Day 5 in the compression garment. How do you tell "supportive" from "too tight", and when can you take it off long enough to wash it?

Day 5 post full tummy tuck and I have questions about this garment that the discharge sheet does not answer. It says wear it 24 hours a day for six weeks and wash it regularly, which are two instructions that appear to contradict each other unless everyone owns two of these things and nobody told me.

Second thing. Is it supposed to feel like this? It is firm to the point where after a few hours upright I get a numb, pins-and-needles patch on the front of one thigh, and there is a ridge at the top edge that digs in under my ribs when I sit. It is not painful exactly, more like being permanently hugged by someone who does not know their own strength. I have no reference point for what correct feels like.

And a slightly embarrassing one. Getting it back on after the loo, one handed, bent over, is a two person job at the moment. Does that get easier or do I need a system?

Two garments. That is the answer to the first bit and it is the single best thing I bought. Wash one, wear one, they dry overnight. Nobody tells you and it costs about as much as a takeaway.

The pins and needles patch on your thigh is worth mentioning to your team rather than pushing through, that one is not the same category as a garment that just feels firm. Mine dug in under the ribs at the top edge too and the fix was rolling a soft flannel along the seam, but the thigh thing sounds more like something pressing where it should not be.

For getting it back on: I sat on the edge of the bed, pulled it to my knees, then stood and shimmied rather than bending. Bending to yank it up was what hurt. By about week two I could do the whole thing alone without thinking about it.

Taking the general question first, because it is a good one and it comes up in this section constantly. A post-abdominoplasty garment is meant to give firm, even support across the whole area it covers: enough that it holds the tissues steady and discourages fluid gathering, not so much that it leaves deep grooves, creates new numb areas, or makes you breathless. Firm and slightly tedious is the target. Sharply painful, or numbness in a new distribution such as the front of a thigh, is not, and that is a call to your surgical team rather than something to adjust yourself.

On the practical points, most teams do allow the garment off for a shower and to change into a clean one, and the great majority of readers here manage the wash cycle with a second garment. I would still follow your own team's instructions on the exact wearing schedule, because practice varies and some techniques are managed differently. Roughly six weeks of wear is the usual framing, and the site's guide sets out why and for how long: the tummy tuck compression garment. What I would not do is loosen or size up on the basis of a forum consensus, since the fit was chosen for what was done to you.

Seconding the two-garment thing and adding: get the second one in the size your team fitted you in, not a size up because the first felt tight. I did exactly that at week two, wore the roomier one for four days, and my evenings were noticeably more swollen. Went back to the proper size and it settled again. That may just be me, but it cured me of thinking I knew better than the fitting.

Rang the team about the thigh numbness and they had me come in. Verdict was the garment sitting slightly wrong at the leg opening rather than anything internal, they adjusted how it sits and gave me a different size for the lower half. Numb patch gone within a day. Very glad I did not just put up with it for six weeks. Second garment ordered, shimmy technique adopted, ribs flanneled.