37 Y/o After Two Kids. Wanted to Be Perky Again! - Vancouver, MA

I've always disliked how my breasts survived two kids. They were full but saggy. We decided to take a look around and start learning about my augmentation options. Everyone always says to make sure you find the right doctor. I have to completely reinforce this. Do not settle on price alone. I have had friends and coworkers that have used an inexpensive surgeon in our area and most are not happy with their results. My first consult with with this surgeon. His bedside manor was brief, not super informative and he seemed to take it for granted that I already knew what to expect. I had no clue. He suggested a lift with a small 200cc implant. No discussion on types of implants or anything. He also addressed my concern with "side boob" by saying he would do some light liposuction to this area on both sides for no added cost. That got me excited! He does all procedures in office which helps him keep costs much lower. I was quoted $7500 for entire procedure.

Next consult was with a surgeon that my fiance had found on social media. He had the same recommendation but agreed that he would go up to 400cc's but no larger. He seemed pretty strict on what he would do (instead of listening to exactly what I wanted) and didn't give me a fantastic feeling about my outcome. His quote was the highest at $13k for a lift and augmentation.

Finally met with Dr Gabriel as my last consult. He was closest to me and is in the Peacehealth network which I'm already a member of. We found him through reviews and articles listing him as an excellent choice for procedures like this. As it turns out, they were so right. First impressions with the office girls was fantastic. The process was very thorough. It was like I was being over informed. But it could have been that this was my third stop and had already learned enough to ask better questions.

Once Dr Gabriel walked in we had a great feeling about him. He is a very upbeat, approachable, confident guy and just listened to exactly what I wanted. He originally suggested that based on my desire to be "perky" that to get the best outcome for the look I wanted, he could do a reduction and a lift. Let me heal from that procedure then do an augmentation. This of course requires two surgery's. My choice was to do it all in one shot. He agreed to do it.

Turns out that after my procedure he let us know that before me the most tissue he's ever removed was 200cc's. He took 300cc's off each of my breasts! I actually did have three procedures in one; reduction, lift and augmentation. It's the best feeling as your in recovery and the nurses all say, "who did you have? Oh Dr Gabriel? He's great...such a perfectionist!!!". And they were right. He also does a fantastic job of setting you up great meds to help you through recovery. They are very concerned about pain management and scar treatment. They even do laser scar treatments as you heal if needed.

Overall, I was in pain for about the first week. After that my pain was managed with ibuprofen for about another week. And then it was all incision discomfort. The pain I felt was more of a dull stinging, nothing drastic. Right after surgery I had quite a bit of swelling. I was concerned that they were too high and fake looking. But of course Dr Gabriel assured me that it was all swelling and that it would get better over the next few weeks and things would look more normal. Of course this is exactly what is happening. I've had to wear my compression bra and tape on incisions everyday since surgery per doctors orders. I have my 6 week appt soon and will see if I can wear real bras at some point. At week 4 he released me to begin exercise again at my comfort level. I went back to work after the first week. It went way better than I had anticipated. Feeling better every day!