Surgery Scheduled for Thursday, December 8th - Wisconsin
Hi everyone! I'm really glad I found this...
Hi everyone!
I'm really glad I found this site... it has been really helpful for me to read others reviews about their augmentation journey's.
I am 42 and have three wonderful daughters whom I breast fed for a year each. I had GREAT boobs when I was pregnant and nursing. But now they look more like deflated balloons :-(. I have considered getting augmentation for years and never really thought I would go through with it. I've had a lot of surgeries in my past and I don't do well on anesthesia.
But something clicked in me a few weeks ago and I knew it was finally time to move forward with the procedure.
I had a tummy tuck years ago and when I was researching doctors for that, I ran across the name of my PS over and over again. Unfortunately he wasn't affiliated with the hospital I was using (I was having kidney surgery too and combined the kidney surgery with the tummy tuck) I had to go with a different doctor at that time.
So when I decided to move forward with my new boobies, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Dr. Bartell was still practicing plastic surgery in my area.
I met with him and he was awesome. Wonderful staff too! He took all the time in the world with me and never made me feel like he was rushed. Never looked at his watch. Just took his time and answered my questions. And that was with the free consultation! I got my quote and left with my hubby and we discussed all the pros and cons. Believe it or not, I had to work hard to convince my hubby to back me in getting my surgery. But I did finally convince him. So we scheduled another appointment with Dr. Bartell and once again he spent a lot of time with me. Did the measurements and took pictures and then showed me lots of pictures of women with breasts similar to mine and asked me to pick the sizes/shapes I liked. Based on what I picked he said that he would start with a 375 cc saline implant and adjust from there.
I will be getting the saline implants under the muscle and the incision will be through the armpit. He specializes in "scarless" surgery and showed me how hard it was to detect his scars after 6 months. I was sold! lol
We set my surgery date for December 8th which is this coming Thursday.
I am soooo excited and nervous! I will post before and after pics soon.
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Dr. Bartell is AWESOME! I really wanted him for my tummy tuck 9 years ago. I ended up with a doctor who did awesome work but had the worst bedside manner of any doctor I have ever seen! But it was only because he was the only doctor affiliated with my hospital at that time. So I didn't have any choice as to who I went with.
This time I did, so I went back to search for Dr. Bartell.
My consultation lasted close to 45 minutes... I had a TON of questions. And I think the initial consult should have been between 15 - 30 minutes... but he NEVER made me feel like he was rushed or out of time. Answered all my questions and shared a lot about himself. That really helped ease my mind.
I did not try on sizers at either appointment. He took pictures of my breasts and then showed me other women who had the same shape/size I had and the different sizes they chose. I picked several women who I liked the shape and size and showed him ones I thought were too big. Based on what I showed him, he said he would start with 375ccs and adjust as needed. He sits you up on the operating table to make sure they look good before closing the incisions. He also said that 375cc's will be huge on some people and hardly noticeable on other people. So that's why he prefers to go by pictures. Based on my breast shape and size (I'm a B cup, but was a full C/small D when I was pregnant and nursing) he chose the cc's he thought would give me the look I liked.
After thinking about it, it makes perfect sense to do it that way. He has done thousands of implants so he is really good about imagining what you are looking for and knowing the correct volume. In the end, it comes down to trusting your PS I guess. :-)
You will love him! Have you gone in for your consultation yet?
and btw i just had and emergency appendectomy 4 months ago too lol
I was impressed with how many books of before/after pictures he had... there were soooo many! lol. That helped ease my mind too. If he had a tiny sampling of 20 jobs I think I would have left :-). But there were three big books and they had more in the pre-surgery consult too.
That is funny that you had an appendectomy 4 months ago too! I thought I had gotten a hold of some gluten somehow (I'm celiac/gluten intolerant) and that's what was causing my tummy to hurt. Except it kept getting worse and worse. :-)
I will post pictures and updates after the surgery :-)
Had the procedure done yesterday. The entire...
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Okay, I'm on day five after the procedure. ...
Right now I am mostly getting some pretty bad cramping on my right chest muscle (which is my dominant side). Went to see Dr. Bartell yesterday and he said this was normal and that the chest muscles have been stretched and are protesting :-). It should start to lessen over the next week or so (can't happen soon enough for me!!)
I also got my stitches removed yesterday, YAY! It felt great to get those out. I still have the steri-strips under my arms, but they should fall off in a few days.
Breasts are still trying to drop, but I love the look of them already!
I ended up with:
Saline smooth round moderate profiles, 375cc's filled to 402cc's on my left and 425cc's on my right. Under muscle and transax (armpit) incision.
I do have pics I need to get uploaded :-)
Thank you for sharing with us here on RealSelf! It certainly does sound like you're no stranger to surgery. Breast Augmentation, from what I've heard, is minor compared to the pain and recovery time of a Tummy Tuck, so this will probably seem easy peasy to you. :0) Please do come back and let us know how it goes!
Yes, I have had 5 surgeries... the latest one being about 4 months ago (emergency appendectomy). My tummy tuck was 9 years ago, and I combined that with a kidney surgery and double hernia repair. So it was a little bit longer recovery. But even with that surgery I was feeling more "normal" after 2 weeks. So I'm hoping that this surgery will be fairly easy. :-)