I had a breast reduction and lift with Dr. Taylor. My breast turned out beautifully. She was able to get two uneven breast to be symmetrical. My scars are also healing nicely. I went to her since she specializes is non implant surgeries. She is patient, explained the procedure in full, and was overall just a really pleasant doctor. Everything is very professional with her office and ran smoothly.
I always knew something was different about my breasts and had asked previous docs. I figured after I have children I’ll look to see how they change. Then I turned 35 -no kids yet! So I decided to go to a plastic surgeon. I’ve never wanted implants and had heard about fat graphing and knew I wanted to find a plastic surgeon that felt with reconstruction. Thankfully I found Dr. Taylor. She is an incredible human and surgeon! I felt very safe with her suggestions and she validated how I’ve felt for years about my breasts being different. Now I had a name for the deformity! However, she did say that my breasts were beautiful and then explained what she would do to correct the shape. She recommended a bilateral mastopexy (breast lift, using the donut incision) with fat graphing. I had my surgery yesterday 10.7 and I couldn’t be happier! Hoping the fat finds their blood supply and keeps the new shape! Either way getting the mastopexy is an improvement by itself! I took before and the after is 1 day post op. The pain is tolerable with meds. I started to bruise some and most places are still numb but so far so good! Updated on 27 Oct 2021: Things are healing well! And pain was surprisingly manageable. I was able to shower the next day after surgery. I had originally planned to go back to work after four days but decided to stay home for the full week and slept a lot. Updated on 27 Oct 2021: I had my two week post op with my surgeon and she was happy with the healing. I had minimal bruising which was surprising. I spent the second week having a really hard time sleeping at night due to the belly band. I ended up wearing a camisole vs the surgery bra and kept that between the belly band. I don’t see my surgeon again until a couple months and will leave an update after. Updated on 5 Jan 2022: I am healing very nicely and am so happy with results. I wish I did this a long time ago. I do still have a little swelling and numbness in some areas of my stomach. I don’t see a huge change there but I didn’t expect to. In the pictures you’ll see that it still looks a little asymmetric with the right being larger but it doesn’t looks that way when I look at it! There are some shadows in the pictures too so I apologize. I did loose some of the fat graphing but my surgeon said that sometimes around months 2 and 3 the fat goes away and then comes back. I’ll continue to update! Still thinking of doing one more fat graphing but this surgery alone was worth it!
Today I'm day 9 post-op. This morning, I decided to make a run to Target. I got dressed and tied my hair into a low ponytail. My bangs that I’ve been growing out was parted to the side. It was a cool and windy day. I didn’t care how the wind was shifting my hair or feel self-conscious about about my forehead. Normally, it would be a huge deal to expose all of my forehead, but I was struck by how normal I felt. Before my surgery, my days always started with a shower and blowdrying my bangs with a round brush because oil from my skin weighed down my bangs, exposing my forehead. A blowdryer and round brush were as essential as my toothbrush whenever I traveled. When I couldn’t bring myself to wash my hair for whatever reason, it meant I would be shutting myself inside for the day. Some background: I first learned about forehead reduction surgery several months ago after searching for new hairstyles to better conceal my forehead. I had a new hairstyle with a side parting and side-swept bangs, which looked great at first, but my bangs were growing longer and I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep them. There’s a kink in my bangs that causes them to automatically curl up and then the summer humidity, wind, and rain would ruin them. I was constantly fidgeting with my bangs, which I know is not the smart thing to do during this pandemic. I’ve had bangs on and off growing up, but for the last decade (I’m 33 now) they were a permanent fixture on my head as I became more aware that my forehead was detracting from my face. I didn’t understand why anyone would choose to cut their bangs if they didn’t “need” to. Now I understand that some people have options, whereas I didn’t feel like I had a choice. At the same time, I could never seem to get my hair to harmonize with my face. Needless to say, I was very self-conscious of my hair and forehead, but I was tired of hiding behind my bangs. During the beginning of my research into forehead reduction surgery, I assumed that I would have to travel far to find a specialist in California or even Korea, where plastic surgery is more accepted. Choosing the right surgeon when you don’t know where to begin is very daunting. I didn’t think about getting plastic surgery locally because I didn’t think it would be available, but it made the most sense especially if I were to get this done during Covid. I found Dr. Taylor through simple search for plastic surgeons in my area. For me, the hardest part of this whole process was initiating the call to set up the first meeting because I felt like I was doing that was meant to be secret. Understandably, I didn’t receive much support from the few people I told in the beginning, with hesitation. But it can be discouraging to hear things like “don’t be ridiculous, everyone has a forehead!” or “you don’t need it!” or “you’ll become addicted!”. I suppose it’s true that one thing can lead to another and there’s more than a few “flaws” I would fix about myself if I could. But I’ve never been so sure that my happiness was so dependent on this one procedure, that I knew it had to be done and nothing could have stopped me from pursuing it once I had found the right place to do it. To be continued. I will be adding more updates with photos soon. Updated on 22 Aug 2020: So I was determined to proceed with the surgery and I was happy to finally secure a surgery date 2 months after the first video consultation. I visited the office two times and the last consultation was 3 days before the surgery. I think it's very important to have the highest level of confidence in your surgeon. For that reason, I didn't have too many concerns or questions prepared. My natural hairline is M-shaped with a lot of baby hairs and low elasticity so I didn’t know exactly how my new hairline would appear, but I knew that Dr. Taylor would do her best with what she had to work with to create a more rounded, feminine hairline. During this time, I also received Covid testing and it was a big relief when the results came back negative. (It would have been a big bummer to postpone surgery after all the planning!) My surgery was scheduled early in the morning, which was nice because that gave me a whole extra day to recover. The day before surgery, I prepared some meals and picked up my pain medications. I also showered the night before since I thought I might be incapacitated for a couple of days. I had no anxiety regarding the surgery itself since I would be asleep. My biggest concerns were receiving the IV (I hate needles!) and waking up feeling like shit. I received my surgery in a hospital so I was surrounded by many people in the surgery room and that was comforting in a way. The surgery went smoothly and a few minutes after waking up, I was wheeled out of recovery. I was unable to walk without assistance so I had help getting home and into bed, where I fell asleep immediately. When I woke up 6 hours later, I didn’t feel pain but my throat was scratchy so it was nice to have some cut up fruit and vegetables to eat. I slept with my head elevated for first week or so, before it became too uncomfortable to continue. And for a couple of days, my incision site was oozing a little blood. I used the absorbent pads the hospital sent home with me to protect my pillows. The next morning, I was able to walk unassisted. Some days my vision was blurry and later I found that this a side effect of one of the pain relievers. I kept the stitches clean everyday by washing them with shampoo or soap and applying the antibacterial ointment. I removed some bloody crusts in the process. Occasionally, I placed ice on my cheeks to keep my head cool and fortunately didn’t experience any bruising. The first week I did have some swelling on the forehead, which actually filled out them out in a nice way. I think the swelling reached its peak 2 days post op because my forehead became shiny but completely went down 3 days later. Other changes that I experience was my eyes/eyebrows lifting. When I came home from the hospital, I looked like an insane cat lady. But as the skin relaxed, these changes became more subtle or returned to normal. (I’ve always had high eyebrows so it would be hard to notice lifting.) I did receive a comment that I looked refreshed so some sagging around the eyes may have been temporarily improved. Overall, pain was very minimal. Initially I didn’t take the pain relievers regularly, but I found that I was able to “feel” more activity when I skipped doses the first week. For example, sometimes there was a quick passing pain near the stitches, but nothing bad as long as I maintained the medication schedule. As the incisions continued to heal the 2nd week, I reduced the dosage and I’m no longer taking them. Stitch removal was pain-free, but staple removal did cause some discomfort. This happened 1 week after surgery. The incisions on the sides of my head were closed with staples and extended pretty far down, reaching near the top of my ears. There was a little tugging and some bleeding, but completely tolerable. I would rate the pain 4/10. Updated on 22 Aug 2020: Recovery has been generally smooth and quick. I was able to work from home 4 days post op and went into work 2 days later. I concealed the stitches with a cloth headband, although I don't think the stitches would have been visible without it since they were laying so close to my hairline. There have been a few challenges/complications. For the first week I was unable to remove the vaseline-like ointment from my hair so I had to deal with perpetually greasy/wet looking hair. I tried soap, shampoo, clarifying shampoo. It turns out the one thing that worked was conditioner and it was the one thing I didn’t carry in my bathroom at the time. I was relieved to finally be able to get my hair clean. When I wash my hair, I use a fine tooth comb to help remove dead skin and loose hair. Normally, I do shed a lot of hair, but I have been experiencing shock hair loss. It’s a little terrifying to experience because I didn’t have that much hair to begin. I do believe this is temporary and if it were to happen anyway, I’d rather have the hair shed sooner rather than later. I remove loose hair regularly throughout the day, but most of it comes out during and after washing my hair. The hair falls out in clumps and this seems to go on for 5 min. Some bald patches have begun appearing. I hope to see the hair return by the end of the year. Finally, the top of my head is still numb. It’s not a big deal, but it does get annoying after a while. I’m just looking forward to getting feeling back on top of my head and I know this can take several months. My forehead is fine. I never had numbness in that area. I will be posting photos as soon as I figure out why I have not been able to upload photos!
Dr Taylor is the only doctor I've ever had who I felt lucky to have been referred to. She changed my life. Not only through her work, which is exceptional, but through her honest, compassionate care and advice. She makes you feel comfortable and safe which is rare for me as I have a lot of anxiety around the idea of surgery. I feel that in choosing a surgeon, you are trusting them with your life and Dr Taylor is absolutely worthy of that trust. I couldn't recommend her highly enough. I have already reviewed her for my initial surgery (breast lift with fat transfer). This review is for my second surgery with her, abdominoplasty with muscle repair and (another) fat transfer. My "before" picture was taken directly after the breast lift and my "after" is directly after abdominoplasty.
I was treated previously at MGH and Brigham & Women's and switched over to Dr. Taylor at Mt. Auburn because of her high credentials and, once you meet her, she is so reassuring, thoughtful and, of course, highly skilled! My surgery was multifaceted to remove two implants (bi-lateral cancer related) and also a little tummy work to repurpose fat to reconstruct. Complicating the issue was a leakage in the other implant! She was able to cleanse and remove and replace. She is wonderful and so is her staff! I couldn't be more pleased with her time and reassurance at every step. Her enthusiasm and compassion to help me in this phase of my post-cancer treatments were only what I would say relaxing, strange as that sounds. I knew I was in good hand! I would highly recommend Dr. Taylor.
Dr. Taylor is wonderful and made me feel completely comfortable with a procedure I needed for a long time but was scared to get. She very clearly cares about the lives of her patients and their goals for their body. I trust her 100% and that's why even though I was terrified, i went through with this procedure with her. It went smoothly, the rest of the surgical staff were very nice and accommodating and I am so happy I finally did this! The pain is minimal as I am keeping up on my meds, I expected a lot more pain than I am in. Right now I am 12 hours out from the surgery. Unfortunately I dont have any "before" pictures but I breastfed for a total of two years and time hasnt been kind to my breasts. They basically deflated and were causing me medical problems because of the skin to skin contact this created. I am very happy I went through with it! My only concern is the bruising around my incisions. The bruising from the lipo was expected but there is also significant bruising around my incisions. I haven't seen anything like it here so I will probably call in the morning to make sure norit's normal. If this has happened to you, please let me know! Updated on 4 Feb 2019: 3 months post op, right before TT and second fat transfer. Incisions are healed completely and I have all feeling returned except right on the bottom scar line. I had a problem with healing at the T junction of the right so my scar is thicker on that side. The scars are still quite pink but they should fade and the results are amazing. I was afraid of losing nipple sensation but they're totally back to normal now and more even in size which is nice! As I said before I'm getting a second fat transfer so I will post another update after that.
Dr. Helena Taylor performed surgery on my Fibrous Dysplasia. She was a kind, wonderful person from the beginning. She spent enough time, thoroughly explaining the procedure, & making me feel comfortable and confident. She went above & beyond to be very accommodating for my schedule. She performed the surgery flawlessly, & it turned out better than expected. I highly recommend her to anyone in need of an excellent plastic surgeon. She is an excellent surgeon & a very caring person.
Dr. Helena Taylor performed my breast reduction surgery three weeks ago. I am beyond thrilled with the surgery and results so far. From the initial evaluation to my post surgery follow up appointment, I have been singing her praises to everyone. She is an amazing, brilliant surgeon with a wonderful bedside manner. She knows what she is doing. I knew I was in good care and she had my complete confidence. I experienced little pain afterward, and her surgical technique appears to be advanced as I did not have any of the complications one can have with a Reduction Mammaplasty, although I know every patient is different. This experience has been wonderful and I wish I had done it sooner. I cannot recommend Dr. Taylor highly enough.
2D cup to C cup. You can feel the difference. The weight on your shoulder is a lot lighter. Now it is easier to find bra that fits, whereas before you had a hard time finding anything that would fit. Now you don't log around with two big melons anymore. What I have now is a proportioned looking smaller breasts. Therefore, I can use a lot of clothing that I could not.
InitIally after my breast reduction with Dr. Taylor everything looked great! However due to her using an outdated inferior pedicle technique, only 2 years post op my result has completely deteriorated. I wish she had educated me more about the different breast reduction techniques prior to this surgery. I recommend finding someone who does not use this technique for breast reduction surgery.
Yes your concerns are legitimate, and almost everything we do is a trade of shape and or size for scar. When we are just augmenting a breast without lifting it, we don't need to excise skin, so we just need enough of an incision to get an implant in. But whenever we are lifting the breast in a significant fashion, either for a lift or a reduction, some skin excision is required, hence the additional scarring. For small lifts you can often get away with less of a skin incision, and just make an incision around the nipple. For significant lifts, some vertical scar is typically required, though the transverse scar beneath the breast can be limited with different techniques.
