52 Yo Mother and Teacher, 5ft Tall, Tri-Care, 38M and Not sure of my target size after the reduction - Macon, GA

I've been dreaming of doing this since early in middle school when I was overflowing DD cups before most of the girls were developing noticeable bumps. I've had back pain since early adulthood, but didn't have the means to pay for surgery, and then I got busy, and had kids and kept putting things off. I am glad that I waited till after breastfeeding. I was able to manage the pain to some degree with the help of chiropractors. A few years back things got real bad and Tri-Care sent me for physical therapy. It had gotten so bad I couldn't move my arms temporarily, and the pain was as bad or worse than the worst I'd experienced in childbirth. PT did get me functional again to some extent, but not enough. The best time for me to have done this probably would have been ten years ago when my weight was down. It would have been a lot easier to keep the weight off and my overall health would be better today.

Tri-Care has been great. They allowed the referral and an in network surgeon was able to see me in a few weeks. They took about a week and a half to approve the procedure, though I was told to expect a month. I think they were quick because I have both documented medical history and a great deal of tissue to be removed making it very clearly medically indicated. It seems like it's a lot harder to get approved if you only want to go down a cup size or two and don't have the medical history documented.

I'm hoping I'll be able to go down 9 cup sizes and retain some sensation in my nipples. One or both of those things may be impossible or ill advised. I wish I could find out my options now instead of having to wait till the day before the surgery so that I would have some time to adjust my expectations before the surgery.

I've done some reading and it seems that when the nipple is very far below the inframammary fold they can't do a pedicle (a bunch of tissue that remains attached to the nipple, greatly increasing the odds of retaining sensation). What I can't figure out is why not. Is it to do with ligaments being stretched too far, so the shape of the breast becomes distorted because of the lack of support? Or is it because stuffing all that pedicle back up so high in the new breast area squeezes of the bloodflow and or nerves, leading to high complication rates? Or is it something I can't even imagine? Or is it unexplained higher complication rates? And will the doctor and his staff think I'm out of my mind if I call in with these questions? I do realize that reading a few articles only gives me a superficial understanding of this stuff, but my curiosity doesn't have an off switch.

Another worry is that my PCM (GP) has ordered a LOT of tests including a visit to the cardiologist and possibly the hematologist before the surgery. A few years ago I was having problems with a rapid heartbeat. They did a very thorough job looking into it and decided that my heart was in fabulous shape but I needed to stop taking a certain medication. I've not had trouble since so it makes no sense to me that she wants this test that may take a while to schedule and compromise the surgery date. Second is a situation I thought had resolved. My platelets had been slightly high at my checkup several months ago. She had me retest and they were still slightly high. She wanted one more test before sending me to the hematologist. When I didn't hear back from her I assumed the situation had been resolved. Yesterday she tells me that the third test was still a little off, 417 when they want it below 400. I'm a little angry that she hadn't called me weeks ago when she got those results! This could have been resolved by now, instead of possibly causing a delay now, which will mean me missing work to recover when school starts up in August. I'm glad she is thorough, but am a bit disgusted with her follow up.

A few months ago I had a check up and all was well. Now that my GP is trying to clear me for surgery there are all sorts of things they want to look into. My platelets have been slightly elevated, and still are, so I have to see a Hematologist. That isn't scheduled yet, and my surgery date is on the 22nd. There was blood in my urine, and my TSH was up so they want a full thyroid screening, which I've done and am awaiting the results. The cardiologist wants to do some more tests as well to make sure everything is good. I had a tiny bit of blockage, but was told it was OK a few years ago. I've been taking the meds they prescribed and there is no history of heart problems in my family.

My mom and my adult son both have hypothyroid and they've watched me for it since I was a kid. I'm symptomatic, but they never seemed to think much of it till now that I want this surgery.

I'm hoping all the specialists can get all the tests they want done fast enough not to have to move my surgery, and none of them find anything that will torpedo my plans all together. I guess if they do finally decide to treat my thyroid I'll have to postpone till that is stable, and still be able to have the surgery. If the hematologist or heart doctor have issues....who knows?

I wish I'd done this ten years ago when I had gotten my weight down and was exercising a lot. If I had I probably wouldn't have developed these other problems at all. I hope that is a warning to gals who are tempted to put off their surgery.

My apologies for my shyness about sharing photos. I've been stalked online before and I know the guy is still out there somewhere. I could make some sketches maybe, which would be pretty funny since I don't draw much more than stick figures.