleeding, or see pus, you need to see your doctor immediately; these can indicate an implant rejection, ruptured stitches, or an infection.
But, if you are doing well and have no unusual symptoms, in about two weeks, you will be able to do most activities with minimal pain. Your doctor may teach you a breast massage regime after you successfully cross the two-week mark; this encourages circulation, which is excellent for accelerating healing. You cannot do any upper body exercises or vigorous workouts that use your chest for at least six weeks.
- Understanding Implant Settling
Implants can feel uncomfortable when you first get them. You may feel a hard substance in your chest sitting at a high position. Gradually, this implant will start to soften and slip into place. Know that your implants have settled when you no longer feel pressure and tightness. You can expect minimal stretch marks around your breast using large implants. But, they are usually minimal and not enough to disrupt the look you have envisioned for yourself.
- Follow A Selective Lifestyle
Before you get your surgery, your doctor may ask you to give up specific medication and eat a controlled diet; try not to skip out on the advice, as it is pivotal for the success of your procedure. After your scheduled breast augmentation, you will receive a fresh set of instructions that you must follow to prevent complications diligently.
A bandage will stay around your chest for at least a week, don’t attempt to move it or wash it since this is detrimental to the raw incision wounds. You will need to eat, sleep and rest as much as possible as you heal from your surgery. Drink plenty of water and follow a healthy diet so your body gets the nutrition. While you may have to stop exercising temporarily, you can try walking at a leisurely pace as early as day two.
Symptoms like nausea, discomfort, and slight tightness are all typical and should not alarm you. However, antibiotics can be upsetting for the stomach, so don’t indulge in a diet that can worsen your stomach aches.
Final Thoughts
Knowing what to expect as you prepare for breast augmentation surgery is a good idea. Surgeries require care and effort; accordingly, educate yourself on the process before you undergo it.
While recovering, understand it will take time for your breasts to heal, and you should not rush the process. The first few days, you may need to rest more than be on your feet, but once you cross a week, you may steadily return to your old lifestyle. Ensure you are taking care of your incisions, minding your stitches, and wearing clothing that your doctor approves. If you follow and listen to your doctor without any qualms, you will avoid significant complications and enjoy your new look in no time.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
