patient story

You’ve caught snatches of stories here and there, flicked through some articles, but in this instalment of Jake’s VASER Diary you’ll find out what the recovery process after VASER Liposuction is really like, as well as why Jake’s compression garment became the bane of his life.

There’s a lot to cover so let’s jump right in and discover the challenges of treatment aftercare.

What does it feel like?

When we left Jake at the end of Part 2 he’d been pumped full of tumescent (anaesthetic) liquid and waiting to go home.

“My first day, I didn’t get much sleep. I needed to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes because your body is absorbing all this liquid and it just needs to let it out. But that’s a good thing, it’s a massive benefit as I didn’t feel any pain until the day after the surgery,” Jake explains.

After his procedure, he didn’t feel much other than a nice buzz that carried on till the next day. It was then that his senses finally caught up with his body.

One of the first things Jake noticed when he woke up that day was that the excess liquid in his body had started slowly leaking out during the night.

“So much so– and I can’t believe I’m telling you this – that we had to get adult nappies,” he said.

Now before you start imagining a horror scene unfolding, think of it this way: he’s like a balloon that’s been filled up with water and pierced with very thin needles. That water will slowly leak out. Some blood would have tinged the tumescent liquid now escaping his body, but in no way was he bleeding out.

Since Jake had a lot of areas treated (his pecks, chest, stomach and flanks), he knew to expect some physical discomfort.

“It’s not that you can’t deal with the pain, it’s just that it’s hard to get yourself around, to move and lift yourself up,” said Jake.

As most of the work had been done on his core, at first movement was bound to be a bit difficult, but he nevertheless managed to work from home for the next few days, uploading videos to his Youtube channel.

“The pain for me anyway, was gone after about seven to eight days. Afterwards I was just a little bit tender to touch, with the majority of the pain in my core and the bruising having gone down quite dramatically really.”

To speed up his recovery, Jake attended regular MLD massage sessions, which helped reduce his swelling and drain the excess liquid from his body.

To further help him along the way, Jake wore a compression garment for the four weeks following his procedure.

Jake VS The Compression Garment

The first thing you need to know about compression garments is that ‘it’s sexy stuff’.

Jake had to wear the garment for a full 24 hours following his treatment, after which he was allowed to take a quick shower – not as straightforward a process as it used to be.

He made his feelings quite clear: “This thing has been the bane of my life for four weeks now!”

He said: “To do this I lay down on the floor and slowly unzipped. That’s the way that it’s advised because the compression garment is obviously quite tight and people have been known to feel really faint if they’ve taken it off standing up.”

Suddenly, though, amidst all the discomfort, a silver lining appeared.

“I’ll tell you what, it was the most amazing feeling.

“As I was undoing each button I just felt like my body felt slimmer and slimmer… and amazing and more amazing… and it just felt absolutely incredible.

His stomach still looked a little bit ‘chunky’ and he couldn’t see any definition as such, but he said that there was nevertheless a ‘huge difference’.

“When I took it off, you could literally see that this new waist had been created and the first thing that I noticed is that my chest was just so, so flat.

“Like literally, not an ounce of fat there, which when you’ve had pockets of fat there for years, is just an incredible feeling.”

Getting in and out of the garment may be a slight hassle but it does keep things in check while offering you the element of surprise every time you unzip it.

Is it comfortable?

As the name implies, the garment is there to compress everything, closing up the new space between your skin and your muscles. By keeping everything tight and in one place, your body can slowly start to take on its new shape and effectively settle into it.

Despite all of the huffing and puffing Jake admitted that it isn’t actually the worst thing in the world:

“To be honest with you, it’s actually quite comfortable. It’s pretty breathable, but there’s no denying that you do feel like a massive whale when you wear it for four weeks.

“But then at the same time four weeks passes very, very quickly and it’s fine. You can still kind of do your normal bits and bobs, but it’s just a bit annoying when you want to do things like housework and stuff like that.

The garment is rather restraining so it can be difficult to lift up your arms or bend down. In the first two weeks, it’s made more comfortable thanks to a foam insert.

Jake explains: “You literally put it under the compression garment – and again this makes you look like an even bigger whale – but the good thing about this thing is that you only have to wear it for two weeks and that literally flew by to be fair.”

Apparently Jake is the kind of person who gets hot very easily, often suffering from hot flushes, so he was worried that he’d end up ‘sweating buckets’ with all these accessories on.

Luckily his worries were unfounded as he found that there was no excessive sweating and that the suit has ‘really good thermostatic control’.

When you come down to it, yes, the garment is going to be restrictive, but it makes up for it by being comfortable and keeping you from disintegrating into a puddle.

(Okay, that last thing wouldn’t actually happen…)

After four weeks

We’re not going to lie, Jake was pretty happy when the surgeon gave him the go-ahead to take the compression garment off.

We believe that his exact word were: “I’m finally free! Thank the lord!”

Is he going to store it in the closet and bring it out to recall fond memories of his experience?

Nope.

“I think I’m going to burn the bloody thing,” mused Jake.

That’s fine by us Jake! Just make sure to adhere to fire regulations and avoid burning your house down.

What about the results?

Well, wouldn’t you like to know?

No worries you don’t have to wait long, we’ll tell you all about it tomorrow in Part 4 of Jake’s VASER diary.

See you then!

To find out more about liposuction procedures at The Private Clinic, please contact 0333 920 2471 or you can use our online contact form to request a call back.