Benefits of Lymphatic Drainage after Surgery:
- reduces swelling
- improves overall physical health
- relaxing
- enhance circulation
- carries white blood cells and protein to blood
- eliminate toxins
- promotes healing in incision
Liposuction removes unwanted fat cells in the body. Using liposuction to remove fat damages blood and lymphatic vessels, while also destroying fascia and blood cells. This causes blood and lymph to accumulate and creates a pooling of fluid in the area, which results in pain and swelling. So, while you don't have to spend months dieting and hours on hours in the gym, the procedure will cause trauma in the body. Combining the use of compression garments and lymphatic massage will really help aid in post- op swelling.
Lymphatic drainage helps stimulate the flow of fluid which relieves swelling. Toxins and stagnant fluid are manually moved away from the site of the surgery and towards the lymph nodes. There are a few places in the body where lymph nodes are found in groups. That is near your armpit, neck, and groin area.
The post- surgical healing process is different for everyone because of many factors including: the type of liposuction performed, overall physical health, age, smoking habits, and sometimes complications. Well known plastic surgeon, Dr. Wolf suggest starting lymphatic massages as soon as the day after surgery. The amount of sessions after that depends on the location of the body and how much liposuction was performed. For the arms, he suggests 1-3 sessions over a 2 week period. For the thighs, 3-5 sessions within 2 weeks. For the abdomen or if you were to get multiple body parts treated, he suggests 5 or more sessions over a 2 week period. He also says that having as many sessions as possible will optimize your results.
During a lymphatic drainage session, the massage therapist uses extremely light pressure and guides the fluid to the lymph nodes closest to that area and towards the heart. It is painless and should be extremely relaxing! Communicate with the massage therapist and let them know if you have any discomfort so that they can adjust make it a good and healing experience for you. At the clinic we are fully stocked with herbs that will help your body heal post surgery as well. They are available for purchase at your appointment or online.
If you have any questions or would like to schedule a lymphatic drainage massage you can call the Starsiak Osteopathic Clinic at 317-410-9978 or send us an email at [email protected].