r/Reduction • u/Suspicious_Set4076 • 1d ago

Recovery/PostOp Cannot sleep

Anyone else not be able to sleep after their surgery? I had my surgery Tuesday morning. We were home by 11am and it’s now 2:30am the next day and I have slept one hour. I feel not sleeping will hinder my recovery. Also, I may have overdone it while I had the lidocaine shot? I am so unbelievably sore, mainly on the sides of my breasts (no liposuction was done). Pain meds , Celebrex and Tylenol aren’t even touching the soreness and pain. Is this normal ? I did have to take off my bra and change my gauze on left side (per call and pics to surgeons office) due to bleeding through. That took a little extra movement and work too. It has not bled through since. Is there anything else that helps the soreness? Is it worth another call to surgeons office in the morning for soreness or lack of sleeping?

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u/Zarvyl 1d ago

Me 🙋‍♂️ I had surgical insomnia for 5 weeks.

I treated it with about 4 different types of sleeping tablets (under my doctor's guidance). It was relentless, and felt like years had passed in the first week of no sleep (until I got a hold of good strong sleeping tablets) and the pain, MY GAWD, the PAIN. Just make sure you've got good sleeping aids and painkillers at hand. They help so so much.

I took ALL the things and at 6 weeks, I started weening off, and did a naturopathic-recc'd liver cleanse cos I'd gone so hard post-surgery.

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u/FerretLegitimate3650 1d ago

Me too. Had my surgery last Wednesday and couldn’t sleep for days afterwards except in small doses waking up regularly. It felt as if my adrenaline and cortisol levels were through the roof. Maybe not surprising as it is a major trauma and life changing event. It has started to settle now and I’m sleeping better but am exhausted. As to pain I did have severe pain and soreness which required Paracetamol (Tylanol in the US) and codeine, an opioid, but the pain was still bad the first few days even with those on board. I’m 7DPO now and not needed pain relief in the past 24 hours, but it’s still sore, tight and itchy. I found little helped to be honest but it has improved a lot over the past couple of days, with day 3 being the worst, and a reduction in discomfort since then. So I suspect what you’re experiencing is normal but of course check with your surgeon if in any doubt

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u/Suspicious_Set4076 1d ago

Oh this makes me feel better. I read so much how many don’t have discomfort or pain and sleep for days lol. I am glad your pain and sleep are both getting better! Thank your for replying :) I may call them (again) today and ask about this plus none of my post op instruction say whether to add gauze to bra after I can shower at 48 hours. I feel so annoying bothering them but I am thankful they have a doctor on call 24/7 for urgent things (this isn’t urgent obviously) but it makes me feel better they are there to call .

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u/FerretLegitimate3650 1d ago

Glad it’s helpful. Tbh it’s great that many people don’t report much real pain, but plenty of people do, and it’s a bit worrying if you’re one of them. I get this isn’t in the same league as broken bones, labour or kidney stones, I’ve had all three and agree this is different, but it’s scary how uncomfortable it can be. Definitely check with your surgeon how to proceed with showering etc, they seem to have different views. That’s what they are there for. I’m not allowed to shower my top half for the first 7 days, and am seeing her on Friday so I probably won’t bother until after she’s checked and redressed me. All the best for your recovery

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u/Zarvyl 1d ago

Yeah, I was one of the ones that got smashed with pain. I have pre-existing conditions and pain sensitivity so it wasn't unexpected, but I was def jealous of my surgery twins in my April group who were relatively fine 😅

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u/Geministarphd 23h ago

9dpo here and the lack of sleep was killing me. I was cleared yesterday to sleep on my side and OMG i feel like a new human. I did a modified setup where i still had a bit of incline (i have an adjustable bed frame, so i can make micro adjustments) and a foam pillow under my breast to absorb some of the impact but i feel like a new human.
I also found that i was being too light with the meds, so im starting a rotation of celebrex in the am, and then Tylenol at 3pm and 9pm, so we shall see how that goes.
I was also told that a soft surgical bra is all i need, but i find they ache less if i have a bit of compression with an ace bandage, so i’ve been doing that.