Hey all! I'm your fairweather friend who I guess only comes around when I need something; haven't been on the forums for a good year but now I'm finally looking into plastics. In particular, I'm looking into a drainless around-the-world abdominolplasty and a breast lift (not reduction).

I've found a great surgeon who I think I'm going to go with, but when I mentioned that I was going on a cruise in early march (and snorkeling on it!) the scheduler suggested that she thought I'd be fully healed by then, so long as I had the surgery mid Dec at the latest. I'm curious if this is a realistic timeframe; if anyone has had these surgeries, how long realistically was it until you could do things like hike, exercise, run, swim...? In the ocean, especially.

It's a cruise, so obviously I would LOVE to wear an amazing bikini on it in March, and look the best I have ever looked. But is this a realistic time frame? Or am I likely setting myself up to ruin my cruise experience?

I had a 360 body lift and thigh lift. I took 3 weeks off work, but continued to walk around like a grandpa for a couple months. I had two spots where my incision didn't heal quickly and I had to keep packing them with gauze and wait for them to heal from the inside. It was at least 3 months. While I want to be optimistic, you should know that there is a chance that everything won't go perfectly and heal as quickly as you want... it's a pretty major surgery. I'd also say that your stomach is going to be quite tender for some time and even if you're healed and can get in the water, swimming or snorkeling might be a lot of activity. So... cruise yes - lots of activity, who knows.

I ended up getting an earlier date than I ever could have imagined, which is THIS MONDAY!!! so that's about 3 1/2 months until my cruise. I took it. I don't think I want to wait. Now I'm figuring out other recovery things....

Hope the healing is going well

It's been nuts! The pain is so much worse than I expected, and so much worse than my sleeve surgery. I was back to using my computer and working two days post op, after sleeve, but now I'm still sleeping most of the day. It's getting better bit by bit ... Tonight I'm going to try to sit down at the table for a proper dinner for the first time! And tomorrow, maybe a shower...

It's been nuts! The pain is so much worse than I expected, and so much worse than my sleeve surgery. I was back to using my computer and working two days post op, after sleeve, but now I'm still sleeping most of the day. It's getting better bit by bit ... Tonight I'm going to try to sit down at the table for a proper dinner for the first time! And tomorrow, maybe a shower...

Update?

An for the cruise update?

@Brandeis any updates