Hi my name is Morgen and I am one of the physician assistants here at Florida Plastic Surgery Group. Today I’ll be talking to you about your discharge instructions after your capsulectomy with or without mastopexy this is also known as a breast lift. When you wake up from surgery all of your sutures will be underneath the skin, they will dissolve over time and none of them will have to be removed. You will have steri-strips over all of your incisions, steri-strips are fabric band-aid like strips. You’re going to leave those on until your first post-op appointment at which time we will take them off for you. You will also have a bra on, this is a surgical bra. The surgical bra is very supportive and it opens to the front. You’re going to want to wear this bra around the clock unless you’re showering. Underneath the bra you’ll have foam or some sort of padding to create extra compression over your surgical sites. When you get in the shower (which you’re allowed to 24 hours after surgery) you’re going to let the water kind of hit you on your shoulders and run down over your incisions. You’re not going to want to stand with the shower directly on your incisions. You are not going to want to soak or sit in a tub where your incisions will soak at all when you shower. You can just wash around all those incision lines don’t scrub the steri-strips and don’t peel them off. If one of them happens to fall off it’s not the end of the world, just leave the rest of them alone and we’ll take them off for you at your first post-op appointment. When you get out of the shower just kind of pat everything dry and put that bra and foam back on. You’re going to wear that around the clock unless you’re showering or washing the bra. When you get out of surgery you may or may not have drains. This is determined at the time of your surgery by your surgeon. If you do have drains, you’re just going to want to report the output twice daily if they fill up faster than that you’re welcome to dump them more often. Just make sure you’re writing down how much is coming out and bringing that log with you to every post-op appointment. There is a separate video that will give you more instruction on drain care. If you do have them, then we will give that to you to watch as well. When you get home from surgery, for about 48 hours after you’re going to want to sleep with your head above your shoulders either propped up on some pillows or in a recliner. You are going to want your activity to be light, no reaching super-high overhead for anything and if something’s down on the ground, let someone help you get it. As well as no lifting anything over about ten pounds and making sure that you’re getting up and walking a couple times every hour just to go to your kitchen or to your bathroom just to get the blood flowing from your legs back up to your heart. This is very important after surgery, there is an inherent risk of blood clots with any surgery that you have. Getting up and walking reduces your risk of having a blood clot in your legs greatly. Make sure that you’re getting up every hour because you are not on bed rest. We just want you taking it easy, do not do anything that will get your heart rate up. If you feel yourself getting out of breath while you’re doing activity, you’re probably doing too much we want you listening to your body. Your body is your best guide to determine if you’re doing too much or if you’re following proper protocol. After surgery, you’re probably going to want to wait to drive. We want you to wait at least a couple days after surgery to drive just to let the effects of your anesthesia wear off. Make sure that when you are going to drive, you’re not taking any pain medications that can alter your judgement and that you’re in a clear state of mind to drive. Understand that when you drive you may have to make quick movements, keep those things in mind when you do begin to drive. Make sure that you’re not smoking before or after surgery, smoking has very detrimental effects on wound healing and your healing after surgery. It is very important that you do not smoke after surgery. Thank you for watching today! Again, my name is Morgan and we look forward to seeing you for your surgery!
Morgen Fletcher, PA-C discusses Post-Op/Discharge instructions after a Breast Lift
