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Though hidden, the result is a large wound your body
needs to repair. It must rebuild the capillaries (your
smallest blood vessels) leading to your skin; restore
the fine transport network, which carries clear, nurturing
liquids to and from each cell, and reconnect the links
that hold your skin tightly, but flexibly in place.
While this reconstruction is going on, these same,
damaged structures must work hard. Blood clots will
be removed. Building materials will travel to the repair
zone. And if you had liposuction, skin that had been
stretched to accommodate now-discarded fat, will tighten
to a smaller, tighter shape.
The combined "traffic jam" of extra blood
and lymph trying to find its way to the wound site,
and fewer exits for the fluids already there, shows
up as swelling. This swelling - or "edema"
as your doctor calls it - can create problems which
may slow down your recovery healing process. The backward
force of accumulated fluids can prevent fresh supplies
of oxygen and nutrients from reaching the damage areas.
This can slow the mending process, or in rare but severe
cases, cause some cells to die.
If pockets of lymph (called "seromas") or
pools of blood ("hematomas") occur, the immune
system may not be able to clean these spaces. Infections
can result. Occasionally, these pooled fluids form clots,
which - in another rare, but serious complication -
could break away and block blood flow to other parts
of the body ("thromboses").
Even if no pockets of blood or lymph arise, the total
amount of fluid that can become trapped in swollen tissues
raises medical concerns. Your body is made up largely
of water. It devotes considerable effort to balancing
the amounts of liquid between your cells, and in your
blood. If too much fluid stays between the cells, too
little returns to the blood, causing the heart to pump
much harder.
While the above complications are rare, one way these
problems can usually be proactively avoided is by applying
external pressure to the skin surface, in the form of
a carefully designed liposuction
compression garment. Pushing down on the skin, the
elastic surgical compression garment squeezes body fluids
back toward deeper tissues, reducing edema (swelling)
in the affected areas.
An extra advantage from these surgical compression
garments is that loose skin, held firmly against the
body, is far more likely to heal without sagging. And,
using compression
garments when chosen carefully and sized properly,
can do nothing but help your recovery to be quicker,
safer and more comfortable!
Be sure to read
the section on healing in general, and the use of
supplements
to promote healing. We recommend TenderSurge
or HealingSurge
supplements, specifically designed for use after
cosmetic surgery.
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