I recently had a breast augmentation performed by Dr. Garri. I am exactly 1 week post-op and both looking and feeling fabulous! I had 300cc silicone implants placed underneath the muscle through a periareolar incision and I am already so very pleased with the results. I am tall and thin and prior to my procedure I was about a 34A cup size. My goal to increase my cup size to the C cup range without looking "fake" or "overdone". I am in graduate school, so it was very important to me that I be able to maintain a professional appearance. Dr. Garri was very understanding and listened to me. He is an extremely skilled surgeon that has given me the exact "look" that I was going for. My friends and family cannot believe how wonderful I am looking and feeling after only 7 days since surgery! Furthermore, Dr. Garri is friendly and goes out of his way to make you feel comfortable. I would highly recommend him for your plastic surgery needs!
Hello, everyone I am now three days post-op from my procedure and, as you can imagine, I am feeling awful. Today is the most swollen that I have been thus far. I cannot even close my mouth completely because it is so swollen and numb. I also have swelling and bruising all around my cheeks, eyes, and chin. I have been crying a lot, and had a bit of an emotional meltdown yesterday and just feeling overall depressed. There is something very traumatic about looking in the mirror and not recognizing who you see. It could be because I got so many facial procedures done at once. I keep asking myself if I made a huge mistake. I am a young, healthy 23-year-old who wasn't incredibly terrible looking. I just wanted some revisions to improve myself. I know I have to give it time, but I feel like I was emotionally unprepared for this. I want people to have a realistic expectation about facial plastic surgery. I was kind of under the impression that I would go in and three days later I would look beautiful. My surgeon even told me that I would be good to go back to work within a few days, which is definitely not true. Now I am panicking because I am slated to go back to work next Tuesday, but I look like an absolute monster right now and I cannot imagine that changing much within the next 8 days. I have just been locked up in my house alone because I cannot face the outside world. Aside from the emotional aspects of all of this, there is of course the physical pain. Surprisingly, my nose doesn't hurt at all, it is just very stuffy. If it weren't for the cast, I would have forgotten that I even got it done. It just feels like really bad allergies or a cold. The chin, however, is very very painful. My entire bottom row of teeth feel tight and painful and I am unable to open my mouth wide and eat. The incisions from the liposuction are also quite painful, but not as much as the chin. I have my follow up with my surgeon tomorrow so hopefully I can get some of this heavy duty bandaging removed. I know it is there to help with swelling, but they are quite annoying. I wish I could post a picture for you all, but I feel so monstrous and disgusting that I just can't bring myself to post a public picture like this online, especially since it is my face. I really hope I made the right decision here. I guess only time will tell. I am sure it will all turn out great, but I need to rant somewhere where someone will understand, My friends and family will only tell me that I didn't need to do anything and that I made a mistake. Sigh... Anyway, I hope to document my progress in the weeks to come. Updated on 31 Aug 2015: So, as I stated before, I am only 3 days post-op at this point, but I do have some tips that have been helping me thus far. My first tip is to pick up all prescriptions before surgery that way once you are finished, you can just go straight home and not have to worry about stopping at the pharmacy. I would also recommend getting something for sore throat because your throat will HURT. In fact that was the most painful part for me for the first two days. I ate lots of strawberry ice cream and it helped with my throat and also with settling my stomach. Ginger ale is great for the nausea too. You need a great support system. You will be sleeping A LOT and you will be in pain and generally you won't want to do much of anything. It would be great to have someone to prepare your meals for you, clean up after you, help you take your meds, etc. I truly think this is impossible to do alone. Unfortunately for me, my family is far away, but my boyfriend has been incredible throughout this process. This would have been pretty much impossible for me without his support. So far, this is all I've got, but I will be sure to update as often as possible. I just have to say, that I have had my gallbladder removed in the past, which I thought was pretty painful until I went through this. I plan to get a BBL later this year, but I think it will be easier than the facial surgery. Again, it could be because I got three facial procedures at once (I would rather do that than go through three separate recoveries), but facial plastic surgery is nothing to be taken lightly. Think it through thoroughly! Updated on 1 Sep 2015: Hello, everyone. I am now four days post-op and I went in for my first follow-up today. I still have the cast on my nose (which is beginning to itch!), but luckily the nurse removed the large bandage around my head and replaced it with a much thinner and lighter chin/head wrap, which is much looser and more comfortable. I will be going back in again in a week for a second follow-up to have my nose splint removed. By then, I will also be heading back to work and school so I hope my swelling goes down drastically and I start to feel better soon. The nurse said that everything should start improving at this point and that I have basically been through the worst of it. Let's hope she's right! At this point, I just want to feel normal again. I am not even concerned about feeling beautiful or glamorous. I just want to feel NORMAL. I am going to make an effort to take great care of myself in order to make he healing process go as quickly and smoothly as possible. Updated on 2 Sep 2015: So, last night, my lips swelled up like balloons and I have no idea why. They are HUGE and so uncomfortable. I can't even close them all the way. I had so much trouble breathing last night that I couldn't even sleep. I felt like I was dying. I feel truly miserable and I am wishing that I never even did this to myself. On top of that, I am so worried about going back to school and work next week. I gave myself 10 days, but I could have easily used 3 or 4 weeks (which would have been impossible for me), but anyway, I am feeling pretty down still. When does the depression wear off? Does anyone have any words of encouragement? I am afraid my boss will fire me if I try to request more time, and he school already told me that I would be dropped from my classes if I miss next week. Advice? Updated on 3 Sep 2015: Well, I am 6 days post-op and things seem to be going smoothly. The compression garment around my chin seems to be forcing all of the swelling to go to my lips. My lips are EXTREMELY swollen to the point that they are putting pressure on my teeth and my sutures causing me a lot of discomfort. My lips are cracking and dried out, presumably from tripling in size so quickly. This is a miserable process, but I suppose things could be much worse. The swelling and bruising around my eyes have gone down. My rhinoplasty has been an absolute breeze. No nasal pain whatsoever (just annoyingness due to not being able to breathe because of the packing, etc.) The most painful part of all of this has definitely been the liposuction (surprisingly) and the genioplasty. The swelling just really sucks!! When I took the compression garment off to wash my hair and face, the swelling seemed to go down in my lips significantly. However, I know I have to keep the garment on in order for the skin in my neck to retract properly so I will just have to deal with the swelling for a while, I guess! I would rather do that, then end up with an undesirable result after all this time, money, and pain invested. Also, my dentist just called me to tell me that my invisalign trays are ready for me to begin and I can't even start because of the sutures in my mouth. My PS said to wait at least three weeks before starting the invisalign so that's what I will do. My boyfriend says that my face is starting to look normal again so I will start trying to post pictures in the days to come. I must say, this process has been intense. I have my BBL scheduled for December and I am really hoping the recovery is easier than this (somehow, I think it will be). Throughout all of my complaining, however, I must say that I am excited and lucky to be doing most of my self improvement procedures within a few months of each other (facial plastic surgery - August 2015, Invisalign - September 2015, BBL December 2015). I have felt self conscious about these things for a long time and it will be nice to finally feel good about myself once this is all over! Updated on 7 Sep 2015: I know, I know. Poor me. It's hard to feel sorry for someone who put themselves through unnecessary elective surgery and ends up unhappy with the result. And I am not looking for sympathy, but I really need to vent. I LOOK LIKE A MONSTER. I know it is still relatively early on in the recovery process, but I was not expecting to look like this. I look like I have an underbite and my chin is gigantic and masculine, which is exactly what I didn't want. I feel like the swelling should have reduced more than this by now, so I am starting to think that it is not just swelling and that this i just how I am going to look. I still have the cast on my nose, which is coming off tomorrow, but I am so afraid to get it taken off because I have a feeling that my nose will look horrible too. I am panicking. I feel physically fine, but I am missing out on another week of school and work, because I can't bear to show my face in public. This is horrible for me. I have always had terrible self esteem issues about the way that I look. I finally took the plunge and put myself into $10k of debt in the hopes that I could finally feel happy and comfortable with myself and now all I keep doing is wishing that I never did this to myself. I am afraid this is going to ruin my future. This is a big year for me, as I am supposed to be graduating next year, but I am afraid I will fail because I can't imagine being able to go back to class looking like this. It might seem dramatic, but as someone who was already severely self-loathing and self conscious to begin with, this is a huge blow. I am so upset and disappointed. I have just been crying for hours. I really don't know what to do. I just want to get everything reversed immediately, but I can't afford more surgeries. I feel so stupid. Updated on 9 Sep 2015: Well, I finally got my nose cast off yesterday and had another nervous breakdown in my car on the way home. I NEVER SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS. I look completely different and not in a good way. I had a pig nose now. This nose doesn't fit my face at all and I just look weird. I want my old nose back so bad. I am scared to face people looking my this. And my chin is a disaster too, it is way too big. I really don't know what I am going to do. Updated on 11 May 2016: Hello all, I know it's been a very long time since I have posted. In my previous posts, I mostly went on about how miserable I was with the procedure and my results even though I was still VERY early into the recovery process. Well now, 9 months later, I look a thousand times better, but I was still unhappy with how large my chin was and how rotated my nose tip was. So yesterday I finally ended up getting a revision. The first time around, my chin was advanced by 8mm and I just think it was too much for me, as my chin was not very recessed to begin with. I am also female and wanted a smaller, more feminine chin. Also the numbness in my chin never went away after the first surgery and my smile was never completely the same again. Now just one day after the revision, I have already regained some of the sensation that I lost after the first surgery and I am feeling GREAT! Much better than I was feeling the day after the original surgery. For the revision, the surgeon pulled my chin back by 4 mm and shortened lengthwise by 2 mm giving me an overall chin advancement of 4 mm (since it was originally advanced by 8mm). He also made my highly-rotated, bulbous nose tip slimmer and lower, which I LOVE! I think I will be much happier with the results from this revision. And my surgeon was wonderful and did the revision for me free of charge. I only had to pay anesthesia fees. I already feel so much better about my face now than I did the first time around, but I guess we won't know for sure until I get the bandages come off next week. Regardless, I will not be doing any more elective surgery (at least not for a veryyyy long time) and definitely not on my face. It is too much stress to put my body through this just for aesthetic purposes. Whatever my face looks like at the end of this, I am just going to have to accept it and love it. Thank you everyone who was supported and had kind words for me! Updated on 13 May 2016: I am now 3 days post-op from my revision surgery and while I am in pain, it is nothing compared to the pain I experience after my first surgery. I am very swollen, but I am trying to just keep my face iced up and all around every once in a while to get the blood flowing. Updated on 14 May 2016: I am now 4 days post-op and woke up feeling better than I did yesterday. Improvement is always encouraging, but I am still in quite a bit of pain and very swollen. However, I find myself not having to take the pain relievers as often anymore. I just want to tell anyone who is planning to get a sliding genioplasty, be prepared to lose. It's been 4 days and I've already lost 5 pounds due to a combination of nausea/loss of appetite from the medications; and not being able to chew and open my mouth wide due to the sutures. I have been living off of meal replacement shakes and kale smoothies. The weight loss doesn't bother me because I could stand to lose a few pounds anyway, but if you are already slim, it is probably something you should take into consideration before getting this procedure. The nausea really sucks!! And it is very difficult to relieve. But it's either that or deal with the pain from having had my face split in half. Anyway, as far as aesthetics go, I m feeling sooooo much better about my face this time around than last time. I feel like I look more like myself and the once the swelling is gone, I will be happy with the result. I can't describe how happy I am to have regained some of the sensation in my chin than I had lost the first time around. Hopefully it will come back fully. I can't wait to see my end result! My follow up is on tuesday and I will get my bandages removed. Hoping the swelling continues to go down quickly from this point on. Updated on 31 May 2016: Hello all! So it has already been three weeks since my revision! I feel great. I am back to eating all solid foods with ease. My chin and nose are both still stiff and swollen, but much better than before. My surgeon said that the majority of swelling (~70%) would go down within the first three months. Considering the fact that I am only three weeks in, that means I still have quite a way to go. This is very encouraging, because I am already loving the result, so I can only imagine how much better it will be once the swelling goes down more.
