Capsular Contracture Treatment

After years of living with capsular contracture I think there is light at the end of the tunnel (I will keep updating to let you ladies know if the CC comes back)!
I went to Dr. Kim knowing he’s the best in the game & trust that he’s the surgeon who can help me. People said he’s cold but he’s actually really nice. Don’t expect him to make small talks tho. I was looking for a highly skilled surgeon who will do what he can to decrease my chances of getting CC again & found Dr. Kim.
Like many of you I’ve always dreamed of having big but natural looking breasts. I showed Dr. Kim my wish pic and I woke up from surgery with my wish boobs. I am beyond happy!
I would not trust anyone else to do my boobs but Dr. Kim!

Forgot to add my pre-op & post op pics :)

I've been using RealSelf as a place for years to research and find solace after I was diagnosed with CC after my initial BA when I was 21. Trust me when I say I've felt every emotion possible when it comes to this like many of you. Even if my CC does come back again, I want to share my experiences and what I did wrong so that it could possibly help and prevent this from happening to you.
I've always wanted big and natural looking boobs, and at the age of 21 I decided to undergo breast augmentation. Having children and breastfeeding in the future is important to me so I did some research and thought a transaxillary incision would be best for me. I think at the time RealSelf was not really a thing yet and finding a reputable/good surgeon was kind of difficult. I read forums but was not sure if the reviews were fake or not. So as naive as I was, I just searched "best surgeon in Beverly Hills" and stumbled upon my first surgeon (who is now retired so no point in naming him but he was featured on the show Extreme Makeovers). I will refer to him as as Dr. P in my post. The consultation with Dr. P was brief and not very thorough. He asked me what size I wanted to be, and I said "small C?" and he was like "Ok". He said he could perform the surgery through the underarm no problem. I never tried on any sizers or showed him any pictures. He showed me a few old pictures of the BAs he did (I knew they were old because the quality of the pictures look dated). That should have been a red flag but at the time all I cared about was that I was an A cup and wanted to have big boobs. I thought he was an expert since he was on Extreme Makeovers and charged a whopping 10k for my BA (that is still costly for an initial BA in 2019 so 10 years ago it was extremely expensive) so I mistaken the high price for quality work and assumed he must know what I wanted since he said he's "performed thousands of breast augmentations". I'm not blaming this solely on the surgeon, I should have done more research and been more proactive with what I wanted, but hey, I was 21 and naive so there's that...
I woke up with 275cc in each breast with incisions through the underarm. The first day I noticed I had green and purple bruises all over my chest like I've been punched repeatedly in the chest. My chest was hard as rocks and painful to the touch. I thought this was normal. My breasts looked like two softballs bolted on my chest. The recovery process was so painful and long. I was not allowed to move my arms or lift anything "heavier than a pen" in his assistant's exact words for weeks. I did exactly as I was told but after 3 weeks, my breasts remained hard and painful. It never softened or dropped even slightly. I showed him my bruises and he said it was perfectly normal. I also noticed I had small cuts along my underarms that look like random scalpel cuts. Maybe he cut me by accident during the surgery (so I can already tell I was probably not handled with care during surgery). A month later from the post op appt, my breasts were still rock hard and he said that I've developed CC. I was devastated. I asked him if this was common and his response was "Very rare, and probably the first in decades of my practice"--which now I know is total BS. Capsular contracture happens, even under the best care with the best surgeons, but to say that my case was probably the first in decades of him practicing is a total lie. I was devastated. Ladies, don't be fooled by surgeons who get featured on shows. Those are forms of advertisement and all the bells and whistles do not equate to quality work. Tell-tale signs of a good surgeon are through his post-op pictures of real patients. Look for doctors with consistent results. I'd also steer clear from doctors who use celebrities to advertise. Good doctors with consistent business do not need all that advertisement.
Anyways, I spent countless hours on the internet researching and learning about CCs. The risk of getting it was there before my BA, but I never imagined it would happen to me since I went to a board certified surgeon in BH who was famous and all that jazz. I felt so alone and depressed. After 3 months of my diagnosis, my surgeon convinced me to get them removed & replace with new implants via periareolar incision. I agreed.
The CC came back again. I was put on Singulair (generic name Montelukast--this is the newer generation of the medication Accolate) but it did not help. Once again, I felt helpless and became depressed. Dr. P told me to massage "vigorously" after a week of surgery. As a matter of fact, he said "you cannot over massage it. So keep massaging as hard as you can". Now looking back, that was probably one of the worst things I could have done. Let me explain why. I had CC so he had to remove the scar tissues. When you remove tissue during surgery, fluid will accumulate in the dead space during the healing process. Instead of letting my tissues heal, he told me massage vigorously without putting in drains. So I was basically rolling my boobs on my bathroom counter top to try to break up the newly developed CC. I aggravated my breasts and increased the inflammation. Fluid probably collected and caused my breast to not heal properly. Ladies, drains are our friends for revision BAs, especially if scar tissue have been removed. After almost a year of waiting, massaging vigorously, and taking Singulair/Vitamin E I gave up and decided to live with CC.
My breasts looked great in clothes but were painful to touch. I became insecure and didn't even look at myself in the mirror. Fast forward years later, I decided to not live with this anymore. I did a ton of research on highly skilled doctors and ways to prevent CCs. I chose Dr. Kim because of his consistent results and he gave me a realistic response. He said that he will try his best to treat it, but there is a chance I might develop CC again. I am ok with that because he was honest and straight foward.
These are the things Dr. Kim did to decrease my chance of getting CCs again:
1. Put me on Accolate a few days before surgery (studies have shown that Accolate was superior to Singulair as off-label use to prevent CCs)
2. Went through the inframammary incision (less bacteria through this incision)
3. Used Sientra textured implants (the company has warranty for CCs)
4. Put in drains to allow proper drainage of fluid after removing the scar tissue
What I'm doing to prevent CCs:
1. Not lift anything heavier than my cell phone to prevent any internal bleeding
2. Not massage my implants (waiting for Dr. Kim to tell me when it's ok to massage)
3. Keeping my drains clean
4. Taking high dose Serrapeptase starting 2 days after my surgery (this is an proteolytic enzyme that eats away scar tissue. I did quite some research on this and this supplement is commonly used in Japan and Europe to decrease inflammation and scar tissue after surgery. I am not giving medical advice or advising you ladies to take this, but I've done enough research where I feel like it is safe for ME to take after surgery to prevent scar tissue formation. I take this on an empty stomach with my other meds daily.)
This time around my recovery is a breeze even though he removed a substantial amount of scar tissue and I have drains in place. My chest does not hurt or feel tight. I know I was in good care with Dr. Kim and I cannot wait for the final result. My breasts are soft and jiggly and it's only been a few days after surgery.
I will keep updating and posting to let you ladies know the outcome. Trust me, I've been there--sitting for hours in front of my laptop reading countless testimonies and stories in hope of something that could treat my CCs. For now, I'm focusing on happy thoughts and healing. And I hope my story can possibly help someone out there!