Liposuction

If your New Year’s resolution diet isn’t working so well, you may think “maybe I should take a step further into liposuction or some other procedure,” so Dr. Rhys Branman is here to tell us if that’s how it works – good to see you, good to see you, welcome back! You’ve been on a little vacation. I was on a little vacation but it’s good to be back to work we’re busy! Busy? Good! Well we want to ask you some questions about liposuction, because first of all, a lot of people think “well I can always go do that to lose weight.” Is it a weight loss treatment? It really isn’t, it’s really good for when someone has certain little areas that they just want to get rid of, especially in the hip area, tummy area – those seem to be really areas that people really want to have them removed, and they sort of gain in those areas, but never really lose in those areas. Okay so if someone comes in and you can tell they really haven’t tried seriously to lose weight on their own, you don’t suggest lipo? I really don’t – if they can be at their sort of a stable weight, then I think that’s a great time to do liposelection, but I think if you have a lot of weight on you, I think you need to lose some weight first.  And then those areas that are residual, those areas that are just left over, liposelection is perfect for that. [Lipo is] perfect for those places that you just just don’t ever seem to lose weight in – those spots. We’re going to take a look at a few of those with some pictures.  Now there’s liposuction: ultrasonic liposelection and traditional, so what’s the difference? I think the ultrasonic is actually a little bit better, and the difference is is that the traditional, we would just go in with a cannula and take out the fat. Yeah and you’ve seen those pictures where they’re kind of yeah, yeah – it looks pretty aggressive. [But] with the ultrasonic, what we do is we put a small little wand inside the fat and it breaks up the fat. It gets rid of it? It doesn’t get rid of the fat, but what it does is it breaks it up so it’s very easy to take the fat out. Okay and so it’s a lot less traumatic – you get a lot less swelling and less bruising and I think you get a smoother result than traditional liposuction. So that’s called ultrasonic or VASER lipo. We’ve talked about that. Yeah, so VASER liposuction, cool.

All right,  well here [are] some pictures to to show you what can happen before and after, and I think you can see that you’ve got some nice changes, especially in the hip area here. She had a little mini tuck with that, so we tightened her a little bit this way, but you can really see in the hip area that you get this nice smoothing and nice decrease in volume, which is what liposuction is all about. And there would be a scar here, you might have a little tiny scar down here which is off your picture. Okay, but you can also see how the tummy is a little more defined, you get a little more definition of the abdominals, and I think, you know, this is the kind of thing that liposelection is really good for. Yeah. How quickly do we get from this to this? Is there a little time? Six to 8 weeks, six to 8 weeks. Is there some sort of swelling or something? There is a little swelling – we have you wear an abdominal binder, which is something that will kind of cinch the abdomen, and this is a combination of liposelection and tummy tuck, so we get rid of the the little stretch marks there, plus bring everything in, so it’s a nice combination. And you can actually make the belly button look better, and that’s nice for [a] bathing suit too. See, it’s a lot cuter isn’t it? It’s a lot cuter! Okay let’s talk about, you mentioned VASER liposuction and that you can also combine the the liposuction and a tummy tuck, is that being done pretty often now?  Yeah we’re doing that, where we’ll take some fat from the sides, and sometimes from the upper abdomen, and then combine it with a tummy tuck to get really the maximum results they can get.  Very good. When will they start feeling good again? You said six to 8 weeks? Yeah I would say within about 2 to 3 weeks they can, they’ll start feeling good. I would think you suggest they continue their good nutrition and their workouts? Yes we want people to be able to keep the weight that they’re at – we don’t want them to seesaw, where they go up in weight and then down in weight – that’s just not a good way to kind of proceed after you’ve had a tummy tuck or liposuction. And do you have a way that actually liposuction can be free? I’ve heard that on television, “oh if if you’re interested in a breast augmentation, we’re offering one side of liposelection free”. With that, it’s really actually kind of a fun little little offer that we’re doing for this month. So if you’ve been considering that it might be time, and you’d do that all at the same time, you can do all the same time. So if you got a little something right here and you want a little breast augmentation, we can do it for you. You would wake up a new woman, or man, you wake up to a new woman – ready for bikini season! Awesome! All right, well let’s put up the information because you may have more questions about this now that Dr. Rhys has talked about it a little bit. Of course, this place is Cosmetic Surgery Center on Executive Center Drive, right there in West Little Rock 22777.  And of course they were named “Best of the Best”. Thank you, yes we were! And that’s great, so they are good at what they do. Go ahead and give them a call if you have more questions about this and as swimsuit season gets closer, I know you’re going to have a lot of people interested, but it needs to be the right candidate, right? Yes it does and that’s what the evaluation is all about. Very good, come on in, he’ll tell you if he can help or not. Thank you Dr. Branman, thank you so much. Good to see you as well!

Hey guys, April Gring here coming to talk to you about liposelection or liposuction, whatever you want to call it. We do two different types: VASER liposuction and just regular. The vaser is going to give a little bit more skin tightening, but Dr. Branman will let you know which one you need.

So we’ll go over the items that you’ll need to have at home: you’ll need your prescription medications, which is going to be your antibiotic, your medication that we’ll give you here. It’s in a little box, it’s already ready to go for you – you don’t have to get it from your pharmacy, and it’s just going to help with bruising and swelling after your surgery. There’s a pre-op dose which you’ll take the night before surgery just like that antibiotic, and then you’ll take a post-op dose, so after your surgery, and then a bedtime dose, and then it’s taken three times a day. Then you’ll also have your lovenox syringe, little shots that you’ll bring with you to surgery, and we’ll give you those, so you don’t have to do anything with those except bring them to your surgery. And then you’ll have thinner again for any nausea and then your pain medicine as well. You’ll also need some absorbent pads, so that can be either Johnson & Johnson dressing pads or Surgerpad Dressing Pads is what they’re called, or even some feminine maxi pads will work. And then at home you’ll also need some Q-tips, some hydrogen peroxide to clean your incision sites with, and then you’ll need your lab work done, which you’ll get your little script here to go get that done and that’s included in your cost, so before your procedure  – we already talked about this in the general surgery information kind of need-to-know , so make sure you did go ahead and watch that video before you dive into this one. But you’ll need to have all your prescription medications purchased like i said and ready to go. Of course being in p.o the night before, so nothing to eat or drink after midnight. Make sure you’re not putting a lot of lotion on – already talked about that in the other video – but especially for the surgery because you’ll have lots of marks on you so we don’t want that coming off.

So we’ll talk a little bit about the procedure. This is a body contouring procedure, it’s not a weight loss procedure, so it’s just made to really contour those curves that you have, bring you in and if you do have cellulite, none of that’s going to go away – that’s going to stay the same, so just know that. Also know that it is extremely important to keep a stable weight after surgery. You don’t want to gain any weight and Dr. Branman normally will tell you that he wants you – if you do plan on losing weight – he wants you to lose it before surgery rather than after,  so make sure you talk to him about that.

So we’ll go ahead and talk about after your procedure.  Like i said, you’re going to restart your antibiotic and that scenic medication after your surgery with a light meal, so this can mean just like some Gatorade and crackers or if you feel able enough to eat a little bit more than that, then you can as well.  You will expect a moderate amount of red-colored fluid draining from your incision sites, so it kind of looks like Kool-aid.  If it’s anything like straight blood that you notice coming out, or a lot of it,  then definitely give us a call for that. But that Kool-aid colored fluid coming out is normal and expected. That’s what those pads are for, to kind of soak that up for the first 24 to 72 hours, and those will be placed under your compression garment or your abdominal binder, whatever you want to call it,  that you’ll be wearing for about two weeks normally. But Dr. Branman will let you know when you can get out of it. So make sure you have that on at all times unless you’re laundering it or taking a shower. You’re going to keep your incision sites clean by showering daily – absolutely no hot tub swimming pools, baths, lakes, oceans for four to six weeks after surgery.  Yyou’re going to remove your little white tape or your steri-strips after about five days after your surgery. Sometimes these will come off beforehand just because of that fluid coming out and if you do notice that one does come off before those five days, just start cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide and Q-tips, and then if all of them stay on, great! Just after those five days, then you’ll start cleaning them, and then those little brown stitches underneath will dissolve so you don’t have to do anything with those. After, you don’t have to get them taken out, just clean them up and you’ll normally clean them about twice a day – sometime in the morning and at night is good. So you do want to avoid sitting for prolonged periods of time for about six weeks, so just make sure that your abdominal binder is nice and flush with your skin – you don’t want it dimpling or creasing – and sometimes it will do that if you sit for a long time. It’ll get that little crease just like if you have jelly rolls, then they will crease kind of, so you want to make sure that a boneless binder is staying nice and flush and you don’t want to wear any constrictive clothing that can cause your skin to fold or like my scrubs stay in the same place pretty much all day so i want to alternate that throughout the day especially if they’re tight.  So if you can, at work just wear really loose pants and clothing. You can resume mild exercise and activity in about four to seven days after surgery – just begin slowly and gradually and increase your activity each day.  Just no heavy running or weight lifting or sports or anything for about four to six weeks after your procedure. We don’t want you driving for about two days, or within 24 hours of taking your last pain pill, so if you’re okay after three days to drive then that’s fine. Just make sure you’re not taking your pain medication. So most people will return to work in about three to seven days. Just expect some soreness and fatigue. It’s not completely abnormal to run a slight fever after surgery. If you do notice that you are running a little warm, take your temperature. If it is kind of increased, drink more water, take your pain medicine which has Tylenol in it. But if you’re not taking your pain medicine anymore, just Tylenol is fine. And if it doesn’t go below 101.5 after that, then give us a call. Definitely notice or make sure you’re watching your incision areas, making sure there’s no signs of infection like foul-smelling drainage coming from them, redness or swelling, or lots of pain, and that they’re getting better and not worse. So if they were looking good and then they started looking kind of nasty, then definitely give us a call. You should expect some dark bruising around the liposuctioned areas and some swelling. Bruising normally goes away within three to five weeks, and swelling can persist for about three to six months. If you have a little bit of swelling in the labial area, that’s normal in women, and then sometimes it’s normal for the penis or scrotum to swell a little bit also if you’re a gentleman. And if you notice any ridging or hardening lumps then definitely let Dr. Branman know that you are noticing those and they should go away with some massaging in about six to 12 weeks. It’s most common in the abdominal area – like i said, sometimes if that binder is folding then that can happen, so just let Dr. Branman know if you notice that and we’ll let you know when you can start massaging. If you notice any numbness in your skin, that can be common and can last for several months until that skin regenerates. You do want to avoid the sun, especially where those incision areas are for about 6 to 12 months, because this can increase your swelling if you’re in the sun a lot and it can also darken those incision sites so you really want to stay out of the sun or wear protective clothing or sunscreen on those incision sites for about six to 12 months unless you just don’t care that the incisions get darker. So that’s really it! I do want to mention not to apply ice packs or heating pads to the treated areas. Like i said, you might have some numbness, so you won’t really know how hot or cold those items are, and make sure you remove those steri strips in five days and start cleaning. You can wash your garment each time you shower in just the sink – make sure your sink’s clean before you wash it –  but just some laundry detergent and water is good. And then just make sure you are wearing that compressive garment at all times until Dr. Branman tells you that you can stop because that’s really going to help with your swelling and give you the best result.

So the rest of this packet has your consents in it that you’re going to sign and in the beginning it talks about our accreditations here at the clinic, and the medication that we give you to help with rapid recovery, and a lot of medications to avoid if you are taking any medications.  So that’s it guys, we look forward to seeing you at your pre-op. Thanks!