Rapid RecoveryBreast Augmentation
Caregiver Instructions
Post-Op/Recovery
Day of Surgery
After arriving home from surgery, the patient needs to take a 2 hour nap. If you have a long car ride home, be sure to count that time in the nap. Do not allow the patient to sleep more than 2 hours. She needs to wake up and move around. She can sit down and rest, but no more sleeping until bedtime.
She needs to eat something substantial; crackers are simply not enough. She also needs to stay hydrated. If she normally drinks a Diet Coke, make her a regular Coke or something with sugar. This is to jump start her system.
Nausea usually occurs within the first 3-4 hours after surgery. If she does feel nauseous, it may be due to taking her medication on an empty stomach or not drinking enough fluids and becoming dehydrated. This is why it is important to eat something substantial and drink plenty of fluids.
As soon as she has eaten, please give her 800mg of Ibuprofen, and wait 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, we want her arms above her head in a slow “jumping jack” type motion. Keep the arms straight out all the way up and touch the back of the hands to each other. Her bicep muscles should touch her ears. She needs to do a set of 5 every hour, on the hour until at least 10 pm or later if her surgery ended later in the morning.
Once she feels comfortable moving, have her take a shower. The shower is magic to loosen things up and help wipe away the fog from anesthesia. After showering, take her out to shop and walk around the mall – even take her out to dinner at her favorite restaurant! A change of scenery is a wonderful thing. We do expect her to close her own car door and put on her own seat belt. She can even carry a couple of shopping bags.
Encourage her to do normal activities around the house: unload the dishwasher, make dinner, and read to the kids. By moving, she will feel better faster and reduce her risk of capsular contracture and another operation.
She cannot hurt herself through normal movement. Remember, we have NO incentive to tell you to do something that would send her back to the operating room. It is important you know and understand to motivate and help her get moving.
Once she is home and ready for bed, she must lie on her breasts for 15 minutes. She is to lie directly down on the breasts until she puts her full weight on the breasts. Do NOT try a push-up to get up. Instead, just have her roll to the side and sit up. Please do not let her cheat! It is important to put pressure on the breasts immediately. Most patients tell us it feels good to have weight on the breasts, it is just the getting up part that is difficult until they get used to it. Many patients find it is easier to do this by kneeling, bending at the waist, or laying on a bench or ottoman. We expect her to do this tonight and every night until it is simply not an issue anymore – for at least 4 to 6 weeks.
Around 10 pm, make sure she takes another 800mg Ibuprofen with food and either Ambien or Benadryl to help her sleep. During the night, she will wake up when she rolls onto her side. With the help of Ambien or Benadryl, she will go right back to sleep.
She can do anything to make herself comfortable. That may mean more showers, more arm movements, more lying on her breasts, or wearing a bra without underwire for more support. A bra is totally optional. Some patients are more comfortable wearing a bra, and some are more comfortable without. We will leave that up to her.
Day Following Surgery
Get her up to eat breakfast and take 800mg Ibuprofen. Wait 30 minutes and have her take a nice warm shower. In the warm shower, we want her to do another set of 5 arm stretches. It is hard to just pop out of bed and do the stretches. Follow the post operative instructions and she will do great.
Use the momentum she has built to get out and do something – run daily errands, drive a car, etc. We do not expect her to stop in the mall and start doing her arm stretches, but we do expect her to close her own car door, put on her own seat belt, and carry a couple of shopping bags. Normal movement is essential.
You can expect her to run out of energy mid-day. Plan your day so that she can stop and rest for a while. After her nap, get her up and moving again! You will find the more she moves, the better she feels. Help her treat this like a pulled muscle. Yes, you feel it, but it only gets better with movement.
Expect her to feel tighter and more swollen by the end of the day. This is normal and temporary. She may also begin to complain of soreness of the ribs and lower back around the end of day one or day two. This is simply fluid moving through the tissue. She will urinate it all out and lose the bloated feeling within 5 to 7 days.
If she complains of soreness or discomfort in her upper back, it is because she is tensing her shoulders into an unnatural position. Remind her to stretch her shoulders forward and backwards … and relax!
Medication Schedule
We expect her to take one 800mg Ibuprofen at breakfast, one around lunch, and one at bedtime. If she needs additional relief around dinner, she can take 2- 200mg Advil.
She can take Ambien or Benadryl before bedtime for the first 5 days only. This is not mandatory. Ambien is non-habit forming and really helps her get needed rest.
She needs to take all the Ibuprofen prescribed to her. She may choose the number per day, but we would like for her to take them all.
Please call the office sometime during the day and let us know how she is doing.
You can call (317)575-0336 ext 168 and leave a message for the nurses, or
you can call toll-free at (800)345-1962. | 
