Quote from: MiaOhMya! on June 20, 2012, 03:01:18 PM
The Zukowski FFS DVD kit, while very informative, was also effing scary and put me off a bit. You shoulda heard me and my bf watching it...you'd have thought we were wathching "wildest police videos" because we were "OHHH!" "AHH!!" "OUCH!" "OMG THAT HAD TO ******* HURT!". Many expletives! 
Shannon and I found the DVD to be incredibly boring. He would say the same thing OVER AND OVER. I understand he was stressing the point, but I'd guess most of us are going to do everything he asks because after spending that much you want it to turn out as close to perfect as possible.
Quote from: JenJen2011 on June 21, 2012, 09:29:11 AM
It is important to rest as much as you can and to have someone be there to help you, preferably an experienced nurse.
+1000! I personally used Lisa's service. She did the bulk of the work and one of her employees did a few days. Both were amazing and incredibly helpful. Actually take their advice too. They done it over and over and even if something sounds weird, try it.
Quote from: JenJen2011 on June 21, 2012, 09:29:11 AM
Sleeping was difficult and very uncomfortable. You have to stay on your back and at a 45 degree angle for a few weeks.
And this is very true.... The first night of course is no problem because of the left over anesthesia, but that next night it is hard to get used to the position required and won't have a back ache as bad. Eventually you will find a good way to sleep, but it is just so awkward.
As far as pain goes, as Jen Jen said it is different for everyone. I didn't have excessive pain as long as I took my meds when I was supposed to. Don't try to be a hero. Take them on the recommended schedule. You aren't going to get addicted for the amount of time he has them recommended.
For me prior to the surgery
10 = kidney stones
90+% of the time my pain was at a 4-6 level on that scale and rarely even a 6.
Now injecting fat grafts while awake? On my old scale of 1-10 with kidney stones being the highest, it was a 20+. Now I'm not sure how much of that is really from pain and how much was from the MEGA anxiety attack I had during it (even though I had a benzo in my system ahead of time).
I recently had an infection of some sort (2-3 months ago) and hit around 8.5-9 while my fever was 103. So it isn't that I can't feel pain, I just got lucky or the pain killers work really well for me because honestly I don't know that I even hit 7 after FFS from just normal movements.
The massage will hurt, but it is temporary so I never really tried to grade it.