I can't believe I AM implant free. - Beverly Hills, CA

I am 46 years old and I have spent half my life raising my 4 children. Now, 2 of them are away in college and the other 2 are not far behind them. I feel that it's time to work on my appearance and pursue my dreams before getting much older. I feel that by fixing my appearance, I'll have the confidence to go after my personal goals with gusto and have a better chance at making them come true. Maybe I'm just a dreamer... but I've got to try. I only live once.

I am and always have been, very insecure about my appearance. At 24, after having breastfed my first two children, I got my first set of implants. I went from 32AA to 34C. They looked great, no visible scars - just very pretty. However, since the implants were placed above muscle, the rippling of the implant shell began showing on my chest. So, at 29, I got my second pair, together with liposuction of the abdomen. The results were not good. Scars, dimples, asymmetry, complications, the works! I don't even want to go into details. It was bad. My crime, insecurity. My punishment, ugly... and I'm reminded of it every time I look in the mirror. No CC or rupture though, thank goodness.

I started perusing this site researching the latest liposuction, breast revision, explantation, breast lift, facelift, and neck lift procedures. Not looking to make changes to my look, just wanting a more youthful appearance. I had consultations with several PSs all over CA. For the breasts, I've been mulling over whether to explant or replace - all the doctors suggesting replace, of course. I definitely want to explant for health reasons but, at the same time, I want to keep my curvy silhouette - at least for a few more years while I'm still young looking. So now, I'm leaning more towards replacing and then, explanting in 2-3 years. And it's not because I don't like the results of the other women who have explanted. In fact, I actually think they look great au naturel. I love the way women look with natural breasts - small, big, low, high. It's all good! However, I am just not confident that I'll have such luck and look as well. I still may explant because I sooo want soft breasts that are just me and only me. I know that bad results in facelifts and liposuction are common too, I did months of research and I'm pretty confident with the PS I found. He does amazingly natural looking facelifts (hope so in my case, as well). As for the lipo, my mid-section looks bad already from age, weight gain, and oh, the botched lipo, too. I don't expect that I'll be wearing a lot of bikinis but I do expect to get a more defined waist so I'll look better in clothes. I have a second consultation with my doctor scheduled for October 16th, which is when I'll give him my final decisions on exactly what procedures he will be performing on me. My surgery is tentatively scheduled for October 29th.

Maybe I'll post before pictures - maybe.