Drainage
It’s not pleasant. It can be extremely frustrating. At time, I broke down crying. BUT – it’s better to get as much fluid out yourself than to have to wait and let the body break it down on its own. So, here’s what I recommend.
- Buy a plastic mattress cover. Wal-Mart has them for $5. I already had a cotton waterproof mattress cover, so I put the plastic one underneath the cotton on, otherwise, I would have sweat to death.
- Buy really cheap sheets (I got dark sheets so that I wouldn’t see minor spots of blood and get grossed out and need to change them every 30 minutes)
- Request to have a couple of the absorption pads they have you laying on during the procedure so you can put it on your bed the first day to try and catch the worst of it.
The Abdomen
I had an incision in my belly button, which never drained. Two incisions on each hip, which didn’t leak at all while I was laying down but did drain a substantial amount when I was in the shower trying to get as much fluid out as possible. Then I also had an incision towards the lower part of the top of my vagina (right above the lips – yes, she even removed the excess fat on the top of the vagina, I was thrilled!). The nurse warned me that this incision would have a stream of fluid shooting out the first time I stood up to go to the bathroom so to be careful and make sure I was standing in the shower. Obviously, this grossed me out and made me not that inclined to have to go to the bathroom. So, I didn’t drink that much the first day. HUGE MISTAKE! One, you’ve lost a ton of fluid and you need to help your body by replacing it. Two, the body is going to do what it needs to do regardless of what you want and that fluid is going to drain somewhere. In my case, it went to my thighs, which were black and blue sticking out a good inch (picture below). Then when I did decide to try and go to the bathroom and let it drain, I couldn’t get it to drain very much. The next day I called the doctor’s office and had to go back in for her to take a look. She forced the incision open to get it to start draining. This DID NOT TICKLE! My vagina hurt so bad, I wanted to cry. After that, I had a 1.5 liter bottle of water next to my bed that I just kept drinking and filling up. Within a day, my thighs had significantly decreased in size due to me pushing the fluid towards the incision to help it drain.
The Arms & Back
To do the arms, there were two incisions on each arm - one at the back end of the armpit (almost on the back) and then one right above the elbow. There were two incisions on by back maybe 4-5 inches above each butt cheek.
The nurse told me that the armpits hardly drain at all, so I didn’t really worry so much about them. I had a maxi pad inside the garment for any minor drainage. I should be good, right? Not so much! I had my laptop on a laptop stand to use in bed so my arms were elevated while I was typing and such. Common sense would tell you that if your elbows are higher than your armpits, the fluid is going out your arm pits. I had forgotten to put the absorbent pad down the nurse had given me. I had put two large bags of frozen peas under each arm to help with swelling, so when I felt wetness, I just assumed that’s what was causing it. I got up after maybe 30 minutes to get something and realized that my entire garment was soaked and all red from the fluid draining. (It’s not just blood, although there is some blood, but a lot of the fluid is just the fluid the doctor injected in you to numb the area and some of it is the melted fat cells but it is RED!) My bed was soaked. Mind you, this is only an hour or so after the procedure, so I have zero energy. I had to change the sheets and the pads. I was so exhausted that I didn’t bother taking the garment off to clean it. Yeah, it sounds gross, but trust me, when you’re there, you’ll understand. After sleeping for several hours, I decided to shower. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get the arm pits to drain. The elbows drained a little.
Random comment on the elbows – the doctor warned me that if fluid built up above the elbow and I didn’t get it out, I could end up with fatty looking elbows. So you KNOW I was trying to get as much fluid out as possible!
Trying to put the compression garment on by myself was extremely difficult. I’m not going to lie, I had a total break down and started crying because it was so tight and my arms were so sore. It hurt so bad trying to put that back on. Every time it moved it felt like it was pinching my skin. I don’t know if it was from the anxiety or the amount of time standing up, but I started sweating (making it even harder to get the garment on because the skin was moist) and getting light headed. Finally, I was able to lie back down in bed. Not even an hour later, my bed was completely soaked all over again. Talk about feeling completely overwhelmed. I hadn’t even had a chance to wash my other sheets, now I had no sheets. I was so fed up that I took everything off the bed but the plastic cover and I just laid there on the flat sheet. I had three large bags of frozen peas underneath my back because it hurt so freaking bad.
I laid down in my bed and just started crying. I was in so much pain. I was so tired and physically exhausted. I wanted more than anything to turn the clock back and have never done the second procedure. I was miserable. I took two pain killers and a few Tylenol Simply Sleep. I wanted more than anything for the day to be over.
The second day was better and every day following got easier and easier. Just be prepared to be overwhelmed the first day. There’s a lot going on with your body that no matter how much you try to “control” it, it’s beyond your control – like the pads shift when putting the garments on and not completely covering the incision any more. Things are going to happen. Just know – it will get better! You want to try to keep your incisions open as long as possible to drain. I had to continuously force open the incisions every day. By the fourth day, the fluid went from being red to what I'd describe as yellowish orange. It almost looked like pizza grease draining from your body. I know - that was a little graphic, but you'll understand when it happens.