So as always, right after surgery, we will watch you in the operating room for a few minutes until you’re breathing normally on your own, and then we transport you to the recovery room for observation. We watch you for another one to two hours after that before we let you go home, and we’re looking at your blood pressure and your heart rate to make sure that those are stable. We want to make sure that you’re not experiencing any severe pain. Mild pain is normal, and we’ll give you pain medication for that. You should be able to tolerate food and water before you go. And also before you go, we’ll place a surgical bra for support. When you go home, take a nap for two to three hours. And then after you wake up, eat something solid, take pain medication if you need it, and then you can get into a warm shower if you’d like. Your breasts will initially appear to be deflated right after the surgery. It’ll look like something’s been taken out and you have a lot of extra skin. This is really typical right after implant removal.

One week after surgery, we do a quick visit to just check your incisions and trim any sutures that may be extruding. We recommend that you continue a surgical bra for support at this time.

By two weeks after surgery, you can return to all of your normal activities, including exercise. I always recommend that you start out with gentle, controlled motion and then work back to your regular routine. You can resume all medications at this time, including any anti-inflammatory medications such as Advil or Aleve. Heavy lifting as tolerated is permitted. And once again, we recommend a soft, supported bra. You probably don’t need a surgical bra at this point.

By six weeks after surgery, all your swelling has resolved, and your breast skin is usually rebounded. Now, in my training, I was always taught that the breasts would stay permanently deflated-looking. However, in practice, I’ve noticed that 100% of patients will have some rebound of their tissue. Obviously, the younger you are, the more rebound you’re going to have, but even when I take out implants in women who are in their 70s, there is still some decent rebound of the tissue, so most patients are very pleasantly surprised by this.

By six weeks after surgery, there’s no limitation on your activity, and you can wear any garments that you’d like. So that’s it. It’s a quite short video because recovery after breast implant removal is fairly straightforward.