Breast Lift No Implants & Tummy Tuck - Ridgewood, NJ

Hello. I am 36 years old. No kids. I am 5'6 and 149lbs. I have been a yo-yo dieter all my life. My lowest weight was 130 and my highest was 225. The years of highs and lows in my weight has taken its toll on my body. I am finally at a place where my weight has stablized and I am no longer on diets but more of a complete lifestyle change.

I have NEVER in my life liked my breasts nor my stomach. Even at my lowest weight, I always had a lower pouch and never ever had a flat stomach. I never in my life wore a bikini :( I do not know what it feels like to NOT have that lower roll of fat. I never felt comfortable naked ever, it caused a lot of issues when I was married ( I am now divorced). I acquire some nice stretchmarks on my breasts and stomach due to all my weight flucatations. I can't believe that I am finally going to be able to wear things I could not before and feel somewhat like a normal woman naked.

I decided to finally tell my story and show my pics online in the hopes that it will help someone else. I have been on this site for months reading and looking at stories to find before pics that looked like me.( thank you to all) Not many on here, have opted for a breast lift without implants. I am currently a 34D-36C ( depending on the bra) I have a great degree of sagging as you can see. I went back and forth with the thought of a small implant with the lift but I knew the implants were just "not me" Nothing against those who chose them, but for me I felt that I was happy with my current size and although I know they will be a bit smaller and I won't have the upper pole fullness that an implant provides. I felt that it would be best to allow my breasts to heal and not add the extra weight of an implant to possibly weigh down my breasts again causing premature sagging ( since my skin elasticity stinks) or have my Vertical lollipop scar widen due to the weight of implant.

I am excited to have the procedures done. After a few consultations and lots of research, I feel confident in my surgeon. I am hoping to post my post op pics on here as soon as I can to perhaps help someone else who may look like me.

So a week from now, I will be in the OR getting my procedures done. I am not scared of the actual procedure or recovery, I am not nervous about the results and complications. ( thats just the nurse in me, thinking about all the complications) I took a close up shot of my stomach today. This will help me see just exactly how different it will look post op. I am hoping that most of the stretch marks will be gone but I do have some in the upper right quadrant that are sure to be still there just lower. Maybe if someone has a similiar looking stomach to mine, they can get an idea of how it will look after a TT ( no muscle repair).

I'm excited that in about 12 hrs, I will be in surgery fixing a problem that has hindered me for way too many years.....I'm emotional reading texting from close friends and family and actually from my ex ( we are on good terms). This morning was my last high interval bootcamp class for awhile, I will miss it. I hope to keep my diet as clean as possible to avoid gaining but well aware of the swelling and expected weight gain from that. I wonder how many pounds of skin and fat will be coming off my stomach? I hope at least 5 lbs! Lol. I plan to post pics as soon as I am feeling well enough to do so.....I can't stress enough how viewing others post op pics on here has helped me. I want to return the favor. :) Good luck to everyone who is having procedures done!

My procedure went well. I am 3 days post op. My surgery was almost 5.5hrs long and I did have a hard time recovering from the anesthesia. I was extremely dizzy for hours in the recovery room and my BP dropped as well as my HR, they had to give me several liters of fluid which only made me extra swollen. I had a few nauseous spells but never vomited. I stay over one night at recovery center and was up the first night 5 times to Urinate. First time, I needed assistance cause I was still dizzy but after that, I was able to get out of bed by myself slowly. I only had to take one Percocet so far a day for the pain. I take it mostly to sleep at night. I'm having a hard time sleeping on the recliner on my back. I honestly have no pain, it's more lower back discomfort from walking hunched over. ( I can straighten up when I walk but was told to stay in a sight hunched position to protect stomach). THE KEY TO MY easy recovery is I had no Lipo or Muscle repair!! I did not require MR, had I needed it I'm sure my recovery would not be so easy.


Results : I was instructed to leave all bandages and binder on until I have my post op visit either tues or thur. Depending on now my 2 JP drains are doing. So far they are not too bothersome and I been measuring their output 3 times a day and its slowly down so they should come out later this week. Although I still have bandages on, I can tell my breasts are perky and appear round and swollen. PS said she needed to remove 28gm from left which was always bigger. I actually have more discomfort from the breast surgery than the TT. When adjusting my binder, I got a sneak peek of my stomach, I still have bandages on my belly button but I can tell despite being swollen my stomach looks flat and tight. I can tell the incision is low, I have yet to see it with all the bandages but its not from "hip to hip". I'm kinda happy about that but hope PS didn't sacrifice results for a shorter scar. I have confidence in her and believe she felt she didn't need to lengthen incision , only time will tell.

I promise to post pics this week, nothing to see now as I'm still bandaged up and my PS does not want me to remove anything. Post op Pics are important on here so bear with me but I will get them up as soon as I can ;)

Happy healing to all..... So far I'm pleasantly surprised at how the recovery has been so far.

Feeling good today, despite not sleeping much because of being on the recliner. I have no pain, standing up straighter, and JP drains are putting out less than 25ccs a day so they will be removed later today. I'm very anxious to finally see the results and incisions. I took the gauze off my belly button to see how it looked, since the curiosity is killing me. So far despite the swelling, my stomach looks good. I can't see to lower abdominal area but can tell there is more swelling there as expected. I have yellow gauze in the belly button as u can see in the pic and I can see I still have a few stretch marks that were located in my upper abdomen before that I knew wouldn't be able to be removed entirely. I am fine with that, sure beats what I looked like in the before pic.

I will post pics after my post op visit of both my stomach and breasts. I will say so far, this recovery has been pretty good.

Hoping everyone is recovering well and praying for all those who are remembering their lost loved ones today on this 9/11 anniversary :(

Post op visit went well. The JP drains were removed and I just took a deep breath and it was over!

Here's a shot of my breast lift. As you can see the steri strips are still on and very bloody so it makes it look not that great. I am pretty bruised on the bottom and sides of my breasts but I think for just having a vertical lift and no implant they look pretty good for post op day 5.

Sleeping has been an issue since post op day 1 even when I was taking perocet, I would wake up every 2 hours or so. It's this position that I'm having difficulty with, have never been able to fall asleep on my back. :(

Just got out of shower, no probs. I tried to keep the shower head off my incisors as best as I could and made sure to pat down my incisors dry w gauze pads.

So I'm noticing the swelling in the lower abdomen and ends of my incisions still pretty bad. I been taking arnica, eating pineapple, wearing binder 24/7. I have not had BM since wed so that may attribute to some of the bloat. Being only 1 week post up, I'm not too concerned. I'm hoping dog ears with time go down. I'm very aware that swelling upto 1 yr for some has happened. I knew this going in..... My concern is I hope the lower skin was pulled taut enough, I have full confidence in my surgeon and I will double Check my concerns with her on Monday for my next post op appt.

Just finished showering, it's def time consuming. I go very slow and then take my time to dry steri strips and clean my bb and old Jp drain sites ( closing slowly still sore)

Decided to try on a low thong to see if it hides the scar and it does. I feel naked without my binder and still battling lower abdominal swelling its not a seroma just post op swelling I'm thinking. I have 10 day post op appt tomorrow looking forward to that. Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday!

So today is 2 weeks post op! Things are going ok. I'm more content with my breast lift ( no implants) at this time. Although itchy, bruised and the left one slightly swollen they look so much better than before and they are perky and I feel good in my sports bra and tops again. I still have steri strips on them, I see PS Monday. I am curious to see what the scarring looks underneath.

My stomach is driving me crazy. I feel like I will never get rid of this lower belly swelling. I'm diligent with my compression garments. Yesterday was first day I ate bad ( ice cream, too much salt) and I could tell my swelling is worse.
I'm dealing with a not so great healing belly button. On my one week post op visit, I was told it appears to be closing and is macerated. I was shocked cause I been keeping it clean and applying bacitracin ointment to it, but PS thinks my binder was causing the skin to fold a bit and close. So I'm keeping a watch on it....and may resort to the ear plug or marble trick I been reading about to keep it open. I'm hoping I don't need a revision later on.

Also noted a tender cyst deep under the skin above left incision where I have some pleating and swelling still. I'm very prone to cysts and I'm hoping it will go away, afraid to massage or apply heat right now since it's too close to incision.

Good news is that I walking around and getting in and out of bed without any issues. Chest still sore a bit. Hoping to drive next week.

Have a nice weekend everyone :)

I just wanted to update for those who are following me. I apologize for not updating sooner. So I am 5 weeks post op and feeling pretty good. My breasts are starting to take on a natural tear drop shape. The incisions have healed pretty good. I have been using bio oil as and kelo cote silicone scar gel. I do have some swelling still below the belly button. I have been diligent with wearing my compression garments 24/7. I have faith in my surgeon. Dr. Ganchi has been wonderful so far. She states it will go down and tighten up a bit. My tummy tuck scar remains low and healing well, it's fairly thin and I'm happy about that. I do have a dog ear on the right side a bit more than the left. We are monitoring that, hopefully I will not need a revision. I know many ladies on here have had them go away with time. I apologize for the poor quality pics from my phone, but hopefully you can get an idea of my results so far.