Op booked for next month, how bad is the pain in the first week really, and what did you actually get through it on?

So it's happening. Lipo plus gland out both sides, date is in three weeks, deposit paid, and now that it's real the thing I keep circling back to at 1am is not the scars or the money, it's the pain. I have a fairly low threshold for this stuff if I'm honest. Broke a wrist once and was pathetic about it.

The clinic said "some discomfort, manageable with painkillers" which is what they'd say about anything. What I want to know from people who've actually done it: how bad is the first week on a scale of, say, bad hangover to broken bone? Is it worse the first night or a couple of days in? Did you need the strong stuff or were you fine on the basic ones? Which bit hurts, the lipo or where the gland came out? And how many days before you could sit at a desk and function like a person?

Sorry for the pile of questions. Just want to go in knowing roughly what I'm signing up for rather than imagining the worst.

Bad hangover, not broken bone. Honestly. And I say that as someone who was equally dreading it.

First night was weirdly fine because they'd pumped the chest full of local and it hadn't worn off. Day two was my worst day, deep bruised ache across the whole front, like I'd been tackled in the ribs, both sides, plus the vest squeezing it all. Day three a bit better, day four noticeably better, and by about day six I was mainly just stiff and tender when I pressed it. I took the basic painkillers they gave me for about four days and stopped. They'd sent a small pack of something stronger and I used it the first two nights to sleep and that was it.

On which bit hurts: the lipo is a broad soreness everywhere they went with the cannula, the excision is a specific tender lump right under the nipple. You can tell them apart by day three. The drain (I had one, one side) was a tugging annoyance rather than a pain and stopped being anything the second it was out.

Desk at day five for me but I'd have been useless on day two or three. I'd take the full week if you can.

Sleeping was worse than the pain. Flat on your back, propped up, can't turn over, vest on. That's the bit that wore me down, not the ache.

Moderator here, and this was the question I asked about least and worried about most before mine, so I'm glad you've asked it plainly.

The direct answer, and it matches what Ryan said almost to the day: the operation itself you feel nothing of, because you're under a general or heavily sedated with the chest numbed, and it's over in roughly 1 to 2 hours. Afterwards the ordinary picture is a deep, bruised, tight ache across the chest for the first few days, worst on day one or two, easing day by day after that. It tracks the swelling, which is at its worst in the first 2 to 3 weeks and then fades, and desk work is usually realistic at about 1 to 2 weeks. Almost nobody describes it as sharp. What people describe, once they get past the first week, is stiffness and a vest they're sick of. I set the whole arc out in does gynaecomastia surgery hurt, including the bit that surprised me, which is that the pain lasts about a week and the strange sensations last months.

Mine specifically: first night fine, second day the worst, the local wearing off overnight so it arrived like a bruise ripening. Simple painkillers took the edge off; they did nothing for the tightness, which was the vest and the swelling together, and that was the thing I actually found hard. I was at a laptop by day four and wished I'd waited until day seven. What I'd add that nobody told me is that the second month brought electric zaps and a rawness around the nipples as the nerves woke back up, which was more unpleasant than any of the surgical soreness and which is completely normal. Numbness and altered feeling early on are common and usually settle over weeks to months. The weeks after are in recovery week by week.

What I'm not going to do is tell you what to take or how much, because what they send you home with is a prescribing decision for your operation and your medical history, and the surgeon will have a plan for exactly that. Ask them at the pre-op what they expect the first three days to look like and what they'll give you for it. They answer that twenty times a week.

The one thing to carry in your head instead of dread: ordinary soreness gets a bit better every day, on both sides. One side going tight, hard and MORE painful in the first day, or pain that is climbing rather than easing, fever, heat, a wound weeping, is not soreness, it's a same day phone call to the clinic. That's the only pain that matters, and it happens to roughly one in twenty, which is worth knowing about and not worth losing sleep over.

Marcus Ellery said:

the pain lasts about a week and the strange sensations last months

This. I thought I'd got off lightly at week two and then week six turned up with a burning nipple that made a t-shirt feel like sandpaper. Nobody had mentioned it. Would have been a lot less alarmed if I'd read that sentence first.

Practical for Ben: put everything you'll need for a week at chest height or lower. Reaching up is the one movement that genuinely hurt.

Reporting back, day nine. Ryan and Marcus were right down to the day. Night one fine, day two grim, day four turned a corner, and I'm now just stiff and sick of the vest. Basic painkillers only after night two. Lipo soreness is the one that lingers, the gland sites are just tender if I poke them, which I've stopped doing.

Booked the full week off in the end and glad I did, wouldn't have been any use to anyone on day three. Danny's shelf tip was the best advice in the thread, reaching up was the only thing that made me swear. Bracing for the burning nipple stage now that I've been warned.