Bloating, gas pains, and abdominal distention are common features of tummy tuck recovery. Taking pain medication is part of the reason this is seen as it can effect intestinal motility or movement.
You may notice that your bowel movements are not regular right after your surgery. This is common. Try to avoid constipation and straining with bowel movements. You may want to take a fibre supplement every day.
Sometimes, though, abdominal adhesions can cause the intestines to twist, similar to how a garden hose can become kinked. This condition can occur shortly after, or even years after surgery and can lead to complete or partial intestinal obstruction, also called small bowel obstruction.
Common early complications, seen within a month, include hematoma, seroma, local infections, skin or fat necrosis, and wound dehiscence. Late complications include recurrent diastasis, scar hypertrophy, and symptoms related to nerve injury.
The fact that your stomach is smaller, and your digestive tract changes means that your body must adapt to new systems and processes. Sometimes, the surgery can cause dumping syndrome – when food and drink pass into the sensitive small intestine too fast (also called rapid gastric emptying).
Dumping syndrome is a group of symptoms, such as diarrhea, nausea, and feeling light-headed or tired after a meal, that are caused by rapid gastric emptying. Rapid gastric emptying is a condition in which food moves too quickly from your stomach to your duodenum.
It's also called rapid gastric emptying. When your stomach empties too quickly, your small intestine receives uncomfortably large amounts of poorly digested food. This can cause symptoms of nausea, bloating, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. It can also cause sudden blood sugar changes.
As we mentioned, each person's tummy tuck recovery time varies, but most patients are ready to return to normal activities within 3-6 months after their initial procedure.
Because a tummy tuck is a more extensive surgery, patients need around 10 to 14 days to recover. The results are long-lasting, and the removed fat cells won't grow back—but remaining fat cells may expand and the skin may re-stretch if you gain a large amount of weight.
Tummy tuck results are considered permanent in that the skin and fat cells that Dr. Greenwald removes during the procedure cannot grow back. Likewise, any internal sutures that he places to repair stomach muscles are designed to remain in place indefinitely.
Delayed bowel movement or passage of flatus is the hallmark of postoperative ileus. Common symptoms include abdominal distension, bloating, diffuse, persistent pain, nausea, vomiting, inability to pass flatus, and intolerance to an oral diet.
Constipation. Vomiting. Inability to have a bowel movement or pass gas. Swelling of the abdomen.
All plastic surgeons know that flap necrosis is due to flap ischaemia. In an abdominoplasty, the skin necrosis declares itself by 2nd to 4th day. It is seen as an area of darkness or blood stained blister in the leading edge of the flap.
A protruding stomach appearance 2 years after a tummy tuck might be down to visceral fat and loose muscle. In such cases, patients need to lose weight to reduce the bloating that is still present. A visit to the plastic surgeon for further assessment or a second opinion might help.
Stretching the nerves out can result in feelings of hypersensitivity or feelings of numbness – similar to when your leg falls asleep. Once the swelling settles down and the skin starts to relax these nerves will start sending out signals again – THE ZINGERS.
During body contouring procedures like a tummy tuck, fat cells are eliminated from the body and cannot return. Because of this, patients may gain weight in other places like the buttocks, legs, arms, and breasts.
With a full tuck, you will lose more weight than you would with a mini tuck because you probably have more excess skin and fat to be removed. Finally, the opportunity to lose the most weight after abdominoplasty is reserved for clients who choose an extended tuck.
Losing 5-10kg after a tummy tuck will not drastically affect your results. In fact, it may help the skin shrink comfortably around the abdominal area and enhance your new contours. However, losing more than this may result in loose and excess skin again after the surgery.
The worst days after your tummy tuck will be the first one to three days. You may experience some discomfort, bloating, pressure, and swelling, but these symptoms are normal and will resolve themselves.
How do you know which type you have? Generally, a patient who has a lot of visceral fat in the abdomen will not get satisfying results from a tummy tuck. This fat will remain in the abdominal cavity, and will cause a rounded shape to the belly even after the tummy tuck.
Tummy tuck patients may also experience a tight feeling in their belly because the skin has been cut and put back together. More so, muscle tightening during the surgery can lead to a hardened tissue sensation during recovery.
Extremely painful bowel movements — Stool can be very painful and difficult to pass for those who suffer from gastroparesis. In the event that they do, going to a digestive specialist can help you manage your chronic constipation and deal with this symptom for less painful bowels.
Late dumping syndrome
Symptoms of late dumping syndrome occur 1 to 3 hours after you eat a meal. The symptoms of late dumping syndrome are caused by low blood glucose, also called low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. Symptoms of late dumping syndrome may include. feeling light-headed or fainting. feeling shaky or jittery.
Passing stool immediately after a meal is usually the result of the gastrocolic reflex, which is a normal bodily reaction to food entering the stomach. Almost everyone will experience the effects of the gastrocolic reflex from time to time. However, its intensity can vary from person to person.