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I really don't like my thighs or the stretchmarks...
I really don't like my thighs or the stretchmarks behind my legs or the love handles that embrace my waist, but nothing, nothing that I dislike on my body beats the aversion I felt towards my the one asset that women are supposedly to die for.
Boobs. *Sigh.*
Like many on this forum, my breasts started growing at a really young age. By the time I was 12, they were comfortably in the B cup range. Fastforward to 16 years later and I was clinging on to a DDD. Barely. I'm an average sized girl - size 4 on a good day and 6 on the regular and here I was wearing a DDD/E cup. My escape (and the downfall of my bank account) was minimizer bras. I grew terribly self-conscious of my abnormally large breasts and was sometimes the center of jokes from coworkers and friends. The result? I slouched often, wore baggy clothes always and started developing backache at night. My shoulders had deep ridges from overworked bras and I also had a bruise on my right side from the friction of my underwire bra.
I started considering a breast reduction and began voraciously poring through RealSelf. The more I read, the more determined I was to have the procedure done. Emails alerts would pop up on my phone screen from the Real Self team with the words "Images in the email may contain nudity" blazing across my phone screen which I'm sure one or two of my nosy coworkers saw at some point. I didn't care. I just knew I had to get this procedure done.
Over the course of 6 months I embarked on what is the most important part of this whole journey: finding the right doctor. I can't emphasize how important this is. Its an investment well worth making. Your boobs are on you every single day so its important to feel good in them! I started shopping around and no doctor ever felt like the right fit. My initial search was based on price as I'm in NY and nothing in this city is cheap! But the more I went to different places, the more I realized that having the right set of hands sculpting my body would make or break this surgery. So I would advise folks to invest in visits, see how the places are and get comfortable with conversations with doctors and their methods.
I came across Dr Vickery online and went to her offices for an appointment. After that visit, I knew she was the person I wanted to work on my procedure. However, I had one potentially complicated situation I had let her know about. I was losing my job in the coming weeks and I was going to lose my insurance and so I needed to have the surgery done sooner rather than later. Literally all the other doctors had told me that I needed to go to a chiropractor and get have about 6 months worth of doctors visits before insurance would even blink an eye on my case. Not true. Dr Vickery was the first doctor to say that my case was obvious and that we should go ahead and submit the paperwork to insurance. We did so and within two weeks I was approved. Just like that. No unnecessary physician expenses. No extended wait times. I was cleared and ready to go. Because of my job situation, I kept scheduling and rescheduling my surgery and finally had it done on December 15. Dr Vickery's office was very patient with me in the whole process, as I rescheduled so many times.
DAY OF: I arrived at the facility at 7:45am. The doctor drew the necessary markings on my body and afterwards the anesthesiologist came in and spoke to me. About 30 - 45 mins later, I was taken into the operating room and the rest is a blur.
I woke up at 4pm completely disoriented. On a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being the least) the pain level was at 1. What was actually really painful for me was my throat! It was on fire. I asked the nurse to give me some Halls which she did and that was a little soothing. Because I wanted to minimize the final bill as much as possible, I opted to not stay in at the hospital. My friend came to get me and we left the facility around 6pm. My throat was still on fire and I got home to some delicious spicy curry that was a tremendous aide to the pain. I went home with drains which weren't bad at all.
DAY 1 POST: Pain level was still very low - at 2 - 3. I also took some Oxy but would have really been fine with just regular Tylenol. I went for a post-op visit later that day and the doctor took out my drains. There was almost no drainage which was really amazing.
WEEK 1 - 2: I went to the doctor's office for a total of about 4 post op visits. The whole time I was sleeping on my back and had minimal to no pain. The most pain I experienced throughout the whole procedure was that of the tube down my throat and even that was almost gone by day 3. I wore the surgical bras and didn't shower for the first couple of days. I had a lot of help around the house which was necessary. Honestly, I had underestimated my inability to do the most basic activities for those first couple of days and so having the help was amazing.
I'm now a little under 3 months post-op and my recovery has been really swift. I went for a bra fitting (a little late in the game) but I went to Victoria's Secret. 34DD. Not OK. I've never shopped there before but I have heard that their measuring system is very different so I am going to go for another fitting elsewhere and will come back with an update. I suspect that I'm really a C or D at most based on "regular" fittings.
SCARS: This was my biggest fear. Its always said that black skins scars worse on average and so I was ready to load up on all sorts of scar creams. My experience so far?? My scars have actually been so great that I actually stopped using Scar Guard a few days in. I'll let the healing process continue normally.
Would I recommend the surgery to anyone? ABSOLUTELY. But I will say that the doctor is so important in the process and its worth investing the time to find a good one as there's no "undo" once you're under the knife. Another important thing to remember is that its also very important to follow the doctor's instructions. Little things can ruin the healing process. My back pain is largely gone and now I'm working on correcting my overall posture. Like many, I really do wish I had gotten this surgery sooner!
Boobs. *Sigh.*
Like many on this forum, my breasts started growing at a really young age. By the time I was 12, they were comfortably in the B cup range. Fastforward to 16 years later and I was clinging on to a DDD. Barely. I'm an average sized girl - size 4 on a good day and 6 on the regular and here I was wearing a DDD/E cup. My escape (and the downfall of my bank account) was minimizer bras. I grew terribly self-conscious of my abnormally large breasts and was sometimes the center of jokes from coworkers and friends. The result? I slouched often, wore baggy clothes always and started developing backache at night. My shoulders had deep ridges from overworked bras and I also had a bruise on my right side from the friction of my underwire bra.
I started considering a breast reduction and began voraciously poring through RealSelf. The more I read, the more determined I was to have the procedure done. Emails alerts would pop up on my phone screen from the Real Self team with the words "Images in the email may contain nudity" blazing across my phone screen which I'm sure one or two of my nosy coworkers saw at some point. I didn't care. I just knew I had to get this procedure done.
Over the course of 6 months I embarked on what is the most important part of this whole journey: finding the right doctor. I can't emphasize how important this is. Its an investment well worth making. Your boobs are on you every single day so its important to feel good in them! I started shopping around and no doctor ever felt like the right fit. My initial search was based on price as I'm in NY and nothing in this city is cheap! But the more I went to different places, the more I realized that having the right set of hands sculpting my body would make or break this surgery. So I would advise folks to invest in visits, see how the places are and get comfortable with conversations with doctors and their methods.
I came across Dr Vickery online and went to her offices for an appointment. After that visit, I knew she was the person I wanted to work on my procedure. However, I had one potentially complicated situation I had let her know about. I was losing my job in the coming weeks and I was going to lose my insurance and so I needed to have the surgery done sooner rather than later. Literally all the other doctors had told me that I needed to go to a chiropractor and get have about 6 months worth of doctors visits before insurance would even blink an eye on my case. Not true. Dr Vickery was the first doctor to say that my case was obvious and that we should go ahead and submit the paperwork to insurance. We did so and within two weeks I was approved. Just like that. No unnecessary physician expenses. No extended wait times. I was cleared and ready to go. Because of my job situation, I kept scheduling and rescheduling my surgery and finally had it done on December 15. Dr Vickery's office was very patient with me in the whole process, as I rescheduled so many times.
DAY OF: I arrived at the facility at 7:45am. The doctor drew the necessary markings on my body and afterwards the anesthesiologist came in and spoke to me. About 30 - 45 mins later, I was taken into the operating room and the rest is a blur.
I woke up at 4pm completely disoriented. On a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being the least) the pain level was at 1. What was actually really painful for me was my throat! It was on fire. I asked the nurse to give me some Halls which she did and that was a little soothing. Because I wanted to minimize the final bill as much as possible, I opted to not stay in at the hospital. My friend came to get me and we left the facility around 6pm. My throat was still on fire and I got home to some delicious spicy curry that was a tremendous aide to the pain. I went home with drains which weren't bad at all.
DAY 1 POST: Pain level was still very low - at 2 - 3. I also took some Oxy but would have really been fine with just regular Tylenol. I went for a post-op visit later that day and the doctor took out my drains. There was almost no drainage which was really amazing.
WEEK 1 - 2: I went to the doctor's office for a total of about 4 post op visits. The whole time I was sleeping on my back and had minimal to no pain. The most pain I experienced throughout the whole procedure was that of the tube down my throat and even that was almost gone by day 3. I wore the surgical bras and didn't shower for the first couple of days. I had a lot of help around the house which was necessary. Honestly, I had underestimated my inability to do the most basic activities for those first couple of days and so having the help was amazing.
I'm now a little under 3 months post-op and my recovery has been really swift. I went for a bra fitting (a little late in the game) but I went to Victoria's Secret. 34DD. Not OK. I've never shopped there before but I have heard that their measuring system is very different so I am going to go for another fitting elsewhere and will come back with an update. I suspect that I'm really a C or D at most based on "regular" fittings.
SCARS: This was my biggest fear. Its always said that black skins scars worse on average and so I was ready to load up on all sorts of scar creams. My experience so far?? My scars have actually been so great that I actually stopped using Scar Guard a few days in. I'll let the healing process continue normally.
Would I recommend the surgery to anyone? ABSOLUTELY. But I will say that the doctor is so important in the process and its worth investing the time to find a good one as there's no "undo" once you're under the knife. Another important thing to remember is that its also very important to follow the doctor's instructions. Little things can ruin the healing process. My back pain is largely gone and now I'm working on correcting my overall posture. Like many, I really do wish I had gotten this surgery sooner!
Provider Review
Board Certified Plastic Surgeon
1125 Fifth Avenue (at 94th) , New York, New York
Dr Vickery and her entire staff were truly amazing!! As mentioned in my review, I was losing my insurance and didn't think I would be able to submit my paperwork in time based on what I learnt from other doctors. I was expecting the usual advice of spending months going to a chiropractor before you could even consider having insurance look at your paperwork. Not the case here. Were it not for Dr Vickery's counsel, I would have given up, lost my insurance and still be in tremendous pain with my DDD/E cup size!! From my first consultation, Dr Vickery had a very thorough conversation with me about her work, my preferences, her method, and the overall process. She took her time with me and addressed all my dears and anxieties. I walked out of there feeling like I could definitely trust her and was far - which was something I hadn't felt at other places I had been. Dr Vickery is truly talented and her nurses - Margaret and Julie - went out of their way to ensure that I received excellent service ALWAYS. Follow-up appointments were always seamless and I always received reminders in advance. Very friendly team and if I ever need any other work done I would definitely go back here.