Implant removal (20 years) with lift.

Hi, just a short intro since I am post op and in a little pain. I'm 42 and got implants put in at 22. I was never really motivated by anything other than to make them even. One was a smaller size and I was originally a B cup. I told my original surgeon in Atlanta that I did not want to go over a C. Well, I woke up a D and have regretted my decision ever since. I would give anything if I would have had the larger breast reduced, but my fear of scars got the best of me.

I HATED my implants the whole time I had them. I am a boater and the liquid in them would heat up and burn inside my chest. I couldn't run, dance right, had back issues which led to spine surgery, and frankly, got tired of men talking and staring at my boobs. Not to mention nothing was ever on sale because I would have to buy a dress for the boobs and spend even more on alterations. Around March I noticed a lump coming up on the top of my left breast. It was positively frightening and I imagined the worse. However, it was a bubble from an implant shift that was terribly painful and I knew they had to go.

Fast forward and I am in CA now. My first consultation was in Pasadena. I kinda liked the doctor until all he could talk about was his other patients and online reviews. He insisted I wouldn't be happy taking the implants out and not replacing them. I felt like screaming "are you kidding me?" at him. The more I told him I wanted them gone, the more he tried to talk me out of it. "You won't have anything left" he said. "You'll have saggy bags and will be back in my office in a year getting implanted again. I don't know if I can save any of your breast tissue." I literally left his office in tears and knew I had to find another doc. I had total red flag alert so I went for a second opinion.

I found a wonderful doc in Newport Beach in Dr. Ip. His office staff is awesome, the facility he does the surgery in is stacked with the kindest and gentlest nurses and doctors. He has a perfect bedside manner with a great voice, easy to talk to, and he explained EVERYTHING to me. Not once did he try to talk me out of it. In fact, his first comment was, "you have a lot of great tissue left and I an going to save everything I can." He showed me pics of breasts that looked exactly like what I had (not random photos) so I could see how my body type would look with the lift. If I didn't know better I would have thought the examples he showed was me. That's what I really liked about him. He had so many he was able to show me MY body shape and I could envision how I would look.

I had my procedure done September 10th, 2014 and I am entering my 3rd day post op. So far, I have a really really bad bruise under one. I got the lift with the anchor suture and I won't lie...it's painful. I thought my nipples would hurt the most but the scar under the fold to my armpit is what is driving me crazy. I don't remember much after going into the OR room. I hear I was rather combative when I woke and had to be knocked out again. The only thing I can remember is feeling like I couldn't breathe. I imagine that was probably right after they took the intubation tube out. I was wrapped tight, given more morphine, and began the trip home. It was a 2.5 hour trip on the road which I probably shouldn't have done looking back, but, it sure was nice to start my recovery in my own bed and not a hotel. :) If you intend to travel right after, I HIGHLY suggest you ask for a script for an anti-nausea med since morphine is really bad about motion sickness.

All in all I feel like I am going to have my bad day today. Everything has worn off and I am still on the Percocets and antibiotic. I don't see me ditching them at least until the bruising heals a little. Hopefully by Monday I can switch to Tylenol but right now I am way too sore to not take them.

I am absolutely ecstatic to have those fake water sacks out of my chest. I am a little bummed when I see the sutures and think WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF to begin with??? I would never have faced this if I had just left well enough alone in my 20s. Now, I tell every woman that even mentions implants...DON"T DO IT!!!! It's just not worth it.

Here's my pics of before removal, and after lift. You can see that one of the problems I was having was the implants had drooped, let lose of the chest wall, and made my aureola disappear. I was originally a B cup preimplant, a D-DD after implant. I hope to be left with a good B after all is said and done.

I can't tell you how glad I am that I found this site. After looking at other explants and lifts on here with stories, I knew I was making the right decision. I only wish I had never had them put in to begin with.

I have made it through Day 3 and 4. The 3rd night (last night) was terrible. I'm not sure if I had too many pain meds in me or it was the Cipro, but I got really sick last night. I vomited for a few hours and was able to rest after getting everything out of my stomach. The Oxycodone makes me want to rip my skin off so I am really hoping that in the next 48 hours I don't need them anymore.

I finally got a short shower today and it made me feel like a new woman. My hubby has been a real trooper and inspects my sutures daily for any signs of infection. They look better every day but the bruise and outside corners are still extremely tender. Today is the first day I see a new color in it other than black. All kinds of pretty purple and yellow coming in with some itching and that's a good thing. I'm getting more energy by the day but I get really tired quick.

I have a post op appointment Monday and I am keeping my fingers crossed for some suture removal. I have healed really quick and noticed one nipple was trying to respond this morning in the shower to the cold. Yahoo! ;)

Soooo happy! Here's my day 3 and 4 pics.

Today I feel much better even though my bruise looks fierce. My pain sensations seem to be shifting. Yesterday, I felt more tender on the outside edges and today it seems to be the inside at the fold. I'm pretty sure I bruised so bad on that one side because that was the one I never had any weeping out of. My dressing on the left had a bit of blood and leakage on the night of my surgery but the right bandage was always clean. I imagine I closed really quick on that side and just didn't have time to naturally drain. The blood has pooled pretty bad but it looks to be healing well in spite of it all.

My 5 day post op is tomorrow and I hope to shed the chest bandage. I had another shower today but I still don't have the kahunas to rub or scrub near the area to get that purple mark off. Also, it felt really uncomfortable this time to let them hang in the shower. Although I am hating the bandage, It feels a lot better having it on at this point than not. When I get up, I am staying upright about 2 hours at a time and then I have to have about 3 hours of nap to recoup.

Looking forward to my appointment tomorrow and I'll post an update afterwards.