People often worry about how sore they’re going to be after an operation, and it’s a very difficult question to answer because it’s so variable. My husband has a friend who was in agony for months after a nose job, whereas for most people it’s essentially a painless procedure. We all understand what is meant by a ‘stabbing’ pain – I guess because we’ve all cut ourselves at some time or another – but actually people who have been stabbed say it feels more like a strong punch (Is that actually true or just an old wives tale? Although I don’t know why any bunch of old wives would sit around drinking tea and talking about their fight wounds “Remember the time that ninja got me in the head with those nunchucks? That stung right enough”).
The pain from liposuction is different again. We are lucky to live in a civilized country where any big liposuction gets done in a real hospital under a general anaesthetic. In the USA those cowboys just do it in their offices with light sedation if you’re lucky. The mortality is outrageous. People wake up here in their tight post op garments and we give them the analgesia they need, but still they often complain over the following days that it feels like they’ve been hit by a bus. Although, strangely, people more recently have been saying it feels like they’ve been in a plane crash. The surgeon I work with has heard this so often recently that he asked the last patient how did she know? Had she ever actually been in a plane crash? And it turned out that in fact she had. So she must be pretty uniquely qualified to make that comparison. I imagine the Venn diagram of people who have survived a plane crash and those who’ve had extensive liposuction must have a fairly small overlap. So, fair play to her and I think I’d be safe to say to any future patients that being in a plane crash would be a reasonable comparison. Helpful?