My experience was wonderful. There was a little push and pull while I was questioning what size I might be when it was over, but once I checked my emotions I understood why he answered the way he did. He is very good. I am excited for the future.
I decided to get a Mastopexy coupled with an implant augmentation to lift my breasts and gain fullness. I struggled with the appearance of my breasts since I was 16. Throughout the years I have had 3 babies and nursed, gained a lot of weight and lost a lot of weight leaving the breast tissue broken down. I no longer felt confident in dresses or with my shirt off during sex. I had talked to my husband a few times about getting a consult done and just hearing out what they had to say. In early September my husband and I went to a consult with an amazing plastic surgeon. We went over the recommended procedure and I immediately felt at ease with him as well as his staff. We went ahead and scheduled the procedure, I was so thrilled! The closer we go to the surgery date the more nervous and anxious I became (didn't help that I was googling everything). Now I am the day after surgery and let me tell you....the pain is rather intense. Icing helps a lot and I have stuck to my pain regimn. I get to shower today and am a little scared to take everything off. I will post after the shower with pictures as well.
He was able to straighten my nose and correct my septal deviation. I had a lot of scar tissue and he was able to correct it with little downtime. He was professional, had a great bedside manner and his office staff is great.
I am a wife and mother of 3 I tried everything to lose weight from exercising to diets and diet pills could not lose weight. So I decided to get abdominoplasty circumferential surgery. Best decision ever. Love the results still a Lil swollen he says but making progress. Only thing I did not like was the drains there are 3 and you have to wear them about 2 to 3 weeks
My initial reasoning for getting implants in the first place was that I was a small B prior to having my second child. When I opted to breast feed her and my milk came in, I suddenly found my breast were size E. After I stopped breast feeding, there was literally nothing left of my breast. During my initial consult the Dr. suggested I either have a lift or do the implants to fill out the empty space. I opted for a full C implant (unsure of the cc's) and saline implants were placed under the muscle. Fast forward to 17 years later, add some weight gain and gravity and I am left with with has been fitted as a double G breast. I have said for a while now that my breast are far too large. When I wear a shirt, it creates the illusion that I am actually much larger than I really am due to the size of my breasts. The weight of the implants has really dragged them down and although I like the fact that they actually look rather natural because of that, I would much rather they sit at a much higher location on my chest. I returned to the doctor that did the implants not knowing what course I wanted to take to correct my situation. I knew I wanted them smaller and to sit much higher but, I toyed with the idea of getting a smaller implant in place after a lift. My concern was that there would really be nothing left but skin after removing the implant and that the breasts would be left with no fullness. The doctor actually said that as we get older we gain more breast tissue and that I would have a decent amount of breast left after the lift. He also suggested that rather than add a smaller implant, he could lipo some fat from under my arm and the side boob area and transfer that to the breast. After talking with my fiance, this kind of sealed the deal for me. He mentioned that having the implant replaced would just lead to me possibly having to do revisions in the future should something happen to the implant. By just removing it and being done with it, I would never have to worry about the future possible expense of implants again. Implants also prevent me from laying comfortably on my back or stomach so I certainly won't miss that along with the weight of them causing problems to my pre existing back issues. So, I am scheduled for surgery October 19th. I will post pictures in a little while of my pre surgery breasts. I do not have any pics from prior to my BA unfortunately. I should also add in regards to cost, the dr is essentially charging for just the lift. He is not charging for the explant or the fat transfer. He also gave me a $500 discount for being a return patient. Updated on 9 Oct 2015: Here are the pre surgery pictures as promised. I am including the fully dressed one to show the effect the boobs have on my shape when wearing a top. I like to think of it as a tent effect. Updated on 9 Oct 2015: It was using the side view picture as the thumbnail picture for this review which looked rather odd. it didn't seem to want to let me adjust them so i had no choice but to delete them and add them in a new update. With that said... here are the side and top views. Updated on 15 Oct 2015: Well let me start by saying that one of my biggest hang ups about doing this was electively putting myself through pain and misery. To give you a little background on why this was so concerning... Pain management has been something I have already spent 12 years going through as I have a torn and bulging disc between L4 and L5 on my spine as well as some arthritis in my facet joints. On top of this I also suffer from fibromyalgia. I have been through a number of opiate medications. I spent at least 7 years on MS Contin (aka extended release Morphine) and took the medication daily. I finally found a surgical procedure called a Rhizotomy where they burn they nerves out of that area of my back. As of this last Aug, I have had a total of ten of these procedures. Now let me tell you why I explained all of that. What I have learned over the years of all these procedures and medications is that I have an incredibly low tolerance for pain and an extremely high tolerance for opiate pain medications. So, for example, when I had my Rhizotomy in August , a normal patient would be given 20 5/350 Norco's. I was given 60 7.5/350s as my doctor understands that my fibromyalgia causes me to perceive pain differently than a patient without and my high tolerance would undoubtedly mean for the first 24-48 hours I would have to take 2 about every 4 hours to keep the pain controlled. Now mind you, a Rhizotomy is a non invasive surgery done by lazer and at most I am left with tiny holes where the "needle" or whatever it is they use to get the waves in was. Bottom line of what I am saying is, there are no incisions and yet I still go through an incredible amount of pain. So here I am thinking about all these cuts I am going to have and remembering the pain I went through getting the implants but, I think to myself thats ok because this is a pretty hefty procedure and I cant imagine that they would make pain management difficult for me. I'll be honest, I was personally thinking I would probably need something like a Percocet to get me through this and after reading others stories on here, I honestly didn't think it was something that was totally out of the question. So, I get my information packet in the mail about a week ago and I already know that my script is going to come prior to surgery and that I probably will not initially be happy with what I am prescribed. I just tell myself thats ok because there is still plenty of time and if its something I am concerned about, I have plenty of time to contact the doctors office and explain my history and concern. I open the packet to find my script is for 30 5/350 Norco. Now immediately I am alarmed because I still had left over 7.5/350 Norco's and had been using them as of late due to the back pain. My first thought process is, how can these be effective when I am currently using something stronger. Then I worry about the ineffectiveness of the 7.5/350 Norco's from the last procedure and can't help but compare the possibility that I will have the same issue. Especially with a lower dose pain pill! I know I cant exactly compare a procedure done directly on my nerves to one of slicing and dicing but being its something I am used to going through about once a year at this point I honestly cant help but compare. I call the doctors office and leave a message for the patient coordinator saying I have a concern about the medication but that I didn't know if I should speak with her or the nurse who was scheduled to call the following day or if I should make another consultation appointment. I did not receive a call back from her but, when the nurse called the next day, she said she understood I had some concerns about my medications but that she would review the information she needed to first and then if I still had questions or concerns we could address them. I was a little off put by the fact that the coordinator didn't call back to tell me I could address it during my nurse call but instead just passed it on to the nurse but whatever that is a minor hangup on my part. So the nurse finishes her spiel none of which address my pain management concerns so I give her my lengthy background of pain management and tolerance issues. She basically just says to me well he is not going to give you anything more than the strength he has and he also will not issue any more than 30 of them. She says she knows this for a fact because he is very much a stickler about it. She basically tells me that doctor does not want me taking them for more than 2 days and that "quite frankly I shouldn't be needing to take more than 1 at a time anyhow". Needless to say this left me at a point where I actually second guessed doing the procedure and quite frankly, if I didn't still have some of the 7.5/350 Norco's to work with I probably would have cancelled the whole thing. Don't get me wrong I do get why doctors have to be really careful with this stuff. Your body naturally becomes addicted to it which is of course why it starts to work less and less for people like me. But I am not that person seeking out their next pain pill score. I mean let's be honest, if I was that person, I certainly wouldn't still have pills left over from a surgery two months ago. I am a just a patient with extremely high anxiety that has a long history of pain management issues and I just certainly feel like some of these things should be taken into consideration when a doctor makes medication choices rather than make one medication the blanket answer for everyone. Rant over! Updated on 16 Oct 2015: I knew coming into this week that my anxiety would likely be pretty out of control. I have suffered from anxiety and panic attacks for about 20 years so normally I have a decent set of coping skills and tools I have learned over the years. However, it seems when it comes to medical stuff that all goes completely out the window. I am a horrible patient because of it, which kind of just perpetuates the anxiety with worries of how I am handling things. What I didn't expect coming into this week was that my daughter would be hospitalized and the majority of my week was actually spent completely anxiety free since I was only focused on her (apparently only my own medical issues cause anxiety but I am like a rock for my kids medical issues, thank goodness). I thought for sure my sleep would suffer almost all week due to anxiety but I slept quite well. If there is one thing I can encourage for anyone with anxiety like mine, it is to KEEP BUSY as your surgery approaches! Unfortunately, my short break from the anxiety and worries ended today as my daughter is once again well and has been released home. So now my mind is working a mile a minute constantly with thoughts of Monday. Without a forced distraction, I can't seem to break myself out of it. Even when I try to force myself to be distracted it is so temporary that I am now worried that it is indeed going to be affecting the quality of my sleep for the next 3 nights. That shouldn't really be a big deal I know. So I have a few nights tough sleep. I will have plenty of time to rest when I recover right? Well that's my next topic. This isn't really just a 3 night concern for me. I read about others struggling to sleep elevated and on their back post procedure. I only sleep on my side and one of the reasons is due to my back issues I mentioned in my last update. I actually sleep with a pillow between my legs to help support my back pain which I know won't be happening laying on my back. I am sure that after a bit you grow accustomed to the new temporary positioning. That is unless you have a bad back like me and lying in these types of positions causes you pain. So that pretty much just fuels the anxiety even more worrying about how I am going to sleep for the next few weeks. Lastly, I wanted to include a couple pictures with a tape measure. Just simply because I have no idea what to expect measurement change wise and pictures like these have been one of the biggest reasons I had decided to share my story in the first place. I apologize in advance for any confusion my measurment pics may cause. I wasn't exactly sure what to measure or how so I just took some of things I thought may change. 3 days to go! Updated on 18 Oct 2015: Anxiety wise, I would say things have actually gone a lot better than expected. When I wrote my update 2 days ago, my anxiety was so intense that taking a Xanax didn't even touch it. I of course expected that it would only increase as time kept ticking but, it has actually subsided quite a bit. I haven't had any need to take any Xanax since. I would say I have kept relatively busy still but, there has also been a lot of downtime that I was shocked to not find consumed by anxiety. I have no doubt that this will kick into high gear tomorrow morning but I have a list of questions prepared for tomorrow that I have been jotting down as I think of them. My sleeping over the past 2 nights has not really suffered any. I am expecting tonight to probably be difficult but I am ok with that. I would actually prefer to be quite sleepy once I head over tomorrow. My surgery is scheduled for 12:30pm and they want me to arrive at 11:00am. They said typically they would have me arrive only an hour early but, the patient coordinator said she gave the doctor a little extra time for the surgery scheduled before mine so he may actually be ready for me before 12:30. I really hope so because one of the things I hate the most is that waiting period prior to surgery. It just gives me nothing to do but be anxious. I wish I could take something for anxiety prior to going over in the morning but I am not allowed to take anything at all. I am hoping that if the anxiety is too terrible, the anesthesiologist will give me something. That has been my experience with all my back procedures as well. My body just goes completely stiff and shakes non stop due to the anxiety. I need to be prepared for the possibility that the may not however because this is done under general whereas my back is done under twilight. I may post another update again in the morning as I sit for the hour and a half wait. If I don't, you can bet I will update tomorrow post procedure. Hopefully with some great pics! The thought of the fact that at this time tomorrow, I will be implant free and this build-up will actually come to fruition is almost surreal. All thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated! Updated on 19 Oct 2015: I made it and I don't have it in me to post many details right now but... one thing I wanted to make sure I let everyone know right away is that every single aspect went much better than I ever anticipated or expected. My pain is nothing like what I was expecting and is being well managed my the pain medication so far. This has a lot to do with the local anesthetic he used which the effects can last up to 4 days. More details on that to come as well. One nice surprise I had was that when doctor was marking me he indicated he was going to be harvesting the fat from my belly rather than under the arm. When he initially talked about harvesting fat I thought to myself "gee wouldn't it be nice if he took it from areas I really hate like my thighs or my belly rather than under the arm". I figured he was just choosing the area he thought would be best. As you can imagine I was thrilled to learn that my wish was going to actually come true! Now I have no idea how much he actually sucked from there but the whole belly is bruised so I will be curious to see if it was enough that I notice an actual difference to my belly. I'm kinda hopeful because even with the swelling it seems flatter than when I went in. Only time will tell so I am including belly pictures now as well. More details of procedure tomorrow after my shower so that I can include some pics of them without the bra! Updated on 19 Oct 2015: Not sure how helpful this pic is to what they really look like but it is all that I have to look at and go by at this point. Updated on 20 Oct 2015: My last post prior to my procedure I talked about how well I was managing with my anxiety. About 8pm that evening, it kicked into high gear again. It persisted throughout the night and as midnight approached I knew it was going to be my last chance to take a Xanax if I wanted it. I took the Xanax at 11:45pm and even though it helped some, I was still up until about 4am. I slept well once I did fall asleep. In fact, I had to be woken so that I wouldn't be late so that was a nice bonus not having to sit around all morning anxious. I arrived an hour and a half prior as asked by the nurse but, as I expected I was not called back until the actual time written on my paperwork which was 11:30. I wasn't thrilled with my nurse. She just didn't seem to have a very pleasant or compassionate demeanor so that didn't do much for my anxiety. By the time she got ready to do the IV I was a bawling mess. I have bad veins and it is often very difficult to start an IV on me. On top of that the nurses will often attempt to get it in, miss and then proceed to wiggle it around trying to get it right. It is not unusual to have about 3 attempts to get one in for me. She goes for her first attempt and misses and starts to move it around like I hate and ends up blowing the vein... I am now BEYOND a mess. She calls the anesthesiologist over and asks him to start it instead (thank goodness!). He misses a second attempt so he decides to just go ahead and put it in the crease of my elbow. He said normally they try to stay away from bends but he was not going to make me keep going through that. As soon as the IV is in, they give me some Versed and Fentanyl. I still have about a 15 min wait before I am wheeled back to surgery but all in all, once I was called back from the waiting room it all seemed to go by pretty quickly. I guess when I woke up I must have had a decent amount of pain because the nurse was giving me some more Fentanyl through my IV. I can't say it was anything memorable like waking up from the BA was. In fact I only know I was in a decent amount of pain because the nurse told me I was crying and seemed quite miserable but that she had given me 2 doses so far of the meds and that I seemed to be doing quite a bit better. From that point I was given 2 of the 5/350 Norcos and the pain was completely managed. The pain might have actually been managed a bit too well to be honest because I was pretty active yesterday. I was told to move around a lot, and I sat up most of the day, not even getting in the bed until quite late but today I think I am paying for it now that I am not as numb from the local. I was given Exparel which is a slow release local numbing agent. This basically had me totally numb yesterday on both my belly and breasts. Today, not so much. The drains have been a constant pain. Just the way the tubing sits under the compression bra is irritating to the skin and there is a constatnt feeling of pressure around there (I am assuming where the drain goes in but I can't see yet). My belly is severely bruised and still quite swollen. Gravity has allowed the swelling to make it's way to the left side of my outer labia. When I first saw it, I completely freaked out but thanks to this website, I now know it's normal since the lipo went on the lower portion of the belly. The pain meds are helping but not quite as well as yesterday and I am much, much more sore today. I will be posting day 2 photos later this evening when I am able to take dressings off and get my real first glimpse. Updated on 20 Oct 2015: Here are the first pictures I was able to get without the compression bra. I am having some leakage from the drain area which I was told was normal. I had assumed there was some dressing under the bra aside from the tape. When the nurse called today to check up she said I should be changing the dressing as needed so that if it's soaked through, I should change. So... I send my fiance to the store to get some new dressing. He comes back with a number of options, only one however that I was comfortable with (plain gauze). We undid everything only to find that there is no dressing underneath. Only the tape. We switched the bras so I would at least be in a clean one. I am now waiting on the nurse to call back to let me know if I should be using dressing or not on the leakage. The left side definitely had more work done than the right. He told me up front he thought they were uneven. I knew this anyhow because one implant had more cc's put in to even them. He told me he would put more fat in the one to try and get them more even but to remember that "they are sisters, not twins" lol. I am just assuming it was the left breast because that one is far more swollen, looks larger, has the leakage around the drain area and is draining more fluid. The belly area is slowly improving. It was much more darker looking this morning. Either my pants or the crease of where I am sitting are causing extra swelling in that area. The vaginal swelling has almost completely subsided. I debated including a picture of that and was going to just for the sake of others knowing what to expect but as I got ready for the tummy pics I noticed it was too late and it looks almost normal by now. Had I taken the belly pic last night, I wouldn't have been able to hide it had I wanted to! Updated on 21 Oct 2015: Pain stayed relatively manageable throughout night 2.The local anesthetic doctor used still had me pretty numb. The drains kept me pretty uncomfortable despite being numb so I was taking 2 5/350 Norco about every 4-6 hours. I "laid" (about a 45 degree angle) in the recliner most of the night but was unable to sleep. I finally dozed off for about an hour but I awoke to some pretty bad back pain so, I switched to propping myself up in the bed. I was able to sleep for about 4 hours like this but when I woke I was in really really intense pain. I could tell the painkillers were no longer effectively working in my system. The drains must have been laying in a way that they were poking into my skin and had cause skin pain and irritation. On top of that, my breasts felt like they were on fire. Very painful today. I did not do much of anything except for relax and rest. I had a few short naps here and there that I was actually able to make happen. I placed another call into the nurse again today because I can't help but be worried that day 3 is worse than day 1 or 2. Still waiting to hear back from her. I am not sure how I am going to tolerate these drains all weekend. I am anticipating another night of hit or miss naps since I have nothing I can currently do but wait to hear back from the nurse. I have been using ice, painkillers, Aleve and Advil (not at the same time). My left is still much more swollen than the right but it has hardly drained any fluid today at all. My belly is almost freakishly swollen. I look like i'm pregnant so I can't say that I am any longer hopeful about the benefits of him choosing that site to harvest. Updated on 24 Oct 2015: Day 4 ended up being just as difficult as day 3. I ended up calling the doctors office again and expressing my concern about these drains being in all weekend. I was worried because I am not getting much output from them (about 10-15 cc's a day) and I read that the longer they stay in, the increased chance of infection at the site. The doctors office had me come in and took a look at my drain log as well as removed the tape to check things out. He basically told me that he couldn't take the drains out, that they would be fine (some people have them in for weeks) and that if he did take them out too soon, there was the possibility they would have to be put back in. I also explained that it seemed strange that the pain was now increased to the point where I had just taken 2 of the Norcos an hour prior to arriving at his office and it was not even touching the pain. His response was that I needed to not be taking the narcotics and to get off of them. I asked him what it was he expected me to do about this increased pain because I have tried ice, Aleve, Motrin, Tramadol, Tylenol and of course the Norco and I am completely miserable. He called in a script for something called Toradol (which also does nothing to help) and taped me back up and sent me on my way. I will admit that I am convinced the majority of the pain I am experiencing is because of the drains and that a lot of this is mental too. As I explained before, I am not the best patient but, my anxiety has really made this whole recovery very difficult. I think it is a safe bet that the majority of people handle this quite well. I will still say it is not nearly as difficult as I anticipated. The incisions are of no bother whatsoever. The breasts are tender but nothing that is terribly painful The belly is still quite sore and bruised. Those drain sites though... those are the crux of everything I am currently finding wrong. They are a major source of anxiety, depression and mental and physical pain. I return to the doctor on Tue and am praying that the drains can come out at this point so that I can legitimately begin mending. I am attaching my first pic of the boobs without any tape. I am pleasantly surprised at the amount of breast tissue that I still have and although I can find a few things here and there to nit pick about, I would say overall I am pleased thus far. Just need to get through these last 3 days of drains. I am not myself right now. I have been in the bed for the last 2 days straight. Just ready to get back to some real recovery. Updated on 24 Oct 2015: Updated on 27 Oct 2015: I was a serious nervous wreck heading into my appointment today. I think my worst fear was that they wouldn't pull the drains but second to that was the idea I had in my mind of what the drain removal would be like. It wasn't pleasant but it wasn't as terrible as I had expected either. The best I can describe it was a stinging incredibly awkward and uncomfortable feeling. I do not want to use the word painful because I wouldn't quite find that accurate but it was certainly not pleasant. My body totally flailed. There is some burning within the breast once it was out but that subsided by the time I left. The right side had started becoming unbearably tender prior to the removal so it could not have come at at better time. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted in this recovery process and I am doing great for the first time since surgery. There is very little breast pain. The drain area is still tender but with nothing constantly rubbing on it, it's something that's totally manageable. The belly pain has become more prominent now that the drains are not distracting from it. It doesn't hurt if its not moving but to the touch or walking it is tender and hurts. It has a strange lumpiness to it too. Especially in the areas that were bruised the most. No one gave me any post lipo instructions so I suspect it's normal but can't be sure. I didn't actually see doctor today. Probably because he saw me last week when I called in freaking out. Just the drain removal and the nurse inspecting incisions and retaping. Follow up with doctor is in one month. Until then, I am to keep tape on them and change them weekly. Nurse said I will be taping for the next 3 months. I will post a new pic with no tape from today's appointment as well as an update belly progress pic with tomorrow's update on my sleeping woes! Updated on 1 Nov 2015: Since the drains came out, recovery feels like it really started speeding up. The only complaint I continued to have over the past week was my inability to sleep at an incline and on my back without causing myself some major back pain. My understanding is I am supposed to stay at least at an incline for 2 weeks. Well, 2 nights ago I decided I was so close to the 2 week mark I was going to try and sleep flat. This resulted in my actually turning on my sides throughout the night. I know this was probably bad but I must have really needed the sleep because I had no idea I was in this position AND it was the first night I slept fully through the whole night! I plan on calling the doctors office tomorrow to find out when I can sleep normal again (on my side). On to the physical side of healing. The drain holes seemed to have just closed right up without issue. I do not change my tape until 2 days from now so I am not entirely sure what lies beneath healing and scar wise although I am including the no tape pic from the last doctor visit. I found a strange area near where my drain that is either surgical glue that is falling off or a suture that has started to hang out. The area it is near does not really look like it had much of an incision so I suspect it is excess glue but I won't be pulling on it to find out. I trimmed the areas that were hanging down a bit closer to the skin and i will keep my eye on it. I am finding more balance in the breasts now whereas before I could see a significant difference between the left and the right. I still feel that one is higher however but I will give it time. With the bruising subsided I can see the significant reduction of stretch marked skin and veins that were visible. The tummy remains quite tender. There is still a band of lumpiness across part of the lower area and visibly it still seems rather swollen to me. I worry that there may be some collection of fluid or some other complication because I was given no information on what to expect there. Just another question for tomorrow's call. I did the best I could for comparison pics for now. I am at the mercy of my fiance and I noticed some were closer up than others. Updated on 1 Nov 2015: Updated on 3 Nov 2015: I have no idea why this situation was so dramatic and traumatic that it requires its own update but it was. I am to change this tape once a week for the next 3 months and although it has already been changed twice, this time was much different. I am not sure if it was the fact that it was my fiance and not the nurse who probably does this i don't know how many times a day. Or maybe it was because I was not in the doctor's office and this was this the first time doing it ourselves at home. Whatever it was, it was a huge ordeal and build up all leading to not really that big of a deal. I knew today was the day and had already enlisted my fiance to do the job. I have already had several near panic attacks and actually threw up once just putting antibiotic cream on the drain holes so I knew there was no way I would be able to do this job alone. I procrastinated all day until about midnight when he finally said it's either now or never because I want to go to bed. my anxiety was through the rough throughout it all. I cried several times even though there was really no real pain just the irritation of the tape coming off (for some stupid reason I insisted he do it slow where as the nurse literally just rips it off). In the end he did a great job and I realized it was not so bad after all. This is also the first time I have had the opportunity for up close wound inspection. I did not do this while the tape was off. I had him take pictures and I inspected them after the fact. I was totally amazed at the looks of lefty who I believe had the most work. She was the most swollen originally, she had the most drainage and she also had what looked to be some scabing under the tape but I was so so impressed. Righty was not as nice looking. She has a scab right at the T joint and one at the nipple. I would like to do further inspection but pictures will have to do for now. He says none of it is open it is just all scabbed over. In the pictures, to me it looks like a hole. Tomorrow I will post incision pics as well as the no tape picture from this evening as well as discuss a few other areas of concern once you can all actually see what I am talking about! Updated on 4 Nov 2015: As indicated in my last post, right is not healing as nicely (or at least doesn't look nearly as nice as left). There is some puckering that I am not happy with on right as well but I am hoping it smooths out as I have seen in others progress. Updated on 11 Nov 2015: First I will discuss all of the good stuff. Recovery has been really great. I am basically back to feeling like myself. I am back to all of my usual activities except for shooting shotgun. Even though I was cleared to do so, the thought of something kicking back onto my boob just doesn't sound like something I am ready to see if it is comfortable doing yet. I am sleeping really well. I was cleared to sleep on my side again. Even though this is the case, I find myself still starting my night on my back. When I do turn on my side during the night I am very self aware about it and I try to not stay on one side for too long. Only because it makes me feel as though I am putting too much pressure on them and I am still paranoid of my incisions opening. Regardless, I am sleeping comfortably and it is a restful sleep so that is all that matters. My tummy is no longer tender. There is still some lumpiness but it is very minor and seems to improve every day. Now on to my complaints. The itching has been relatively uncomfortable. It is not constant but when it starts, it is always right on the lower incision line and I am not really comfortable scratching in that area so I kind of just suffer. It is pretty short lived though so only about 15 min at a time will it be irritating and only maybe 1-2 times a day. I also still have a suture that is poking out of the skin. I had initially trimmed it hoping it would come out soon on its own but it is still there all short and stubly constantly poking out. The more I heal, the more I also notice that the left is not only larger but it sits lower as well. Now I understood that there was some asymmetry prior and he even said that they won't be twins but will be sisters BUT, I would think that something as far as where they sit is totally within his control. I had a lift so why would size difference effect where they sit on my chest. Obviously I am not a doctor so I could be totally wrong. Maybe the asymmetry does create that problem. I also started to worry that maybe the left has some fluid build up which is causing it to continue to be larger and hang lower. I sure hope not because I do not want needle aspiration but this would probably be my number one complaint esthetically. I noticed the really large pleat I had around the right nipple is much better than last week. The tape that was on 2 weeks ago had been holding it together in a way that really accentuated the pleat temporarily. When we changed tape this week I noticed it was a lot less significant and I think the only reason it still sticks out from the other pleating is due to the scab right at the location pulling at it. Not pleased with any pleating but most of it is very minor other than that spot and I still have a lot of faith that time will really smooth things. I know from this site that with stuff like that it often just takes patience. I'd like to believe the same about the height difference in my boobs too but I am having trouble giving that as much faith. I know we are much more critical of ourselves than anything and perhaps this difference is completely unnoticeable and negligible to most but with that said, I shouldn't have to just be happy with the idea either. There is also a strange ridge of fatness on my tummy. I am guessing it is simply an area above the area he did the lipo so it doesn't quite blend with the rest of the tummy. Now I feel it is very important to say that regardless of my minor hangups, this is a decision I am completely happy to have made. It feels fantastic to be free of the implants. It feels even better to not have gigantic breasts. I would do it all again without hesitation even if it meant uneven breasts. Lets hope though that is not the case and that this is just a minor bump in the road. Updated on 19 Nov 2015: Today's visit was pretty routine. Doctor said things are healing great and that he thinks the scars are going to turn out very nicely due to the taping. He said he could tell that I am consistent with my tape. He removed 2 sutures today. One that has been sticking out forever and bugging me so I was glad to see that go. The other was on a spot that i had not noticed was quite raised and swollen until I arrived at the docs. I knew it was itchy as was the other suture site and I could feel that it was raised slightly but I had assumed it was just scabbing since I am tapped all the time and can not actually see it. Once the tape was off I started inspecting the area and realized I had the same suture issue on the opposite side as well. At this point this one was sticking out as well so I was even more relieved to have to one gone after seeing the swelling. He assured me it was just irritation from that suture. Things I am currently not liking: I am still kind of hung up on feeling as though the left hangs lower but I do feel it has become less noticeable. I am either getting used to it or some swelling is still subsiding. After seeing the suture swelling issue on that side today, I am more confident that I have a ways to go. My right nipple. For some reason I never even noticed this until changing tape Tue night but, my right nipple seems oddly shaped now. Almost as if I stretched it somehow during healing. It's no longer round to me, it seems oblong. On both sides when looking straight down, I see some slight indenting on the inside of each nipple. I hope it's that scabbing still holding the skin funny. The doctor's response to all this is that he doesn't agree and I just need to give it time. Lots of time. I agree one month is nothing in the big scheme of things so I will remain positive and hope my areas of concern improve with time! Updated on 8 Feb 2016: I have been meaning to do this post ever since I hit the 3 month mark but time has just escaped me. I can hardly believe it has been almost 4 months already. I feel like I even have lost track of my recovery because at this point, I feel 100% completely normal and healed and quite frankly sometimes find it hard to believe that I even had a surgery a few months ago. It has honestly been since about the 4 week mark that I really have complained of anything other than some minor itching here and there. Many of my visual hangups I was having previously have subsided. I am constantly remarking how much I love them and what a great job I think that he did. I used nothing but paper tape on my scars consistently for the entire 3 months that was suggested. I think it did a fantastic job. I have absolutely no complaints regarding my scars aside from a small area on my nipple that is healing slightly behind the rest of the skin due to scabing. There is still strange bump on the left outer edge underneath that I don't quite understand. It continues to itch on occasion and I will likely ask the doctor to check it sooner than the 6 month mark if that continues. If something becomes of that, I will report again sooner but otherwise I will update again in a couple of months after my 6 month check up. I am thrilled that I made the choice to do this procedure. The boobs I have now are honestly the boobs I had really desired all along when I went for the implants in the first place. If that is one piece of wisdom I can share going forward is: Do the lift instead of the implants if you are contemplating between the two. It will save you some money :)
Hello All, 18 Hours since surgery. Chest covered with ice packs. Just took second dose of antibiotics and third dose of Norco. I have a painbuster ball that seems to be keeping me pretty numb at the incision site. My left breast has had more bleeding than the right. There is no sign of bleeding at all on the right whereas my left will need redressing as soon as my helper wakes up. There isn't really any pain just soreness similar to if you had worked out really well. Leaning forward or any motion that causes activity at the incision spot UNDER the breast is a definite no no. Sharp needle like pain shoots out and reminds you to relax. Once I slept off the anesthesia around 6:30pm my appetite slowly returned. I started with crackers and ended with a turkey sandwich. No nauseausness or dizziness so far. All in all it's been pretty mellow. Two of my close friends have been with me all day but I haven't needed them to do very much aside from reaching for things. I will update after my first shower and redress. I'll try to post some photos of before and now. Even though I'm swollen my two friends and I can definitely see a difference. Before I go let me tell you one thing... ICE ICE ICE. I think the combo of the painbuster and the ice are the real reason I've been seemingly pain free. Until next time,
I went in for an eye lid lift in 2018. He felt that I needed a brow lift instead. I asked what to expect and he said that I would experience a little pain for a couple months and the usual recovery from the two small incisions at the scalp area. He failed to tell me that I would have strong pains on my entire crown of my head for several months and numbness for a year now. I have slowly regained the ability to “scratch an itch”, yet not fully. My brows look good. I do not complain about the work that Dr. Smith did, but my eye lids are still very aged looking. The pain and discomfort that I had for quite sometime was not worth it. He did not properly prepare me for the level of pain that I had nor did it give me nice looking lids again. $20,000 later.
I would not recommend this doctor to anyone. completely ruined my nose. went in to get my deviated septum fixed as well as the bump taken off. he wouldn't give me anything close to the nose I wanted and I came out looking 10x worse than I did before. my tip points completely to the left and it looks as if I was hit. I have never received anything positive about it, only friends saying that they can't believe I actually paid money for this. not to mention it looks like a different nose from each side of my face. im so embarrassed and ashamed to have to have this on my face and now have to invest thousands more to correct a job that should have been done correctly the first time. definitely going elsewhere for the correction. for the photos: first 3 are before, last ones are two years post
The only saving grace was the peripheral staff. This experience was atrocious and I have been left mutilated. I am not sure if I was just not an ideal patient to him, but he treated me coarsely and did a horrible job with the surgery and followup. My husband tried to talk me out of surgery with him after meeting Dr. Smith. My scarring looks like a cog in a child's toy. I will need painful surgery to fix it (from a different doctor), though I will never look natural again. I should have known and should have searched google prior to my decision. The reviews on google reflect the same sort of experience I had.
I am scared and not sure how big to go. I want them to be proportional to my body. I don't want people to judge me and suddenly think I have boobs that are way too big for my body. I would gladly take any help or suggestions.
I would contact your insurance carrier to determine what their medical policy is for the coverage of Botox. I have had one patient that we were able to obtain coverage for injections due to his TMJ diagnosis. Unfortunately, many carriers do not cover this service but it would be worth a phone call to them to inquire.
I typically recommend my patients wear their garments for 4 - 6 weeks post operatively depending on the procedure. As far as pain; there will be discomfort following the procedure that can be managed with pain medication. The majority of my patients discontinue their narcotics within 48 hours of surgery and switch to Ibuprofen as needed.
