2Bsmaller18 436 Posted June 4, 2020 I am at 3 months post brachio and revised Tummy Tuck (skin only not muscle). I had a 3 month follow up and he pointed to a few areas like by my elbows and on one side on my stomach and said it still a little swollen. I know it takes a year to see more of a final result but I kind of assumed that once the initial swelling was gone after 2-3 months any changes after would be very subtle. My waist is measuring 31 inches. I don't feel swollen but has anyone else really seen a big difference this far out. Could I go down a whole inch from here? I think he will need to go back in another 6 months to fix some bagginess and skin laxity still near my armpit and he agreed. I also have 2 areas with a tiny fold or pucker of the skin at the incision line. I asked about my scars that are still red and was given the 1 year answer but I am hopeful that in the next few months it will start to fade some. He wanted me to continue silicone tape or cream or even coconut cream but said to NOT use Bio oil. He said it is not good for post surgical scars. 1 GreenTealael reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ms.sss 15,714 Posted June 5, 2020 At 3 months, I was still swollen...I had the 3-month-pregnant look down pat. Now (5 months post-plastics), I look like I had a big meal, lol. Though there are still days that I get especially swollen/bloated and look pregnant again. My lower abdomen is quite hard and firm still from the swelling. Its not so bad when you look at me straight on, but from the side you can def see the bump. Like your surgeon, mine told me that I should see the final result in about a year. A year! As far as going down more inches at the waistline, I guess that depends if your current swelling is located there. My swelling is much lower, it starts a couple inches below my (new) belly button. In the first month post, my waistline measured 5.5 inches LARGER than the day of surgery. Around the 6 week mark, it went back the original size. As of today, it's 1 inch smaller than day of surgery (though I'm not sure if the decrease is because of the surgery or because of the crunches I do, lol). Mind you, I apparently didn't get alot of fat taken off...my doc said it was mostly just skin and the total weight of skin/tissue removed was a measly 400g across the THREE procedures he preformed. My scars are still pretty red. The arm scars are the worst of them, and have widened is certain areas. I knew this was a possibility, as I historically tend to scar badly. I was supposed to go in for some "scar maintenance" back March, but then Covid happened. It was/is supposed to be a combination of excising scar tissue and steroid shots. I'm not too keen about more cutting as I figure I may just scar again...we'll see. I've had silicone tape on pretty much 24/7 after all my wounds healed...dunno if it's working, but I like having them on because it keeps the itchiness at bay! Do you know if your surgeon is going to cut off existing scar tissue to address the folds/puckering? Will you be under general or local anesthesia? 2 GreenTealael and 2Bsmaller18 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreenTealael 25,430 Posted June 14, 2020 I still have swelling at 5 months post. My surgeon said WLS/massive weight loss patients tend to have a different time line for healing. My puckering was resolved with diligent silicone tape usage. I also used a rx retinoid on it to resurface the skin (This was not in my instructions but I already used it for my face and knew what it could do) Compression seems to help people with swelling and waist training is touted to help lose inches 1 2Bsmaller18 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
2Bsmaller18 436 Posted June 18, 2020 On 6/4/2020 at 10:18 PM, ms.sss said: At 3 months, I was still swollen...I had the 3-month-pregnant look down pat. Now (5 months post-plastics), I look like I had a big meal, lol. Though there are still days that I get especially swollen/bloated and look pregnant again. My lower abdomen is quite hard and firm still from the swelling. Its not so bad when you look at me straight on, but from the side you can def see the bump. Like your surgeon, mine told me that I should see the final result in about a year. A year! As far as going down more inches at the waistline, I guess that depends if your current swelling is located there. My swelling is much lower, it starts a couple inches below my (new) belly button. In the first month post, my waistline measured 5.5 inches LARGER than the day of surgery. Around the 6 week mark, it went back the original size. As of today, it's 1 inch smaller than day of surgery (though I'm not sure if the decrease is because of the surgery or because of the crunches I do, lol). Mind you, I apparently didn't get alot of fat taken off...my doc said it was mostly just skin and the total weight of skin/tissue removed was a measly 400g across the THREE procedures he preformed. My scars are still pretty red. The arm scars are the worst of them, and have widened is certain areas. I knew this was a possibility, as I historically tend to scar badly. I was supposed to go in for some "scar maintenance" back March, but then Covid happened. It was/is supposed to be a combination of excising scar tissue and steroid shots. I'm not too keen about more cutting as I figure I may just scar again...we'll see. I've had silicone tape on pretty much 24/7 after all my wounds healed...dunno if it's working, but I like having them on because it keeps the itchiness at bay! Do you know if your surgeon is going to cut off existing scar tissue to address the folds/puckering? Will you be under general or local anesthesia? He said he can do the fix of the tiny skin fold area under local and I think even the armpit area. It would probably be a half an inch at the skin fold area if that and maybe 2 inches at the armpit area. The tiny skin fold area is almost like a wrinkle and could smooth out on it's own. My armpit looks like some people on here that have lost weight and have a little bit of wobbly loose skin just at the armpit extending an inch down. So it's much better than pre op but if I paid all of the $$ I want all of the wobbly excess skin gone. you can only see the wobble part when I hold my arm straight out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sillykitty 10,776 Posted July 6, 2020 I'm 7 months post op from my lower body lift and still have significant swelling on my stomach I'm the same as @ms.sss "Its not so bad when you look at me straight on, but from the side you can def see the bump" I've had no issues with skin folds or puckering though, so unsure how those will resolve. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites