Like any surgery – whether it be for cosmetic reasons or health reasons, recovery is part and parcel a fact of the experience just as much as the procedure itself. Receiving a mini tummy tuck is no different and any patients having had this procedure will go through a post-surgical recovery period.
What can someone expect when dealing with recovering from a mini tummy tuck? To an extent, the health of the patient plays a role but there is a common narrative that follows basically all recovery times for a mini tummy tuck.
The surgery itself takes only a couple of hours. Patients are not kept in the hospital or operating room over night i.e. this is a outpatient surgery.
After the tummy tuck, patients are sent home should expect to experience the following side effects as part of their recovery:
Swelling of the area around the abdominals, hips, and waist. This swelling is temporary and perfectly normal.
Pain and Discomfort around the abdominals, hips, and waist.
While unpleasant, it’s a natural effect of the surgery to feel some pain and discomfort in the area that was treated. Again this is temporary and a normal part of the recovery experience.
This same area may also experience a level of numbness, strangely juxtaposed against the pain and discomfort simultaneously felt from the same area.
It’s common for doctors to prescribe prescription strength or extra strength over the counter pain medication for this discomfort, such as skelaxin, percocet, or vicodin.
At the same time, a patient will be wearing what is known as a compression garment in this area of the body. A compression garment is used to protect the area post-surgery. This will often be worn for usually two but on up to three weeks following a mini tummy tuck.
And along this time frame, recovery in general takes about 1 to 2 weeks. This means the pain and discomfort, along with the swelling, should subside within this time frame.
It’s recommended that patients avoid serious physical activity during recovery, as it could interfere with the body’s ability to heal itself, and, worst case scenario, could complicate the healing process or cause a problem.
Immediately following the outpatient surgery, patients are not expected to return to work and are advised to simply go home and relax. Some people may want to have a day or two off from work following surgery or schedule the surgery on a day when they do not have to go work thereafter, such as a Friday surgery followed by two days off for the weekend.
It’s also important to think ahead a bit for the immediate days following surgery and have any details taken care of in your day to day life that are necessary but may not contribute well towards recovery. By this it’s meant simple things, such as having groceries on hand, prepared meals (or someone else preparing meals), and having pets tended to so that the main focus on the patient is to simply relax and not push themselves.
All in all, compared to many other types of cosmetic surgery procedures, such as liposuction, the recovery period and recovery experience is comparitively mild for a mini tummy tuck.
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