I have always had a pretty face with very large cheeks. I love my smile, my eyes. As I age I notice that I am getting hollows under my eyes. With makeup, these hollows become more pronounced. Lately, I've had some people comment that I look tired. I researched fat transfer to face here on RS and read some pretty good reviews and seen very good results. I told Dr. Chike-Obi that I was concerned of how "cadaverous" my face is becoming with age, and since I was getting lipo done, would he be able to do a fat transfer to fill in my face with some of the fat that is pulled? He said sure. "It would help." I really thought that I would look a lot better and I don't. Before the surgery, at the preop meeting a week before, I had shown him a picture of J-Lo. Her face has definetely had a couple of procedures, and the disappearance of her under eye circles (hollows) is incredible. He laughed and said it was photo shop. I should have taken that as a big red flag. I really thought he was joking! I have seen some beautiful and really well done fat transfer to face transformations here on RS, so I know it is possible! He did such and incredible job on my breasts (BA last year) I really thought he was being completely humble. I honestly had no idea what to expect, other than that fat would me injected around the areas I want improved. One review I read by a doctor describing what he does told of very small injections. Okay, I thought to myself. I could deal with that. Now, a month and a half post op I now have a crooked face, huge huge huge and ugly cheeks, and no improvement what so ever of the hollows under my eyes. Perhaps, they are even worse since my cheeks are so pronounced? I really am upset. My left laugh line is half as long as my right, whereas they were completely even before. My left under eye hollow has a horrible wrinkle in it and both hollows seem more pronounced than ever. My right cheek ridge is higher than my left one. My face is now crooked. The procedure for the fat transfer: I was punctured about a dozen times throughout my face, and cheeks with numbing fluid prior to the lipo. to my thighs. After the lipo was performed the fat injections to my face started. They freakin' hurt! Every squirt of fat felt like a bullet going in under my skin, and a marble was left behind. I remember reaching up to my right cheek during the procedure at one point, after a yelp. The Dr. seemed to pretty much stop after that. Because I had smart lipo performed before the fat graft, I was still wearing the adhesive eye protectors. I was blind. The injections were started from my chin and jaw line, and with a very long needle, the fat was inserted up along my high cheek bones under the cheek fat pad vertically upward. No where else. I felt every puncture and every squirt. Two stitches, one on each side of my mouth at my jaw line, were done up, and my head was bandaged. My face swelled up so bad, especially my cheeks, I couldn't stop biting the inside of my face every time I closed my mouth. The next day at followup I showed the Dr. the inside of my mouth. The horrid inner cheek bite marks and swelling. He didn't seem to care. He was too busy checking out my thigh lipo. I was pretty frustrated with that follow up, and even more so with the 3 week follow up. He didn't even look at my face. I asked him about my eyes. I told him that I had wanted the under eye circles / hollows improved and he just said something about my tear troughs are improved. First, I haven't a clue what tear troughs are. Second, he did not in any way tell me how this fat transfer will improve, or if it will improve with time. Third, he reminded me that most of the fat will be absorbed and the swelling will go down, but it will take months. I really think this plastic surgeon is much better suited at breasts and lipo. Face stuff is not his forte. And I feel like I wasted $1500 I did not have. I really trusted my PS to give me a noticeable good result, and with no favorable result at all my husband is pissed at me and told me that I should not trust this place ever again. So what did I do next? I asked to see the nurse who does the facials and lasering. I bought a package of laser treatments to clear up my skin, tighten the collagen, and primarily to brighten my skin by removing redness and the small red capillaries all over my nose and cheeks. My husband doesn't even know. The first thing I did when I saw her was ask her if the lasering would melt or reduce the fat grafted to my face. She assured me that it will not. I told her I did the fat graft to the face to reduce the hollows under my eyes. She replied with a bunch of BS about how "much better" and "how much improved my tear troughs are". WTH? She had never met me prior, never seen my before pictures that are in my Dr.'s files.... So, I had been had. She just gave me a couple of lies to try to make me feel better. How would she know that the fat transfer did anything, or that I have favorable results in the area I was concerned about the most? At this point I still feel a line of marbles along the cheek bone ridge under the skin on each side of my face. It took 4 weeks of sleeping face up before I could turn my head to the side without pain. The lipo. pain had been gone from my legs by week 3, so I was dying to sleep on my side like I normally do. Even now, laying my head on my side on the pillow is a discomfort. My face, especially my cheeks, are very tender to the touch. I really hope that at my next followup the PS will do some comparison pictures. I need to know what I am looking at! For the $, seeing how others have paid as little as $400 as an "add on procedure", I feel ripped off. I was definitely over charged for an add on face fat graft. I had already paid for my lipo, and was already scheduled for it in the fabulous and convenient operating suite at the downtown Westlake surgery center, but the PS bumped my operation to an earlier start time to accommodate the added fat graft. They added an hour, but the fat graft couldn't have lasted more than 5 minutes it felt like at the time. Overall, as much talent that Dr. Chike-Obe has with other plastic surgery procedures, I can't believe how bad this one turned out. It's not like he ruined my face completely, but it is noticeably crooked and my cheeks are much bigger. I feel uglier and think this was a bad decision. I have no idea how my face could even be fixed. Updated on 5 Mar 2015: So the Dr. says that we really can't tell what the final results will be until at least another 4 weeks. I will see him again then and we will discuss options and where I'm at. Pictures will be taken and we will compare before and after shots. He did say that, when my face moved and as I was speaking, he could tell minor imperfections in the right side of my face compared to my left. I pointed out the larger R side smile line and the larger L side under eye hollow - what is referred to as the tear trough. I asked exactly what he did that proceedure. He explained that his technique for a longer lasting fat graft is to use an extremely small cannulae needle (but long) to insert a line of fat in three areas. The first area was under the eyes at the cheek bones, not in the hollows. He did 5.5ccs under each eye. The second area was the smile lines with about 2 ccs each, and the third area was at the corners of my mouth in the chin with 3.5 ccs each side. You can not tell at all that I had any fat inserted at the chin. That should have been much more! The smile lines, well, the left is much better looking than the right. The cheeks...I almost broke down and cried when I told him that I wanted the eye hollows not my huge and ugly cheeks. I hate my cheeks. Now they are huge. He says that I'm still a bit swollen. We will see. He was very nice, informative, and compassionate yet - as always - professional. It does still hurt to let my face touch my pillow at night. The R cheek is more swollen than the L one, so hopefully that means it's just swelling (not a marble/lump) that will disappear in a month. Overall, the Dr. said that fat transfers are supposed to be performed as a series. I didn't know that. Updated on 19 Mar 2015: Now that the swelling is reduced, probably completely down, my cheeks have flattened out along the sides nicely, but horribly over protrude at the check bone crest. It still is too painful for me to lay my cheek on my pillow at night. I sleep face up. Very uncomfortable. The chin looks good, the smile lines look okay. The left smile line is shorter than the right one. When I talk and move my face the right smile line is extremely noticeable. The left one not so much. The left smile like looks twenty years younger than the right side. I think touching the face should only be done by an expert. I see know why so many celebrities do 5 - 12 itty bitty fat grafts over years and years at a time, versus what I experienced. My PS told me this fact AFTER my fat transfer to face. My under eye hollows - what I wanted improved or filled in and to disappear - are actually worse. Don't touch your face. Unless you have $20k to blow and years of itty bitty fills by an experienced PS to do them. I regret doing this and feel like my cheeks are too big and clownish. I feel so ugly now! Updated on 19 Mar 2015: Explanation of what I experienced. Updated on 19 Mar 2015: http://www.realself.com/review/los-angeles-fat-transfer-seeking-removal-bad-experience-fat-facts-hope-future And I forgot to mention all of the insane broken capillaries throughout my cheeks! I was not warned that my face would turn red with broken capillaries! I am seeking laser treatments for it, but after two so far NOTHING is changing. The PS did not mention that my face would turn red, and that broken veins and capillaries would appear everywhere! Updated on 24 Mar 2015: Yes, the capillaries are still here, and two of four $1500 laser facials to get rid of them is not working! I think the laser treatments need to be more aggressive! I will mention this at my next laser appointment. The tech wants to take pictures and compare. Last time I went in I complained big time! I have had cherry hemangiomas removed by my dermatologist in one session about 7 years ago. They were on my chest and arms. Zap, turned black, scabbed, fell off and left perfect skin. This is what is supposed to happen to the capillaries in my face. But it's not happening. This picture shows the large, newly formed after the fat graft, capillaries in my cheek. It also shows how the under eye hollow is still there (actually worse!), and how my cheek protrudes outward from my face like the Joker. Unnaturally. I was never told that my face shape would change. I was never told that the PS would alter the shape of my face! Sorry my phone's camera doesn't have a fine, macro setting. This was the best I could do. Updated on 8 Apr 2015: I went to alla moda med spa in Austin TX and had a consult with the laser geeks there. These two spa owners are the top laser gurus in this city. They train and certify others at a med school. I showed them my concerns. For $150 they told me that the proper wavelength will immedietely collapse and make all capillaries disappear. If the laser technitian at Westlake Dermatology is not giving me immediate results she must be either incompetent or a rip off artist! Then, they lasered some spots on my arms to prove their point. 4 days later I had my 3:4 lasering appt. with Amber at Westlake Dermatology. I told her how I had a paid session with the top laser tech. instructors here in Austin and what they taught me. Amber became defensive but said she would give me results. She took pictures of my cheeks, did the laser procedure to remove the capillaries and redness, and then took followup pictures. The results were immediate. So, that proves that Amber at Westlake is a rip off artist. I paid $1500 for four sessions and only needed one. ARRRRRRRRRRRG. Her defense was that I have some superpower to deflect her laser. "most women walk out of here with a sunburn from the laser. your face has a few red spots, but the redness immediately vanishes." Great way to try to blame me on how you did not just do your job girlee. *rolls eyes* The lasering immediately collapsed all of my broken capillaries. That has made me feel so much better already! It's bad enough I'm walking around like a fk'n chipmunk, but the vascular damage has been removed! Updated on 1 May 2015: Dr Chikie Obi sent me to his colegues to fix my concerns. First, they filled my under eye hollows with HA to immedietely reduce the hollows. I still have circles, but the right eye is looking great, the left eye could use more. [RS bleep], I wish I had know to just do this! Then, steroids to meld the fat that was overfilled in the front of my face was performed. Lastly, more lasering to eliminate the big ones that Amber just couldn't get. One more lasering perhaps will be needed with my followup tomorrow. I have to say that I am very much more at peace knowing that Dr. Chiki Obi helped me and was genuinely concerned with my distress. I know that I made a mistake and was completely ignorant that my face would change shape, and he understood. I have to say that even though I made the mistake to NOT Tell him what I absolutely did not want, he has done everything he could to rectify this problem. I trust him completely again and have learned a huge lesson in all of this. Again, the Westlake staff and doctors are all angels and I feel horrible to think for a second that they didn't have my best interests and goals in mind. They really do. Updated on 20 May 2015: one medical doctor placed HA under the eye hollows. It immediately plumped up the area and reduced the hollows, but the right eye area has a line that still has not disappeared. He tried to massage it into my face at the time, which resulted in a black eye. The one week follow up with him was "it is still swollen and will reduce." I see how silken HA could work well, if it's done correctly. I'm not the kind of gal where you can massage away any fill mistakes. So far the large line of HA is still there. The left eye circle is not at all bumpy from the Restylane HA fill. Another doctor, a medically licensed dermatologist, placed fat dissolving steroid shots in my cheeks to reduce the swelling and protrusion. Both doctors agreed that the shape of the cheeks were overfilled and not at all age appropriate. I'm very happy with the results of this steroid injections. I feel comfortable with the shape of my cheeks now! Overall by the doctors' recommendation to tighten up the facial skin, fraxel as well as IPL was performed. The fraxel was intense and after three days of the burned skin to fall off, my skin is smoother and some of the pores are tighter. The IPL to even out my redness and remove capillaries appears to be working, but I still have capillaries. I honestly expected them to be gone by now, so I have no idea why they haven't been collapsed and eliminated after 4 IPL sessions to do so have occurred. The doctors emphasized a diet that is free of spices, vit.E, alcohol. I've stuck to this in the hopes that my skin's capillaries will dissolve from the treatments. I've even eliminated all heavy weightlifting. Updated on 4 May 2016: I want to say that I psychologically freaked when the shape of my face changed. Dr. Chikei-Obi was very caring later and I thanked him for helping me get through that. I found out quite a lot about myself. My face looks great now - still have capillaries problems I will have to fight for life, cosmetically? By month 9 post op of the fat graft all of the corrective fillers and cortisone shots sculpted my face perfectly. All of the doctors at Westlake handled me perfectly. I will be going in soon for more under eye fillers, the temples too, and will avoid cheek injections at all costs! Fat grafts are no joke! I think they are great for plumping areas that need more swole, like my butt, why didn't I go for my butt? lol. But I would say stick to HA injections for the face and if you want to avoid plumping your cheeks, be sure your dermatologist is injecting your temples to lift them.
I'm 63 inches, 115 lbs, 12% body fat. I'm nervous because of how little body fat I have and since I'm a fitness model I need these boobs to look natural. (most women are at 20 - 35% body fat) My PS just did a fitness trainer 8 weeks ago and she looks great, but she's only at 25% body fat. My biggest questions at the preop will be my concern over my low body fat percentage and how to make sure the BA looks as natural as possible. As a body builder, figure coach I have always had clients who did it. I advocate it. I added some bulk muscle mass to my body and now my chest (flat chest) is out of proportion. So, time to do it! I'm scared but excited. It will be under the crease incision, silicone, under the pectoral muscles. Kinda bummed that I will be not allowed to lift or yoga or ninja warrior or pushup/pull up at all for 6 weeks. Eek. So if anyone is a fitness / body builder and has done this please share your experience! Updated on 24 Mar 2014: in 2 hours my husband and I will be meeting our PS to determine the sizes. I'm shooting for a c cup, and natural look, but I def. want some boobage! I will return here later today to share with you all what occured. Wish me happiness and perfect boob thoughts! Can't believe that this time next Monday I will have finished my BA. Updated on 24 Mar 2014: So my super awesome husband has been behind my idea since I first mentioned it a year ago, and last month when I said I wanted BA he was, nonchalantly, supportive. He will do anything for me and is such a gentleman. He came along today for the preop, we met our PS. Dr. Chike-Obi. What a nice and mellow doctor. He answered all of our questions, educated us and was very patient with us. It took 2 hours for me to get measured (I'm symmetrical except a tad leaner on the right pec side), decide on size (I'm going silicone 325cc each), and paperwork. I asked about size differences and he said even if I were assymetrical, most women are, he would keep the implants the same because different implant ccs = different widths and you DON'T want two differing widths of implants! Whew. This guy is good. Also talked about capsular contraction and the studies and latest theory of what causes it is a) patient has infected glands so adding implant triggers body's response b) going through the nipple may be a leading cause. I am going under the pec muscles and the cut will be under the boob crease. This will ensure least amount of complications or chance of capsular contraction he says. Talked about shape, I thought I wanted high profile. lol, wrong. High profile means 325ccs will be in a cone and that is not what I want. I'm going 325cc in a regular, to ensure that the implant fits my current breast width, yet giving me volume. VOLUME, baby! That's what I want. So, starting with 200cc, and trading each implant out of my sports bra until I got to 400cc helped me decide what I wanted. Originally I was checking out shape, but the Dr. made it clear that "don't look at shape, look and feel the volume". OK. Decided the 325cc were a tad bit bigger than the look I wanted, but felt alot better than the 300cc volume. Tried on my shirt. yep, 325cc each it is! My meds: minocycline hcl for antibiotic promethazine hcl for nausea tramadol for muscle relaxer emend prior to surgery, just one flexeril 3x day for 10 days muscle relaxer I'm allowed to take kava kava when it runs out. Basics like no blood thinners and what to wear were covered, as well as expect chest pressure first two days, like a hard workout feeling. I thought I was getting Twilight anestesia, but it looks like they will be knocking me out. good. I don't want to know about it. I will wake up and my husband will drive me home to rest. The next day is a follow up appt., and a week later as well. I purchased my scar therapy silicone pads already, and am all set to be wearing them for the next 3 months as the scars heal up. No tubing, lake swimming, surfing, pool swimming for 6 weeks.... okay. *sad face* I plan on coconut water, soups and brisket for meals once I can. Especially until my body wakes up by day 2 or 3 from the anestesia. (All digestive functions cease due to it, and until it's out of the body you shouldn't eat! Only hydrate). I'm guessing that the first day or two I will be on a liquid diet. No prob. I'm very excited and nervous but feel that the staff and the Dr. are so nice, professional and have answered all of my questions so well I'm in great hands! The only thing is I have not, and do not plan on, told my parents. My mom is extremely judgemental and rude. She competes with me so I see this as something that, if she has any sense whatsoever, she will just not talk about. If it comes up I will just brush her off. That is really why I'm so nervous about my family and what they will say once they notice.... Updated on 24 Mar 2014: When I said that I want to get rid of my chicken chest the Dr. laughted. I said, you know, the boniness right here. I want to wear v shaped plunging necklines but look sexy! I'm so flat chested and I want to look natural when I wear a plunging neckline. The Dr. said I look like Amy Adams, size wise, and that I had to look up her images online. Wow, exactly cool look I want. He implied that is what I will end up with. We'll see! Updated on 24 Mar 2014: ***********this doctor is a geek of plastic surgery. he is all about the health aspects of the details and recovery, yet mastered how to acheive the look requested by a client. I've witnessed transformations of people I know who have gone to him, and I'm excited that it's my turn. Even though he's not plastic surgery board certified (doesn't matter to me) I am confident in this man's abilities. He's not a BSer and made it clear that if I requested something that would not acheive the look I wanted he would not do it. Like going 400cc or more for the natural look I want. ;)Also, his after pics are amazing. He's giving us his cell phone number the day of surgery and we can call and text him. I won't be doing that, I would probably feel better not bothering the man and will call the nurses at the office if I had a question. I was put at ease by him a couple of times during the consult, preop when I started to get overwhelmed. He seems to care but also has a gift for bedside manner.He also offers the ability to back out of the proceedure. Prior to my preop I could have cancled everything and the $200 deposit would be credited to me for anything else, like future surgery or cosmetic proceedures or dermatology or skin care products. There was no pressure, so sales tactics, no joking, no off the cuff remarks, just very professional attitudes and behaivors. Updated on 24 Mar 2014: http://www.antesydespues.com.ar/en/20-famosas-que-se-operaron-los-senos/?f=ensb#&panel1-16 still making sure I have some pics to bring in the day of my operation pointing out what I want and what I don't want! Updated on 25 Mar 2014: so, three of the 5 meds that the doc prescribed for me I can't take. I did a quick search online about the drug ingredients as my gastroenterologist taught me, because I don't trust that the PS's office staff did. Sure enough, problems. http://www.rxlist.com/solodyn-drug.htm minocycline hcl and tramadol both have PPG (polyethylene glycol 3350 NF) which is a laxative because it kills the lining of your digestive tract, thus shedding the vital layer of your small and large intestines along with anything inside the. Way not cool. I need my digestive tract. promethazine hcl has wheat in it as a starch base, and that will trigger my celiac and cause death. Not cool at all. I plan on shopping for bras today as well as getting my blood work done. I'm waiting on the doc. office to call me back later today. *sigh* Updated on 25 Mar 2014: My husband and I were looking over the reviews here on realself this morning. I'm getting better at seeing the differences at over vs. under implants and shape of implant high vs moderate. I definetely am confident about my shape choice of moderate and my husband agrees. I'm a bit ambivilant about how big my implants will be, 325cc silicone seems big to me, but I keep rereading my post from yesterday's thoughts on our fitting/sizing experience and that sets me straight again. I start doubting myself when nervous so having my own thoughts down in this blog is very helpful! I have to say I absolutely hate the look of anyone who has had over the pec muscle implants. I am not saying I hate that person, just the look. There is such and obvious (to me) difference in how unnatural and fake it looks (to me). I'm confident that the temporary discomfort of under muscle implantation will be worth it for a natural look. I really am excited about this and keep thinking to myself, "boobage! I will have boobage!" lol. I think everyone's boob reviews that I read all look great. I've not come across any that made me cringe, unlike octomom or some other celeb pics that I have come across on the web. That makes me feel better about plastic surgeons as a whole - you know, that they care about the average woman who wants BA. I stopped looking at celebrity pics yesterday because I couldn't take it any more. OMG, what happened to Meg Ryan's face? And when will Donnatella V. quit? lol. This is my first cosmetic surgery proceedure, but I know that 10 years from now, depending on my body fat percentage and body shape, I will probably get BA done again to resize. That seems to be the norm here in Austin TX. So many women have BA here. I hate to say it but I think being surrounded by women with perfect breasts when I moved here started to give me boob envy! I am happy to say I've given in. This summer I will be rocking my bathing suit with boobage for the first time in my life. Between my perfect ass (my best asset!) and my fake boobs I think this will be the first time in my life I can actually say that I will feel like I will look sexy. I've never looked sexy, only cute or girlish. I've never had a problem being cute. But as of last summer I had a desire to look sexy. weird. Well, I'm ready. No children and living a lifestyle of always being active left me busy to always have fun, but my idea of fun is motorcycle racing, extreme sports, and travel. As I hit middle age last year I accept that I should slow down a bit and since I'm not getting any younger, yet I have the body of a 20 something year old, why not try on sexy? Not obscene or trampy, just classic Betty Page kinda style.... oh man, tmi? lol. You all have these thoughts too, right? lol. okay, off to get my chores done. Later, fellow BAers! Updated on 25 Mar 2014: so, we finally got my meds straight. the five of them are gluten free, ppg free, color free and will be in plain white tablet form. People's Pharmacy, who is super cautious about this kinda thing and can mix/compound any drug custom was extremely helpful with my Doc.'s office. Nurse Jen handled everything well, even when I was panicking a bit. Walgreens didn't do squat and even said that they didn't care. Wow. I could die but you won't even look up the prescriptions to check to see if they are gluten free? Good bye. Never going there again. Augmentin 500mg for antibiotic Promethazine anti nausea Norco and Extra Strength Tylenol for pain management Flexeril muscle relaxer Emend pre op for anti nausea whew. Also just purchased my bras, a back support for the recliner, neck pillow travel ring and my chiropractor gave me a wedge pillow. She's the first person I shared with about the BA. She was cool and told me that she did hers 10 years ago when she was 50 and it was no problem! I was happy to hear that. Updated on 26 Mar 2014: well, I'm excited that I'm a few short days away from boobs. Yesterday I did my bloodwork (super small vial was taken) at Any Lab Test Now. Pretty good walkin lab. I told Brian the technician "I'm a fainter" and he was an angel. Just a prick and it was over. I have my neck roll, wedge pillow and back chair support purchased and ready. I've made some paleo banana oatmeal cookies for myself to munch and some chili stock. I can't eat tomatos, avocados, cyanne pepper or anything else that is a blood thinner a week prior to surgery, but a few days after I can eat them. I'm going through chili withdrawls! lol. So the stock is ready, some for me, some for my husband to have since I will not be cooking for a few days after surgery. I feel pretty set! Updated on 26 Mar 2014: well I want to share with you fellow BAers my costs: anesthesia $400 + $700 = $1100 Surgery and mentor memory get silicone 325ccs = $4400 Scar treatment patches (8 count) = $19.95 Neck pillow and back support = $17 Two front open bras = $17. 80 each Blood count lab = $25 Metabolic panel lab = $30 Scar therapy gel and chest strap = free from PS Wedge seat pillow = free from chiropractor kava kava for week 2 post op = $3 amazon.com still taking my B3, B6, B12, amino acids, DHEA, vit K1, AZO yeast, D3 and dropped down to one fish oil supplement a day. Will up my potassium and magnesium as I get closer to surgery. Updated on 27 Mar 2014: ouch , Emend that one little pill they recommended that I take right before surgery for anti nausea is $95. It better be worth it! hydrocodone acetaminophen 10 day supply $35 5 Promethazine tablets $10 amoxacillin and clavulanate 10 day supply $50 cyclobenzapr 10 mg tab 3xday for 10 days $20 so meds totaled $210, and I can't believe how expensive that emend is. Has anyone not taken it? I hate having to take so much crap, but I know I probably will need the anti nausea ones and hope to wean off of those asap. The pharamicist made it really clear to me that I must take a probiotic in the middle of the day to help prevent a total digestive system bug collapse. The antibiotic will absolutely wipe out every bacteria in my body so a probiotic is a must during and after the med. I had no idea you can do probiotic while on an antibiotic, but she said if I didn't I would have serious problems. ok. covered. I think I need to set my med schedule up... My husband will be home day one and in the am of day two to take care of me. It looks like all my fellow BAers were up and running around by day two. :) I really hope I will be too. Today I woke up excited, thinking for the first time to myself, "soon you will have boobs!" I am actually getting happy. I'm surprised at myself. Physically, in preparation for this surgery I stopped all heavy resistance training 4 weeks ago and switched to a fat burn aerobic and cardio interval training cycle. Psychologically I hate these cycles because I naturally get stringy so quickly. I prefer the plump pump look versus the look my body really wants to adapt to, the gymnast look. Other than the fact that I've lost plump and all of the intense stretching of my upper body has me a bit sore I'm feeling great. Bridges, arm and shoulder stretches, chest stretches... probably will not be doing any of them until 7 weeks after surgery. Doc.'s orders. But my fellow BAers that I personally know were so active by week 7 so I know I will do great with my recovery. Updated on 28 Mar 2014: oh, so anxious! I asked the office if I could come in today to see after pictures of women my size, admitting how anxious I am and that I just need to double check my decision. They were very polite and said, 1130? So nice! I just feel like I need to see after pics by the doc one more time. Ones similar in size to me, not the hundreds of D, E, F cup boob sizes that were mixed in. I am also a nervous wreck about the after surgery bra. I can't seem to find one anywhere here and the two I ordered from Amazon may be too big? Hmm. I recieved one in the mail yesterday and the other should be here by tomorrow.... But I found it too tight and the cup size seemed huge. I'm drinking tons of mineral water with a squeeze of lemon, and just tryig to hydrate. My tom started today, so I'll be switching from my diva cup to an instead day of the surgery. (Insteads allow you to void so you don't have to keep removing and emptying the cup). The instead should last me those extra 2 or 3 days of shark week without having to pull and clean it if I just can't. Thank God for cups. Updated on 30 Mar 2014: well, I'm all set. Friday I double checked the after pics of women my size and talked with Dr. Chike-Obi. Way cool. Then I ran down the highway to the outlet mall and picked up two of the zip zip hooray playtex bras which will do nicely later in the future. The metal front zipper was much better than the crappy plastic one Champion had. And those bras are super comfy. Today my husband took some before shots and we laughed about saying good bye to them. The new addition is much anticipated. Then the VF outlet had a cotton close front bra for $7. Whew. Cuz the one I ordered from Amazon has yet to come in, but even though I don't need one until Tues. am for my post op appt. I wanted to be sure I had one premedicines. I had a great weekend with my husband celebrating the upcoming new boobs. Took my antibiotic and am ready for bed. This time tomorrow I will be konked out sleeping I hope, comfortably with a full C cup sized boobs. I'm hoping the gluten free choc. chip cookies for dessert will give me food coma from the sugar. Nothing worse than not being able to fall fast asleep thinking of the big day. I have my yoga pants, slippers, comfy socks, two zip up shirts to wear laid out. My meds are all ready to take with me in the am. Neck pillow and vitamin water with snacks too. Can't think of anything else except a big thank you to my fellow BAers. Updated on 1 Apr 2014: doing really good. I'm 24 hours post op and just on the pain meds. The breathing was tough until the doctor took off the tight dressings this morning. I have yet to see my boobs, but my husband did take a pic before I got into my cotton bra. I had two sizes with me, a c and a d/dd. Guess which one the nurse put on? :) dd I still get muscle twinges and it hurts to reach for things but I am happy that this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I will taking the muscle relaxer before bed. That will help me sleep. I was pretty drowsy with it! My husband didn't sleep well at all last night and can't eat. Poor thing. All in all, good so far and I will peep at my boobs tomorrow, with the help of my husband. Shower time with him and the new boobs will be fun. I've not been hungry at all. The only thing I've eaten since Sun night was a coconut water strawberry probiotic smoothie an hour ago. Going to the bathroom as of this morning has been tolerable. As long as I move my arms slowly they will not hurt too bad. I feel like I did 200 pushups! Over all, the worst thing was just getting that damn IV in my arm. Not fun at all and it stung. It had to be done, and waking up after the surgery was no prob. I took the emend prior to surgery for anti nausea, and haven't had any additional since. later BAers! Updated on 3 Apr 2014: Before the BA I was a 34 B bra. My 32C pushup bra has gaps and I couldn't completely fill it without those little pillows in the pockets of the bra cups. My boobs were perky and the only cleavage I had was muscle cleavage. It has been two days post op and I am beginning to feel better since I can lift my arms slowly to shoulder height without pain. My right pec minor is spasming alot, but it deminishes with the use of the muscle relaxer. T rex arms has my husband worried and not sleeping well. I feel bad for him. I'm pretty swollen and even my abs are swollen down to my coochie. I've been sleeping in the reclining chair in the living room, propped up with pillow, back support, and my neck pillow. I love that neck pillow! The chest strap is uncomfortable, but starting to be tolerable. The pain meds are still key for me. I'm just chilling and sleeping alot. Last night I checked out my breasts. They look huge to me, and there is so much upper chest swelling, I have to imagine the perfect boob look because it has yet to appear. ;) The chest strap is suppossed to help get the implants to settle low and to prevent them from shifting. I think the strap has saved my a couple of times - I tried to do dishes yesterday and was reaching for the faucet when pop pop, snap occured followed by intense pain and right pectoral muscle cramps. Scared me, but no bruising or swelling more than there already is so I think the strap kept the implant in place while my muscles decided to dance and freak out. http://www.realself.com/question/wearing-bra-strap-after-breast-augmentation was the only thread that I read about the chest strap. I'm still not hungry but I'm drinking plenty of water and have one or two small meals a day. Premade my meals for today and tomorrow, husband will be out of town for work so it's just me and netflix and my fellow BAers here. Updated on 3 Apr 2014: I'm pretty tired and swollen. My implants are really high. My boobage is huge and moving my arms, especially my right one, is slow and a trust process. I trust that I can move them and when I feel the muscles sliding over the implants I trust that this is normal and nothing to freak about. I'm confident I have achieved a full C cup size, but it will be another 2 months for the final results in size come in. I love my new clevage. I definetely have the amy adams cleavage I wanted. Very very very happy. Updated on 3 Apr 2014: doing pretty well today. Still protecting my chest muscles with very limited range of motion with my arms. My ps told me to not raise my arms above my shoulders for 2 weeks, and to keep the chest strap on as well. The chest strap is fine, even though it gives me allot of pressure ontop of and at the sides of my new boobs. They are riding high and are bigger than I thought they would be. I'm happy with the size and am sure that once the swelling goes down they will stunning. Right now they are riding high and have a bit of a square shape, but I know that is because of my pectorals. Pecs are square. Once the swelling goes down it's going to look great. I have this crinkling, cellophane like feeling under my skin. I have, what feels like, .5" of water under my skin from my shoulders down to my coochie. When will this water/swelling go away? It itches! I have no bruising at all and the tape over my incisions can't be bigger than 1.5", which is insanely awesome. I love them - I really love them. If you are thinking of BA but are nervous, just do it! Everything you need to know can be found on this website. It really helped me. I was a nervous wreck and took months to get up the guts to do it but it is so worth it. Thanks to all my fellow BAers for the support! Here's some pictures of my chest 51 hours post operation. Still can't believe I'm in a DD sportsbra for recovery. I think this is as big as I could go to stay looking natural. 32 B to a 32 D. I did the 325cc mod. plus silicone and on my tiny physique it makes me look perfect. Hourglass shape! now my chest measurement is 36 waist 24.5 hips 35.5 yea! And I'm in love with my boob cleavage. Now, if only all this water weight under the skin will go away. I'm so smooth. Updated on 4 Apr 2014: Feeling pretty good, right pec at the right armpit is still tight and cramps up alot, but I'm feeling pretty good. Using my right arm causes cramping. I am still too woozy to shower by myself, and I tried to give myself a washcloth bath, but got sick and dizzy when holding it in my right hand. I emailed my doctor about this. I'm not taking any meds at all. I took a muscle relaxer before bedtime last night, but woke up at 2am, took an advil, went back to bed and slept on my back. I just couldn't sleep sitting up anymore. It felt good to sleep on my back, and I'm not sure if I will do it again. I don't know why it's so important to sleep sitting up? Eating normal and not lifting anything more than a bottle of vitamin water. Off to walk on the treadmill later. I hope that the postop swelling of my torso and belly starts to go away. I feel like I'm holding onto alot of water weight. Updated on 5 Apr 2014: doing pretty good. No pain meds since yesterday before bed, and that was advil. No nausea meds at all, but I've been so sick and dizzy after strenuous movements I've considered them. (Like driving the truck, quick reaches accidently in the kitchen, accidently pushing myself up with forearm in bed). Getting dressed is a chore but my husband has been helpful. I have brownish green bruising on my sternum, cleavage, and right side boob. I think this is due to using my arms a bit too much. I definitely feel the pectoral muscles siezing up, contracting, and rubbing against the implants when I move too quickly or too big. Thank God for the chest strap which holds those puppies in place. According to my ps I'm not allowed to raise my arms higher than my shoulders, push, pull, open/close car doors, push ups, planks, lift anything over 5 lbs, jog, or jump. I can see why. To ensure that my thicker than a normal woman's pec muscles heal around the implants the doctor told me it is important for me to not move them around. okay. Easier said than done! And this bloat. Ugh. I have had a bowel movement and am back to normal, but the water weight gain is insane. http://www.realself.com/question/stop-bloating-after-breast-augmentation I am avoiding all meds at this point, am excited at the super sexy boobs I now have, even tho they are squareish and need to drop. I had sex this morning and I'm doing better than I though I would. Physique training woes I'm so hungry all the time,,, so I'm changing up my macros and going to hit the gym every day to walk and do legwork. Slow and fatburning workouts.... If I'm going to be 6 weeks without upper body workouts I guess lower is all I have left. treadmill and bodyweight only. Morning boob well, it's real. I think having the chest strap helps immensely with this. The swelling I feel at the sides and under my armpits is the worst in the am. I had a problem this am breathing, but I changed bras and that helped. I'm also making sure to put jojoba oil on my gals as soon as I get out of the shower to keep the skin hydrated. pains I get pains in my pecs if I reach to my shoes, reach to touch my head, sit up straight, raise my arms above horizontal. I will post as this gets better. I no longer have pain laying on my back or sitting up straight in a chair. Updated on 8 Apr 2014: wow. I'm a bit disappointed in my size. I am afraid I went too big. I wanted a nice C cup, but I will absolutely be a D cup. I'm super sexy and have no way to hide these new boobs under a sports bra like I intended to when I wanted. The goal was a C cup, and just use a push up or padded bra if I want to get a bit more fuller look, but hide the boobs when needed. Also, for fitness and yoga I didn't want too much. Dang it, I can't even put on my socks in the morning without lifting my knee up and hitting a boob. ouch. So, I am adjusting to this sudden new boob look. I wear them well, but it will be next to impossible to gender bend that's for sure! lol. Glad I don't do theater arts anymore. I have definitely achieved a very womanly figure. Bye bye girl figure. I will never again have to deal with old men in the store flirting with me like I'm a teen or young lady. I have aged 10 years and now look like I'm in my 30s and out of the early 20s! I wish I had discovered that for every 200cc of implant you gain a Cup Size! No one ever told me that, I just found that out yesterday reading a ps's post. Well, my former tiny B cup boobs are now D cup boobs. How am I doing? ugh. I did too much too soon and by Saturday had slight purple bruising under my R arm pit at the side boob and near the sternum at the incision line too. Just the R boob. My sternum and side boobs on both sides remained a lovely shade of brownish green. My sternum and pectoral minors were really getting stretched to the max, and my pectoral majors were blown up like balloons. I can't sit up straight and roll my shoulders back yet, which is killing my upper back. My posture sucks right now. It hurts to walk, my boobs need alot of support! The doctor saw me yesterday, removed two stitches from each incision, then put scar therapy gel and scar therapy patches on each one. My husband was in awe at the super tiny and thin incisions, wondering how the implants even got through that. Dr. Chike-Obi said, "it's magic" I believe. I'm taking ibuprophen, and avoiding the muscle relaxers as of Monday night. I'm at day 8 now, a full week after my BA and ready to start focusing on getting back to my active life. Unfortunately, the doctor reminded me that I can not lift my arms above my head for another week (couldn't even if I wanted to, the pain!) and to avoid lifting anything over 5 pounds. I will - in another 2 months - be fully cleared to get back into my bodyweight training and powerlifting. The pocket that the doctor created under my pec major muscles was under the muscle belly itself. That means that the implant is centered closer to my sternum than other techniques, and the muscle will heal up so well that there will be no scars, adhesions, or tears to worry about once I get back into body building. yea. I just have to treat this like a cycle of tendon and muscle preparation. I'm still uncomfortable sleeping, and the morning boob is still horrible. This morning was the first morning that morning boob wore off within an hour of getting up. I think sitting in the recliner with my tea against a heating pad is what makes things better. I only just started that yesterday. All in all, having big pec muscles is what is causing so much pain. The doc. said that I will be fine in a few weeks but I must take it easy. The strap is worn at night now, and will be gone in another week I hope. I see the doc. next week, he added another post op appt. for me at 2 weeks!, to make sure that I'm healing well. I am very happy and so impressed with Dr. Chike-Obi's care, concern, communications and the staff of Westlake Dermatology and Surgery Center! I still can't believe I had the guts to do this. Updated on 15 Apr 2014: Hello BAers. I'm two weeks post op and saw the doctor again yesterday. I have to say that week 2 has been more painful (psychologically and physically) for me than week 1 was. I am extremely swollen, more swollen at week 2 than week 1, am only doing 600 to 1200mg of ibuprofen before bed, and am getting miserable without exercise. If I try to exercise, like walking or leg work I hurt. If my boobs bounce, they hurt. My right pectoral under and in front of my right armpit still has a slight purple bruise and is most likely strained or pulled. I can't lift my right arm past my eyes, lifting my elbows hurt, stretching forward or to my toes hurt.... I only just yesterday am able to bend forward from the waist without feeling my implants causing discomfort. I keep bumping into them. It is difficult to put on clothes and my front closing bras. It is difficult to sleep, I still have to prop myself up slightly. My morning boob pain only lasts about 15 minutes now, and I can gingerly drive the truck. Any quick movement (tossing a sock, closing a car door, opening a heavy door, pushing the dishwasher tray inwards) will be met with immediate seizures of my pectoral muscles. The complete clampdown solid as a rock abnormally quick and painful kind. My muscles really don't want to be used at all. If I move slowly and cautiously I am all right. I'm wondering if this will be worth it. I can't wait until this becomes a mild discomfort and the swelling goes down. I can't place my arms at my sides, the insides of my arms hit the sides of my swollen boobs. My pectoral muscles are so swollen, the swelling is up to my clavicle. The doctor said that this is normal and it will be another couple of weeks before I notice reduced swelling. I am not allowed to lift anything heavier than 1/2 gallon of water. wtf? Blow to ego; I used to be able to do multiple sets of 70# dumbell flys, now I'm being told to not disturb the implants by avoiding all lifting of everyday objects. I am not allowed to massage my chest muscles or boobs. I asked the doctor. He did say I can get neck massages for my tight traps and levators. My neck is killing me! So tight. I can't pull my shoulder blades together - not being able to completely and fully stretch the top of my spine has led to much discomfort and tightness in my upper back and neck. I wiggle my rib cage and twist my body occasionally, which brings a slight pop mid or low back, with relief, but nothing to relieve the upper back and shoulder blades... :( It will be another couple of weeks before I can touch the pec muscles. I've been cleared to begin to get range of motion and attempt to raise my arms, but honestly my right arm is not cooperating. By keeping my elbows tucked in, close to my face, I can put my hair up now, but such movements bring on chest swelling. Ice and rest.... For the past 5 days I've been off any semblance of the strict diet of clean eating I was on for 3 years. Ice cream, bagels, rice with all my chinese food is bringing me comfort as well as a few extra pounds of thigh fat. I need to back down off the carbs. Drink more water.... I am so motivated to get hopping again and I am day dreaming about weight training, going through with drawls. I really am impressed with the Doctor and his staff. Any time I've been to the office or communicated with them they have been humble, polite, professional. I can't say enough good things about them. In yesterday's check up the nurse in the room with me stood out of my peripheral vision as Dr. Chike-Obi reviewed my progress. Again, his demeanor was wonderful. I've never had any medical experience where everyone in the staff, as well as the doctor, had the charismatic ability to relax you with a kind word, meek body language, sincere smile. I told the ladies that upon check in and check out...they responded that they appreciate having conscientious clients like me to make their jobs easier. Beyond polite! I am so blessed to have come upon this gem of a cosmetic surgery center. Their demeanor alone has relieved me time and again of my anxiety during my journey down this road. Pros: for the first time in my life I have an hourglass shape. my upper body is proportionate to my lower body I feel quite sexy and at times frisky my husband loves the new boobs, yet is sympathetic and cautious to my pain. my PS has kept my husband in the loop about everything, even going so far as to make sure I told my husband that he says "hello" when my husband was not at the appt. yesterday. I am confident that I will end up with the amazing boobs I've dreamed of I am floored at my gravity defying and perfect cleavage. Amy Adams cleavage! I will not even need boob tape. the incisions are tiny and healing well Cons The f'kn pain! The discomfort of not being able to workout The added body fat I will have to work off The fear that I will not physically do what I once was able to do in the gym The abs are no longer 8 pack abs. I'm down to 6 pack abs. I think the stress of surgery created a cortisol surge that landed stress fat on my lower abs. Ugh. This will take quite a bit of serious work to eliminate. Gaining body fat while in recovery mode Feeling useless and like a sloth even though I know I must rest! Updated on 15 Apr 2014: I reread these and felt I should share the links with you all. Now I can relate to the recover aspects some of these competitors blogged about. These all influenced me in my decision to get BA. I want to make it very clear that cosmetic surgery by fitness competitors and figure models is more common than people realize! It is just not talked about or shared, with many competitors hoping to hide it! http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=2521901&page=1 http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/merry2.htm http://www.edelsteincosmetic.com/learning-centre/breast-augmentation/fitness-model-recovery.php http://recoveryaftertummytuck.blogspot.com/2007/12/breast-augmentation-recovery.html http://hardfitness.com/emagazine/issue2/breastaugmentation.html Updated on 15 Apr 2014: hello to those dedicated physique athletes considering BA, I'm an advanced cpt and fitness / figure choreographer and physique coach. Since 1998 I have worked with physique athletes and want to share my thoughts, observations and knowledge with you all. Now that I have undergone BA for the first time I feel I can fully understand what many of my former clients have undergone and wish for you all to have a happy BA recovery should you chose this journey. I humbly ask you to research and take your time in your choice of how and what you want to do - especially consider the long term look that will be achieved once BA is performed. We fitness and figure competitors are NOT some hobby driven group fitness instructors, who will be smooth and undefined pretty much all of their life. Being active or a fitness enthusiast has nothing to do with the future outcome of the BA look that will be achieved in the long run. Be sure to not consider the advice of anyone who is not a physique athlete, or if you do, don't put too much credence into their advice. They do not have as much muscle mass as you do and most likely will not ever achieve the lean body fat percentage you will, so their recovery and finished BA look will be much different than yours will. Lean body mass has everything to do with the look of your Boobs! Physique athletes get as low as 12% body fat, a body fat percentage that will cause rippling and ugly chests for anyone with over the muscle implants. Under the muscle is the only option for the most natural looking BA for any woman who will be at 15% body fat or less, unless you are a full on body builder class physique athlete. Anyone who is naturally lean at the upper body (can easily get abnormally lean at the chest bone) will get the best, most natural looking results with under the pectoral muscle BA. The only exception to this rule would be an avid body builder who will actually be hindered by BA. The implants will block the body builder from bulking their pectorals and hide them from the judges. Take a good look at Lenda Murray vs. Sophie Duquette on stage, http://www.bodybuildinglive.com/articles/2002_olympia/prejudge_women.htm Lenda's padded top is nice, and her Ms. Olympia pectoral muscles are not hampered or hidden like Sophie's are behind breast implants. Other Physique Competitors in the Bikini, Figure, Fitness categories are expected to have breasts, with Bikini being the class that most emphasizes that breastfeeding boob look of femininity. The Fitness class is more akin to the Body Building class with the need of muscle bulk with definition. Consider the long term goals and look of your BA. Don't be afraid to start small with BA size, and note that you will most likely want to get bigger or resize the implants in a few years. This is normal and very typical for the physique athlete. Going too big too soon, especially your first time with BA, can actually rip the pectoral muscle attachments or cause muscle damage! When done smart, BA for physique competitors and enthusiasts is safe and does not hinder the athlete in any way. Updated on 17 Apr 2014: yesterday as the day went on the clenched chest muscles started to relax and I resolved to get back into the planned walking and lower body exercises I wanted to do last week but could not tolerate. I walked up and down my hill for 30 minutes, boob bounce was not painful! yea! This morning I was finally able to say morning boob was only a few minutes of pain under right armpit, and now for the first time I can pull my shoulder blades back a bit more. I have a bit more muscle tightness on the right side, but noticed that my left pec is now completely relaxed. I can actually feel that the left boob is softer than the right. Really looking forward to the right side catching up. Thank you ladies for the encouragement, I really do need it. I can't believe how it has taken almost 3 weeks post op before the constant pain of cramping up and swelling is starting to subside. The best part is that I can now see my collar bone! Yep, the chest muscles were so tense I couldn't see it. Now I have my neck and collar bone back, and I can see the swelling has dropped to about 1.5 inches below it. Tons of hydration, rest, careful movements, gentle shoulder rolls, chicken wing movements in a hot shower, and meditation have made this week's recovery better. I hope my fellow BAers are doing better than me. Happy thoughts! I think I will try bedtime with no ibuprofen tonight. Updated on 21 Apr 2014: still sore, can't wear shirts that don't zip up the front or have a large neck opening. swelling is going down, still square boob. Purple right side bruise is gone. Occasional pops here and there, like if I sneeze. I like the size and am looking forward to them relaxing. Just going nutszo because my chest is still so tight I can't lie flat. Got a neck massage today, getting another on Friday. Updated on 28 Apr 2014: hi BAers! I'm still pretty miserable that I look freakish with the swollen pec muscles giving me an abnormal shape to my chest. I can't even look at my boobs. I've ignored them for the past week, and even told my husband I think that I may have went too big. I just want to get back into the gym and start weight lifting again, but just a 3 mile hike in the canyon leaves them swollen and achy. uggggh. My husband told me that they look great and the swelling will go down, but I must rest and not push it. Yes, he's right, but I find myself gingerly testing out how I feel. A 1 gallon jug of water is pretty much the extent of lifting. I can now lay flat on my back, and I am just now starting to be able to pull my shoulder blades back, but still can't get upright when attempting to do so. There is no way I could even bring my elbows above my head with my hands behind my neck, and I still have morning boob swell and discomfort. When will this end? I started doing some barre classes. I can't move my arms, but at least I can focus on leg and glute work. I will look into getting into some spin/cycling classes this week. I feel like I'm so smooth, and loosing my muscle tone. It is messing with my mind. How can other women brag about a quick recovery? I feel like with one month gone, I'm nowhere near recovered enough to say I'm feeling great. :( Updated on 28 Apr 2014: Per PS's advice I'm to avoid lifting anything over 15 pounds, massaging, high impact activities until he sees me again next week (5 weeks post op) When I lay flat on the floor, I can't lift my arms over my head towards my ears, I can't bring my arms together when starting from a cross position. Anything that requires my pec muscles to do all the work is painful. I have extreme difficulty putting on and taking off shirts. Just not enough range of motion. Reaching up into a tall kitchen cabinet is tough too. I have a stool in the kitchen now. I have to use both hands to shift when driving my car, as using one arm normally causes cramping in the chest muscles. Throwing. I can't use a fast motion like underhand toss or the pec muscles cramp up immediately. Still moving slowly and it's like I'm reteaching myself how to move my arms. Can't sleep in any other position but on my back, and propping my upper body up helps prevent morning boob. This week I started my period, so perhaps the boob tenderness is from that? Ca and Mg supplementation doesn't seem to do anything for me. A bit of ibuprofen before going out to tackle chores seems to help. Ice cream is helping my mental state though, lol. Updated on 6 May 2014: last week was so much better with recovery. I have to say I am pretty impatient to get back to 100% exercise and movement wise, but the nurses I talked to yesterday at the office made it clear that will be another 3 - 6 months of progressive (slow!) improvements and exercise. We had some good laughs about my questions and I feel much better. Pretty much most of what I read here on RS about how to recover and what to expect with BA is NOT at all what my PS is allowing me to do. It seems that he is in the new school recovery mindset. - don't massage or move implants for minimum of 6 weeks. - wear support, sports bra for minimum 6 weeks - no exercise for 4 weeks and minimal and gentle exercise for up to 8 weeks, no heavy lifting more than 15# I can only assume that this new school thought of not allowing the breast implants to move the first 6 weeks is to ensure that the capsule that forms around the implants is as smooth and scar free as possible. Also to ensure that the muscles don't push and squeeze against them and for the pocket to not stretch out. A big pocket is bad. The nurses implied that the side boob soreness is the very last to go, lasting months. Okay. Glad to know this is normal. I've not much range of motion yet with raising my arms, the nurses said this is also typical. Not to push it. I really do miss being able to sleep on my side and spooning. They seemed horrified that I asked what the time line is on being able to get back to climbing and pullups, lol. Months. wow. ok. Each nurse is months into recovery themselves, one having had saline and the other silicone. They advised me to always wear the most support possible, as much as possible, to prevent implant fall. One nurse told me that she even places a small towel in her bra at night in her cleavage so that when she sleeps on her side (she's at 6 months recovery) she can keep the top boob from stretching and losing it's perkiness. I like that advice. To keep them perky for as long as possible takes work, but since this is the look I'm wanting for as long as possible it looks like I'm wearing a bra at night from now on. Husband says fine, as long as they are sexy bras and cuddleable. :) The biggest laugh was when I told them about the skin shedding that occurred one day early last week. Like total boob dandruff. They both gave me such relief when they smiled and said yes, totally normal and will go away. I've done some apricot scrubs on the skin and moisturizing, which is good. Should only last a couple of days, so I think I'm past that skin fall segment of recovery. This week I'm going to be doing a bit more vigorous exercising on the elliptical (no arms), and more weight lifting (high reps, super light resistance). I'm still being cautious with arm movements, still don't have the ability to move fast without pec muscle cramping and limited range of motion, but it's getting better each week. If anyone is thinking of doing BA then getting back into competition season right away you are tripping. I don't see anyone being able to gracefully walk or pose until at least 4 months of total recovery, and the gals I've worked with all waited about 8 months. Pulling shoulder blades back and down is tough still. I still can't raise my arms high and behind my eyebrows. The chest muscles just don't allow it. I'm not going to force it at all. I love my boobs, and my cleavage is amazing. All of my shirts fit perfectly now. I love how my figure is hourglass and wearing a dress - no matter the cut of it - is so sexy. The bottom of my breasts have softened and relaxed, but I've still a bit of swelling and tightness in the upper pectorals which is still odd looking to me, but in another month should be greatly reduced. Mentally, I'm much better. I accept the fact that I will not be ready for the fun exercise and active lifestyle I once had until another 8 weeks (3 months post op!), but this is worth it as far as I can tell so far. Updated on 13 May 2014: So, in the past few days I've made some big gains in recovery. I still have only 90% left arm range of motion and only about 55% right arm ROM, but upper back and posture is much improved and better. Still can't use pec muscles for lifting or weight training, I'm totally laying off of that anyway. The scars are being massaged gently every day am/pm with my scar therapy gel. The left side is much better than the right, but the right pec is the one giving me fits. I ordered two more ounces of the gel on amazon.com (wouldn't you know, as soon as I put it in my cart the price went up 50 cents, lol) and will be doing that for the next 5 months. Last week I did treatment 3 of IPL for my back and arms. I never realized that was considered cosmetic surgery. Between the boobs and the newly improved skin I am feeling much better about myself over all. Was checking out Angelina Jolie's nose job, and her revamped boobs. This BA for her in 2013 is her second go around (don't believe the hype about how cancer runs in her family. Nice coverup for new boobs). I wish I could have her nose - I think I'm turning into a freak, lol. I love how my body can change, improve, with a medical procedure. I was able to do jumps in Ballet last night, pirouettes, but holding my arms only at the front. Hopefully, I will be able to start jogging this week! I've got to start doing some serious fat burn workouts. 4 weeks till bikini time. I'm still pretty obscenely swollen at the top of my pecs. My side boob swelling is gone. It was such a pain having boob into my armpits, and now that that is done what a relief! I started sleeping on my side with a small pillow under my armpit to support the bottom boob. Feels so good! Those shoulder and back exercises I began last week felt so good. I'm continuing them, still doing leg day too. I'll be splitting up leg day to front and back, and adding more core. I am taking it pretty slow with the resistance training , but was very happy to be able to pull at about 75% of my 1RM. Pushing is still pretty much nihl. Climbing and hanging is a definite no go, with the limited ROM of my arms. No can do on anything overhead. Thank God I can back squat now. Dumbbells are my best new tool in the leg day bag. Just holding them low or goblet style. Hope all you BAers are doing great! Ask any questions, I hope I can help you out. Updated on 22 May 2014: so, feeling much better. By the end of 7 weeks of recovery I'm at about 80% of feeling good. Still have problems with my right pectoral muscles, but everything else is fine. My posture is greatly improved, I can hold a plank and do very light chest work. VERY light. At the beginning of my 8 weeks of recovery my chest is softer, considerably so! If I don't wear a bra and lay sideways my boobs fall to the side a bit. I still have a lot of muscle swelling, but it all looks round now. I went to http://www.biggerbras.com/bras-by-bra-size-sitemap.shtml and did a preliminary size chart caluclator. Wweowza, I'm guesstimating myself to be a 32E or 32DD depending on the bra manufacturer. Bigger than I was shooting for. But looks so good! I got a job last week and at the end of the practical (I'm a CPT) the manager told me I look like I'm in great shape. I really think the boobies fill be out so well up top and give me an hourglass shape, something I did not have before, and make me look so proportional! I'm gaining body fat, since I really haven't been exercising at all! lol. I think that in another 4 weeks, which will be 3 months post op, I will look normal enough to not be self conscious about wearing a bathing suit in public. I only just recently started revealing my boobs in a tank top at the gym. I experienced boob hate for the first time: I went to a bikram yoga class and was told to not come back. what? The owner/instructor claimed that my tank top did not follow the philosophy of the practice. what ever flat chested old crone! lol. My white tank top and very supportive sports bra with my black bike shorts was hardly inappropriate when half the women in there were all wearing nothing but a cami or razor back sports bra and briefs! I honestly have to say I wasn't doing all of the postures since I am going really slow in my arching range of motion, but I absolutely didn't make a scene unless laying on the floor or standing in the preparation posture instead of attempting a full posture is making a scene. My gorgeous chest was pretty noticeable though, and I was the only one with a chest...the other ladies were completely flat. I am either super reading into this matter or it really happened. Anyone else notice people acting different towards you now that you have boobs? I swear guys are super nice now, and women are more friendly or more bitchy! Updated on 23 May 2014: So, I was super curious about the online measurements and went over to the outlet mall. VS fitting room gal Felicia helped me out. I was just totally honest, telling her I am 8 weeks out from augmentation and she didn't even bat an eye. She did say I'm a 32, 33 and super petite. She gave me two bras to try on... I tried on 32DD, 32DDD, 34DD and 32 DDD was the best one that felt the most comfortable and supportive. She actually said I would probably be a 32E. OMG! So, the Flawless VS 32DDD demi cup in ballet pink was purchased. I love it. It is soooo comfortable. I'm wearing it, waiting for husband to come home from work. $17 after tax, I thought I would be spending $50 - oh yeah, outlet. bam. so happy. More pictures to come this weekend. A comparison of my old 32C bras with my new 32DDD bra would be a great pic. What a difference in cup size. (I used to add cutlets to that bra just to get a fake c cup!, lol) happy weekend all you BAers! Updated on 6 Jun 2014: I've been scouring the internet and going back over my physiology and kinisiology studies and discovered that my limited R arm mobility over my head, right side pain, and serratus cramping is probably due to a compressed thoratic nerve. [img]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1802864/bin/1749-7221-2-4-1.jpg[/img] It's not uncommon for patients to get pinched back nerves during surgery, and post operatively since the nerve is pinched any light movement of the arm reaching forward will trigger damage to the serratus! according to this abstract. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1802864/ which makes me pissed because I do recall how rough it was when I was handled by the nurse when I was moved into the recovery room. On another note, I had a follow up with the PS and he seems baffled but not concerned at all about my arm situation. This pisses me off. I got pretty bad stretch mark from the BA, but he has offered to give me fraxel lasering next week in the hopes of reducing them. Updated on 20 Jun 2014: So, as I told Nikki in my reply below, I'm seeing a specialized chiropractor to pinpoint and hopefully eliminate this pinched nerve causing so much muscle dysfunction. Last week when my neck and mid back, shoulder blade area, was adjusted (OMG, the cracks!) I immedietely recovered full range of motion in my right arm. The pain of using it - pain on r side boob with numbness, r shoulder, r armpit - is still there but lessened. The PS gave me fraxel lasering to try to knock down the stretch marks I got after the BA. Hurt like a [RS bleep], not like any other lasering I've had via IPL to reverse sun damage. It has left my skin with the texture of sandpaper, or like stingray skin. There are checker board bumps where the laser burned. Hoping that the skin will look alot better in a month. My boobs are gorgeous! I need to upload some pictures. The Victoria's Secret outlet mall had a size 32 $12.99 sale store wide. I picked up some DD and DDD bras for a song. The Dream Angel is my favorite, and my husband loves it too, "you could be an angel" he said to me this morning before heading off to work. Physically, because I couldn't do much the first two months post op and I was going insane from the pain and frustrated by my arm paralysis I gained some weight. So, now I've 10 pounds of fat to burn off. ugh. But I look so good! Abs are still there. My husband took me shopping this weekend for some new outfits. Trying them on for him was fun. He was surprised that boobs "open up an whole new door to fashions for you". Yep. Purchased a halter top romper and a plunging neck line summer gown. Will post pictures tomorrow! take care fellow BAers! Updated on 20 Jun 2014: Just got back from a chair massage and my chiropractor's office. He says I do have a pinched nerve which is causing the pain, dysfunction of the muscles and R arm mobility problems. musculocutaneous nerve impingement or pinched. Highly suggested lymphatic drainage of the breast, something I will get the husband to do. Found it on you tube and tried it on myself, felt good and makes sense that if I have a blockage under boob and armpit it may be stemming from the pectoral lymph nodes. Basically go from neck to a clock wise motion around boob, to armpit. Then press into the armpit. Pretty simple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr0kqKFMfww#t=14 Updated on 24 Jun 2014: My body by Victoria DD bra, and my old C cup bra: Here's my before pic of my 32 C cup bra with the inserts. I used two pillows per cup to push up my B sized breasts. And the after pic of my DDD boobage in the same bra, doesn't even fit. No pillows necessary. Updated on 24 Jun 2014: still have pectoral swelling at top of chest, and now that my husband is really massaging around the boobs to drain and move lymph I'm feeling a lot better! Movement in R arm is back, still drooping a bit and slow with R arm movement though. I was sick after the surgery with a fever, and I feel like today I'm getting that sore throat back. I guess I caught a bug 1 month post op and that really clogged things up. The arm pain did happen immediately after surgery and progressively got worse, but is so much better now with Chiro and massage. My husband playing with the new additions is no longer painful, and I'm happy he really enjoys them. I am still getting used to them and tried on all my clothes. Many clothes fit great, even better than before. Others are a complete no-go! Off to donate them. Exercising is now in full force. I can do 2 full pushups, before surgery I could knock out 25 at a time. I haven't tried a pull up yet, but hanging is no problem now. I am going for a massage today and will request a bit more work at R armpit. They are starting to look much more natural, and round! Beautiful. Time to start painting my body and hanging out at the pool. Hugs BAers! Updated on 31 Oct 2014: I wish I had done this surgery 10 years ago. It has been so awesome, and I have the perfect hourglass, Betty Page body now. I am booking photo shoots a year in advance, and have perfect mobility. I'm constantly getting comments on my perfect body. Even at 5 months post op they were still a bit puffy below the collar bone, but now they are completely relaxed and jiggly. The boobage has completely relaxed into a bra cup, and I do wear a bra to bed at night to prevent the side boob slippage into the armpit that is occurring if I don't wear a bra. Once I got my husband to massage my breasts more often and focused on lymph drainage my pinched nerve problem disappeared and full range of motion without pain by month 5 changed my life for the better. The breasts have settled into a beautifully full DD, but I can still fill a DDD cup with no problem, but they fall much more naturally now and jiggle. The stretch marks are still there, the fraxel lasering knocked them down a bit, and I use stage makeup to smooth out the tops of the boobs when wearing a corset for photo shoots. No problems. I dance, move, exercise, sleep, jump... all fine. In some aspects I actually move better because of the added confidence. My mother is beaming with pride at "her beautiful daughter" and never noticed the giant improvement in my cup size as anything unnatural. lol. I always knew she was narcissistic and delighted in showing me off but had no idea that she was so fixated on my looks to boost her ego. Now she wants to touch me, hug me, and be with me all the time. Freaky and I'm constantly setting boundaries with her. Nothing I can't handle, but very glad that she is too mental to even realize that I had boob augmentation. I can't believe how much nicer everyone treats me! I'm constantly being told how beautiful I am. Well, $4k boobs to be beautiful? Who'da thought? They are large, but perfectly proportionate to my body. If I want to push them up for a naughty look I can, but I can also tape them down and place petals over the nipples and go braless under a dress for dancing. Very worth it and I never realized how boobs make you popular. I have achieved the perfect hourglass shape I've always wanted. And my husband loves them. Updated on 31 Oct 2014: my breast swelling did not start to look natural and completely disappear until recently! Month 7 is when I can say I actually look normal. My corset picture here is at 6 months, and I still have a bit of swelling. The corset
I'm 32 years old and have been chubby or overweight most of my life. I am very active in social sports and keep a relatively healthy lifestyle, but could do better. A few months ago, I set the intention to change my eating habits (and drinking habits!), to become more healthy and finally lose this weight I've been carrying around! I'm hoping these procedures give me the confidence that I need to have a good, solid platform to live out my healthy lifestyle.
Someone told me my dermatologist told them that a Clear & Brilliant peel is a good once-annual alternative to multiple annual chemical peels. I waited till the Fall to get it done, so I could avoid the Texas sun. Danielle Green, who is a registered nurse did my treatment. I’m extremely grateful that she was cautious not to burn my skin. She also had my dermatologist write me a prescription for an antibiotic just in case I got a cold sore. She used numbing cream on my face so it wasn’t very painful - just a little sting and burn. The day of, my face was red. The next day, my skin was back to normal. Second day, also normal. 3rd day, still normal. I left feedback through their customer satisfaction survey letting them know it did nothing and called and left a message with Danielle’s assistant with the same info. No replies. Thankfully, I did not come out of this scarred or burned. But I can say, it was an absolute waste of $300 and all the planning and time that went into the pre-care and making sure I could do the aftercare. I cleared my calendar assuming I’d be peeling for 5 days - totally unnecessary.
I hope to reduce the circumference of my upper thigh by 2 inches. I'm tired of ballooning up just at the top of my thighs when I stop exercising. When I break from heavy weight lifting and every third day of fat burning aerobics I just balloon up. This is my prob. area & I want to eliminate it. I can diet down the water weight of my thighs but seem to never ever budge the fat deposits at the saddlebags and the inner thigh. I don't mind having thighs that rub together, but the main problem I have is that my size 4 pants just don't fit well. The thighs are too big in the legs and pull the pants down. I'm tired of having sausage thighs. I want thighs that are long and lean the entire length. I want the bulges at the top to be removed and reduced. I chose to try this out because the procedure was on sale, and I trust the surgeon completely. His before and after pictures of other smart lipo procedures done on fitness fanatics are amazing. So many women do this to knock off that little bit of stubborn body fat that just will not disappear with exercise. I exercise daily and am completely toned and smooth. I will always watch my diet and I love to exercise, I just need a little help! Updated on 13 Jan 2015: I spent the day making sure that I was prepared. Did my body measurements, made some egg dishes for the week, all the house chores, etc. I took before shots, and here's my recliner with the puppy pee pad. I am so extremely nervous and have no idea what to expect. Updated on 13 Jan 2015: I am feeling pretty good today. My thighs feel like they are on fire and are very tender to the touch but I can move around, bend over and walk. My husband took me in already to see the doctor, he checked on the swelling, changed the pads for drainage and was happy with the results. Let me tell you what happened: I went into the surgery center at 7am, having taken my two chill pills, and was calm and very relaxed. I showered with antibacterial dish soap and shaved, everything was clean and I had my black sweat pants, a tshirt and a sweatshirt jacket for comfort. The nurse put a needle in my arm for any needed meds during the operation. I had two shots of pain killers during the smart lipo procedure via the arm stent. The worst part was the numbing up and the injection of all the fluids prior to the procedure. They didn't tell me that I would be poked about 50 times on each leg with a very big/long needle to deliver all of the lidocane and epinephrine solution. It stung at times, and the nurse who did this was fast and rough. Once the numbing started my thighs felt like ice. After that she said it's time for me to go use the bathroom. I did, and my thighs were completely numb and twice their normal size! That was freaky. Back to the OR, the PS came in and started lasering. Followed by the liposuction. Repeat left leg. 100cc of fat were removed from outter and inner thighs. The procedure felt like a massage. I was laying on my side and occasionally the PS would tell me to lift the leg straight then put it back down on a prop pillow. When it was done, the nurse placed a mesh sock over each thigh and some absorbent pads. I stood up. Then, a body stocking was put on, then the compression garment. The compression garment is not tight at all. I was expecting it to be tighter. When I got home (a 15min drive), I puked up clear fluid, took an anti nausea med and fell asleep for 5 hours. My husband went to work, and was back in the evening. I ate one of my prepared egg dishes for dinner, used the bathroom, changed my soaked pads and took more pain medicine and another antibiotic. I made sure that the pads I used overnight were super absorbant maxi pads. I'm glad I did because in the am before going to the Doctor's office for my check up I removed them. They were completely soaked with cranberry fluid. At the office, the garments were completely removed. We checked everything. Looked good! I can already tell that my legs are thinner! wow. A lot of bruising on the inner thighs, not so much on the outter thighs. They put the stocking, new pads, and the compression garment back on and sent me off with a fizzy water to drink and a reminder to eat. I have no appetite but they told me to eat to keep the nausea at bay. They also warned me that days 4 - 6 are the worst for swelling so I should expect to swell up a lot. I can shower if I wish, but with help. The drainage should stop by today. I am pleased so far. This really is a piece of cake. My Day one pictures of me in the compression suit are here too. I just ordered a long legged compression suit from Amazon, which should be here tomorrow. I ordered an xs, since the Doctor's small compression suit is roomy. Updated on 13 Jan 2015: the compression suit is easy to get into and out of. Has zippers on each side. Open crotch, so everything hangs out, but I can wear panties over it now. I feel lightheaded if I take it off. Updated on 16 Jan 2015: my PS sent me home the day of the lipo in a body stocking worn under the compression garment. Both are HK surgical garments. The both are completely cootchieless yet comfortable as long as I pull the crotch seams up into my bikini folds completely. At first, the compression garment would slide down, and the crotch seams would press against my very bruised inner thighs, but I pinned up the tummy section (I'm short waisted) with a big horizontal dart to take up all the slack in the front and the crotch does not slide down anymore. The body stocking is a lightweight breathable, yet silky and comfortable nylon. It does not provide any compression, it just makes getting the compression garment on and off very easily. It has a high back, low front where my boobs hang out, and completely adjustable elastic suspenders. I wear a tshirt and bra under it. My compression garment is only too tight at my calves, which the nurse cut open to the knees the follow up day. My compression garment is not at all tight, but just provides a nice, gentle squeeze to the areas that are bruised. It has side zippers on the left and the right sides from just above the knee to the ribcage, and is a see through mesh nylon. It is completely breathable, comfortable, and the elastic straps can be adjusted and worn in various ways. I wear it like overalls, over my body stocking and tshirt. Then, I wear normal clothing over it all, starting with panties. http://www.hksurgical.com/zipper-overall-garment.htmlI considered getting other compression garments, amazon.com, but ended up sending them back for a full refund because they were not as comfortable or lightweight as the garment my PS provided me.I've always seen women walking around the city with these side zipper, really nice, pants and would think to myself, "what awesome running pants" or "those look like some great snowboarding pants." lol, now I know. They are lipo garments! And so comfortable! I think I want to use my serger and add a crotch to them and use them in the future for exercise pants! Updated on 16 Jan 2015: The worst part of what I'm feeling recovery - wise is how nauseated I am from the antibiotics. Woozy and yucky, bloated until I have a bowel movement, not hungry. I take my antibiotic every 12 hours, but taking it with food is almost impossible. I didn't this morning, and just went back to bed after I took it. The room was spinning, and I felt like I had too many mojitos. Once the pill was absorbed a few hours later I got up and felt fine. Ate breakfast. I'm taking probiotics, avoiding calcium per the pharmacist's instructions, and low carbing. Yesterday was the first day I can say that my thighs are starting to swell. Post op I was at a 20.5 inch thigh circumference - that's my typical in-shape-low-carb-body size. Today I am at 21.5 inches with the swelling. The shape of my thighs are awesome! Long and feminine without any saddlebag or inner thigh bulge. With weight training and a great meal plan I know I can sustain this beautiful shape! I am hopeful, happy so far, and just trying to not over do my movements. I have multiple puncture wounds and hope that one very red one will calm down in the next day. The other wounds look fine and I am putting a EVOO/Beeswax/Calendula salve on them, instead of Vaseline, to keep them moist and not allow them to scab just yet. I plan on doing cool comfrey compresses starting tomorrow on my thighs, and arnica cream once the wounds are scabbed and dry. I can squat, stretch, bend, kick, sit just fine. Except the toilet seat. OMG...the pressure points of that seat hit the lipo areas perfectly to create HELL on Earth. I walked two miles, slowly yesterday, followed by a cool shower. Perhaps that's why I may be a bit swole today? I will take a slow walk today too, the sun is out and it's going to be close to 70 degrees. It felt great having a bit of an elevated heart rate. My thighs did not jiggle at all, no loose skin, and I broke a bit of a sweat. My thighs felt a bit numb once I rested that evening, but are fine 12 hours later. I am extremely tender to the touch in the lipo areas, and I want to cuddle with my husband, but keep pushing him away. I see stars when my thighs get touched. It's annoying more than anything. I don't have much bruising, there are some purple marks, but more red strawberry marks on my inner thighs than anything else. The surgery marker ink is still here too, and will probably be there to stay until I get up the guts to actually do more than lightly touch my thighs when I shower. Ouchhhie. Moving around is a breeze, just don't touch my legs! A couple more days of antibiotics are left, and I sure will be happy when I'm done. Again, my biggest complaint is the belly bloat and how the antibiotics make me feel yuck, and give me foul breath. Updated on 19 Jan 2015: well, I am so freakin swollen... even though my thighs are a different shape, they are the same size they were preop. I cried yesterday. I told my husband that I'm just grouchy. I've not been sleeping well and my legs are so tender to the touch. I see stars if I brush against something, slide onto/off of seats, bump my hips into the dresser, and when I pull the compression suit up/down. The inner right thigh and both outter areas of my legs are a horrible green and purple. They are extremely swollen. The mornings are the worst, pain wise. I feel better once I get moving, but can last about a few hours before I become dizzy, lightheaded, and numb feeling. Walking is about the only thing that is doable, but once I stop (after 2 - 3 miles a day right now), I lose all feeling in my legs. The doctor says that I have a bit more swelling than he expected by day 7 is the absolute worst. It will improve from here on out. He assured me that as the swelling goes down so will the size of the thighs. He was sorry to hear that I'm so antsy about the discomfort at night and asked if I wanted any sleep aid perscribed, I said no thanks, but did ask if it was alright for me to start drinking again, a glass of wine at night would be welcomed. He gave me permission to have a drink and recommended that I switch to ibuprofen. Thank God. That really is the only pain med that works on me so hopefully tonight I will be able to sleep. The w h o l e n i g h t ! Right now, I just lay there. Awake. In pain. I move without pain once I'm out of bed. I've been walking everyday, and since day 3 post op I've done a few body weight lunges and squats. I think a good night's rest, and a regular routine would be welcomed and all I need to feel better. For now, my legs hurt so much and are so swollen! And I am craving salt. It's all I can do to not overdo it...the cravings, omg. Protein. Salt. Sashimi.... I'm taking vitamin supplements, upped all my Bs, and reintroducing probiotics after every meal. I'm puffy a bit in the ankles and feet too, so I think once everything calms down I will feel more like my old self. Starting Arnica cream and arnica tabs today too. I made my first lymphatic drainage massage. Wish me well, I could use some positivity as of right now...because I'm like wtf did I do this for? It's one week into my life, but I feel upset at how painful and swollen I am and just don't like what I see right now either! I thought I would have been slimmer. Updated on 22 Jan 2015: It's been raining here, yesterday and today. I've been steaming paper off of a wall and doing laundry. I could hit a gym close by, but decided to rest and get back to walking tomorrow. The day before I started back up with some resistance training and it felt great. Mentally I don't think I was prepared for the recovery. It's a recovery unlike what I expected. First, watching calories is not a problem for me, but the unexpected food cravings are. Mentally this is the toughest part. Secondly, the discomfort is not at all what I expected. By day 3 post op I started swelling up, and bruising was immediate. I thought I would be in pain if I moved. No, moving is fine - I have full range of motion without any pain. It's when I brush something against the bruises...very tender and painful. Thank God I don't have to pull the CG up and down my legs often. Once every other day I take the CG off to wash and check my scabs and shower. By day 5 post op I began to notice a burning sensation under my skin. The skin at the lipo sites feel like a horrible sunburn. A sunburn with blisters. Hot and swole. That's really the discomfort that keeps me up at night. That's the discomfort that goes away when I walk. Once the PS gave me permission on day 7 to start ibuprofen that helped immensely! And even though I may have a glass of wine with dinner I haven't. Instead, I take a benadryl, and sleep in a coma until it wears off in about 7 hours. (The first night I took two benadryl!) I plan on taking a pill at night to help me sleep, relieve the burn, for at least another week. My time of the month started two days early. I notice that it seems to be a bit more intense than usual, but I'm hoping that means that it will last only a few days instead of the typical 4 - 5 days. That typical abdominal swole has occurred, but everything else seems normal. Yesterday I took a really good look at myself. My shape is so much nicer. I realize now that lipo has helped me achieve the look I wanted, and that it's now up to me to be mentally strong enough to keep it this way. I just wish I could have saved the money to spend my first two weeks of recovery at a spa resort, the way the rich girls do! Sipping on low cal slushies and getting mani/pedis and massages all day. oh well. Updated on 26 Jan 2015: removing wallpaper sucks. At least I'm getting some upper body toning done. Standing is much more doable than sitting or laying down. I have some swelling still, and the fluids/swelling pools in my butt cheeks and upper thighs if I'm not standing. Yesterday I was finally able to touch my inner thighs without too much pain. The outer thighs are doing better and are not as sensitive. I have a large cyst like lump of fluid under my right sit bone, in my thigh pit crotch area. That is the only place that is extremely and unbearably painful right now, and it burns. I have switched to wearing tight leggings instead of my compression garment to keep the crotch area from having any pressure. Leggings do not put pressure on the sensitive crotch/bikini line like the CG does. That crotchless CG has an elastic band that directly hits the cyst and the sensitive banana fold area where most of my fluid pools overnight when I lay flat on my back. I prop my legs up with a pillow to keep the thighs from hitting the mattress. Updated on 26 Jan 2015: I'm still pretty upset with my look and am praying that it's all swelling. I have massive bruising and still in some discomfort. Especially sitting. OUch. I don't look any better than I did preop. I am half an inch smaller than I was preop as of right now. It is still not smaller than I am when I diet/exercise down. I'm walking every day, and doing light resistance training. It feels so good to move! I still have over two dozen scabs. You can see them in my pictures, all those freckle marks are scabs! Many of the needle puncture wound scabs look as big as the Lipo wound scabs. I had 5 lipo sites on my left thigh and 4 on my right thigh. Only the lipo site under my R butt cheek is painful, that's the one with a cyst which is causing too much discomfort for me to even sit on. This sucks. Updated on 31 Jan 2015: My inner bikini lipo hole, some scabs from needle lidocaine injection sites,and the inner thigh bruising close up vid. Updated on 2 Feb 2015: I'm still really swollen on the inner thighs, and in extreme discomfort when I try to lay on my side. The saddle bags are pretty swollen still, but I'm starting to just suck it up and go back to a normal life. When I exercise, anything more than just walking, my inner and outer thighs balloon up. This feeling is very intense in the front and inner thighs where the lipo was performed. I still have quite a lot of bruising, and when I brush my hand over the lipo site vs the non lipo site of my inner thighs- there's a very big difference in the texture under the skin. The inner thighs are very stiff and swollen, actually hard with fluid retention. it's very frustrating to see how swollen I get after a little bit of exercise. Every 3 to 4 days I'm doing a little bit of resistance training, but I still can't do anything with my lower body. The most exercise I'm doing with my legs would be some step up and reverse lunges either at body weight or at no more than one third of my normal added resistance. My lipo sites swell up so much after exercise it it's just unbelievable. today, I'm sitting on some cool comfrey compresses. I boiled up some comfrey and then let it cool. Then I dished it out into a wash cloth which I set upon the waterproof pads my plastic surgeon provided me to put over furniture. I'm sitting on these for a couple hours now as I read and relax trying to get the swelling in my thighs down from Saturday's exercise. I walked 3 miles yesterday, & I plan on going out and walking a couple of miles today. Then I'll go back to comfrey compesses again. Updated on 3 Feb 2015: This website is making me crazy with how difficult it is to upload things. And I would love to be able to edit.I don't see why I am required to post a longer vid. Description. That's what messed up the previous posts ....I have absolutely no sagging skin, no lumps or bumps, no pockets of excessive fluid buildup, everything's pretty smooth. I just want to make sure you guys get a little bit of a better idea of what to expect with liposuction recovery.All of the scabs have fallen off naturally, and are healing pretty well. My inner thighs do have some brand new stretch marks. I have a follow up with the doctor tomorrow so I will bring this to his attention. All in all things are starting to feel a lot better I can honestly say that ISo this is me griping about how swole my legs are right now. swelling is reducing free noticeable a in the past week. I really hope that this week my thighs will continue to deflate.in, the only real difference between Smart Lipo and regular lipo is the recovery time concerning the training of the fluids. I dreamed for less than 24 hours after my surgery. From what I understand that's the only benefit that smart lipo really gives you. Like I said before I really don't think I could have taken draining out of my legs for more than a day.right now I have been doing hours and hours of compresses to reduce the swelling in my legs and to speed up my healing. It's working pretty well. I'm really not taking any pain meds except for maybe 300 milligrams of ibuprofen if I need it. Like after exercising or before exercising.I'm showing you lipo sites, the needle puncture marks, and all of their bruising and fluid that is still present. Updated on 4 Feb 2015: I went in today at 3 weeks post op - normally it's 4, but the Dr. is very concerned with some health issues I have and wanted to monitor my swelling he said when I was there last time. So far so good he said! He thought my skin looked extremely dry (I have been greatly reducing my EFAs and I think my skin is suffering for it), but remarked that for 3 weeks out the swelling I am experiencing is better than most of his patients! wow. He gently reminded me that he warned me numerous times that the swelling is intense. I replied that I honestly didn't get that - it had not sinked in at all. And this surgery is so completely different from my BA that was performed last year.... He assured me that the saddlebag bulge and inner thigh bulge is completely fluid swelling and will disappear. Another 4 weeks of this... ugh. Once the swelling disappears I will look like my wish pic. The doctor also told me that I'm only at about 40% total reduction in swelling. What a relief! I shared with him my concerns about swelling, especially after exercising, and the bruising and the shape. He was polite and calm - as always - reassuring me that this is all along the normal lines of recovery and "your shape is really good." He remarked at the holes disappearing at the front bikini line, and that the other holes are very small and healing up very nicely. I have to agree with him there. I think he seemed to really be pleased with himself...perhaps I'm reading into his body language, but he never gloats or talks about himself? I am still very skeptical at this point in time... but Dr. Chike-Obi seems so confident that I will have perfect results I do come away with a calmer mindset. He also reminded me to keep my CG on as much as possible, especially when I exercise. I DO! If not it, then some very tight (tighter than my CG) pants or spankx. I am also allowed to exercise as I see fit, and wax my bikini line and legs. As always, everyone at Westlake Dermatology and Surgery Center Downtown is professional and polite. I absolutely love them all, especially my PS. Updated on 6 Feb 2015: Yesterday I did a total body resistance workout, upped my resistance on my barbell back squats to 35% of my typical weight, and even though I swelled up after and was sore this morning with fluid build up, it's completely gone down after a 1 hour comfrey compress session on my recliner. I'll be slowly increasing resistance every workout now. I also see a nice thigh gap. My inner thighs do not touch at all this morning. There are still fluid bulges, but everything looks like it's going down. I feel much stronger and have fewer discomfort areas. The only areas are discomfort have numbness or tingling after exercise, then abates. Still bruised, but it's disappearing. At night, sleeping on my side, especially my left outer hip side, is uncomfortable. I have to stack pillows under my calf and hug another near my head for support. I can at least hug my husband now when I sleep. I am putting wet comfrey herb under some bandaids on a few of the lipo holes that are still visible while I go about my day. The other lipo sites at my front bikini line have completely disappeared where the comfrey hit them this past week. Not even a scar. I wish I had done compresses sooner and especially to ALL of the lipo holes right after the surgery. They would have been completely gone by now. If you plan on doing the comfrey, be sure to know that you will smell like salty spinach. Perhaps even urine. It really leaves a weird body funk on you even after you wash it all off. The smell is worth it! I think one more week of compresses will hopefully be all I need. Perfume up. Also, I've not gotten any lymphatic massages. I couldn't find anyone local. I started to just lightly stroke my legs and crotch myself, and that seems to be helpful. A few minutes before showering. I can feel the fluids under the skin moving a bit. Especially around my knees, crotch and the front lymph nodes area. Like little crinkle pops. So, I guess I would say you can do this yourself, so why pay an arm and a leg for someone else to do this? Overall, in recovery, the calundula salve worked much better than topical and homeopathic tabs of arnica (arnica didn't do a thing for me). The comfrey compresses this week created spectacular and immediate healing results. I'm down to about 300 to 600 mg ibuprofen a day, only as needed. Updated on 10 Feb 2015: My swelling is considerably down and I move great now. A little bit of bruising is left on the inner thighs and some hardness exists under the outer thigh and under the butt cheek holes. As I sit in front of my pc eating my chicken salad lunch, perusing the journeys of others RSVP members, I have to honestly admit that I am finally happy that I did this procedure. I have an amazingly talented PS, got this at a very low price, and every thing but the $20 in meds was included. I will do another video soon. Btw. .. thigh swelling is still going down. Week 1 21.5 INCHES Week 2 21.25 " Week 3 21 " Week 4 at 20.6 " All measurements taken at the top of my thighs. I have a thigh gap! Updated on 10 Feb 2015: Nothing jiggles and I can jump and move. No post exercise swelling either. Some update pics show my front and my outer thigh hole and under butt cheek inner thigh hole. Updated on 5 Mar 2015: I feel great. The thighs are still a bit swollen, I have a tiny saddle bag on each leg and the doctor says they should disappear in the next two weeks. I told him that I'm feeling good enough to sit on the toilet seat now, omg my inner thighs were so sore for a month and a half! The shape of my thighs is great. I'm down to 21" circumference now. By the seventh week out I could do all high the impact and jumping I wanted to. I wear compression leggings or the CG when I exercise. But my compression leggings are tighter and better fitting and more comfortable than my CG, so I don't think I need to touch that thing ever again. My flexibility is still at about only 80%, and I'm slowly ramping up my resistance training on leg and booty workout days. My cardio tanked with the time off, so I'm only jogging 2 miles right now. When I do leg day the DOMS is intense, but by week 7 wasn't as bad as week 6. I could barely walk after leg day on week 6, and I only did body weight lunges and some squats with back barbell at about 33% added weight of my 1 rep. max. Last weekend my husband and I went clubbing. It felt great to get back into social dancing. It was one of those events where you body paint and glam up. I was wearing a leotard with a plunging neckline. I had so many complements on my body. I was wearing nude tights, so it was all tight. I've never had so many hands brush across my ass as I did that night. Scary. It appears that the thigh lip really makes my voluptuous booty pop. I'm really happy about that. Not so much with the touchy feel-y Austinites. I will have to wear a cape or something next time. But the bartenders were awesome.... The scars are tiny, and because I'm stretching and moving so much I try to make sure the scar tissue doesn't separate by wearing a band aid over them. Biogel twice a day and a few zaps from my laser gun will hopefully make them heal very nicely. The front crotch area and the front inner thigh lipo hole scars are invisible. The outer thigh holes, and under the butt cheek holes are tiny but visible still if you look for them. I had asked Dr. Chike-Obi how much he took out of each leg. He pulled up the op notes and said about 250cc (give or take about 25ccs) at each of the four lipo sites. Wow. So about a liter of fat was sucked out. I am still surprised that I am not smaller in size. Weird. Well, off to workout. Today is leg day. Updated on 15 Mar 2015: I'm 2.5 months post op and while I'm a better shape, I have to say I'm not happy with the fact that I'm not as lean in the lipo areas as I wanted. Every time I mentioned this at a follow up I was told, "give it another few weeks because you are still swollen", then, at another, "give it another month." The PS keeps pushing the time for the "swelling" to disappear further and further out! One nurse even said to me, "stop being so critical and looking at yourself." wtf? of course I'm going to look. I take weekly measurements. I compare them to the monthly measurements I've taken for the past 3 years of my life. Everyone heals different, but my PS told me that the lipo does a lot of damage to the fat cells, it doesn't completely remove them. "They pop like soap bubbles." I wonder now post op if this was worth all the pain because if damaging a few cells and removing only a portion of them was all he did I guess I was under the wrong impression about everything. Looks like diet and exercise are all that I can go back to. The usual routine. I know I can lean out just fine. But getting only 1 inch of fat removed is not worth the pain, down time, and loss of work money. I expected quite a bit more impressive outcome! I'm at 21 inches circumference each thigh. That's down an inch and a half from post op, and only half and inch preop. I know with diet and exercise I can easily go down another half inch. When I diet down I easily get to 20.5 inches. The only thing I have to say is my shape is better, but I still have a slight saddle bag on each thigh (not at all what I wanted!), and reduced inner thigh bulge. The thighs barely touch right now, but they touch. And now I have scars. I'm back to full exercise again. The 6 weeks off from lifting is showing...I've lost strength and stamina in my muscles. Regaining that. Everything gets sore. I've added jogging. I need to burn off the excess 2 lbs. I've gained. Could be water weight, but I'm leaning out everywhere but my outer thighs right now so I know I'm currently losing the body fat on the diet and exercise program I've put myself on. I hope in 4 weeks to be back to my surgery day weight of 118. By the end of the summer I'm shooting for 115 lbs. I'm getting weekly massages which helps release all the stress tension. I have a huge lump of built up lymph in my nodes on the left side of my lower abs below my belly and near my coochie. It's finally starting to reduce. Recovery is a pain in the butt, let me tell you. I still have dark scars on the lipo holes at the side hips, and under the butt cheeks. I think that I will not be sunning myself at all this summer. I will be a full spray tan babe this year, for fear of damaging this delicate skin with the sun. I know they will fade with time, but really want to protect them and do as much as possible for the best healing. I have had the worst itchiness for the past week on my outter hips. One spot, two weeks ago, that was red became a bruise, then lifted to the surface and became an ulcer. It took a few days and some black tea bag compresses for it to scab over. Now, the itchiness is abating, and that one spot is healing. I'm afraid of a scar there. It's like some medicine or something was pushed out, scifi horror flick style, from my body and out through the skin. It didn't ooze or anything, just was raw and itchy for a few days. I'm happy with my improved thigh shape, unhappy with recovery, unhappy with the very minor size change, and extremely unhappy with the PS and his staff's need to keep pushing my full recovery time further and further into the future. Updated on 17 Mar 2015: Hello RSers! Here's me sharing with you my lipo recovery. RS will not let me upload it because it's "too big". So, here it is on YouTube http://youtu.be/gddbytNq6ps Updated on 8 Apr 2015: hi all! I have to say that the swelling is all gone. No more uncomfortable feelings or swelling after exercise as well. I'm consistently at 20.2 inches diameter each thigh. Wow. Insanely awesome! With a Skins compression garment I get down to 19.9", but who wants to wear CG all day? lol. I look great. The weird saddlebag under each butt cheek that has appeared are starting to dwindle away with my exercise. The best part is that I'm not exercising to death, and I'm eating normally. I'm not dieting, but once a week I may be in a calorie deficit. I'm at 119#, one # more than operation day, but I know I can get the fat off myself now that I'm relaxed about it. I'm so happy. The pain was horrible, but my PS was awesome, always right. I freaked out for nothing. Everything is perfect. I get so many compliments on my shape and perfect legs. My husband is ecstatic! I am so happy I did this with Dr. Chike-Obi Updated on 20 May 2015: Exercise has tightened up the backside of the saddlebags, even though the skin is not completely tight just yet. I'm down to 117 lbs. and doing moderate exercise. The shape feels great, looks great, and last week at the beach some guys kept referring to me as Ms. Brazil, lol. The only downside so far is that my outer thighs are not as reduced as I had wanted. And spider capillaries have appeared on the outer thigh lipo areas. And for some reason I have recurring small pinhole sores that rise up to the surface and heal in about a week after they rise and scab. I have no idea why the numbing needle prick holes reappear. All of the scars are itttty bitttty! I had to laugh at how tiny mine are compared to all the Brits and the French girls at the beach who's lipo spots are as big as a quarter! They are flabby, obviously had lipo, but their scars are sooo huge! And reddish pink. Ewww. I am very thankful that Dr Chike-Obi results in barely any scarring, and that my scars are already invisible. I'm using sunscreen and stage makeup over the scars to protect them from the sun. Feeling great! Looking great. I'd do this whole thing again, but won't need it on the inner thigh - it's so lean and perfect there now. Updated on 27 May 2015: Bear with me and read this whole update to understand how to get the best results from your thigh lipo: On May 7th I had my first post op photo shoot. I covered the holes with a bit of makeup and made the most of the bloated feeling, it ended up being one of my most fun photo shoots ever. It was my first time working with this photographer and she kept calling me a doll. My modeling icon is Betty Page, and for the first time in years I felt like I was channeling that energy. At 4 months post op my backside and glutes (buttock muscles) have not been worked at all. I have been doing body weight training and walking mostly because I was still not strong enough to get back into weightlifting. This means the saggy skin in the thigh areas have yet to fully tighten up, but they are improving monthly. This photo shoot required thigh high boots, which pushed any remaining fat upward. Worst possible costume scenario... and I rocked it. My backside could be prettier, but hey, there's photo shop to fix that. By the end of summer my back side will be rocking and solid. I have to say that lately when I visit real self I come across complete lipo horror stories. These gals complain that their thigh lipos were botched. I'm confused that they would say this after reading how they obviously thought liposuction would transformed them into perfect bodies, and they are now freaking over the loose and "dented" areas! And they don't say that they are exercising, dieting, or following any of the prescribed lipo must dos post surgery. Perhaps they were not told? I don't know, but I want to tell you. I had a little bit of my outer thigh saddlebag knocked down, and a lot of fat removed from my inner thighs. It left me with rolls of looseness under my butt cheeks that were not there before. Ever. It was scarey and fustrating to see, but I was told that is to be expected! When the fat is removed it will deflate the thigh areas that the fat was taken from. The body shape you are left with will be based on your musculature. If you have NO MUSCLES under the fat that was lipoed away, then you can expect that lymph and a horrible "skinny fat" celulite and baggy skin look will occur. Your doctor will tell you that you have to diet and exercise AND wear a compression garment to heal up without ending up with this deflated look. So, yes, when your thighs get liposuctioned you will be smaller in size. You will experience saggy and deflated body areas. You will suffer (100% of all clients will suffer this) lymph swelling, and if you do not exercise and massage it out you will result in cellulite. If you do not exercise and build up muscle at the lipo sites then you will remain flabby and it will take a much longer time for the body to tighten up the skin in that area. If you have no muscle under the lipo sites for the doctor to roll the cannula against while the procedure is done, then your doctor has no idea at all how to shape that area. If you are skinny fat (have no muscle) I highly advise you to not get liposuction. Without muscle mass your results will be a cellulite nightmare. I found that post surgery I suffered from cellulite and sagginess in the front of my thighs, and in my butt cheeks. I only had lipo on the outer and inner thighs, high up. My lymph just wasn't circulating and even getting massages didn't prevent this. Perhaps it's my age? I don't think so. I read here on RS that my results are typical. So ladies and gents, know what to expect. Don't expect instant miracles. And yes, you must diet and exercise after thigh lipo! All doctors will tell lipo candidates that they must eat right, exercise after lipo. The compression garment will help too. But if the exercise is not seriously, hormone altering, human growth hormone producing, hard work, then why would you ever go get liposuction? Without the hard work of a calorie deficit plus resistance training, your lipo will give you wavy and uneven areas! Why do some gals go get lipo, complain here on RS that their lipo was botched, yet have not done the required exercise and diet followup? Please, ladies, you must diet and exercise for good results. Updated on 4 May 2016: I love Dr. Chike Obi and my results! I have perfect legs and no scars. NONE! The tiny scar holes on the outer upper thighs were visible for the first 8 months, but have faded into nothing, and are too tiny to see. All of the other scars are gone. Completely. This fact alone is why you all must go get lipo by this doctor. The same happened with my BA. Under my boobs only a faint, 1.5" scar is there, and you have to really look for it. It's invisible. Also, I have beautiful woman legs. The outer saddlebags are gone, yet I have a curve and softness to my legs. The inner thighs are soft, lean, and don't touch. I look like a Victoria's Secret model, exactly what I asked from the doctor. I am not kidding. This was awesome and I'd do it all again in a heart beat. Thank you Westlake staff and Dr. Chikie Obi! By month 9 post op I was in winter party mode, didn't exercise and at 111 pounds. After a photo shoot in Sept. I was pretty soft, thin, and drank and ate what I wanted. By the beginning of Jan. 2016, almost a year later, I had cellulite forming on the back of my thighs so I got back into a workout routine and better eating. I focused on really working my booty and 4 months later have perfect legs and no cellulite. I think this is something my body wants to naturally do, and I'm middle aged so I know it's a factor now. Massaging/cupping, rest, clean eating, moderate cardio, overall resistance training, hard core booty training is what has worked for me. I am consistently at 113 - 114 pounds right now due to good eating and weightlifting, and can get my thigh down to 18" circumference within a week for a photo shoot if necessary. That's something I was never able to do pre liposuction. As long as I eat great, massage my legs, and keep up the resistance training my legs are responding perfectly. My shape is beautiful and my husband is happy. I'm happy - It's like a dream come true having a quality of life where I don't have to kill myself in the gym all day to look great for a modeling job. I'm aging gracefully, with a little help ;) Updated on 20 Sep 2017: picture 1 year out
I am a transgender woman, currently pre-op. I have been on HRT for four+ years and I have achieved a meager 36A breasts. I say meager as depending on the bra I almost fill it out completely. LoL I mostly wear push up bras or bras with lots of padding which is usually very hot as I work outside in the summer heat and would love to one day wear a non padded bra. I do not want big just a proportionate 38C or so, I just want as normal and realistic as possible, as I am awaiting 3D imagery from a doctor to see how it would actually look. I have surgery for GRS scheduled for the end of next year, fingers crossed, and plan on having a BA at the same time. Currently saving for the procedure. Already have GRS approved by my insurance and my letters done. Marci Bowers is going to be my surgeon. I am in the process of talking with Dr. Joel Beck for the BA. Enclosed are some pictures of what I would like and a few that I do not. I will enclose some photos of me at a later date. Currently trying to get someone to take some photos of me half naked. LOL I will add more later. Thank you for reading and comments. Updated on 9 Nov 2015: This is a picture close to my stats. I could definitely live with these results. Updated on 9 Nov 2015: Pre-operative pictures after 49 months on HRT 36A breasts Updated on 10 Nov 2015: So after researching my options I have figured out that I should be able to get my BA done a few weeks before my major, lower surgery, and be fine they are only worried about carrying luggage, thank you family, and the anesthesia. I will find out more when I have my consult. I am going to a consult with Gary Lawton in San Antonio Monday 11/16 at 2 pm so I will post another update with what the results of that visit is. Just trying to weigh my options and get a few opinions before making my final decision. But I have pretty much decided that I would prefer someone local whom I can see afterwards for checkups instead of flying to California or just not doing them. Updated on 27 Nov 2015: So sorry it has taken so long. I am finally getting a chance to post this update regarding my consultation with Gary Lawton in San Antonio. He gave me a whole lot of information about how bad Silicone implants are and the president of the company stepping down and said he only does Saline implants. So I have quite a bit more research to do on this. I mean if they are so bad then why are there a lot of doctors still using them? I would appreciate others info as well but I will do my own research as well. Enclose are pictures that I took at the office. The consult with the doctor was very brief and I felt very rushed even though I was there for three hours most of which I was stuck in one room or another. He also did not have that many pictures of transgender women, far more transmen. So I am also back to the table to interview more doctors. He was very polite when I saw him and he tried to answer all of my questions. We did settle on 360cc Salline implants. Although no brand or type so I have no clue regarding that. I did however stress to him my importance of looking as soft and natural as possible and my desire for natural feeling as well. He just agreed and said Saline will work well. He also showed me some pretty bad pictures of Silicone implants gone bad. Updated on 16 May 2016: So I am still working towards my BA and have settled on Dr. Chike-Obi at Westlake dermatology. It is local here in Austin he was very friendly and knowledgeable and even though he lacked experience with transgender patients he was very confident he could give me the outcome I wanted. The staff there were great and as an added bonus he is very willing to work with me to get authorization from my insurance which I received in the mail a month back saying they will take care of my surgery and he is in network!!! This is such a relief and will definitely help the financial burden of it all. I am still waiting for my day to come when I receive my letter stating that I will go in for lower surgery in three months but they keep assuring me that I am top on the waitlist and that it will happen before the end of the year. When that happens I will contact Dr. Chike-Obi and get my surgery set up with him 2 weeks before GRS. Here are some pictures with him at the appointment. Sorry it took so long to update. It has been a crazy year so far. Updated on 16 May 2016: So here is a few pictures or some roughly 260cc quinoa sizers with some regular street clothes to get a view of how it may look with regular clothing. Updated on 13 Jul 2016: So while at work yesterday I finally got the phone call that felt as if it would never come. Robin from my doctors office called me as they had a cancelation for August 24th! So of course I said yes???? So I called my Breast surgeon to let him know that my GCS is scheduled now but they are hesitant as to whether they can get it reapproved within a months time???? In any case I just may have to do the breast augmentation after my other surgery. Oh my I now have so much to do!!!! I have to book flight, hotel, notify my job and get all of my stuff in order. I will keep you all informed but looks like I will be leaving for GCS (Gender Corrective Surgery) August 20th which is about a month away. Top on my list is to make a list of all that I must do and accomplish before I leave and most of all breath........ Lots of love! Jess Updated on 15 Jul 2016: In scheduling with Dr. Chekeobi at westlake dermatology in austin for BA and waiting on insurance confirmation that they are helping with surgery. Insurance had authorized it previously six months ago or more actually. So it should hopefully not be an issue. Currently I am on the schedule for August 15th before I leave for California for GRS Surgery with Dr. Bowers. Hoping that it all works out and I am able to pull everything together!!! Hugs to you all Updated on 1 Aug 2016: So I will go in Wednesday 8/3 for my preop visit with Dr. Chuma Chekeobi where we will discuss my surgery, out come, and finalize on size and type of implant. I will keep you all posted. Surgery is set for August 17th!!! So excited. I will leave for California on the 21st and meet my twin sister there for my Second procedure with Dr. Bowers which will be on the 24th. Flight and hotel are booked and everything is coming into place so far. Fingers crossed! I will keep you posted. Hugs to you all!!! Updated on 4 Aug 2016: So I had my preop visit with Dr. Chuma Chekeobi yesterday morning. It went superawesomely yes that is my new word. LoL So he was very kind and patient and has a wonderful calm demeanor about him. He answer my whole slew of questions and we came up with our final game plan for surgery on the 17th. So my main concern with under the muscle was A: I have a very physical job and B: I enjoy working out and lifting free weights and not sure how that would affect things. So we are going with 350cc anatomical cohesive gel implants I did give him the go ahead if he feels that 375 would be better for my frame then go ahead. I trust his judgement. We are going over the muscle instead of under as well. I will be staying one night in the hospital for observation since my home is so far of a drive. I will let you know more probably the day before about how I am feeling but I am very excited and cannot wait!! Hugs to you all and thanks for following and commenting!!! ~Jess Updated on 16 Aug 2016: So tomorrow is the big day! I am all packed for California and ready to go. I have a small hand bag packed for tomorrow. I check in the surgery center at 11am and surgery is at one. I am a little nervous and in a way is seems a bit surreal that tomorrow starts the countdown to a cumulation of events that I have worked so hard to make happen. Breast surgery tomorrow then in a week GRS and then........... THE WORLD!!! Hahaha I wish you all the best!! ~Jess Updated on 18 Aug 2016: Everything went great. I was under about two hours. Made it through fine and spent the night in the hospital. Things are tight and sore and my ribbies and incissions feel the worst but pain med keep it under control. Dr. Chekiobe is absolutely wonderful. Updated on 27 Aug 2016: Sorry it has taken a while for the update but things are excellent!! Healing from BA is marvelous and I had surgery with Dr. Bowers for GRS on Wednesday. The first 48hours was bed rest only. They took the dressing off yesterday morning. I am bruised and a bit swollen which is understandable but all things considered it looks to be marvelous!! She did a beautiful job. I actually slept hard last night as I was tired from all of my activity and I did not have my evening pain meds nor any that night till 5am but pain was well controlled. The Nurses at Mills Peninsula are so wonderful and accommodating. I got my drain tube out this morning which was quite the experience but not horrible. I still have a catheter in till I return to Dr. Bowers office next Tuesday when they will remove the packing and catheter. I am free to leave whenever I want currently and I will head to the hotel in about an hour. Just relaxing a bit and waiting for the motorin to kick in. I will enclose some pics for you all. They are a bit graphic so just be warned. Also an update pic of my boobies. If anyone has any questions or want to know anything please feel free to ask. Thank you for all of your support! Wishing you well from California!! Updated on 29 Aug 2016: So healing is going super well!! Swelling has gone down in both regions. Still a bit tight up top but skin. Will loosen in time. Suture sites look great. Still some swelling from GRS and a bit tender. Tomorrow I get my catheter removed and packing. Part of my packing actually came out last night but a quick text to the Dr. Assured me that it was all good. She told me if it is not all the way out to push back in which it was not having so second choice was to cut it off. No big deal as this happens. I think the worst part of this is my lower back hurting from the bed and being in uncomfortable positions. At least that is my opinion. Hotel beds are not near as comfy as mine. Healing is going beyond my expectations. I cannot believe how wonderful I feel so close to being out of surgery. So enclosed are follow up pics for you all. Take care and have a glorious day!! Updated on 4 Sep 2016: So here is the latest news 11 days GRS postop and 18 days postop from BA. The healing is super well although I had to go to the ER for lower back pain on Thursday 9/1. Apparently when they put me in the stirrups and did the procedure it is rough on the lower back and it managed to slip my L4 disc out further according to the CT scan which admittedly I have had minor problems with since last year but at worst my pain has been a 2-3 but since surgery it has been a 7-8. They gave me prednisone on a lowering dose to help with the disc and Valium 5mg to help with my back muscle spasms which has been magic and for the first time since surgery I could actually walk instead of waddling and also I can actually stand up straight for the first time. Now I still have pain and discomfort but it is tolerable now. I just hope that it stays that ways and gets better or at least back to "my" normal!! So enclosed are updated pictures from today and I hope that you all enjoy the progress. Breasts are also feeling good and wonderful. They are getting a bit more supple but the skin is still a bit tight. Thank you again for all of your prayers and wishes and I hope the best for all of you in your own recovery and lives!! Love and hugs to you all!! Updated on 10 Sep 2016: Healing up well. Swelling pretty much gone. As in very minimal. Some slight bruising in other places but not very bothersome. I get wore out pretty quickly but I just try and take my time and not overdue things. So I tried my hardest ever to try and make the blue (middle dilator) work. The first picture is my Max depth with the purple dilator. As you can see you can barely see the fourth dot but by no means does this hide the third. The next is the blue. Which took a lot of patience and lube to get it thus far. I had to turn it sideways clockwise and insert it just to get it in that far and then try and turn it upright to get the max depth that I can achieve. Which is still barely not even to the first dot. To which upon removal I started bleeding like crazy because I guess I broke some stiching or something causing blood to run down because it is too wide and tore something open but as I stated it did stop fairly fast. I am still waiting to hear from the Dr.'s office which now being a weekend will have to wait until next week. So we shall see. As I am supposed to have worked up to the middle (blue) dilator by next Wednesday. Robin was great and returned my call quite fast but still waiting to hear from the tech nurse or doctor. Other than that healing very well and breasts are great. Enclosed are pictures for those that would like to see not just the healing but yet also dilation procedures. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. Hugs!! ~Jess Updated on 10 Sep 2016: So just fyi I just finished dilating and although it took about a half an hour I was able to work up slightly to the middle dilator with no bleeding. So it is just going to take time and lots and lots of patience. Trying to relax the muscles inside takes quite a bit of mental preparation along with relaxation and meditation definitely helps and when you think you have enough lube apply more! I still cannot quite make it to the first mark on the blue dilator but I did come close. Just wanted to give you all a heads up. Updated on 30 Sep 2016: So sorry this is a bit late everybody. I have been crazy with family and friends, healing, and trying to care for myself. That and I just recently had my 41st birthday with my twin sister!! Hard to believe it has been a month. Well more actually! So here is updated pics from a month or so post op. I will post the newest ones for ya'll. I am healing well though but still cannot handle standing or doing remedial tasks. To stand while washing dishes is torture by the end of a small stack of dishes. But I can walk for quite a ways. It is just the standing puts a lot of pressure down below but it is getting better slowly but surely. Nerve pain is getting a little further apart for those electrical jolts. Breasts are still dull nerves especially my right breast more so than the left. Suture sites are healing up wonderfully!! Still only maintaining 4 to 4.5 inches of depth but as long as I can maintain that I am happy! The girls are settling in nicely! Hope this helps you all and that you have a wonderful week. Take care!! Hugs;oP Updated on 30 Sep 2016: I almost forgot my birthday was September 25th and here is a couple of pics from it. I am so loving the way that my clothes fit now. My tops in particular fit soo much better!! Updated on 5 Feb 2017: So here I am at home almost five and a half months post op from GCS on the 24th of August and the 17th for BA. Also during the GCS procedure they herniated my L4 disc causing severe pain and I had to have surgery for that on November 3rd. It has been a wild and crazy ride and super busy as I finally returned to work December 22nd. I am doing good although dialation is still a bit painful. Hoping that goes away but they say to give it six months to a year. Anyhow sorry for being so late but here is some updated pictures of my healing. I have been back at work and the gym for over a month now. I still a work in progress and trying to get back to bikini shape after being off of the gym for five months and work for four. Being in pain and not being able to do much for all that time was very frustrating and definitely tried my sanity. I hope that you are all well!! Take care and my best to you all and thabks to all who sent well wishes. Hugs & Kisses ~Jessie