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*Treatment results may vary
July 28, 2018 (3 months & 5 days post-op)
Hi all! I haven’t updated in a while. I’m staying at my folks’ place this weekend because the weather has been so hot in Vancouver lately and they have air-conditioning! So I thought this would be a good chance to snap a few comparison pics with the same background wall as when I was recovering. :)
The last time I wrote was right after my first post-op appointment, and I had learned that the ‘hole’ in my incision was from spitting a stitch. It healed up within about a week with no issues.
As far as healing goes, everything went really well and I had no problems. I think my healing was slower than some others that I’ve seen on here particularly in terms of scars lightening. I didn’t use any silicone gel or strips as my understanding is that they are more for the thickness/roughness/texture of the scars and not the colour. But now that I’m writing this and thinking about it, I think I will look into something to help the scars lighten. I’m not tooooo concerned about it though. My only complaint with the healing is that right at the base of the vertical scar there is kind of a dent/divot, mostly on my left side. I only had the vertical lollipop incision, so no horizontal anchor scar. I know the incision on my left was much more “puckered” than the right - it really smoothed out nicely but perhaps the dent is related? I should look to see if I have some before pics of that. I didn’t really take many close-up pics but I’ll see what I can find and post with a new comparison pic when I can.
In terms of shape, they’ve continued to settle as you can see in the photos. I’m happy with the shape. They’ve also continued to drop slightly as they settled - they can stop dropping any time!!! Haha.
As far as size goes, I still feel they are much bigger than I expected/was hoping for. The two sports bras I bought about a week after surgery (that were about a half-cup size too small) don’t fit much differently now...so although shape has changed and the breasts have dropped, size/swelling really hasn’t changed since then. Good news, I haven’t worn my favourite go-to “before” bra since surgery (the teal green one). It isn’t huge, but it is a little roomy in the cups and the sides come up a bit too far toward the armpit to be comfortable. Sad news, I haven’t been bra shopping since getting those sports bras, because a) it’s still depressing as I still can’t really shop at a regular store and b) I do have lots of bras that fit properly now. A couple that I had been stuffing myself into (like the yellow one) and a few that I had “retired” because they had gotten too small.
So one thing I have realized is that I was delusional about my pre-surgery size. This is based partially on how my old bras fit but also I have a couple friends who I’m pretty open with and I sometimes ask them to compare my size (discreetly) with random women. Sometimes I want to know in terms of my current size and sometimes I want to know in terms of my pre-surgery size. There’s been a couple times when I’ve been soooo sure that someone is bigger than I used to be and my friends have said “no, you were bigger than that” and I’ve been a bit horrified at the realization that I was in denial about how big I really was.
While making the collages tonight and seeing my “before” pics for the first time in a while, I can reallllly see the difference now especially in the side profile pics.
I had another post-op appointment earlier in July and my surgeon told me that sometimes they can rectify size concerns by doing some liposuction rather than revision surgery, but that I am not a candidate because my breasts did not have much fatty tissue at all - mostly dense breast tissue. Which is why she didn’t do any lipo during surgery. She said there was really nothing to lipo out. She also said it’s the reason why when I lose weight, my breast size doesn’t change - there’s no fat to lose there. So my option would be to redo the surgery. She booked me another post-op appointment for September and said we will talk about it more then, after my breasts have settled more. I’ll be at about the 5-month mark by then. I think she thinks I might change my mind and that I might end up liking the size, or at least decide that I can tolerate them. I see her point and I’m definitely becoming more comfortable and less upset about them than I was the first few weeks...but at the same time I am nowhere close to being able to go bra-less or even wear a strapless bra, which was one of the goals. I’m also still having back issues...although I can go a full two weeks between massage therapy appointments without experiencing extreme discomfort like I did before after a week, sometimes less.
Even in the unlikely event I decide not to do a revision, this surgery has made a huge improvement! My posture is a bit better (I noticed this when I walk past mirrored windows at the mall), my back pain isn’t as bad, and clothes fit better to the point that I have actually bought a couple of light grey and cream coloured tops — I wouldn’t have done so before — I was too self conscious about light colours making me look bigger, so I always leaned towards darker colours.
All in all, this surgery has been a great decision!
The last time I wrote was right after my first post-op appointment, and I had learned that the ‘hole’ in my incision was from spitting a stitch. It healed up within about a week with no issues.
As far as healing goes, everything went really well and I had no problems. I think my healing was slower than some others that I’ve seen on here particularly in terms of scars lightening. I didn’t use any silicone gel or strips as my understanding is that they are more for the thickness/roughness/texture of the scars and not the colour. But now that I’m writing this and thinking about it, I think I will look into something to help the scars lighten. I’m not tooooo concerned about it though. My only complaint with the healing is that right at the base of the vertical scar there is kind of a dent/divot, mostly on my left side. I only had the vertical lollipop incision, so no horizontal anchor scar. I know the incision on my left was much more “puckered” than the right - it really smoothed out nicely but perhaps the dent is related? I should look to see if I have some before pics of that. I didn’t really take many close-up pics but I’ll see what I can find and post with a new comparison pic when I can.
In terms of shape, they’ve continued to settle as you can see in the photos. I’m happy with the shape. They’ve also continued to drop slightly as they settled - they can stop dropping any time!!! Haha.
As far as size goes, I still feel they are much bigger than I expected/was hoping for. The two sports bras I bought about a week after surgery (that were about a half-cup size too small) don’t fit much differently now...so although shape has changed and the breasts have dropped, size/swelling really hasn’t changed since then. Good news, I haven’t worn my favourite go-to “before” bra since surgery (the teal green one). It isn’t huge, but it is a little roomy in the cups and the sides come up a bit too far toward the armpit to be comfortable. Sad news, I haven’t been bra shopping since getting those sports bras, because a) it’s still depressing as I still can’t really shop at a regular store and b) I do have lots of bras that fit properly now. A couple that I had been stuffing myself into (like the yellow one) and a few that I had “retired” because they had gotten too small.
So one thing I have realized is that I was delusional about my pre-surgery size. This is based partially on how my old bras fit but also I have a couple friends who I’m pretty open with and I sometimes ask them to compare my size (discreetly) with random women. Sometimes I want to know in terms of my current size and sometimes I want to know in terms of my pre-surgery size. There’s been a couple times when I’ve been soooo sure that someone is bigger than I used to be and my friends have said “no, you were bigger than that” and I’ve been a bit horrified at the realization that I was in denial about how big I really was.
While making the collages tonight and seeing my “before” pics for the first time in a while, I can reallllly see the difference now especially in the side profile pics.
I had another post-op appointment earlier in July and my surgeon told me that sometimes they can rectify size concerns by doing some liposuction rather than revision surgery, but that I am not a candidate because my breasts did not have much fatty tissue at all - mostly dense breast tissue. Which is why she didn’t do any lipo during surgery. She said there was really nothing to lipo out. She also said it’s the reason why when I lose weight, my breast size doesn’t change - there’s no fat to lose there. So my option would be to redo the surgery. She booked me another post-op appointment for September and said we will talk about it more then, after my breasts have settled more. I’ll be at about the 5-month mark by then. I think she thinks I might change my mind and that I might end up liking the size, or at least decide that I can tolerate them. I see her point and I’m definitely becoming more comfortable and less upset about them than I was the first few weeks...but at the same time I am nowhere close to being able to go bra-less or even wear a strapless bra, which was one of the goals. I’m also still having back issues...although I can go a full two weeks between massage therapy appointments without experiencing extreme discomfort like I did before after a week, sometimes less.
Even in the unlikely event I decide not to do a revision, this surgery has made a huge improvement! My posture is a bit better (I noticed this when I walk past mirrored windows at the mall), my back pain isn’t as bad, and clothes fit better to the point that I have actually bought a couple of light grey and cream coloured tops — I wouldn’t have done so before — I was too self conscious about light colours making me look bigger, so I always leaned towards darker colours.
All in all, this surgery has been a great decision!
May 22, 2018: Day 29 post-op
Surgery was 4 weeks ago yesterday! The month has gone by fast.
Sunday I packed up my stuff and went home from my parents’ place. Can’t believe I lived through four weeks staying in the same house as my Mom!! We get under each others’ skin pretty easily even though I’m in my 40s now LOL. I was looking forward to having a shower at home as their shower doesn’t have much pressure; I never feel like my hair is rinsed well enough at their place!I got home, went to have a shower and found out that the diverter in my tub spout was broken - only half the water was going up to the shower head and had was still coming out the tub spout - so still not very good pressure ahaha! Got a new spout yesterday and my shower today was amaaaaaazing - I had to be careful to protect my incisions a bit as the pressure was a little much for them!
I spent about the first week sleeping in the recliner at my folks’ and then switched to sleeping on my back on the couch, but the past two nights since I’ve been home and in bed I keep waking up through the night on my side and sometimes almost on my stomach. I was a bit concerned because I didn’t want to squish anything that shouldn’t be squished!
I saw my surgeon today for my first post-op appointment. She said if I roll over in the night it shouldn’t cause any issues as long as the skin around the incisions isn’t being stretched in a way that would pull them apart.
She looked at the little opening in my right incision and turns out it is from a spitting a stitch. Apparently with absorbable stitches, the body still sometimes decides it’s faster to get rid of the stitch by spitting it out through the skin rather than absorbing it. Weird! It’s not infected. Phew. She said to keep doing what I’ve been doing - let it breathe at night and just place light gauze over it when I’m out so that it can breathe but will absorb any fluid that drains out. She said it should heal within a week. Polysporin not needed.
She said other than that everything looks like it is healing really well, just a little slower than average but still in the normal healing range. She is pleased with the shape and size and with how things are settling.
I talked to her about my size concerns and she said she can see that I am still swollen and to wait until two months post-op (so another month) and come see her again and she’ll be able to give me a better idea of whether the swelling is mostly gone by then or if I might still decrease. Apparently in summertime when it’s warm out, swelling takes longer to come down. And of course the week before my surgery it was still chilly and I was wearing sweaters and hoodies and boots (and that’s what I packed to take to my parents) and basically the day after my surgery the sun came out and it’s been super warm and sunny ever since lol. (I had to go home and get tshirts and shorts and flat shoes to take back to my folks’! Haha)
I can’t quite start massaging yet - my incisions are healing well but slowly. I still have some scabbing and massaging may risk opening the incisions. If the scabbing is gone by week 6 I can start massaging a little then. I asked about silicone gel or strips and she said I likely won’t need it but when I go for my next appointment my scabbing should be gone and she will prescribe some if she thinks they need it but based on what she saw today she is pretty sure they will heal nice and flat. Numbness is still normal at this point and should continue to improve and is usually back to normal by the 3 month mark.
I still feel like my size is much bigger than I wanted, but am coming to terms with it a bit better. There’s definitely a difference especially with “placement” height haha, they’ve started to drop, hopefully they won’t drop much more! Now that I’m home I’ve tried on more of my old bras. The ones that fit well/properly before surgery are too big in the cup. I had hoped to be able to ditch ALL my bras but it doesn’t look like that will happen...most of them fit quite well...I wore them infrequently (when I bought them I was hoping they’d fit when I lost 5-10lbs but they didn’t) and they are great quality/expensive bras so they are still in really good shape, elastic hasn’t deteriorated or anything like that. So it sucks that they fit as I’d expected/hoped for them all to be too big...on the bright side I don’t have to spend $ on new bras?! :|
Sunday I packed up my stuff and went home from my parents’ place. Can’t believe I lived through four weeks staying in the same house as my Mom!! We get under each others’ skin pretty easily even though I’m in my 40s now LOL. I was looking forward to having a shower at home as their shower doesn’t have much pressure; I never feel like my hair is rinsed well enough at their place!I got home, went to have a shower and found out that the diverter in my tub spout was broken - only half the water was going up to the shower head and had was still coming out the tub spout - so still not very good pressure ahaha! Got a new spout yesterday and my shower today was amaaaaaazing - I had to be careful to protect my incisions a bit as the pressure was a little much for them!
I spent about the first week sleeping in the recliner at my folks’ and then switched to sleeping on my back on the couch, but the past two nights since I’ve been home and in bed I keep waking up through the night on my side and sometimes almost on my stomach. I was a bit concerned because I didn’t want to squish anything that shouldn’t be squished!
I saw my surgeon today for my first post-op appointment. She said if I roll over in the night it shouldn’t cause any issues as long as the skin around the incisions isn’t being stretched in a way that would pull them apart.
She looked at the little opening in my right incision and turns out it is from a spitting a stitch. Apparently with absorbable stitches, the body still sometimes decides it’s faster to get rid of the stitch by spitting it out through the skin rather than absorbing it. Weird! It’s not infected. Phew. She said to keep doing what I’ve been doing - let it breathe at night and just place light gauze over it when I’m out so that it can breathe but will absorb any fluid that drains out. She said it should heal within a week. Polysporin not needed.
She said other than that everything looks like it is healing really well, just a little slower than average but still in the normal healing range. She is pleased with the shape and size and with how things are settling.
I talked to her about my size concerns and she said she can see that I am still swollen and to wait until two months post-op (so another month) and come see her again and she’ll be able to give me a better idea of whether the swelling is mostly gone by then or if I might still decrease. Apparently in summertime when it’s warm out, swelling takes longer to come down. And of course the week before my surgery it was still chilly and I was wearing sweaters and hoodies and boots (and that’s what I packed to take to my parents) and basically the day after my surgery the sun came out and it’s been super warm and sunny ever since lol. (I had to go home and get tshirts and shorts and flat shoes to take back to my folks’! Haha)
I can’t quite start massaging yet - my incisions are healing well but slowly. I still have some scabbing and massaging may risk opening the incisions. If the scabbing is gone by week 6 I can start massaging a little then. I asked about silicone gel or strips and she said I likely won’t need it but when I go for my next appointment my scabbing should be gone and she will prescribe some if she thinks they need it but based on what she saw today she is pretty sure they will heal nice and flat. Numbness is still normal at this point and should continue to improve and is usually back to normal by the 3 month mark.
I still feel like my size is much bigger than I wanted, but am coming to terms with it a bit better. There’s definitely a difference especially with “placement” height haha, they’ve started to drop, hopefully they won’t drop much more! Now that I’m home I’ve tried on more of my old bras. The ones that fit well/properly before surgery are too big in the cup. I had hoped to be able to ditch ALL my bras but it doesn’t look like that will happen...most of them fit quite well...I wore them infrequently (when I bought them I was hoping they’d fit when I lost 5-10lbs but they didn’t) and they are great quality/expensive bras so they are still in really good shape, elastic hasn’t deteriorated or anything like that. So it sucks that they fit as I’d expected/hoped for them all to be too big...on the bright side I don’t have to spend $ on new bras?! :|
May 19, 2018: Day 26 post-op
Yikes! This morning I was about to have a shower and noticed some oozing/weeping from the incision on my right breast, and it feels like a little hole is opening up in the incision. I have a vague recollection of noticing a stitch falling off when I was getting ready for bed last night. The little hole is close to the “under-boob crease” so I can’t see it except for in a mirror and it’s really awkward to look at. I have my first pre-op appointment booked for Tuesday morning but didn’t want to chance waiting that long in case there’s an infection or some other issue, so I took a quick trip to the walk-in clinic. The doctor said the incision is slightly open (about 2cm) and that it was likely a scab that got rubbed off last night (not a stitch). She was not concerned, and put a couple little steristrips on it as a precaution, though she said I don’t really need it and my surgeon will probably wonder why she put them on. She said I didn’t need a prescription or polysporin or anything like that. Fingers crossed this little opening heals up quickly and doesn’t get any bigger! I’m nearly a month post-op and haven’t had any issues with my incisions yet, and I’m hoping this will be the extent of it!
I took a couple new pics tonight and made a progress collage. The yellow bra from pics in other updates is in the wash so no pics of it tonight, but it still seems to fit the same. The teal bra gapes a little and is a bit saggy, though not nearly as big of a difference as I’d expected. You can’t really see the gaping in the pics because it’s a fairly thick material; the cups are almost molded. But you can sure see in the pics the difference in cleavage and how much my pre-surgery boobs were stretching/weighing down the bra! Much perkier now :)
They are definitely settling and changing shape but I still haven’t noticed a decrease in size since the first week. They do still feel numb in places so hopefully it’s just taking a long time for the swelling to come down!
Zingers have pretty much stopped! (At least for now; I have read they can come and go for several months.) Nipple sensation on the right feels normal; the left oddly feels a little numb but also super sensitive, almost painful, it’s hard to describe. Areolae are both still numb.
Looking forward to my post-op appt on Tuesday to see what the surgeon has to say about size and swelling. Also intend to ask for her suggestions on lotions/ointments for the incisions and when I might be able to resume massage therapy, as I haven’t noticed any real back pain relief.
One of these days I will get around to taking a close up of my incisions to show how they are healing too!
I took a couple new pics tonight and made a progress collage. The yellow bra from pics in other updates is in the wash so no pics of it tonight, but it still seems to fit the same. The teal bra gapes a little and is a bit saggy, though not nearly as big of a difference as I’d expected. You can’t really see the gaping in the pics because it’s a fairly thick material; the cups are almost molded. But you can sure see in the pics the difference in cleavage and how much my pre-surgery boobs were stretching/weighing down the bra! Much perkier now :)
They are definitely settling and changing shape but I still haven’t noticed a decrease in size since the first week. They do still feel numb in places so hopefully it’s just taking a long time for the swelling to come down!
Zingers have pretty much stopped! (At least for now; I have read they can come and go for several months.) Nipple sensation on the right feels normal; the left oddly feels a little numb but also super sensitive, almost painful, it’s hard to describe. Areolae are both still numb.
Looking forward to my post-op appt on Tuesday to see what the surgeon has to say about size and swelling. Also intend to ask for her suggestions on lotions/ointments for the incisions and when I might be able to resume massage therapy, as I haven’t noticed any real back pain relief.
One of these days I will get around to taking a close up of my incisions to show how they are healing too!