Breast reduction 34GG to D/C

Hello, I'm a 21 year old female living in the U.K. I'm 5ft 9 inches and wear dress size 12. I underwent breast reduction in the Devon area under a private plastic surgeon. I applied to have the procedure done on the NHS but was denied. My surgery cost £5,800 U.K. Pounds.
I was reduced from a size 34gg to 36c and has 1020grams removed. Just over 500g from each breast. My breast were symmetrical pre operatively. I'm happy with the size and all of problems with my back before the surgery have resolved. Ideally I would have liked to be a B cup but I feel the size I am now is in proportion with my body size. I am now 4 weeks post and have had a smooth recovery so far so felt it was time to share my experience.
In order to prepare for the surgery I found it useful to watch YouTube videos as well as this website of course. The most useful things i bought before the surgery was a v shaped pillow, zip front sports bras, constipation medication, eye mask, button up pyjamas, hand sanitiser, button up shirts and hoodies. I also found it useful to braid my hair before the surgery as I didn't feel up to brushing it for the first few days and kept it tidy.
One of the biggest things I would advise before the surgery is to to get down to weight you are comfortable at and within a healthy bmi. This will make surgery safer and give you a better result. I lost 19lbs before my surgery and felt so much better about. One downside of the surgery is that it will make your stomach look bigger. I was used to my boobs always covering my stomach when I looked down or sticking out further from the side but now my stomach does so I knew loosing weight before would make me feel better about myself after surgery. I still want to loose more weight but plan on doing it slowly in order to not affect my new breast.
I have no complaints about the surgery, the care I received was amazing and I had no complications. I had my surgery at 7pm. I was instructed to bring in a sports bra which they put on me during surgery. The part I was most worried about was the cannula (silly I know) but I barely even felt it. It did sting a bit when the pushed through the sedative but the next thing I knew I was asleep! When I woke up I was in a bit of pain but this was soon under control with pain meds. I was worried about the drains being removed but found it painless. More like a tugging rather than pain. I had them removed the day after my surgery as I had only put out 20cc for fluid from each breast. I stayed in overnight and went home at around 5pm the following day. I would advise to take a pillow to cover your chest in the car after surgery.
The first week I spent mostly in bed as I was extremely tired and had no energy. I propped myself up with about 4 pillows and had 2 under each arm. However, being a side sleeper I found getting comfortable was really difficult! I took tramadol for the first three days after surgery and then was able to manage it using paracetamol and ibuprofen. My appetite was low for the first few days as well but I made sure to keep up my water intake. I wasn't allowed to shower for the first 2 weeks so had shallow baths keeping my sports bra on and using a flannel
At around 5 days I started experiencing what I think was Nerve pains. These were shooting pains near the sides of my breast which pain killers had no effect on. They were intermittent but extremely uncomfortable when I had them. Luckily this only lasted for around 5 days. Since then I have very little pain. ( only when I put pressure on incisions) However, my nipples are extremely sensitive to the point when even my bra irritates them. I find massaging the area helps to reduce the sensitivity.
At one week post op I had my dressings and tape removed. This was mostly okay but stung a bit removing the tape from the nipples. At two weeks I had a check up with my surgeon who said they were healing perfectly, and told me to keep up with tapping them for several weeks. I plan on doing this till around 6 weeks depending on how they look. I have to wear my sports bra 24/7 for 6 weeks. I shower with the tapes on and wash them using a natural baby shampoo and then dry them on the cool setting of my blow dryer.
I returned to work after three weeks off and have been managing well, although I'm still being careful not to lift heavy objects and over stretch. Overall I'm really happy with my breasts so far and am looking forward to wearing normal bras again in a few weeks.
If anyone has any guidance on how long to keep them taped/best scar creams I would appreciate it.
Good luck to those awaiting surgery!

Went to get measured for a wire free bra today, been wearing sports bras up until this point and was measured as a 34dd. This was a bit disappointing as my target cup is a C - I'm hoping this is due to swelling and will subside in a few more weeks! It's also my time of the month so I'm wondering if that has had an effect as well!

Been experiencing some aches on the lower incisions this week, nothing too bad I think it's just a case of me doing more. I'm still feeling quite down about the size of my breast though. I'm 90% happy with them but there's part of me that wishes they were a little smaller. If I had got the surgery paid for by my insurance/NHS I would probably be completely happy but I paid for this surgery myself and just feel it's not exactly what I wanted. But still trying to focus on the positives and still holding out for some slight reduction when the swelling goes down! Also wanted to post some close ups of my incisions. The blue tone to the incisions is from the dissolveable stitches!