Day 1

Slept pretty well. Not nearly as much leakage today. Washed all my towels. I can feel the swelling reduced on my arms and my face. At one point I rubbed my nose and felt a twinge of discomfort at my jaw line. I’ve been applying mind over matter where the chin wrap is concerned. Keeping busy so as not to think about feeling itchy. I did find that the pressure on my larynx was a little unnerving and would slide a couple of fingers underneath to relieve the tension at the neck occasionally. Swallowing felt a little rough. I’ve been slowly lifting my arms above my head to test soreness. The best description really is akin to over-working out. I have been lightly caressing the arms to help aid in fluid removal. Even the lightest caress feels like I’m touching a bruise. I suspect I’m a rainbow of colors, as I have a history of being a notorious bruiser! While doing summerstock, I used to say,”I don’t tan, my freckles and bruises meet up to give me summer color!” Dr. Bittner sent me my post procedure photo with him in the morning. It is absolutely amazing that 4 pounds of fat came out of my upper arms and chin alone! He called later in the day to check-up on me, what a sweetie! I told him everything seems A-Ok and he reiterated to call if at any point I had a question or concern.

Day 2

So excited this is the day I got to remove the fandangled chin contraption! Now I know I would have been a miserable nun! Holy smokes! I have a jawline! I am sooooo happy. At one point I had seriously considered a “Lifestyle Lift” but didn’t like the cost and how invasive it was. Well I am happy to say it looks like liposculpture did the trick! Yippee! The skin feels super soft and like the sensation you have when a body part falls asleep. You can feel you are touching it but it is sort of numb. I decided to put the chin strap back on today, since I didn’t have any appointments out of the house. Truth be told, it did take a little puzzle solving to put the chin contraption back together again. And I thought a Rubik’s Cube was challenging!

My arms feel a smidge more mobile. Don’t misunderstand me, I could always move them, they just move free-er. Caressing them still feels very tender. I’ll remove the garment later for photos in Technicolor! Once I took off the compression garment I could see that my arms are a bit swollen. And there are the beautiful colors I expected.

I am taking the antibiotics but have not needed any muscle relaxers or pain killers, which really is amazing! I am feeling more like myself as my body purges the residual pain killers.

Day 3

Today was my first day out of the house since liposculpture. I loved my first day of freedom from the evil neck contraption! When I merrily de-Velcro-ed I did notice additional yellowing along the sides of my mouth and along the jaw line. Dr. Bittner said I might get additional bruising because I am so fair, which is a nice way to put it. Today would be quite a test for my arms because I was starting a faux finish paint job for a friend. The day began with patching a large water damaged spot on the ceiling and then painting the entire ceiling. Okay arms, here ya go… actually even with working with my arms overhead they felt “tight” but no pain or discomfort. I found a huge improvement today from yesterday when I caress the skin, much more alive and not as numb and only slightly tender. Still have lots of pretty color mostly on the inside of the elbow areas. I did start the “rubber band” sensation later in the day – so bizarre! I had to wash my compression garment today. After painting for 7-plus hours in LA summer heat it needed it! I personally like the support it gives me. I measured my arms tonight and found that I had lost an inch in each since the procedure. I’ll measure again in a couple of days.

Day 4

Started the day with OTC Ibuprofen as I was headed off to paint again. I found I did not sleep well last night, the chinstrap felt especially tight, like strangulation. I do believe the love affair has ended! Four more nights, I gotta hang tough and follow Dr. Bittner’s instructions. Better me hanging than my chin!

During the day I found areas along my arms “tightening”. But everything worked well and got me through another long day of painting. Again there is huge improvement in the numbness factor of my arms. There has been some “rubber band” snapping, but not as much as yesterday. My bruises are moving more into the yellows and less magentas. The whites are from Sherwin-Williams! The adit sites on my arms by my elbows are scabbing over nicely and are about 1/16th of an inch. The adit sites at the tops of my armpits are a bit raised and reddish.

My neck felt strange a good part of the day; swollen, numb, tight and lumpy and a little itchy. The adit site at the right jaw bone feels a bit swollen and looks like a bug bite that I scratched and caused to bleed. The adit site on the left is similar but smaller. The one at the center of my chin seems to be healing very nicely, just a tiny scab.