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How to Prepare for Plastic Surgery

The date of your surgery is getting closer and closer.  You have practically read the whole internet searching for the things you need to do ahead of time.  You want to be sure to be prepared before the big day.

how to prepare for your plastic surgery - date of surgery

Here are the top 8 things to do before your plastic surgery:

 

  1.  Deep Clean Your House

    • Even if you aren’t a neat freak, you will see literally every speck of dust in the house as you recover and you won’t be able to do anything about it – for a while.
  2.  Cook and Freeze a Lot of Meals

    • You are going to have a lot of down time while you recover, but you won’t be able to cook for a while without exhausting yourself.  You will need the rest, so take time now to cook for you and your family.
  3.  Enlist the Help of Friends and Family

    • It doesn’t matter how independent you are or how much you hate asking for help.  You are going to need help after surgery, period – so get on it.
    • If you are going out-of-town or out of the country for surgery, see if someone will come with you.  Traversing an airport with luggage is a challenge is already hard.  After surgery it is even harder.  That’s pretty obvious. 
    • What may not be so obvious is that you are going to need help getting up and going to the bathroom, getting in and out of your garment, changing your dressings, and so on.  You will need this help even if you are having surgery in your home city.
  4.  Arrange for Childcare for as Long as You Can Get the Help

    • This is especially true if you have kids who are roughly 2-3 years old or younger – or if you have a child who constantly wants to be held.
  5.  Buy Supplies Ahead of Time

    • There are a number of surgery preparation lists online that can help you figure out what you will need after surgery.  They contain all kinds of things that you may not think of from slip-on house shoes and bendy straws to wedge pillows and scar gel.
    • Trust me.  You don’t want to be sending friends and family to the store every 5 minutes when you realize that you need something – and you sure as heck don’t want to be Amazon shopping while you are coming out of anesthesia. Funny, I don’t remember ordering a shipping container full of Mr. Bubble Bubble Bath…
    • Wait, however, to purchase any post-op fajas.  You can’t estimate the exact size you will need ahead of time.
  6.  Make Your Post-Op Massage Appointments BEFORE Surgery

    • This is SO incredibly important!  There are not a lot of well-qualified therapists for post-op recovery – and there are a ton of unqualified/unlicensed folks out there who will likely be your only option if you wait until your surgery is over to make your appointments.
    • Do your research ahead of time and locate a qualified therapist in your area (and where you will be having surgery if it is not in the city where you live). 
    • Book several appointments (at least 6 for most surgeries).  If you only book your first appointment and then wait until that appointment to book the others, you may end up waiting weeks or more to get in for your next session.
    • Pro Tip:  If the surgeon is including the massages in your surgery cost or if they come as part of a recovery house package **research the credentials of the therapist BEFORE YOU PAY.**  It may come as a shock that surgeons (and recovery houses) will hook you up with unlicensed and untrained therapists, but it happens ALL THE TIME – most especially in the Miami area.
  7. Arrange for a Driver for the First 2-3 Weeks

    • No one wants to have to ask someone to drive them around like they are a teenager, but after surgery this is a necessity for a couple to three weeks.
    • Every surgeon has different instructions regarding driving after surgery, but the restriction is usually no less than 2 weeks.  If you had a lot of procedures done at once or if you had a BBL, you may be looking at closer to 3 weeks.
  8. Stop Smoking and Drinking

    • I know this is not popular advice, but it is some of the most important advice you will find about plastic surgery recovery.
    • If you either smoke or drink, this is not puritanistic judgment being thrown at you.  While they may be relaxing and enjoyable to many folks, they both can cause you to have bad surgery results because of what they do to the body.
    • Smoking should stop at least 4-6 weeks before surgery and drinking (assuming you only drink moderately) should stop a week or more ahead of time.  If you know that you drink more than you should, it would be a good idea to start cutting back many weeks ahead of time so that when you reach the one week mark that it isn’t so hard to stop.
    • Smoking causes blood vessels to constrict keeping them from effectively delivering oxygen and nutrients to the cells.  Surgery cuts through a lot of blood vessels, making it even harder for the body to supply tissues with what they need to survive.  Smoking before and after surgery make the likelihood of tissue death much, much higher.
    • Drinking right before surgery (48 hours) can cause an unpredictable (possibly deadly) mixture when you are given anesthesia.  Alcohol also suppresses the immune system and can make it hard for you to stop bleeding.  It takes a while for the body to rid itself of these effects which is why you should stop well in advance.  After surgery drinking causes you to heal slower.  It leads to more swelling and it increases your risk of infection.