Breast Reduction: Stories

I have been large breasted since highschool and it has always been something that I disliked about my body. I consider myself very active and enjoy exercising, running, and playing sports. However, I don't like having to wear two sports bras to do it. After a while I began considering a breast reduction, but people always seemed to talk me out of it, until recently. I decided I was tired of having constant neck aches and head aches. I spent some time seeking a doctor that I liked, it ended up taking almost a YEAR just to have a consultation with him. But after meeting him I knew he was the doctor I wanted. I also had two friends see the same doctor and they had amazing results.

After my conultation in August, I heard good news in September that my surgery was be approved by OHIP! I Would only have to pay $1200 for lipo on the sides of my breasts. The bad news was.... Dr. Grace was already scheduling into 2013, and I would not recieve my surgery until September 2013. Needless to say, I was dissapointed.

I ust recieved a call 3 days ago that there was a cancellation and I could have my surgery NEXT WEEK!! Of course I said yes! I have spent the last three days getting everything in order. My work was amazing on giving me time off with such short notice, and I have been going out buying the things I need and scheduling all of the pre-op appointments!

I CAN'T WAIT! .. I already bought a new dress to wear for the christmas holidays that will fit my new boobies!!!

I will post better before pictures ASAP.

I picked up my post-op bra today! Only cost me $50.. I was expecting it to be more, so that worked out well! It's not the nicest looking thing, but who cares if it makes my boobs look better right?

Only 4 more sleeps to go!!

Just got home from appointments all day. Had a physical at my doctors and then had a pre-op at the hospital. They did some paperwork and blood work. I have to take out all of my piercings for surgery which I'm not surprised about but I have one piercing in my ear I was hoping I could leave in because its hard to take out and it might not go back in afterwards.

Only 2 more sleeps to go!! I have to be at the hospital for noon and my surgery is at 2:00pm. They say it should only be an hour and a half and I should expect to head home around 5:00pm if all goes as planned! :)

Well... it's getting close!!

Today was super busy putting the finishing touches on everything at work to make sure everything was in order while I was away! ( I am hoping to be back to work in a week, but we will see! )

I just finished doing some last minute cleaning so everything is nice and clean when I return home to recover tomorrow! I can't believe how fast everything has happened!!

I havn't felt nervous at all!! I am more excited than anything!! I am planning to go have some food around 11:00 because I can't eat or drink after midnight!! I Will be a hungry hippo by the time I am out of surgery tomorrow. I am hoping that all of the excitement of surgery will make me forget about my hunger!!

I hope everyone on the recovery side is doing well!! I will be in the same boat this time tomorrow! :) Also, Good luck to all of the other ladies whose date is tomorrow!!

well... today is the day.. I had some crazy food dreams last night.. I kept dreaming that I was eating and I would wake in up in a panic because I knew I wasn't supposed to be eating and I thought my surgery would be cancelled!

I just woke up and now I am waiting for my boyfriend to get here on the train so we can head to the hospital. Feeling a little nervous today, for the first time during this whole experience. I am worried that they won't look the way I imagine or that having smaller boobs will make the rest of me look fatter or something? I'm sure these are all normal feelings. My boyfriend has been great at encouraging me and keeping myself in perspective. I just hope I am making the right decision! I keep looking in the mirror and at old pictures and thinking "they aren't really that big" but then I have to remember all of the pain that comes along with them.

Only 2 more hours until I will be at the hospital! I will update as soon as I can! :)

Hi everyone!

On the recovery side now. The hospital experience wasnt too bad. I arrived at noon and they called me in around 1:00 to get the IV started. Met with some nurses and dr's and next thing I knew I was in the OR. My surgeon asked me again what size I wanted to be and I said a small D or a big C but he said in the end I will most likely be a full D or Maybe a small DD but he would try to go as small as he could, and I am okay with that.

After the surgery In recovery was about an hour. I remember waking up and my throat was extremely sore so they gave me an orange Popsicle which was the most delicious Popsicle I've ever had. At around 7:00! They attempted to send me home. They wheeled me down to the waiting car but I fainted a few times and could not get in the car so they took me back upstairs and gave me some food and let me rest a while longer. The food really helped!!

I am home now and slept through the night pretty well besides waking up a few times to pee! And I have a home care nurse coming today to check my drains ( I was hoping I wouldn't need them, but oh well)

I am experiencing more pain today than I did yesterday, but I have yet to take any pain meds. I think I might take a half of one soon.

I will post more pictures as soon as I am able and feel up to it!

Feeling much better today - day 3 of recovery. I have been feeling much better everyday. I have had a home care nurse coming in to change my dressings and monitor my drains. She says that everything appears to be healing well and there are no concerns! She is hoping to remove the drains after this weekend.
I havnt really looked at them without my bra yet. Just sneaking a few peeks when the dressings are being changed. There has been minimal bruising so far. My left boob is kind of a funny shape right now and seems to be draining more than the right one. I'm sure it's just healing.

Dr. Told me that he removed 403grams from the right boob and 406grams from the left. Not much, but so far I am happy with the size :) anything is better than what they were!

I hope everyone else is recovering well!

Well. It's day 4 and I'm still feeling good. I am still experiencing a little more pain and draining on my left side. I'm hoping its nothing to worry about.

The home care nurse should be coming in 30 minutes and maybe removing my drains today which I'm a little nervous about. I just took a pain pill in case they do come out.

I still havnt showered yet and I feel yucky, but my dads girlfriend washed my hair for me last night which felt great! I can't wait to take a real shower!!

Once my drains come out I will try to take some better pictures!

Drains are out! It wasn't as painful as I was expecting! Just a little pinchy. I feel so much better already without them in!! :)

Kind of being a worry wart over here. The home care nurse that came today removed some of my steri strips when he removed my drains. I didn't think much of it at the time because I assumed he knew what he was doing. But after doing some reading I'm kid of worried now that they might split or I will pull the stitches while I'm sleeping or something!

I'm going to call my surgeon in the morning. Just feeling a bit of anxiety over here.

Home care nurse just left again. He came by to change my dressings. I talked to him about the steri strips and he said he would put some more on if it made me more comfortable. But he looked at my incisions and said tht everything's looks great. He said they and nice and tight and there are no signs of infection.

Well. It's been one week and I am feeling pretty good overall. I see my surgeon tomorrow for my one week follow up. And I intend on heading back to work afterwards. I have more time if I need it. But I am feeling good and I have been out and about. I am only feeling pain where the liposuction was and even then it's only painful on my left side. But nothing too bad :)

The girls are looking great and I barely had any bruising, but the little I did have is pretty much gone now too. Now I just need the incisions to heal up! Haha

I had my one week follow up today! Surgeon said that everything looked great and I was healing extremely well! He said I can go back to showering as normal (which is exciting!) and I even went back to work today!! I am feeling a little sore from a lot of driving, but overall I feel pretty damn good!! Got some nice compliments at work and I just generally felt better about myself!

I will try to post some new pics soon!

This morning I had myself a little bikini fashion show and I must say that I am extremely happy and excited! I just can't wait for bikini season now! Once I get back to the gym I'm sure I will be even more excited!

Feeling quite tired today, this whole sleeping while propped up thing is really affecting my sleep habits. I think I'll just lounge in bed all day!

Well.. today is day 12 and everything is AMAZING!! I think that I have been really lucky throughout this whole process. I am back to work already (after 8 days) and I have almost no pain, sometimes just a few "zingers" as the ladies call them, and where my lipo suction was gets a little sore sometimes, but it's barely anything. My incisions appear to be healing well and I am SO happy with the size and shape so far as well! I just can't wait to get these steri strips off and have a real look at them! :) I hope everyone else is recovering well, and I wish everyone out there the same luck and easyness as me!

I am seeing my surgeon on Thursday again for a 2 week follow up. I will post some new pictures as soon as the steri strips come off!! :)

I had my two week post op appointment yesterday and everything was good! My surgeon gave me the okay to start using bio oil or vitamin E cream so I went and picked some up yesterday and I must say... No more itchiness!!! Which is the best feeling!! I don't have to go back and see him now for 6 weeks :) and one more week until I can get back to the gym!

So far so good, except I want the steri strips off!! They are sticking real good!

I had my two week post op appointment yesterday and everything was good! My surgeon gave me the okay to start using bio oil or vitamin E cream so I went and picked some up yesterday and I must say... No more itchiness!!! Which is the best feeling!! I don't have to go back and see him now for 6 weeks :) and one more week until I can get back to the gym!

So far so good, except I want the steri strips off!! They are sticking real good!

Well. Some of the steri strips came off today. But I ended up putting a few more one because it started bleeding where they came off and I wanted to hold the skin together for healing/scar reasons.

Well, I think today has been the worst day of recovery so far. I went out with some friends for the first time last night. Nothing too extravagant but clearly it was too much. I am feeling some pain on my left side last night and today. It's right in the corner of my incision and I am hoping it goes away soon! It isn't unbearable and I havnt taken any pain meds for it, but I have been spending the day resting today.

Well, it's been three weeks today and everything is still going pretty well. I have a few places where some stitches are sticking out, and I am wondering if they will go away on their own and heal up? or do I have to go see my surgeon for him to cut them off? I also noticed that I have a little bit of a hole under my nipple, I am trying to just keep calm and I put some tape over it to hold it together, so now I'm just hoping that it's normal and it won't heal all crazy and leave a big scar. I think since everything has gone so well so far that the smallest things are making me panic now. My surgeon said that I could go back to the gym after 3 three weeks, but I don't think I am ready yet as I am still having a little bit of pain sometimes, like going up/down the stairs too fast. So I think I will give it a bit more time. I don't go back to see my surgeon until January 7th, which will be two months post op!

Well it's been 26 days now and there isn't much to report. Everything is still healing well and I have stopped worrying about everything, I'm just going to relax and let my body do its thing.

I have found myself sleeping on my sides and even my stomach once or twice, so that's a good sign!

I think I will try heading back to the gym this week. I even bought a new sports bra that actually fits!! And I only had to pay $8. How exciting is that?!

I hope everyone else is healing well!

Well. Today was my second day back at the gym and I have to admit that it feels awesome to get moving again!! Such a huge difference while working out to not have such a huge pain on my shoulders and neck. My scabs are continuing to fall off and I have been massaging my scars with bio oil. I have also been sleeping on my sides and my tummy! I havnt been experiencing any pain or discomfort and they are starting to take on a real boob shape now! I feel like I've had these boobs for years!

I can't wait to go buy some nice pretty bras, lingere and bikinis!!! I've been using my new sports bra at the gym and its great! Snapped a few pics in it today!

Well I went out tonight and wore a real bra for the first time. I bought a new dress that wouldn't accommodate my post op bra haha so I put on one of my old strapless DD's and it was a bit big, but much better than before surgery haha. I can actually wear a strapless bra now!!!! So exciting! Tomorrow (the 12th) is my 5 week anniversary and I plan to take some new pictures to document the scarring and all that jazz. But for now, I've posted a few with my strapless bra and the dress that I wouldn't/couldn't have worn before surgery!!

Yoga and cardio workout in the AM, prepping for all the bikini shopping I plan to do!!

Five weeks today and I still have some steri strips stuck on there!! Just finished yoga and cardio and it all felt great! Posted some new pics without bra!

Well. 6 weeks tomorrow! Time really flies! I just posted some new 6 week photos. Not much more to report other than easing back Ito the gym is going very well! I bought myself some new workout shirts that my boobs actually fit into haha. I have an 8 week follow up appointment with my surgeon in the new year! The only thing I really want to do is get in the hottub but i can't yet because I still have a few small scabs!!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! Enjoy your new boobs for Christmas and wishing everyone a happy recovery!!