Gerald L Schneider, MD (license on probation)

I had been overweight from my teens and I hated my stomach. I worked out constantly to try to get rid of the fat, and lost a good amount of weight, but that "pouch" on my lower stomach never changed. I finally decided to consult a surgeon about liposuction. I was told that the lipo would only deflate my stomach and a lift would be needed for the results I wanted. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to go for it, and I have never regretted it. My doctor did an amazing job of sculpting my middle and making it look natural. It has been about 7 years now, and I still look at my stomach and smile. There were a few drawbacks to the surgery: the scar is massive and not easily hidden any sort of two-piece and the feeling on my stomach (especially below the belly button where skin was removed) is kind of screwed up now. But even with those negatives, I have not regretted it for one moment. It gave me so much more self confidence and made me so much more positive.

I spent over a year on this site watching the progress of people's procedures. I have wanted to get things done but it has always seemed to be something that "might happen in the future". Can't really believe this is going to happen...
I have done a lot of research and believe I am well informed. I have spoken to over a dozen offices specifically about fat grafting for breast augmentation.
I am 55, tall and slim to medium build. I had three children that I breast fed. I have always been flat chested.
This is a big step for me.
Today I had a consultation with Dr Gerald Schneider, and his assitant Dario from Cielo Cosmetic Surgery . They could not have been more open, honest or informative. Their approach seemed so personalized. I really had the impression that it was important to them that they could deliver exactly what I wanted.
The facility was beautiful, clean and up to date.
I booked the procedure for September 22nd.
I showed Dr. Schneider pictures that I had downloaded from the internet of patients that had had the proceedure who looked similar to me before, and had a similar look after, that would be satisfying to me.
I really don't want large breasts. I would like mine to be larger than they are and mostly want them to blend seamlessly with the pectoral muscles - not slope - empty - to a point.
One thing that is unique about this surgery office is that their website posts the prices for each part of a procedure. If you have been looking online - you will know this is almost unheard of. Each cost is specifically layed out as in, fat removal, fat grafting, PRP (you can research this), etc.
One thing I would like to address here is the idea that spending money on cosmetic surgery is vain and/or unnecessary and any guilt anyone feels along those lines.
As a wife/mother/professional I have spent decades giving to my home, my spouse, my children and my job. It was an actual "process" for me to learn that it was ok for me to "receive".
I will post as the procedure progresses.

Updated on 22 Sep 2014:
I love this place. I love the doctor and the people who work here. I am very happy with the results.
It is funny because most people would start with what I intend to end up with but it is all a matter of perspective. Though I can see from the pictures that my breasts look awesome now...they are foreign and cumbersome to me. So though I may get a little attached to them as they are - I welcome the reduction that is inevitable from the swelling going down and the average loss of 50% injected.
I got 250cc in one breast and 300cc in the other. I started out with one a little larger than the other.
In the pictures it looks like there is a funny indent on the cleavage side of the right breast but it isn't even slightly there - that is a marker mark. The breasts are perfectly formed.
My thighs where the fat was harvested from are lumpy. They have never been smooth but they are lumpier than they were. It would be nice if they smoothed out.
I did not take the pills that were available because they said someone would have to drive you home if you took them and I didn't want anyone to know I had this procedure done. I would be judged and it would not be looked upon favorably.
It is tuff - I will admit that. I would recommend you take the pills. I came home and took two naprocine and am feeling fine as long as I don't really push using my arms to lift or anything like that. Otherwise - pretty normal.
I added fat grafting to my face kind of at the last hour - and it turned out unbelievable. I feel like I am from that movie The Witches of Eastwick. It took a solid 5 years off my face and took about 15 minutes though the fat had already been extracted when I did my breasts.
Here are my breast pictures and I will post progress as it occurs. Good luck to all on here.

Updated on 24 Sep 2014:
I was concerned because I seem to have a kind of freeze on one side of my smile but the doctor called today and said there will be changes everyday so we wait a week. As the day progressed it got about 25% better so I wonder if as the swelling goes down it will dissapate.
No doubt about it you have to be tough to wait out this swelling business.
I am putting neosporin on the wounds. I normally heal quite well from wounds. I don't think there will be a sign of them in a few months but I will post.

Updated on 24 Sep 2014:
won't let me add this photo to the post after I left the page to go look for the picture but here it is....healing well - really don't see any swelling today except whole body seems to be retaining a bit of water weight that I don't usually carry.

Updated on 26 Sep 2014:
Still seems to be retaining water throughout my whole body...I will ask Dr. when he calls again. The weight in my breasts is holding. I am wearing a sports bra daily to contain them and support them. I am not use to this much weight pulling on my chest. I did heavy duty gym work outs yesterday and today. All is good though am weak still in the pectoral area.
I have a really neat electronic massage devise that I am using on my thighs. It may be helping to contain the swelling, bruising etc., I know it helps mentally.
My face still has a kind of pinched nerve on one side. It may be from the shots of anesthetic or from the shots of fat itself - I am not sure. I exercise the muscle every chance I get in the hopes it will stimulate the nerve.
My smile is coming back. I am getting a peak at what this may look like when it is all healed...
I do daily mediations for healing because I believe our minds shape our reality.
I will repost pictures when there is a change...so far...like I said...still holding...
There are four cuts from the lipo on my thighs. Two of them I now have to put my glasses on to locate. Two got a kind of scab on them that makes them easy to locate. When there is a change in appearance I will post pictures. Pretty much the same situation with the cuts from the insertion of fat on my breasts. Two larger...two smaller that are almost hard to find.

Updated on 1 Oct 2014:
So far I have not lost any fat in my breasts. I am retaining water - a LOT of it and have re-swollen up in the lipo areas. That is kind of unusual and I haven't seen anyone posting about it.
I haven't posted any new pictures because not much has changed. I will post pictures in another week or two - hopefully the swelling will have gone down.
My face is looking good from the fat transfer to my cheeks. One side still is still more swollen but it is slowly improving.
My outer thighs where the fat was harvested still hurt but I still work out as they don't feel any worse when working out than they do when standing or walking.

Updated on 8 Oct 2014:
It is day 16 after my fat transfer to my breasts. I think I have finally lost all of the swelling associated with the operation. I say that because there was a pocket of swelling between my breasts that I was kind of using as a measure and it has disappeared. The natural intentation that runs from my sternum to my neck has returned and I like it a lot better.
I think I am unusual in that I never wanted large breasts. In fact I was kind of worried at first because my breasts were so large and cumbersome. I have been wearing a sports bra this whole time because I don't want my chest jutting out. They were hard with the swelling and they have softened and feel and look quite natural to me now.
I guess the big question now is how much of the fat will I retain. I am please with the way they look now but will still be pleased if I lose another 10 or 15 %. Beyond that I don't know. If I lose too much more of it I may someday reconsider a second injection though I am not sure. My thighs look great. You can not even tell that I had anything done to them.
Out of the four incisions on my breasts, only two remain visable. It was very difficult for me to find the other two to put the neosporin and bandaids on for the last few days. I will just cover two of the incisions on them tomorrow.
Out of the four incisions on my legs, I have only been putting the bandaids on one of them for the last couple of days. The other three are too hard to find. I can't locate them with a magnifying mirror or by feeling them.
I intend to take close up pictures of all of them at the 30 day mark.
The swelling is almost completely gone from my face as well. In all likelihood I will have it done again but one side is still not completely recovered. It is a little numb and uneven as in my smile doesn't open up all the way but as the doctor said - it is improving daily.
As far as the fat to my face goes...it was an unbelievable improvement to my face. The thing is that in order for this to be something for you to do - it has to be that that is the issue that is wrong in your particular aging of your face. For example, you may have saggy jowels or a saggy neck or bad nasiolabial folds etc. For me - my major problem was the caves in the side of my cheeks. What the fat transfer has done is litterally taken five years off my face. Yes I could use an under eye lift and some RF for tightening but when I only had the money to do one thing - the fat transfer to my face was phenominal. No one can tell I had anything done - I just look prettier and healthier which is exactly what I am looking for. I don't want to get rid of my wrinkles. I am 56 and don't mind looking my age. I just want to look sweet and healthy and I do now.
Will post again as things progress. Good luck to all on here.

Updated on 8 Oct 2014:
It wouldn't allow me to post the forth picture here it is

Updated on 28 May 2015:
It has been 10 months since my fat transfer to the breast from my thighs. I thought I would post a review so everyone could get a good idea of the changes that happen over time. I did retain a bit of fat but I suppose like all...not quite as much as I would have liked. The doctor told me at the consultation that I may need two transfers...and he only transferred 220 and 250 ccs per breast.
Initially I thought I would never do this twice and money is definitely an issue...but if I had it I would do it again. I believe I may have retained 25% of the fat. I did a lot of measuring through water displacement and thought a retention of 125ccs would make me happy. It is my guess I might have retained about 75ccs based on how much I actually fill up a bra. I am very pleased at the addition but would ultimately like the 125 I thought I needed.
If I did do it again, because I am not rich with fat deposits, I would need to get a little taken from several places. I am a bit concerned because I did get a little uneven results in the thighs from the last procedure and as I understand it, the less fat you have the more room for distortion.
Anyway, my message is that results at 10 weeks or even 3 months are not quite accurate. Things changed for months after my procedure. Additionally, though the look was initially great, I lost almost all in my face. As many others here have acknowledged, fat transfer to the face is great but retention is short lived so injectable fillers may be wiser.