Breast Reduction: Stories

I am having surgery on May 23 and it has been hell to get there. I first applied in April 2011 and was rescheduled and denied the day before surgery in August 2011. I tried again and have finally been approved but only because of the severe pain I am in. I am 36, have been pregnant 4 times and breastfed 2 children. I am having 1500 grams removed total and hope to be a C cup when I am done.But am working hard to lose weight as quickly as I can before the big day. I understand about being nervous, as I get more so by the day. On top of all this, I am 2 1/2 - 3 hours from the doctor's office in Pittsburgh, but that is the closest doctor for this surgery.

Surgery at May 25th was cancelled because my cat scratched me the night before and Dr. S is a perfectionist. He refused. It was then rescheduled for July 17th, the nearest opening, but then someone cancelled and they did my surgery on June 13th. Today is exactly one week postop and I am doing great. I refuse to lift anything and am making my kids do most of the work in the house. My incisions are releasing the hold on the glue, as is natural at this point, and the bruises are starting to fade. I feel like a million bucks and the best advice I could give right now is to listen to your body. Don't stretch or expend too much energy and let people do things for you.

22 days post op and doing OK. I am still a little sore when resting and after a long day, the girls are really sore. I was cleared to go back to work on Tuesday. With Wednesday as a holiday and court today for child support, I worked 2 days this week. If you have a lot of movement or walking in your job, I would not recommend going back this soon. My incisions were burning an the heels on my work shoes made me bounce too much after 3 weeks or sneakers and sandals. I finally put my foot down on Thursday and refused to leave my classroom except for lunch! I felt so much better on Thursday than Tuesday after that and wearing sneakers to work helped, too.

I also learned this morning not to pick at your scabs, no matter how much is hanging, as I had about an inch long scab falling from the length of the incision. I tugged a little and should have gotten a pair of scissors. It stared bleeding and I had to get out the gauze again. Live and learn.

I stole a water balloon from the kids and hid it down my bra, intending on throwing at an unsuspecting child. Low and behold! Cold water balloons are wonderful! They feel awesome on my poor abused boobs and lowered the body temp enough that I'm not sweating, either.

I love odd discoveries.

Went to work today and felt MUCH better today than I did last week! Last week was 3 weeks on Wednesday and I was so miserable, tired, sore and my incisions burned when I got home. My classroom is definitely too far from the car to walk that soon after surgery. We measured it with a pedometer one day and it was almost a mile. I wised up and wore comfy shoes, a pair of capris and an over-sized blouse with an extremely supportive bra. I gave myself extra time to move from place to place and lifted NOTHING! This week was so much better work wise.

On the down side, my incisions seem to be peeling back a bit from the center and curling at that point. The PS is 2 1/2 hours away and he told me to put bactracin on them but they are really worrying me, so I "sealed them together a bit with liquid skin adhesive and they feel so much better. I will wait a few more days before deciding if this was a good idea or not, but I can't imagine that it wasn't since this is how they covered the dis-solvable stitches after surgery.

Today is July 16th and I am getting really frustrated with the amount of time this is taking to close the holes and gaps in my incisions. On the upside, they are doing much better than they were last week, but only because I am using a combination of butterfly stitches, neosporin, the liquid adhesive and tape. My daughter checks them every morning and evening because I can't see them myself.... Thank God for cell phone cameras! Basically, I am lying on the bed braless or with the edges rolled up my chest while the neosporin dries and then I have the butterfly stitches holding everything closed with the tape holding the sticky parts of the "stitches" on securely, leaving the incisions exposed to the air partially. The liquid adhesive goes on over the actual incision, if the neosporin is dried. After all that, I have a piece of gauze that I just layer between my sutures and my bra, untaped, while I go to work. They are getting lots better, but I am definitely getting fed up with all this, it has been 5 weeks on Wednesday and I still have open sores. I did figure out not to exchange the butterfly stitch every time we check them because it is just like removing a regular stitch every time. Hence, the tape to hold them down because they are not as waterproof as they claim to be!

Haven't been on here to update anything in a while. I am finally "on my feet", so to say that while I am still babying it a bit, I am still more active and doing for myself more. I haven't gotten to fast paced exercise yet because these wounds are still open, but I am walking more and doing stuff around the house.

This really surprises me because I am usually the person that heals quickly and usually up and at 'em before anyone recommends it. However, my incisions are now about 3/4 closed and are only open about an inch. I am not seeping the way I was, even 2 days ago and my holes under my nips are closed totally! I am so happy to be at this mark, which sounds weird to me when surgery was on June 13. I know I should be closed and back on par by now, but I'm doing well, all things considering!

The thing that really hung me up was the "wear the bra 24/7" thing from the PS. Nowhere in any of the instructions does it say, "air out for an hour a day"! That and some of the skin was entirely too fragile to support movement, stretching and even light lifting like a gallon of milk or doing dishes until late this week. Even swinging my arms while walking prohibited those incisions from closing. Now I am paranoid about getting out there to normal activities too quickly and really want to go swimming. The LAST thing I need, though, is an infection in my slow healing incisions, though. Cold showers just don't cut it, though!

OK.... It has been more than 2 months since surgery and these stupid incisions are STILL not closed totally! They have been *almost* closed for the last 2 weeks, but still not totally there yet. I am finally back almost 100% but I have noticed that even now there is still residual pain and discomfort. My breasts are still tender and sore like your muscles are after exercising.

I really wish I knew how long that would last, as I have no idea what normal is. After ripping out my sutures so much, my scarring under my right breast is wider and redder than my left. I massage it carefully on a daily basis but am trying really hard not to touch it too much because i don't want to open those sores any more than I am currently.

Overall, though, I am still pretty happy with where I am to date.