Top Surgery – Does it hurt?

Several people have asked me about the pain I had from my top surgery. I know that everyone is different as far as pain-tolerance levels, but I consider myself somewhat of a “wimp” when it comes to pain.

BUT – I describe my own pain from surgery like this: Think about stubbing your barefoot toe REALLY hard against a chair leg or something. I’m sure you know how excruciating this feels (especially if you break it, but even if you don’t it feels like you did).

NOW – my surgery pain DID NOT FEEL THIS BAD!!

Yes, it hurt, I can’t say that it didn’t. It was really uncomfortable the first 2 or 3 days. My movements were minimal. As the days went on, it got better, except for where the drains were under my arms. They hurt right up until they were removed at 10 days. But I was still able to get up and get around ok, I just had to be very careful about turning, stooping, reaching, etc.. And sleeping on my back was the pits, so after a few days I did my best to turn partially on one side or the other propped with pillow – but as soon as those drains came out, it wasn’t so bad at all.

The surgeon put a vest on me, and I wore it until the day the drains came out. I had no outer stiches, it was simply “glued”, so no major scars at all. I did have extreme swelling on the right side, and the numbness & tingling/burning took months to disappear from that side.

I was very careful for the first month after surgery to not lift anything (my wife had to do our laundry – she’s used to me doing it, LOL). I couldn’t reach UP for at least 2-3 weeks without feeling it pulling, so I put everything I needed on counters at shoulder level or lower.

But NONE of it was “too much” pain – it hurt, but it wasn’t at all as bad as I had expected. I never used anything but regular Extra Strength Tylenol after leaving the surgical center.

Well, that’s just my own experience.