Dr. Erica Anderson (Ndadiri Center) describes post-operative care after breast augmentation or augmentation with lift. Key points: expect significant immediate pain (worst in first 3–5 days) and take prescribed narcotic plus an NSAID (example given: Celebrex) and an anti-nausea med; start a preventive laxative (e.g., Miralax) to avoid constipation. Incisions are typically in the inframammary fold with foam and clear dressings and a front-snap compressive bra; showering and routine grooming are allowed. Activity should minimize pushing/pulling and heavy lifting (pick up children from a seated position when possible). Warning signs include a delayed hematoma (sudden enlargement of one breast) and excessive bruising; routine follow-up is at one week. Swelling/implant "settling" occurs over 1–3 months.
Questions this video answers
Inframammary fold (breast crease).
The first 3–5 days after surgery.
Celebrex.
Miralax (or polyethylene glycol); she also mentioned 'pericolase' as an alternative term.
At one week after surgery.
Chapters
You. Hi, I'm Dr. Erica Anderson, the breast and body specialist at the Ndadiri center. And I wanted to go through this video about post operative care after a breast augmentation or a breast augmentation with a lift. Basically I think the experience for both these procedures can be somewhat similar, particularly if an implant's been placed underneath the muscle in a dual plane because the discomfort associated with that can be a little more significant. So talking about pain, it will not be pain free. You will hurt and you will hurt immediately when you wake up. So I want you to be prepared for that. You will be given your pain medications in advance and I wanted you to have those filled. And when you leave the surgery center, just basically know when the last time the nurse gave you your pain medication so that you can stay on track to take your medications pretty much around the clock in the first couple of days when the discomfort is most severe. So I will have given you a narcotic pain reliever then usually a non steroidal pain reliever as an example, Celebrex. And then you'll also be given your anti nausea medication with your narcotics. I want you to also get your Miralax or pericolase or some laxative so that you don't have the trouble of constipation patient after surgery because it's a big problem. So you've got your pain medications. Stay on top of the pain by taking those routinely and that will help a lot in these initial, in the initial first couple of days, which again, that's the worst pain. As far as what to eat after surgery, start out with something light, even a soup or jello, some of those traditional foods that we think of. And then as soon as you can, you can resume a normal diet. Up to you as far as your activity. So your chest, your pec muscles are definitely going to be in significant pain. It will help to have your arms elevated on pillows, so have extra pillows around when you're laying in bed and then just minimize the push, pull action of your arms so you can imagine again, opening a refrigerator may hurt, lifting that milk jug may hurt. So, so minimize those activities that could contribute to the pain, but still do those things. As far as picking up your children, I would advise that you pick them up from a seated position. So if they're old enough that they can walk towards you, clutch them and then stand up with them as opposed to leaning over and pulling on them. Obviously if you need to get your child out of a crib, that movement may be necessary. But try to minimize that activity in the first couple of days. That'll help with the overall discomfort and then hopefully prevent any late complications. Showering and bathing. So let me just talk a little bit about what to expect on your incisions. A straightforward breast aug. Your incision usually be located in the breast crease and it will be covered initially with a brown tape on the incision. And then I reinforce the inframammary fold or that breast crease with a foam tape. So you may see that through the dressing and then a clear plastic dressing over top of that, just to give you an idea of what you might see underneath. And then everyone's placed in a compressive type bra that snaps in the front. So that's easy to take care of. And that's what you'll be in from the recovery room if this seems too tight. There's three levels, so I typically will put it on the tightest in surgery. But as you're recovering, if you feel like it needs to be a little bit looser, feel free to use the looser settings on that bra. That's what it's designed to do. But if it feels good to have it tighter, do that as well. But that's again, that's what you'll be with. You'll take the bra off to shower, but then I would have you replace that bra after your shower or after it's been washed. Whatever you feel up to. You'll find that having some sort of compression helps with the discomfort and is worthwhile to have on. You can shower as you normally do. You can wash your hair. You can do all the things like putting on makeup and drying your hair. Anything you feel up to doing. There's no reason you can't raise your arms at all over your head. Feel free to do any of that. As I said, the pain after a breast augmentation or an augmentation with the lift is going to be in those first three to five days. Typically after that you'll start feeling better, though there may be a day or two that feels worse. Typically what I find is that patients start to do more and then they may feel like they're sore all over again. But this is just the overall recovery phase and you can get through that. Take your pain medication as you need, take your constipation medication, the prevention of your constipation medication. Keep your bra on and I will typically see you at that first week to make sure the incisions are healed. Healing now, what would I worry about? So the main thing with breast augmentation or the augmentation with the lift would be a delayed hematoma. So typically what might happen is one breast all of a sudden is much larger than. Than the other. This could happen over a couple of hours or even more acutely than that. You might even see bruising along the chest wall. That is something that would prompt a phone call to me during business hours. You can call the office. We have our answering service overnight. But that's something that I would want to know about so that we could address that. Typically, if you get that bleeding complication, that's something that we'd have to return to the operating room for, but we would figure all that out together. Other things you think about, the bruising is going to be evident, and then some people notice a prickly crackling feeling underneath the skin or even fluid movement in the breast. These are all normal, and that's just the process of the surgical procedure. There's been some air left behind that your body absorbs or some fluid left behind that your body absorbs. So those are all normal things that you may feel after the. After this procedure. Hopefully this helps. Again, we are always available by phone, readily available to help you through this process. We're trying to make this as an excellent experience for you. Additionally, I should tell you that the swelling is the worst early on and that you might feel like the implants are very high. Over time, that swelling will resolve. And the implants, some people talk about them settling, but that process of that swelling going down is really what's happening. So that's something that will occur one to three months after the procedure. So don't judge your size initially and just get through these first couple of days and keep in touch about how you're doing overall.
