26, No Kids, 286/265cc Moderate Plus Silicone, Sub-pectoral. Palo Alto, CA

I have benefited tremendously from hearing about so many of your experiences, so I wanted to contribute my own experience, in hopes that it might help other people thinking about undergoing a breast augmentation!

I cannot say enough great things about my experience with Dr. Lim at Duet Plastic Surgery. I am 5 days post op, feeling great, and am already loving my new body. I still have a long way to go in terms of my breasts "dropping and fluffing," but Dr. Lim listened to what I wanted and delivered results that I'm thrilled with already.

I am fairly petite (5'5, 122 pounds) with a curvy body. I wanted to feel more proportionate, but I only wanted a full B/small C to complement my smaller frame. Dr. Lim understood this and was very patient with me, as I struggled to decide what size I wanted to go with. Also, like most women, one of my breasts was smaller than the other. The size difference had bothered me for years and was a huge factor behind my decision to get a breast augmentation. Dr. Lim said she would order three different sized implants (all within the size range we had discussed) to have on-hand in the operating room. She ended up putting 286cc in my left breast and 265cc in my right. Although it's too early to know what my final result will look like, I can already tell that they will be much more symmetrical, so I'm thrilled. Also, the incisions are super small and you can't see them when looking at my chest straight-on, even though my implants haven't dropped yet! Also, I didn't have any bruising at all.

In addition to her obvious surgical expertise, Dr. Lim is also very patient-centered and is responsive to email and texts. I emailed her several times with random questions the week before my surgery, and she answered each one usually within a few hours of when I sent it, with thoughtful and detailed responses. The day of my surgery, she called to check in on me later that night, and followed up with an email a couple days later to make sure I was ok/didn't have any questions. During this period, she also responded promptly to texts from my fiance with medication questions.

I also wanted to touch on the fact that my recovery process has been totally manageable and MUCH easier than I had anticipated. I thought I would be in tremendous amounts of pain, but really, the first night was the worst and every day after got better and better. The only time during the whole process that I was in bothersome pain was whenever I tried to sit up to get out of bed the night after the surgery. Because I had been drinking so much water after not being able to before the surgery, I had to get up to pee a million times. Not fun. Definitely make sure you have someone help you with that the first night! While I was given Percocet for pain and Valium for muscle tightness/pain, I only took the Percocet the first night after the surgery (I didn't feel like it helped the pain much and really just made me feel nauseous) and was totally fine taking just Extra Strength Tylenol after that (and Valium at night to relax my muscles and help the implants drop). I only took the Tylenol for 3 days post-op and haven't been in any pain since. I was up walking around the first day post-op, and was able to do laundry/run errands/clean by day 4 (obviously, very carefully, and I made sure to not lift anything too heavy). I know that everyone's recovery process is different, and I feel very fortunate that mine has been so manageable. I can only assume that this is due to Dr. Lim's surgical skills--truly, I would do this again in a heartbeat. This might sound crazy, but I thought getting an IUD placed was more painful than the recovery process from my breast augmentation!

Also, I just wanted to mention the day-of surgery process. The surgical center is conveniently located in the same complex as Duet's office, which is great. It's clean, the nurses were very kind, and everyone was caring and attentive. My anesthesiologist was also great. He called me the night before the surgery to go over everything and totally put me at ease the day of the surgery. I felt like I was in great hands. Before I knew it, I was awake in the recovery room. I've read that a lot of people feel like there's an elephant sitting on their chest when they wake up after surgery, but this was not my experience. I was wrapped up, but I had no trouble breathing and really wasn't bothered by the bandage at all. This is coming from a person who is pretty anxious by nature, by the way. I was worried I would wake up and feel panicky and not able to breathe, but this was simply not the case. The first night after surgery is a little annoying because you can't really take a full deep breath without feeling some pain, but it's really not that bad.

The morning after the surgery, I had my first post-op appointment, and Dr. Lim removed the bandages and put me in a surgical bra, with a compression band to help the implants drop. Though the band isn't the most comfortable thing in the world, I was happy to have the wrap off and be in a stretchier bra. I was so happy when she said I could shower ASAP. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to shower for days, but luckily that wasn't the case. The shower felt really great!

Another thing I was concerned about before undergoing the surgery was whether or not the implants would feel "foreign" and freak me out. As I mentioned, I can be a hypochondriac and am hyper-aware of anything going on in my body. I was so pleasantly surprised that my new breasts have felt like a part of me from the second I woke up from surgery. Granted, they haven't settled into "normal" looking breasts yet, but I already love them. They don't feel foreign at all!

I hope this review helps and maybe makes the process seem a bit less scary. I think if you have a great surgeon and are in good hands, it makes the whole experience a lot less daunting. In hindsight, making the decision to actually commit to getting the surgery was more stressful than the surgery/recovery process itself! I can't recommend Dr. Lim/Duet Plastic Surgery enough. Please let me know if you have any questions at all--I'm more than happy to answer anything I didn't touch on in this review!