One of the things I ask people in a pre-operative visit is, “Who will take care of you?”

Then I add, “You want to have somebody who’s really going to take care of you, who won’t say to you when you first get home: ‘What the heck did you do that for?'”

Get somebody who’s going to be really supportive and caring and who will be warm, because you’re really going to need that.

The emotional stages the patient is going through affect the caretaker too. At the end of the first week the support person may be tired and need to go back to work.

Cosmetic Surgery affects each person differently. The most common reaction is to be depressed on the third or fourth day. However, some patients say, “Well, not me. I don’t feel depressed.” But three weeks later, they may have a crying jag while driving to work.

Sometimes near the end of the second week they’ve begun to feel good. And there’s a day in there when they realize that they look magnificent.

Patients experience feedback, both positive and negative. Some people tell me that they’re a bit irritated because people are now paying them more attention than they did before. And I say to them, “Isn’t that why you had the surgery? Because you wanted to be more attractive?”

And they reply, “Yes, but why didn’t they like me the way I was?”

But eventually people start to really enjoy the extra attention.

Recovery from cosmetic surgery for most people follows a necessary and predictable course. Dr. Nichter believes that being knowledgeable about the normal recovery process will reassure you and make it less stressful. These transient emotional and physical reactions to cosmetic surgery will pass easily when you are prepared about what to expect. The last part of the recovery process is the fun part—get ready for all the compliments!