Preparing for surgery

The weeks before surgery are the best time to plan your lymphatic care. Ask your surgeon when you can start manual lymphatic drainage, buy and try on your compression garment, book your post-op sessions early, and set up your home so rest is easy. Your surgeon's instructions always come first.

Start with your surgeon

Every surgeon has their own protocol, built around your procedure and your health. Before surgery, ask:

• When can I start manual lymphatic drainage?
• Which compression garment should I buy, and when do I switch stages?
• Will I need foam or compression boards?
• Which medications and supplements should I pause beforehand?
• What are my activity and bathing restrictions?

Write the answers down. Post-op brain is real.

Consider a session or two before surgery

We recommend one session 24 to 72 hours before surgery. It clears existing puffiness and calms your nervous system, so you go into surgery rested. It also gives you time to:

• Learn what manual lymphatic drainage feels like before you are sore and swollen
• Let your therapist get to know your body and tissue
• Learn breathing and simple self-care you’ll use afterward
• Settle some of the pre-surgery nerves

Dr. Bruno Chikly describes pre-surgery drainage as a way to prepare the tissue and clear the lymph pathways before post-surgical swelling arrives. It is one of the reasons we like to meet you before surgery day.

Tell us before surgery if you have had lymph nodes removed, have lipedema, or already live with leg or arm swelling. Procedures like arm liposuction or a joint replacement call for a more careful plan in these cases, and a few sessions beforehand can help.

Book post-op sessions now

Post-op appointments fill quickly, especially evenings and weekends. Once you have a surgery date, reserve a tentative series. Most liposuction and facial surgery clients start 5 to 7 days after surgery; tummy tuck clients start a day or two after their drains come out. Send us your surgery date and we’ll map out your sessions, then adjust them to match your surgeon’s plan. Timing for each procedure is in Recovery guides by surgery.

Sort out compression early

Order your garment ahead of time and try it on before surgery. A second one makes laundry days far easier. More in Compression garments.

Set up your nest

• Loose, front-opening clothes. Zippers and buttons, not over-the-head.
• Extra pillows or a wedge for propping and elevating
• Absorbent pads or old towels, especially after liposuction, when some fluid drainage is normal
• A large water bottle with a straw, within reach
• Easy, prepared meals with plenty of protein
• A chair with arms. Getting up off a low couch after abdominal surgery is… humbling.
• Help with children, pets and driving for the first few days

Prepare your body

• Hydrate steadily in the days leading up to surgery.
• Eat well. Protein and colourful whole foods give your tissues what they need to repair.
• Stop smoking and vaping as early as your surgeon advises. Nicotine restricts blood flow and slows healing.
• Keep walking. Daily walks now make those first post-op walks easier.
• Practise belly breathing. It becomes your main recovery tool. We teach it in At-home lymphatic health.

Prepare your expectations

You will swell. Probably more than you expect, and probably unevenly. That isn’t a sign something went wrong; it is a sign your body is healing. Try not to judge your results in the first weeks.

The clients who find recovery easiest aren’t always the ones with the simplest procedures. They’re the ones who knew what to expect. Preparation is a kindness to your future self.

Meeghan Mackenzie, RMT, CLT

Page reviewed September 27, 2026 by Meeghan Mackenzie, RMT, CLT