When your breast augmentation surgery is complete, it is time for recovery. Your doctor is sure to have individual recommendations and requirements for how you can plan for a fast and healthy recovery process, and it’s important to talk with him or her in detail about any steps you plan to take during your own recovery.
With that in mind, here are a few recommendations that can often help breast augmentation recovery a little easier:
- Watch your diet: The right nutrients are key to quick healing, so make sure you are getting enough vitamins (especially C), zinc, green vegetables, citrus fruit, protein, and dairy. Talk to your doctor about food, drinks, and nutritional supplements that are likely to cause complications or slow the healing process.
- Be gentle: Treat the surgery site with care. Make sure the wounds remain dry for one week after the surgery, as moisture may aggravate the incision site, besides slowing down the healing process. Make sure you understand how to bathe and care for your incision site in the weeks following surgery.
- Relax: Avoid strenuous activity and ensure adequate rest and relaxation. Don’t push yourself to exercise too early – depending on the patient, I typically recommend avoiding driving for about a week and avoiding strenuous activity for at least four weeks to prevent discomfort and unnecessary stress to tissues.
- Know where to go with questions and concerns: Your surgeon should give you clear guidelines on what to expect, but questions and concerns are normal, and you should have a good idea beforehand of what counts as a major concern that your doctor needs to know about personally. Your doctor’s staff can often provide helpful tips and recommendations to reduce normal post-surgery discomfort, but even from a top-quality surgeon you need to know who to call if you experience problems like sudden changes in your breast shape, excessive pain, sudden swelling, or fever.
- Get the gear: There are plenty of sports bras and compression garments out there, and some of them do an excellent job of assisting with the healing process. Good postsurgical garments can also help reduce the discomfort that healing breasts can cause during normal movements of the chest and arm muscles in the early days of recovery. Many doctors can recommend a specific product, or provide guidelines on what to look for and what to avoid.
Most patients return to normal routine after the first week, but make sure to get your doctor’s advice before starting on any new approaches to your healing process. Your surgeon is the best resource to guide you through the entire process – from consultation, surgery, and recovery. Like every step in your breast augmentation, your recovery should be specific to you, so make sure to plan ahead and discuss recovery with your doctor well in advance of your procedure.
