Nicole Sommer, MD

Wonderful experience with Dr. Nicole Sommer. She is a wonderful surgeon and the staff have been helpful and kind through the entire process. I am so glad I chose Dr. Sommer for my explant surgery and highly recommend her.

Dr. Sommer did a wonderful job with my abdominoplasty and breast augmentation. I am thrilled with the results, and would recommend her highly. She was attentive to the (many) questions I had during my consult and followups, and answered them thoroughly. In my opinion, her manner conveys her intelligence and competence.

Dr. Sommer listened carefully to my wishes, particularly with the breast augmentation, and gave me the results I was looking for. My breasts now look very much like they did before pregnancy/breastfeeding (except more perfectly symmetrical, which is great). They look very natural and beautiful. My stomach also looks amazing, and it's so refreshing that the excess loose skin from pregnancy is no longer there. The abdominoplasty scar is easily covered by my bottoms.

Overall, I'm delighted with the results that Dr. Sommer achieved, and I felt very well taken care of by her and her team. I feel extra confident and beautiful, and that Dr. Sommer was an excellent choice.

I had a wonderful experience with my breast augmentation with Dr. Sommer. She is very skilled and did an excellent job, which is priority number one. Also you can tell she really cares about what she is doing. She wants to do the best job she can and make her patients happy. Her staff are excellent as well. I couldn’t have asked for better care or outcome.

Dr. Sommer has been fantastic along with her staff. 10 years ago she helped me to regain breast due to mastectomy for breast cancer a few years earlier. I had a DIEP flap on original side of cancer and other side saline implant.

As a primary care physician , she is my go to for breast reconstruction , cosmetic surgery , body sculpting ... etc... she is extremely skilled but it’s her compassion that also puts her to the top of the list ..my patients adore her and are very pleased with their outcomes .. I’ve actually also been a patient of hers !!

Dr. Sommer gave me back my confidence and my sense of self. It's hard enough deal with breast cancer and a double mastectomy, but my first plastic surgeon (at another hospital in St. Louis) who did the initial reconstruction, left my breasts looking terrible! They were 2 different heights and sizes. They had gouges and dents. He said it was the best he could do. And, on top of that, I ended up with an awful post op infection that had me in the hospital for a week.
I was sad and afraid that I would never feel or look the same. I know it's silly to worry about something like that, when you are dealing with cancer, but it made me feel uncomfortable in my own skin.
I heard about Dr. Nicole Sommer from several women in my community.
I went to see if she could fix the mistakes made. She said that it would take some time, but she felt she could make it look even and better. She was right, it was a slow process of 3 more surgeries with a flap and fat grafts. There had to be healing time in between. I felt like she really thought about how to make small adjustments and allow my body to accept and heal in between. I had to be patient. It took almost a year, but it was so worth it. I feel more comfortable in my skin. I feel like me again.
I am so grateful that she gave me that back.
After going through all this, I later learned that Dr. Sommer had done a Breast fellowship before she came to SIU and that she specialized in breast reconstruction. The plastics doctor that did my first reconstruction during my double mastectomy did NOT specialize in breasts, and he didn't seem to care what they looked like. And, I had traveled hours to see him. I should have done my research. But, luckily, I found the best doctor in my own backyard.

I met with the staff at SIU for a DEIP flap consultation, during which I spoke with Dr. Michael Neumeister who would be handling the microsurgery aspect of the reconstruction. That went reasonably well, and when he told me that Dr. Nicole Sommer would be handling the breast sculpting, I wanted to see her as well. He told me that she was seeing patients, but that he'd have her come in when she could.

After waiting patiently for about an hour (the staff were very kind and checked in on me to make sure I was ok), she came in and treated me as if I was an imposition on her time. Her atrocious bedside manner should have had me running for the hills, but I hoped that Dr. Neumeister overseeing would balance out any problems. That was the last time I saw her while alert and conscious.

My medical chart specifically states that the lymph pad for that side was removed (which I'd also made sure to tell her about during our brief encounter), so when I woke up in recovery without a drain, I was surprised. I mentioned it to the nurses that I had an excessive amount of fluid buildup at the site, and to the attending doctor. After a week in the hospital for a difficult and complicated recovery, I went home with the bottom of my breast looking bloated and bruised.

After about 2 weeks at home, I began to drain fluid (> 50cc) from the incision that I again told the home health care nurses about. I had a followup appointment to remove the other drains, and told the doctor that this was going on, but no alarm bells went off. Finally, I spiked a fever of 102.7 and went to the ER, where I was admitted for a week for possible sepsis and had 2 trips to the OR for debridement.

All that, just because Dr. Nicole Sommer was too busy or too distracted to follow best practices and do the menial task of placing a drain. So I advise you to stay far away, unless you like being disfigured and copious trips to the hospital/surgery/psychiatrist to fix what she destroyed by her negligence.

Hello ladies! I am finally getting around to starting my Review. All you gals have been so amazing, I feel good getting to share my experience here ..& hopefully it will be an encouragement to whoever might need it. A little quick info about myself: I'm 33 with 3 children, all of whom I breast fed for almost a full year each. I am a 32 G, and have had my large breasts for as long as I can remember. I went to JC Penny a few months back and tried on their largest bikini tops, even in the plus sized section of the swimwear..and my breasts were busting out of all of them! I do not quite get it, I am not that large..how is it that a lot of stores do not carry something that will hold me in?! Besides the clothing and bra issues, I do not like how my breasts seem to sag. With being Very engorged from breast-feeding and the skin being stretched, I now seem to have a deflated look when I lie down...which I dislike greatly!! So here I am, 12 days from surgery which is scheduled for the 19th of August.

I just got back from my pre-op today. At my consultation we discussed doing an anchor type incision. This time she says we're doing a lollipop. It kinda threw me through a loop and left me second-guessing both types. I want a full, round, aesthetically pleasing end result; and I don't mind the extra scar if that's what I need to achieve that result. After doing a bit of research on this wonderful site, I'm a little more ok with the lollipop procedure. It seems to be whatever the specific surgeon themselves are good at that matters. Mine obviously believes that she can obtain a great result for me using the lollipop, so I am going to trust that.

Is anyone else getting, or have already gotten, a lollipop incision? Your thoughts and input would be greatly appreciated!

They also said I would be leaving the hospital with bandages, not a surgical bra. I was a bit disappointed to hear that, but they said it would be wrapped very tightly and I would probably have it on for up to a week. After that I guess I will go to a sports bra of some kind (I still have to pick one up;) I hope I get some that fit well and keep my new breasts supported & protected. Any advice on that would be awesome too, although from reading some reviews I have gleaned a bit of wisdom on this issue as well. ..I just didn't really write anything down so now that time is ticking and Im getting so close to my date I feel like I need to go over everything again Lol :)
I will be posting back soon.. Thank you all for everything, and Best Wishes on your journeys too!! :)



Updated on 16 Aug 2013:
Ok, so I now feel officially set and ready for my surgery.. for the most part:) Thanks to you Awesome BR friends of mine, I now have in my possession a Fruit of the Loom close front bra from Wal-Mart, which was all of $8. (Never thought I could buy a bra for that little $$) I'm also stocked up on Benadryl and Tylenol and have plenty of pillows and a zip-up hoodie thingy to leave the hospital in. (I might get some more button-up/zip-up shirts, but I also just might use some shirts I have that are kinda low-cut and just pull them down when I need to.. I'm secretly hoping that works cuz that's probably what I'm going to do. I'll let you know how that turns out ;)