POSTED UNDER Body Lift REVIEWS
Is That Me??! Lower Body Lift with Vertical Incision, Breast Lift Without Implants - Australia, AU
ORIGINAL POST
I found reviews and personal stories on this site...
blfmSeptember 23, 2013
WORTH IT$31,500
I found reviews and personal stories on this site to be instrumental to my decision making, so I am taking a deep breath and adding mine! Please bear with me whilst I ramble through my story. I am 11 days post op currently.
I am 5'3'' and my highest weight was 229 pounds. I've lost weight down to 128 pounds with the help of a gastric sleeve, and my BMI has gone from 40.6 to 22.6.
Thanks to a long history of yoyo dieting, my breasts started heading south when I was only in my teens. It didn't help that I was up to a 42H whilst breastfeeding. Post weight loss I was down to a very deflated 34C/D that was mostly skin. Got to love folding your breasts into a bra :S .
I always had it in my head that I would have a breast lift ‘someday’. With my weight sorted, I booked in with a plastic surgeon on somewhat of a whim for what I expected to be just an opinion. The results were a little different to what I had expected.
Firstly, now I had taken that first step, I was suddenly full steam ahead rather than just on a fact finding mission. My surgeon had all the right qualifications, was absolutely lovely, and I trusted him implicitly right away. Being highly recommended by my bariatric surgeon (and familiar with massive weight loss patients, our plastic surgeries are a bit different) was the clinching factor, and I didn’t feel the need to consult with anyone else. He was very expensive, but when my husband and I looked at our finances, we realised we could *just* swing it.
Secondly, the surgeon suggested much more extensive surgery than I had expected. I figured salvaging whatever he could of my residual breast tissue plus a tummy tuck thrown in was what I was looking for. Certainly he agreed about my breasts, but he suggested a lower body lift with an incision the whole way around. Not only that, but a vertical incision also. My head was spinning a little, as I’ve been so distracted by my breasts for so many years that I really didn’t pay the rest of my body much attention. Sure, I knew I had a bit of a saggy tummy, but for where I had started from I thought I had fared reasonably well.
From my perspective, no matter what the surgeon did for my breasts, it would be a huge improvement. I didn’t give that part a second thought. Oddly enough though, I agonised over the lower body lift. Some of the before and after pictures I saw online were incredible, others were a little... masculine. As bizarre as it sounds, I have lived my life knowing I have an abundance of curves, and at my reduced weight, I was cutting a reasonable shape in clothes. Suddenly I was worried that was going to disappear and that I was risking being left unhappy with an androgenous body shape. I also flip flopped back and forth about the vertical incision, as I really hadn’t thought I was that ‘bad’ and information on it was harder to come by.
Over a few months with lots of trawling of the internet and the aid of my very patient surgeon, I decided to go the whole hog. I look back now and marvel at how diplomatic my surgeon was, he could be well and truly forgiven for looking at my body and thinking I was crazy to have any doubts! Lower body lifts were created exactly for bodies like mine, with laxity at the rear as well as the front. Plus despite my concerns regarding scars, it was ultimately a nice body shape that I wanted.
So I did it. I am now 11 days post op. I did have some mercifully brief complications early on but thankfully they appear to be behind me now.
As to the results... I am THRILLED!! I can’t believe I get to keep this body!! I was very conservative in my expectations, perfection was not the goal blah blah blah but holy smokes am I happy!
I’ll try to sort myself out to add pictures, I kind of feel like I owe it given how useful others were to me. I also have to say that Shine Bright Like a Diamond‘s step by step review helped me enormously, including to keep focus during some particularly rough days.
So, that’s my story. I might add more details later and I'll try to get up my courage to add pictures.
Thanks to everyone who has shared on this forum, I have found it immensely helpful :) .
I am 5'3'' and my highest weight was 229 pounds. I've lost weight down to 128 pounds with the help of a gastric sleeve, and my BMI has gone from 40.6 to 22.6.
Thanks to a long history of yoyo dieting, my breasts started heading south when I was only in my teens. It didn't help that I was up to a 42H whilst breastfeeding. Post weight loss I was down to a very deflated 34C/D that was mostly skin. Got to love folding your breasts into a bra :S .
I always had it in my head that I would have a breast lift ‘someday’. With my weight sorted, I booked in with a plastic surgeon on somewhat of a whim for what I expected to be just an opinion. The results were a little different to what I had expected.
Firstly, now I had taken that first step, I was suddenly full steam ahead rather than just on a fact finding mission. My surgeon had all the right qualifications, was absolutely lovely, and I trusted him implicitly right away. Being highly recommended by my bariatric surgeon (and familiar with massive weight loss patients, our plastic surgeries are a bit different) was the clinching factor, and I didn’t feel the need to consult with anyone else. He was very expensive, but when my husband and I looked at our finances, we realised we could *just* swing it.
Secondly, the surgeon suggested much more extensive surgery than I had expected. I figured salvaging whatever he could of my residual breast tissue plus a tummy tuck thrown in was what I was looking for. Certainly he agreed about my breasts, but he suggested a lower body lift with an incision the whole way around. Not only that, but a vertical incision also. My head was spinning a little, as I’ve been so distracted by my breasts for so many years that I really didn’t pay the rest of my body much attention. Sure, I knew I had a bit of a saggy tummy, but for where I had started from I thought I had fared reasonably well.
From my perspective, no matter what the surgeon did for my breasts, it would be a huge improvement. I didn’t give that part a second thought. Oddly enough though, I agonised over the lower body lift. Some of the before and after pictures I saw online were incredible, others were a little... masculine. As bizarre as it sounds, I have lived my life knowing I have an abundance of curves, and at my reduced weight, I was cutting a reasonable shape in clothes. Suddenly I was worried that was going to disappear and that I was risking being left unhappy with an androgenous body shape. I also flip flopped back and forth about the vertical incision, as I really hadn’t thought I was that ‘bad’ and information on it was harder to come by.
Over a few months with lots of trawling of the internet and the aid of my very patient surgeon, I decided to go the whole hog. I look back now and marvel at how diplomatic my surgeon was, he could be well and truly forgiven for looking at my body and thinking I was crazy to have any doubts! Lower body lifts were created exactly for bodies like mine, with laxity at the rear as well as the front. Plus despite my concerns regarding scars, it was ultimately a nice body shape that I wanted.
So I did it. I am now 11 days post op. I did have some mercifully brief complications early on but thankfully they appear to be behind me now.
As to the results... I am THRILLED!! I can’t believe I get to keep this body!! I was very conservative in my expectations, perfection was not the goal blah blah blah but holy smokes am I happy!
I’ll try to sort myself out to add pictures, I kind of feel like I owe it given how useful others were to me. I also have to say that Shine Bright Like a Diamond‘s step by step review helped me enormously, including to keep focus during some particularly rough days.
So, that’s my story. I might add more details later and I'll try to get up my courage to add pictures.
Thanks to everyone who has shared on this forum, I have found it immensely helpful :) .
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