Day 8
So when I initiated this blog, I intended to tell the complete perspective of a lower body lift from a man's point of view, and that's exactly what I intend to do.  I know some of the things I post here are probably not PC, but I think I know how a man thinks and what he thinks about.  So I'm going to tell you everything I am experiencing.

For the past couple of days, the nurses here have only been changing my drains once a day.  I would say when I first got the procedure, I was draining at least 300cc of fluid a day (mostly blood).  For the past couple of days, that had decreased to about 120cc (mostly yellow fluid and fat -- it's gross, chunks of fat come out, mixed with some red and yellow liquid).  I had been on blood thinners for the first five or six days after surgery, so that was helping with the clots, but early on there had been some blood clots coming out of the drain too (a good thing).  Well, today I had 155cc of fluid.  So the discharge increased since the past couple of days.  The nurses tell me that doctors sometimes don't like to remove the drains until that drainage is down to about 30cc a day.  Apparently, I was told by a nurse down here, men heal from the surgery much slower than women do, and she knew of a man who had the drains in for a month.  A month!  I am going back to the doctor in 3 days and I just don't think they will take the drains out.

So, what does that mean?  If that's what happens, that means that Wednesday morning, I will be traveling back to NYC with the drain still in.  It is very uncomfortable.  It pulls, pinches and pokes my groin.  The nurses have been putting antibiotic ointment on one of the drains (I have 2 tubes coming out of me) as it has been a little red.  Also, what it means is that I'm severely depressed.

I don't think a lot of people talk about the depression post-surgery.  I am full of regret.  I have nothing to do.  It hurts.  It's uncomfortable.  I'm literally cut apart and it's healing slower than I expected.  All of this has led me to cry pretty much daily.  I know it's only temporary, but it's terribly upsetting.  If you feel this, just know you are not weird or alone.  It's very upsetting, especially since I keep thinking that the entire surgery was at my choice.  It wasn't something that was necessary.  I subjected myself to it because I was unhappy with myself and now I have to face the consequences.  I'm sad, and lonely, and uncomfortable, and can't do anything for myself, and now I have a feeling these drains aren't coming out any time soon.  Hang in there with me!

Also, I found that no one ever has discussed masturbation after having a lower body lift surgery.  Now, let me clarify, I'm not talking sex with someone else.  I am not horny really.  I am too uncomfortable and there has been too much of a shock to my system for me to be really horny.  But yesterday I masturbated.  I did it as more of an experiment to see if it hurt, as I was concerned the orgasm or spasms from ejaculating would hurt the muscles somehow.  It doesn't!  It was 7 days after surgery and there was no pain.  I did it again today.  I should mention that my urethra is slightly sore from the catheter they put in me still over a week later, but all in all, it's not impossible and it does not hurt to orgasm.   And it gives me something to do.  Just watch out for those drainage tubes and don't go at it too hard.

It's still horribly uncomfortable to sleep at night.  They put a foam pad on the top of my bed to hopefully make it softer...we will see.  But I really do notice every day things are a little easier.  For instance, today getting up and sitting down is easier than I expected.  Yesterday when I got up, for about 5 seconds my abdomen would burn.  Like...burn.  Not so much on the incision (the incision has not been giving me problems), but rather where the doctor did lipo on my abdomen.  The burn would go away, but it really hurt as soon as I would move.  Today that's not really happening.

Keep your compression garment on as much as you can except to shower, dry yourself, rebandage yourself and put the garment back on.  The doctor created an empty space when he removed the fat from between the muscle and skin, and the skin now needs to attach to the muscle, which the garment helps.  You don't want the skin to just sag.  So make the garment tight as can be, but tight as can comfortably be.  You don't want your internal organs to be ground together.

That's all for now.  I have dinner in about an hour.  Maybe I'll post later if I think of anything.