Carlin Vickery, MD (retired)

i had a breast reduction 10 years ago which was not a good experience - i did my research this time to make sure i found the right doctor and i did. my previous reduction was not done correctly and i was suffering from shoulder pain - dr. vickery and her staff were beyond my expectations - my surgery was flawless with almost no down time. i am only a little over a week into recovery and already feel 100% better- her staff made sure that my every need was taken care of, including finding me a nurse for the night after my surgery. i cannot begin to describe the difference in care from the last time i had this procedure to now - there is no comparison. i would not hesitate to use dr. vickery and her staff again and would with complete confidence send my family and friends to her.

I cannot say enough good things about this amazing experience. Having had 4 plastic surgeries over 20 years, this was hands down the very best and actually enjoyable! I interviewed 4 specialists for my breast uplift, reduction and removal of implants. Dr. Vickery was the only one who said she thought she could reduce them, and lift them without implants. The operation was super successful. They are high and perky and she made a nipple adjustment. The whole effect makes me look years younger. What was really special about the experience was the Doctor and her staff. It's a small office and the team of RN's (Margaret and Candice) and anesthesiologist (Dr. Keegan) worked together as a seamless and caring team. They all have lovely personalities and really care about the patient in the old fashioned way. With Dr. Vickery one feels she is in the medical field for the love of the profession, to help women feel better about their bodies rather than to create a high priced designer doctor brand. Dr. Vickery is the real thing. I highly encourage anyone considering breast work to consult her!

I had 'the works'- two surgeries to remove the cancer, 10 months of chemo and 33 radiation treatments. Dr. Vickery used the DIEP Flap procedure to create a beautiful symmetrical breast. She also worked to minimize the scar and improve the look of the cleavage. She's warm, funny and extremely competent. Everyone at the office is a pleasure.

I am a 20 year old college student who experienced back pain and body image issues as a result of having breasts that were not proportional to my body. I tried all that I could to reduce my breast size without surgery, but nothing helped. When I began to consider this surgery, I knew that there were some risks to consider before I committed, but I knew of multiple people who had had great experiences with Dr. Vickery, so I wasn't too concerned. Now that I have gotten the surgery, I could not be happier with the results. I'm able to wear what I want, participate in the activities that I want to participate in, and live a life without discomfort and pain. I am eternally grateful to Dr. Vickery and her staff for changing my life.

I'm about 3 months out of surgery with Dr. Vickery and I can now say that I should have done it 5 years ago. The whole surgery process was incredibly smooth. Dr. Vickery and her whole private staff are so incredibly sweet and you can tell they really want to make you feel comfortable. Dr. Vickery has preformed hundreds and hundreds of these surgeries and really is the best doctor in her field. Because of Dr. Vickery, my everyday life is infinitely better. I feel lighter, walking/running is amazing now, I don't have to think about my clothes making me look larger than I am, and much more. In terms of recovery, I was surprised with how fast and painless it was, but this is unique to how Dr. Vickery preforms her surgeries. I was in medium pain for 2 days after the surgery, then during the two weeks after the surgery I was just a bit sore - like the soreness you can get after a hard gym work out - but no pain. After two weeks, I had no soreness and my breasts couldn't look better. If I ever had a question during the recovery, Dr. Vickery or her nurse, Margaret, would get back to me immediately. So, choose to do the surgery and for sure choose to do it with Dr. Vickery. She has changed my life completely for the better.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer as a young wife and mother.
The decision was made jointly with the physicians to have a mastectomy with TRAM Flap reconstruction. Many years later, I am thrilled with the outcome . Going through a cancer diagnosis and treatment is very difficult. Having a physician like Carlin Vickery made the journey less stressful. She is a special doctor. Her warmth, intelligence, and talent are rare qualities in a surgeon.
Dr. Carlin Vickery is great!

I was referred to Dr. Vickery by my breast surgeon as well as another patient of Dr. Vickery's shortly after receiving my breast cancer diagnosis at 32 years old. At our initial consultation Dr. Vickery patiently and thoroughly explained what the surgeries would entail as well as what I could expect after. On the day of both my surgeries, her warm and comforting presence made all difference in the world. I could not be more thrilled with the results and receive complements on how natural and beautiful my newly reconstructed breasts look. Dr. Vickery is a very talented and experienced doctor and I highly recommend her. Her staff is also extremely wonderful.

I really don't like my thighs or the stretchmarks behind my legs or the love handles that embrace my waist, but nothing, nothing that I dislike on my body beats the aversion I felt towards my the one asset that women are supposedly to die for.

Boobs. *Sigh.*

Like many on this forum, my breasts started growing at a really young age. By the time I was 12, they were comfortably in the B cup range. Fastforward to 16 years later and I was clinging on to a DDD. Barely. I'm an average sized girl - size 4 on a good day and 6 on the regular and here I was wearing a DDD/E cup. My escape (and the downfall of my bank account) was minimizer bras. I grew terribly self-conscious of my abnormally large breasts and was sometimes the center of jokes from coworkers and friends. The result? I slouched often, wore baggy clothes always and started developing backache at night. My shoulders had deep ridges from overworked bras and I also had a bruise on my right side from the friction of my underwire bra.

I started considering a breast reduction and began voraciously poring through RealSelf. The more I read, the more determined I was to have the procedure done. Emails alerts would pop up on my phone screen from the Real Self team with the words "Images in the email may contain nudity" blazing across my phone screen which I'm sure one or two of my nosy coworkers saw at some point. I didn't care. I just knew I had to get this procedure done.

Over the course of 6 months I embarked on what is the most important part of this whole journey: finding the right doctor. I can't emphasize how important this is. Its an investment well worth making. Your boobs are on you every single day so its important to feel good in them! I started shopping around and no doctor ever felt like the right fit. My initial search was based on price as I'm in NY and nothing in this city is cheap! But the more I went to different places, the more I realized that having the right set of hands sculpting my body would make or break this surgery. So I would advise folks to invest in visits, see how the places are and get comfortable with conversations with doctors and their methods.

I came across Dr Vickery online and went to her offices for an appointment. After that visit, I knew she was the person I wanted to work on my procedure. However, I had one potentially complicated situation I had let her know about. I was losing my job in the coming weeks and I was going to lose my insurance and so I needed to have the surgery done sooner rather than later. Literally all the other doctors had told me that I needed to go to a chiropractor and get have about 6 months worth of doctors visits before insurance would even blink an eye on my case. Not true. Dr Vickery was the first doctor to say that my case was obvious and that we should go ahead and submit the paperwork to insurance. We did so and within two weeks I was approved. Just like that. No unnecessary physician expenses. No extended wait times. I was cleared and ready to go. Because of my job situation, I kept scheduling and rescheduling my surgery and finally had it done on December 15. Dr Vickery's office was very patient with me in the whole process, as I rescheduled so many times.

DAY OF: I arrived at the facility at 7:45am. The doctor drew the necessary markings on my body and afterwards the anesthesiologist came in and spoke to me. About 30 - 45 mins later, I was taken into the operating room and the rest is a blur.
I woke up at 4pm completely disoriented. On a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being the least) the pain level was at 1. What was actually really painful for me was my throat! It was on fire. I asked the nurse to give me some Halls which she did and that was a little soothing. Because I wanted to minimize the final bill as much as possible, I opted to not stay in at the hospital. My friend came to get me and we left the facility around 6pm. My throat was still on fire and I got home to some delicious spicy curry that was a tremendous aide to the pain. I went home with drains which weren't bad at all.
DAY 1 POST: Pain level was still very low - at 2 - 3. I also took some Oxy but would have really been fine with just regular Tylenol. I went for a post-op visit later that day and the doctor took out my drains. There was almost no drainage which was really amazing.
WEEK 1 - 2: I went to the doctor's office for a total of about 4 post op visits. The whole time I was sleeping on my back and had minimal to no pain. The most pain I experienced throughout the whole procedure was that of the tube down my throat and even that was almost gone by day 3. I wore the surgical bras and didn't shower for the first couple of days. I had a lot of help around the house which was necessary. Honestly, I had underestimated my inability to do the most basic activities for those first couple of days and so having the help was amazing.

I'm now a little under 3 months post-op and my recovery has been really swift. I went for a bra fitting (a little late in the game) but I went to Victoria's Secret. 34DD. Not OK. I've never shopped there before but I have heard that their measuring system is very different so I am going to go for another fitting elsewhere and will come back with an update. I suspect that I'm really a C or D at most based on "regular" fittings.

SCARS: This was my biggest fear. Its always said that black skins scars worse on average and so I was ready to load up on all sorts of scar creams. My experience so far?? My scars have actually been so great that I actually stopped using Scar Guard a few days in. I'll let the healing process continue normally.

Would I recommend the surgery to anyone? ABSOLUTELY. But I will say that the doctor is so important in the process and its worth investing the time to find a good one as there's no "undo" once you're under the knife. Another important thing to remember is that its also very important to follow the doctor's instructions. Little things can ruin the healing process. My back pain is largely gone and now I'm working on correcting my overall posture. Like many, I really do wish I had gotten this surgery sooner!

I have always been active and competitive with myself to improve my athleticism. During college my breasts grew several sizes and I began to experience significant lower back pain that inhibited my ability to run and generally to be as active and healthy as I desired. I understood that getting a breast reduction is not a small undertaking but after speaking with Dr. Vickery about my candidacy and about the outcomes that her other patients had experienced, I felt I was in the right hands and that it would be a huge life improvement to go through with the surgery. The surgery was undertaken in Dr. Vickery's inviting and intimate office, and I spent the rest of the day and night recuperating with the kindest and most attentive nurse I ever could have wished for. After going back to see Dr. Vickery for a few follow-up appointments she pronounced that my scars were nearly invisible and indeed, she executed the breast reduction so flawlessly that it's basically impossible to tell that I ever had the surgery. Moreover, every day when I set out for my run or when I get dressed I am so happy I decided to get this surgery. I am active, my tops fit better than they used to, and I feel great.

Dr. Vickery removed three moles of varying size from my face. I was getting married a little over a year after the procedure was done, so I was especially concerned about the healing process and any porential scarring. One mole was quite large and on my cheek. I had been told by other surgeons that removing it could result in a large "football-shaped" scar, so I had resigned myself to living with it. Dr. Vickery was able to remove the mole and leave no visible scar. Another one of the moles was in the center of my top lip (the "cupid's bow"), so it required extra care in its removal. Dr. Vickery was able to remove the mole and reconstruct the "cupid's bow" in my lip with no scarring. The final mole was on my chin. Dr. Vickery skillfully removed it and it healed quickly with no scarring.