Post Op Day 2…
One thing nobody prepares you for after major facial surgery is the fact that your entire medical team suddenly becomes deeply invested in whether you’ve had a bowel movement. 😳
By noon on Post-Op Day 2, my caregivers were becoming increasingly concerned about constipation from the anesthesia, pain medications, and decreased activity, so I got up and started walking the hotel hallways.
This is admittedly a delicate topic for me. My children have never even heard me pass gas. Neither has my husband. But after hearing horror stories about people straining hard enough to pop stitches or staples after surgery, I quickly realized this was actually a very important, make or break part of recovery.
Thankfully, all went smoothly. Crisis avoided. Dignity partially intact.
For context, I had:
• deep plane facelift
• deep plane neck lift
• lower blepharoplasty
• parotid repositioning
• buccal fat pad repositioning
• submandibular gland reduction
• CO2 laser around the eyes
• perioral work
• fat transfers
Ironically, the fat transfer from the harvesting on my hips hurt far worse than my actual face, where it was transplanted. The bruising was tremendously worse on the harvest site, too.
I was feeling pretty fantastic on Day 2 and thought I was absolutely sailing through recovery. In hindsight, I was being carried entirely by steroids, nerve medication, pain medication, and optimism.
Ha. Ha. Ha.