26 Y.O. Breast Aug and Liposuction - Kinston, NC

I am 26 years old and have struggled with my weight my entire life. I was a pretty overweight child, lost a lot of weight in high school by swimming competitively, gained it back in college when I stopped swimming, lost it again and so on and so forth. It has been a never ending battle for me. About 2 years ago I got really serious about working out and eating healthy and got down to 140lbs at 5’10, pretty much all muscle except my stomach and inner thighs. I completely lost my boobs (which I didn’t have much of to begin with) and still had a belly. I did the entire series of insanity workouts, trained and competed in 2 half marathons and then a half ironman and am still so unhappy with my body. I am the epitome of an apple shape. My legs and arms are thin, but my stomach and thighs are large. My waist is very wide, which doesn’t help. I can’t remember the last time I wore a tight shirt. I almost always wear flowy sundresses with spanx underneath that I can “safety shorts” or skinny jeans that I can pull over my belly with a flowy top. I tend to live in workout clothes because they are the most comfortable. Even at my most fit I was still so uncomfortable in a bikini. If I went to the beach I would suck in the entire day and not eat because I didn’t want my stomach to look even larger.

Although I just finished training and competing in a half ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run), I have gained about 10lbs since my thinnest 2 years ago. All of that cardio and eating so many carbs wasn’t good for my body shape, even though I am very proud of my huge accomplishment! My gift to myself is something I have wanted for as long as I can remember… BOOBS and LIPO! My fluctuating weight (especially being overweight as a child) has led to self esteem issues now. I’m a confident person otherwise; my body image just holds me back sometimes. Having a practically non-existent chest and a large stomach doesn’t make you feel very good about yourself, especially when strangers ask you if you are pregnant and you are NOT. That happened numerous times to me in college. It was so embarrassing and depressing. Nowadays, I live a pretty healthy lifestyle, but I know after this surgery I will really dedicate my life to bettering myself physically and emotionally by consistently working out and eating healthy. This past month since my race I have slacked, but I know this will be my motivation to make myself the best I possibly can be.

After doing quite a bit of research online, I went for a few consultations and ended up choosing Dr. Cummings in Kinston, NC for my surgery, which is scheduled for this Thursday! My friend had her BA done at Cummings Plastic Surgery and was extremely happy with the service and results. When I went for my consultation at the beginning of this month Dr. Cummings spent over an hour and a half answering all of my questions. He got a good idea of the look I was going for and I feel confident he will deliver those results. He is extremely personable and makes you feel very comfortable, which I really liked. The other surgeons were not as friendly and spent minimal time with me.

So, I thought I was only going to get stomach liposuction, which is my most hated and troublesome area, but Dr. Cummings does body contouring. He shapes the body to make it more desirable, which means liposuction in multiple areas. I am getting liposuction done in my upper and lower abdomen, flanks, back and hips. I am also getting breast augmentation. Right now I am somewhere around a 36B, and hoping to go to a 36D. I want to continue to race, so I don’t want to go too big. I just want to have a feminine body. This may sound weird, but I have always wanted to run outside or on the beach with just a sports bra on and running shorts. I never could do that before because my stomach always jiggled, even when swimming competitively in high school and at my thinnest 2 years ago. I really hope after this surgery I will be able to walk around my house or run on the beach in just a sports bra and shorts. I also hope that I can go to the beach and feel confident walking around without sucking in.

My fiancé isn’t that excited about this surgery, but I am doing it for myself and not anyone else. He says I am perfect the way I am now, but I want to feel sexy and confident. I just hope that he likes the end results. I hope I do too! I’m nervous about possibly having extra skin on my stomach, but I am still young with no children so I think my skin is still elastic enough to tighten up after the liposuction.

Any recommendations on how to control pain and swelling along with tips for speediest recovery and best results would be greatly appreciated. Surgery is in 1 DAY! I am SO excited, but soooo nervous. I will update this site regularly with pictures to show my results. This site has been extremely insightful and I hope that sharing my experience can help someone as well. Wish me luck!

Oh and the pictures I am uploading now are from my phone. I have better before pictures on my computer that I will upload soon.

Well, it's over and right now I am feeling really good. I mean good for having surgery only a few hours ago. The surgery took about 3 hours, 4 hours total with recovery. I also had a 3 hour car ride home. I slept for most of the car ride, but it was pretty uncomfortable. My fiancé went out while I was in surgery and bought dog pee pads (yep, pee pads), feminine pads and a shower curtain liner to protect my car and furniture from the blood and fluid that would come out for about 24-48 hours after liposuction. The surgeon used water to flush the fat and that is the liquid that was/still is discharging from the openings. Oh, during the car ride I tried to sit up because I was too uncomfortable to sleep and I ended up throwing up in a bag. I was trying to drink my protein shake and water and that all came up. After taking the nausea medicine and throwing up I felt much better.

Anyways, I was able to shower right when I got home and that felt great even though I was leaking all over the place. My poor fiancé was following me around the bathroom cleaning it up. I took a long shower, then got out and put the pee pads under my garment and around my legs so I didn't mess up the carpet. For [RS bleep] and giggles I weighed myself. I gained 20lbs in less than 12 hours!! Crazy. I know I am extremely swollen and have a lot of water weight from the surgery, but was pretty shocked by that large of an increase! I tried laying down and watching tv, but I felt better standing and walking around. 2 hours later I took another shower and felt even better after that. I plan on taking one more shower before bed. I love that I can shower. Makes me feel 10x better each time.

The nurse recommended getting a spanx garment to wear during the day. I will go get that tomorrow if I feel up to it. The garment I'm wearing now is bulky and will not look good with normal clothes. I'll check tomorrow and make sure that it's ok for me to wear the spanx during the day and the bulky garment at night.

I have high hopes for my recovery and the final outcome. The skin on my stomach is loose right now, that was to be expected. My boobs are swollen and high. One boob is higher than the other. I'm really swollen all over. I'm not worried about any of this yet because it is only the first day. I'll keep everyone posted on progress... Can't believe I finally did it!

Still swollen and tight but I feel great today. Showered and put some normal clothes on. Running errands and doing laundry. I think it's good to get up and move around and my dr recommended it. It'll help with tightness and swelling, so I'm doing makeup, hair and all :-). I will post again later today and let you know how I feel then but feeling awesome right now thankfully! Oh, and I slept ok but had slept so much yesterday that I really wasn't tired. I slept with doggie pads, shower curtain and all because of lipo leakage. A lot less leakage today so just using feminine pads under my garment. Excited to get a different garment that is less bulky and a little more comfortable.