Lumps and Bumps
After Plastic Surgery
Video: How to Get Rid of
Lumps and Bumps
after Plastic Surgery
Lumps and Bumps after Plastic Surgery are one of the most dreaded outcomes,
but they are very common.
So, if you find that you
are developing some
lumpy areas as you heal,
don’t worry.
There is something
you can do!
First: Remember that
Healing is a Process
Not an Event
While the majority of people who have plastic surgery end up very happy with their results, no one enjoys going through the healing process. It takes months, and when you are going through it, it seems like it will never end.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that healing takes time. Your plastic surgeon isn’t ignoring your concerns when you complain about your now lumpy and bumpy appearance. He or she knows that it is part of the healing process and that it will take time to resolve.
Lumps and Bumps Typically Form
Because of Swelling that
Hangs Around for a While
How Do Lumps and Bumps Form?
This is why Compression and Lymphatic Massage are so important. In summary, Compression helps to keep the swelling from occurring throughout the day and night – but it doesn’t prevent all of it. Lymphatic Massage moves away the fluid (swelling) that the compression couldn’t prevent.
Manual Lymphatic Drainage (Lymphatic Massage) is very effective at relieving swelling postoperatively. Here’s an article from Massage Magazine on the benefits of MLD on cosmetic surgery patients. Here’s another article entitled The Importance of Lymphatic Drainage Massage Post Surgery written by Precision MD, a cosmetic surgery center in Sacramento, CA.
We have already learned
that swelling that hangs
around for a while
causes lumps and bumps,
but what exactly is going on?
Normal Swelling
Swelling is fluid comes to an area of injury (like an incision or liposuction area). You are familiar with this if you have ever slammed your hand in a car door or have twisted your ankle.
The body rushes a great deal of fluid to the area to cause a natural splint so that you can’t further damage the area by moving it.
If, for example, you had broken your finger, moving it could cause the broken bone to sever arteries or nerves causing you further injury.
This immediate swelling is normal and protective.
The first fluid to fill the area contains many special types of molecules that help secure the area and ward off infection.
This is the first stage of healing – and while it is painful, it is necessary.
Swelling that Doesn’t Go Away
Is What Causes Lumps and Bumps After Plastic Surgery
Where minor injuries are concerned, swelling typically goes away on its own. However, when the body has sustained a lot of injury – like with a liposuction or tummy tuck – there is a lot of tissue damage. Many cells die as a result of this type of injury – and that is expected.
The problem is that the body has to remove all of these dead cells. While the body is designed to do this via the lymphatic system, the sheer volume of dead cells is enough to “stop up the drains.”
Picture yourself standing in your bathroom with a 5 gallon bucket of sludge. You pour this bucket of sludge all at once into your bathtub. What happens? Under the best circumstances, a lot of it will go down the drain, but not all of it. It may just completely clog up and go nowhere. This is what the dead cells do to your lymphatic system.
When the drain is clogged, new fluid coming to the tissues cannot go away on its own very easily. This is how Lymphatic Massage helps – it unstops the drains so your swelling can go away.
If you don’t get your lymphatic system moving, the fluid just sits there and accumulates. The fluid is full of proteins which start binding to one another as part of the healing process. However, it is not ideal when proteins bind together where there is a pocket of fluid because it forms lumps and bumps.
These lumps and bumps are properly called “fibrosis.” They are a pretty normal occurrence after plastic surgery and need to get worked on by a therapist, but they are not life-threatening. One client of mine called me one day very concerned because she had googled the word “fibrosis” and became quite panicked when a google article turned up something on pulmonary fibrosis, which is a very serious condition.
Fibrosis after liposuction is a completely different issue. These two things are not related to one another at all, so don’t panic.
Fibrosis following liposuction happens in the area just under the skin where your fat was removed. It is above the muscles which means it is nowhere near your vital organs. Usually fibrosis is just annoying, but in some people it can be painful. You have to remember that you have nerves regrowing where you had liposuction, and they are not at all pleased. Sometimes these balls of protein can grab ahold of the nerves and pinch them. It may hurt, but it is nothing serious. A well-educated therapist can safely work them out.
While these lumps of fibrosis aren’t serious, you will want to get them addressed. The longer they stay, the harder they typically become and the more difficult they are to treat. If it takes you a couple of weeks to get in to see someone, then ok – just massage them yourself in the meantime. Not the end of the world. Sooner is always better, but don’t lose your mind if you can’t get a session for a couple of weeks. If you wait a couple of years, then that is going to be much harder to deal with.
It is common after any type of surgery to get fibrosis if fluid stays stagnant.
I gave a lecture to the Pink Warrior House Foundation (a breast cancer support group in Albuquerque) on fibrosis after breast cancer surgery. If you would like a more detailed understanding of fibrosis, feel free to watch the video of that lecture below. The information about how fibrosis forms is the same whether the surgery is cancer-related or not.
Can’t get into see a therapist?
Take a look at this new blog post:
What to Do When You Can’t Get
a Lymphatic Massage After Plastic Surgery
If You Already Have
Lumps and Bumps.
Then What?
So, you ended up with
lumps and bumps
after plastic surgery.
You did everything
the plastic surgeon said,
but you still have lumps
that are driving you crazy.
Don’t panic.
It can be fixed – and it doesn’t hurt.
The great news is that most lumps and bumps are just where protein has built up and hardened – and that is fixable. Even if you have worn your compression like you should, it isn’t perfect.
Not all areas are compressed well, especially the sides of women just above the hips. This is one reason that many surgeons will recommend foam padding in addition to a compression garment such as a faja (pronounced Fa-Ha). The padding helps distribute the pressure to areas where the compression doesn’t do a great job.
How to Fix the
Lumps and Bumps
after Plastic Surgery
Once lumps and bumps have formed they have to be broken up – gently. When combined with Manual Lymphatic Drainage (Lymphatic Massage) deeper work focused on the lumps and bumps can help to clear them up.
The “deeper” type of work used to clear up lumps and bumps after plastic surgery is nothing to worry about. It is usually not felt very much due to the numbness after surgery. It is not actually very deep (not even as deep as the muscle). Compared to lymphatic massage which is very light, it is much deeper, but compared to a typical normal pressure spa massage, it is much lighter.
This deeper work gently breaks up the lumps. The residue from the lumps is then picked up and carried away by the lymphatic system aided by Lymphatic Massage which is done at the same time.
While it does take several sessions to make lumps go away, generally you notice a difference after just a single session. They are usually softer to the touch and don’t feel like they poke you so much under your compression. After the session your body continues its “clean-up” process, and once you’ve completed a handful of sessions you will realize one day that they are simply gone.
Client Testimonial
“Shannon was AWESOME and aided in me healing a lot faster than anticipated. With a lot of confusion surrounding lymphatic massages out there and what was right for me.
Shannon was very knowledgeable, informative and made me feel confident in choosing her for my post-surgical massages. I’d recommend her 1000 times over!” –M. H., Albuquerque
It Can Get Better Quicker:
Here’s How
There is no getting around
the fact that it
takes time to heal, but
healing can happen quicker.
The two most important things
to speed healing and prevent
lumps and bumps are good Stage 2
Compression Garments (fajas) and Lymphatic Massage.
Compression Garments
The absolute most important thing that you can do to help heal yourself faster is to wear the compression garments that your plastic surgeon sold you.
No, they aren’t very comfortable.
They make moving and bending more difficult, and you may find that sleeping in them is difficult.
WEAR THEM ANYWAY!
If you search online you will see that a few plastic surgeons say that they aren’t absolutely necessary – and, technically, they are correct. You can heal without them, but you will heal much slower and probably be covered in lumps and bumps. You may even develop fluid filled sacs called seromas (and you really don’t want that).
Most surgeons recommend that people wear compression garments for 6-8 weeks, but some say 3-6 months. Who is correct? The short answer is that there is no absolute right answer. Much depends on the kind of surgery you had, how extensive your surgery was, the condition your body was in prior to surgery, and the surgeon’s personal preference. Given that there is no exactly correct answer that fits everyone, the general rule is the longer you can wear your compression, the better your outcome will be.
Lymphatic Massage
The other really important thing you need to do to speed your healing is to get Lymphatic Massage, which is properly referred to as “Manual Lymphatic Drainage.”
Note that Lymphatic Massage is something *completely different* than “incisional drainage” where fluid is forced out of incisions. (To learn more about the unsafe practice of incisional drainage check out my post on The Dirty Little Secrets of the Plastic Surgery Recovery Industry here.) More on this below.
This video explains all about the body’s lymphatic system and how it works. By watching it you will understand exactly how lymphatic massage helps to reduce swelling (which reduces the chance of you getting lumps and bumps).
Two quick points of clarification about “Lymphatic Massage”:
- I’m using the term “Lymphatic Massage” because it is commonly called that in our culture. Technically, it is not a massage at all although it feels very much like one. This means that you can’t just go to any massage therapist who says they offer “Lymphatic Massage” and get what you need. They do not have the training.
You need a therapist who is *Certified* in Manual Lymphatic Drainage. Do your research on the person’s credentials. A Certified Lymphedema Therapist has this highly-specialized training. - Second, Lymphatic Massage – also called Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) does not mean pushing fluid out of your drains.
Many people – especially people who go to Miami for plastic surgery – endure a very painful procedure after surgery in which fluid is very forcefully pushed out of their bodies and into their drains. This is called “incisional drainage” Sometimes the holes where the liposuction cannula is inserted are reopened (!?!?!?!?) and fluid is pushed out that way. DO NOT GO TO ANYONE WHO DOES THIS. It is painful and completely unnecessary. (Drainage out of the incision sites for a few days after surgery is normal, but it should not be forced.)
Manual Lymphatic Drainage is gentle and soothing – very much like a massage (but still not technically a massage). It is relaxing, and you will feel better immediately. MLD uses your body’s natural drainage pathways to help move fluid out of swollen areas so that you can literally pee it out.
Recover Faster. Feel Better Today.
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Put Yourself on the Recovery Fast Track
If you are planning
on having plastic surgery,
check out this article on
how to prep for cosmetic surgery.
If you are suffering from
lumps and bumps
following cosmetic surgery,
I can help.
Give me a call and
make your appointment today.
Since you are here,
you might also be interested in these things:
More Info
I spend a lot of time educating my clients about the healing process that they will go through, but there are always questions that come up that they forget to ask. Surgeons don’t have time to tell their patients a lot of information. They are really busy people.
In addition to my free ebook, I there is a ton of information here on my website that can help you with the most common questions about plastic surgery recovery.
Heal Faster. Heal Better.
Recover from Plastic Surgery
Faster with Lymphatic Massage.
