Up to week 2 I could not push myself up with my arms to get out of bed and had to use my core, but now at one month I feel about 80% free of the pain Raising my arms even to shoulder height used to be hard, and now I can get almost all the way up to a full raise..? (Only people who have been through it know how big a change that is) Now that the pain has eased I am starting to worry about the scars, and I am hoping they fade soon! The swelling has gone down quite a lot too, so my arms really are much slimmer I am waiting for more of the swelling to go down and I am going to work hard on scar care!