Sad empty post breastfeeding boobs desperately needing ‘rejuvenatation’!

I’ve wanted to write a detailed review on my BA experience, but have been struggling a little with my recovery so it has taken me a while to get started! So many of the reviews I read on RS helped me in my journey that i decided it was worth doing - even late.
I am actually 3 weeks post op so I’ll do the first couple of updates in stages to cover the early parts of the process.
About me - I’m 34, mum of two, 56kg (123pounds) and 173cm (5’9”) tall. Breastfed my 2 babies for 4 years in total so even tho they did me proud my boobs were looking very sad and flat.
It took me about a year of research to decide what I wanted and who I wanted to do it, and I was saving the whole time too because I didn’t want to take money away from my family for something that was purely for me (mum guilt!). I was unsure if I needed a lift too, but was hopeful I could get away with just implants.
I have a really bad back with chronic pain issues and an autoimmune disease (thyroid) and so I also had to research and discuss with my specialists if they thought i would be ok to go ahead with a BA. All the advice was positive as long as I didn’t go too big with the size potentially making my back pain worse.
I decided I would only see a plastic surgeon and not a cosmetic surgeon so I knew I would pay more but considering all my health issues I didn’t want to risk someone without the appropriate qualifications. I made my list of potential drs, and essentially stalked them on RS and their websites to get a feel for their work and their ethics. One of them had some terrible ratings on google which one day suddenly disappeared and turned into all 5 star ratings and that set alarm bells off for me! In the end I decided on Dr Matthew Peters from Valley Plastic Surgery. He is head of reconstructive surgery at the RBWH public hospital, trains surgeons and also sits on lots of plastic surgery advisory boards, and of course, his work is beautiful. When I met with him he was lovely to speak with, very calm and confident, listened to all of my concerns and never made me feel silly for asking a million questions, and of course understood straight away the look that I wanted while working around the concerns for my health.
Thankfully after measuring me up he said I definitely didn’t need a lift and would get a lovely result with implants alone. We discussed the type and while he initially suggested anatomical shaped implants in the end I decided I preferred the look of round and he was more than happy to accommodate that.
I’ll go into the details of the surgery in the next update with some pics. For now I’ve loaded the wish pics I used to decide what I wanted!

The morning of my surgery went really smoothly, the only thing was it was a much colder day than expected and the zip up hoodie I had bought to wear home wasn’t nearly warm enough! The hospital is a small day hospital so the check in process was really quick and easy, the only thing was it was freezing (as most hospitals and operating theaters are)!
After getting into my gown etc Dr Peters came in and drew me up. I wish I had gotten a pic of all the drawings because it was so technical! He explained what all the lines meant and how he would use them to make his final decision on size during surgery.
So prior to surgery we had decided on a dual plane sub muscular approach, and as my breast width is 11.5cm we had chosen ‘ideally’ the motiva progressive gel high profile 355cc implant. He has advised against the ergonomix implant (which was initially my preference) because post breastfeeding my skin was quite stretched and thin and he said the ergonomix implant is so soft it could potentially stretch out my soft stretched skin more with a waterhammering effect, so we went with the slightly firmer progressive gel.
Anyway, surgery was all over and done with pretty quick, I woke up shivering and once I was a bit more with it I asked what size I had gotten and was told 400cc. My husband came to pick me up and I didn’t stop shivering until we got home and he tucked me up in bed! Not a reaction to the GA, just don’t tolerate the cold very well!
Pain wise was better and worse than I expected all at the same time. I expected to not be able to raise my arms to eat or drink (had prepared with bendy straws and stuff) but I had no problems with that, but the pain under my arms and in the middle of my chest was far more painful than I expected.
Day 3 I started to get a bad headache and by day 4 I woke up vomiting with a full blown migraine. Vomiting post BA is painful and best avoided.
I took migraine meds and was knocked out for basically the next two days. Finally saw the surgeon one week post op and told him about the migraines. I get headaches and migraines easily due to muscle tension but they are controlled with regular Botox treatment and he assured me that the migraines were most likely triggered by the trauma to chest muscles putting extra strain on my shoulder and neck muscles, and should resolve as the swelling goes down and settles. Decided on a regime of small regular doses of muscle relaxant to help manage the migraines and that seems to be helping.
Other than the migraines the worst thing has been sleeping - getting comfortable and rolling over. Having a bad back I tend to toss and turn a lot at night and that is really difficult post BA. I usually side sleep but that’s not really an option at the moment. I asked about sleeping elevated and how long I had to and he said you don’t, it’s a comfort thing usually, so I have tried both up and flat and it’s still uncomfortable so I just do my best at night, which is a half on my side position that doesn’t hurt the chest too much but doesn’t really do many favours for my back.
When I asked about why he decided on 400cc he said that the 355 just fell to the sides and left the middle too empty and the 400 just looked perfect for my frame. At first I was a bit worried they were too big, but now that I’ve gotten use to them (I went from completely empty to huge!) I see they are actually very proportionate to my frame and even manage to give me a bit of a waist! Feeling positive about the boobs and how they look and are settling but really hoping the headaches settle soon.

So my last review with my surgeon at 3 and a half weeks went well; he was so pleased with how they are progressing that both he and his nurse commented how surprised they were at how good they looked at only 3 weeks! The left still needs to drop a bit more to fill the lower pole, but they are coming along nicely. I have almost all the sensation in my right breast but my left breast has still large patches of numbness, which will hopefully come back but could be permanent. Reported to the dr that I was still suffering headaches but that the small doses of muscle relaxants seemed to be keeping it under control, so he agreed we should continue that.
I was cleared to go back to doing some exercises, most stuff I do with a rehabilitation program for my back pain, with obvious adjustments for my upper body limitations, but the outlook was that things would really start to improve from now on, and by 12 weeks I’d basically be ‘fully healed’.
So week 4 I returned to my gym program, and after only doing two sessions on the Monday and Wednesday I developed a bad migraine Wednesday afternoon and haven’t been able to get rid of it since (it’s now Sunday). I don’t know if it was the exercises that bought it on or something else, but the surgeon has suggested I go to see my neurologist for help, which is a 3 week wait for an appointment. Have to be honest, being stuck with these migraines has triggered some depression and I’m not feeling like I made the best decision at the moment - happy with how they look but no point having nice looking boobs if I’m stuck in bed vomiting from a migraine all day long.
I researched this procedure for over a year and didn’t read about another single person suffering migraines after surgery so I had no idea it was an even a risk. I expected a few weeks of recovery but the prospect of weeks of migraines while healing is not a pleasant prospect.