Don't Expect That Your Surgery Will Be Uneventful Just Because It is for Most Women.

I don't even know where to begin with my ordeal, its unfortunate that I am not one of many who had a smooth experience. I cannot be more thankful that I made the choices I made, I will explain what and why.

In summer of 2015 I started doing my research on doctors. As a 36 year old woman who nursed 4 kids, I really needed to improve the appearance of my breasts which were small, flat and droopy. I made an appointment with 2 doctors here in Salt Lake, went in for my consultation and just wasn't "convinced." I am not sure what exactly I was looking for, but I knew what I needed when things went south. Those consultations were pretty "blase" in my opinion. They wanted to know what my desired results were with no guidance on if that is even realistic on my body. Once they knew what my desired results were, it was "no problem" and here is the cost, which is a bit less than what I ended up paying after all. Those consultations were 15-20 minutes at best. I then decided to use a family friend who practices out of Marina Del Rey, CA. I booked my appt, my flights and started making arrangements. I ended up cancelling early on due to the requirements that I needed (time-wise) to do this out of state. I am glad I did but did not know that until later. I then went back and did more research and stumbled across Dr. Fryer. After reading amazing reviews, I decided to give his office a call and book a consultation. It killed me to wait 4 weeks to get in for a consult. I am glad I was not in a hurry and waited.

My consultation with Dr. Fryer was like none of my previous consultations. I was there for a total of 2 hours, with no pressure to book, leave or anything else. No, I wasn't in there the whole time with him, but he probably spent a good 30-40 minutes discussing things with me. The thing that set him apart was his realism. I wanted rather very large implants but after taking measurements, discussing my lifestyle (I am a runner), he provided me a range in which he would be comfortable with doing that would greatly minimize any further complications. I am not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed but his way in which he explained the medical considerations, it made sense.

I ended up booking with Dr. Fryer and team and scheduled my appt. for 12/8/2015. This was the day that would change the course of my almost entire following year. For a procedure so common, so normal, it changed my mental state, it changed my lifestyle, it was one of the worst ordeals I have ever gone through in my life.

I went ahead with my procedure. A pretty exciting day if you ask me and any other woman who has the opportunity to make improvements to their body such as this. Everything was going great, I started going to my scheduled post op appointments and things looked fantastic. Somewhere around week 3-4, things started to change. My body started rejecting the dis-solvable sutures, which isn't that uncommon, which means that instead of my body dissolving the sutures, my body started pushing them back out. It isn't uncommon to go back to the doctors and have them take out the spitting suture, the body generally will immediately heal. However, the problem is that my sutures were "spitting out" in multiples places around my incisions and once we removed them, my body would NOT heal. This was causing open wounds around both my breasts that took a lot of care and maintenance daily to prevent the unthinkable, an infection.

In January 2016 (approx 5-6 weeks post op) I fell really ill. I left work early that day, which is something I never do. I was certain that I had come down with the flu. I came home and layed down. Nothing about the spitting sutures and small open wounds on my breast made me think that the two events were related, nothing. When Saturday came around I decided to call Dr. Fryer, even though I truly did not believe that they were related. He gladly took my call over the weekend, we talked and he gave some guidance on things that I would feel\see if I had some sort of infection, none of which I had experienced, none. When Sunday came around I finally mustered up enough strength to actually leave the house. When I got home I noticed that my shirt was wet. You could never imagine the horror when I realized that one of my breasts was oozing profusely. It was clear that I had a major infection yet experienced none of the symptoms that I would have expected.

I was in Dr. Fryers office right away. Unfortunately, the only way to heal an infected breast is to remove the implant. This was dis-heartening, but the most important thing was to remove it to get me healed asap. I bawled and bawled, and you would never image a doctor having so much empathy. A doctor who genuinely shared your heart break.

Unfortunately, the saga wasn't over. From January through June of 2016, I experienced many complications in getting my breast to heal. For a short while, I had to have a drain placed in the breast. I had numerous in office procedures and another operating room procedure to get that breast to heal. In the 20 or so weeks that had elapsed, I probably saw Dr. Fryer I am guessing 15 times. He was incredibly concerned and very involved and on-top of my healing process. That is a heavy lift for any doctor. I think I cried every visit. I got to know his staff during this time, all by first name and they all knew me. They shared my sorrow, because it wasn't easy to go through. They were all concerned, even those who were not nurses who saw what I was dealing with, but part of his office staff. They all cared. Dr. Fryer was very informative throughout this process. He spent a great deal of time with me, making sure I understood what exactly what happening, why it was happening and what we are doing next. He also was genuinely concerned for my mental health as I was experiencing some depression. A lot of this time I wasn't allowed to run or be active which is how I lived. Instead, I lived with a dark cloud above my head almost every day.

Finally, we got the breast to heal now it was time to leave it alone and allow the scar tissue to soften up. This is a long process on top of what was a long process. Meanwhile, I got to wear a sports bra every day and use padding to ensure that from the outside, they looked seemingly "normal". I was reminded every day of what happened.

My scar tissue finally healed, it was finally time to re-schedule my appt. I know a lot of people asked me why, why would I go through this again. Honestly, it was a personal choice. I felt informed enough to understand what happened. I don't know how I got the infection weeks after my surgery, its like catching a cold. You will never know how you got it. Did I touch my open wound with a dirty hand? Did I do this or did I do that? I will never know. I did know that I couldn't have been in better care and while the odds of this happening to begin with are small, what are the odds of it happening again? That's a choice that only I could make.

I got my implant put back in on 10/13/2016. Over 10 months later than my initial surgery. I am now 6 weeks post op and I am extremely happy with the outcome, I think they look great. I had no complications the second time around.

I never thought this could happen to me and I am sure that is what most people think. I am glad I didn't go with the first two doctors, throughout this ordeal I thought to myself numerous times that I would have NEVER been cared for the way I was cared for by Dr. Fryer and team. Where would that have left me had I chose them as my doctor? I am glad I didn't go with my family friend, ONLY because how would he have cared for me from out of state? Something drew me to Dr. Fryer, and it was his honest, realistic view, ability to explain, kindhearted, down to earth person that he is. And his staff? Top Notch. I NEVER had an issue, not once and I was in there a lot. I would never go to another doctor if I ever chose to have another procedure. Never.

I am grateful for Dr. Fryer, he made a very traumatic experience one that I was able to manage with his help. I will never forget him for as long as I am around.