Soo.. how long did you wear the surgical binder after top surgery (please specify peri or DI)? I know the #1 response to this is 'follow your surgeon's instructions.' My instruction sheet said to definitely wear the binder for 10 days post-op. After that, it seemed to indicate 'as long as needed.' At 10 days, my chest still got sore when it wasn't bound, so I kept binding. At a little over 1 month post op, my chest has recently started to feel OK even when the binder has been off for a few hours. However, it's still a bit, I dunno, tender. It doesn't like to be jostled around (not that there's really enough to jostle) or bumped. It's worse on the side that had more post-op swelling; there's still a tiny bit of swelling that needs to go down.
I'm planning on just going the safe route and wearing the binder until the minor swelling has gone away. It's gotten a lot better in the past few weeks and is almost gone, and I'm worried that going binder-less 24/7 would slow down the process or even make it worse. I don't think the swelling is anything that needs to be brought to the surgeon's attention. It's very slight--not visible in photos, though I can feel the hard spots that are slowly shrinking.
