Breast Reduction - Scheduled for Tomorrow - San Francisco, CA

I have come to rely on Realself so much to help me come to a decision on breast reduction that now that I've decided to do it, thought I should post my own experience. I am 43 years old, 5'4", 135 lbs, with a breast size of 30F. After a lot of research, I decided on Dr. Carolyn Chang. I had narrowed it down to 2 plastic surgeons. My sister has a lot of contacts in the San Francisco medical community, so I asked her to ask three of her doctor and surgeon friends (one obgyn, one oncologist, and one a gp) who they would recommend. All 3 came back with Dr. Chang, so my decision was made. Dr. Chang has been fantastic (and my situation is complicated by the fact that I live overseas so would be flying in for the surgery). The office was also fantastic. They submitted all my documents to my insurance company and worked very hard to get that elusive pre-authorization. Dr. Chang is out of network but having most of the procedure covered has been fanrastic. I just had my last pre-op appointment, so tomorrow is the big day. I will aim to post before photos as soon as possible, as well as report my post op experience along with progress photos. Thank you to all the women who have posted their experiences, which has been an invaluable help to me. Wish me luck and I will post an update as soon as possible!

Surgery yesterday went great! It lasted 3.5 hours- I did a short scar reduction and axilla liposuction. Dr. Chang estimated she would remove 400-450 grams of breast tissue per breast. I forgot to ask today how much was removed so will update later. I woke up after surgery with moderate pain but it was quickly handled with IV pain meds. After one hour in recovery, I was wheeled into my room. I was given the morphine pump which I only needed to use sparingly because the pain was not bad at all. I also had "leg pumps" that basically massage your legs to prevent blood clots and feels fantastic. I had some chicken broth at around 1 pm and then picked at a salad at 7:30 pm. The morphine made me dizzy/nauseous and I
vomited but felt fine after. Slept through the night. All in all, a lot less pain than I had expected.

Discharged today and also saw the new boobs for the first time - I am AMAZED! I saw them at the surgeon's office so don't have a picture to post but will as soon as I remove the bandages and bra. I was shocked - it looks like a different body! 2-3 cup sizes smaller, perky, great shape. I'm thrilled and wonder why I didn't do this sooner. My breasts are swollen still and a bit sore, but the pain meds (percocet) take the edge off. The armpit lipo is actually more painful. Also, I had not realized that your body can become quite bloated from the surgery and IV fluids. Hoping that the bloating (not breasts but rest of body) goes down fairly quickly.