30s Mom Hoping for Thinner Thighs and Bigger Boobs!
I'm excited to be having my breast fat transfer...
I'm excited to be having my breast fat transfer procedure in a couple days! I'm scheduled for Monday, April 24th with Dr. Engel in Sarasota. These real self reviews have helped me, and I hope to help others with mine. Just a forewarning, I usually write a lot and sometimes too much!
Currently, I have a somewhat deflated A cup, and I went up to a full B/small C while pregnant and breastfeeding.
I've always thought my thighs were too big and my breasts were too small. Taking fat from my thighs and putting into my breasts seems like a dream come true! Thinner thighs and bigger boobs? Yes please. I was thrilled to see the procedure becoming more popular and more studies showing its safety.
I started out at 18 asking my parents about getting breast implants before college, but I'm glad my mom convinced me that my breasts would change after having babies so I should wait a while. Now several years later, I've gained 10 or so pounds through college and babies, so I've got some extra fat to transfer to my breasts. This is a much better option than implants for me since implants don't last and usually require future surgeries for replacements. Also, I am only looking for a modest increase from A to full B cup, and I like the liposuction that goes along with it.
Women that want a significant breast increase should look into breast implants instead, but personally I've never liked really big boobs. I'm looking to have a thin and fit body, and big boobs don't match that. Usually fit women have small boobs, unless they have huge fake boobs, and that's not the look for me. I'm a conservative mom who wants to be fit with normal size boobs. I'm hoping to get there with this breast fat transfer along with increasing my exercise and weight training after I'm healed.
I almost cannot believe that I’m having this surgery! I was happily surprised that my husband agreed to spend the money on this. He really liked my B cup boobs while I was breastfeeding, and now we both miss them. However, I was fine with my current boobs since they are fairly perky and don’t droop too much. But they are a bit deflated on the top. I was planning to live with them, and I was actually researching Coolscupting when I first saw some info on breast fat transfer. I was hoping to do Coolsculpting on my thighs but wasn’t overly optimistic that my husband would agree to the cost. But I knew he did like bigger boobs, so this breast fat transfer seemed like the best way to get thinner thighs. The lipo part is mostly for me and the fat transfer to the breasts is mostly a present for my husband.
I was totally elated when my husband agreed about 2 months ago that I could do this. We fortunately have a good amount of savings in the bank even after paying for this surgery, so I don’t have to feel guilty about spending too much. Side note: I do believe it’s important to have a balance in finances between spending, saving, and donating money to good causes. I feel OK about spending so much money on myself since we have a good financial balance.
For a while, all I thought about were all the “pros” and not so much the “cons.” Now we all know the pros, which are awesome: thinner thighs and bigger boobs, but then there are serious risks to this surgery as well. I’m going to do another post on the risks, for those interested. But I did get cold feet at times and almost cancel the whole thing due to being afraid of the complications. However, I do not want to be a “Debbie Downer” on this first post, since overall I’m super excited to get this done and the risks are very small. I’m hoping the recovery pain and small risks are all worth it in the end.
I did a bunch of research on the procedure and doctors. Not all plastic surgeons perform this procedure, and I wanted to make sure I had a well-trained, caring, and highly rated board certified plastic surgeon. I researched doctors from Tampa to Bradenton/Sarasota down to Fort Myers and Naples area. I found an excellent doctor in Sarasota and another in Bradenton. I went to the two consultations and decided on Dr. Scott Engel because he matched my criteria above as well as being patient, thorough, and I felt he truly cared about me as a patient. The only drawback is that he hasn’t performed as many breast fat transfers as I would have liked. I think that comes with the territory though because breast fat transfer is not as popular of a procedure as breast implants and others. But I did drill him and ask him a bunch of questions to make sure he knows his stuff. He was surprised that I cared so much about the details and told me not to worry about it because he’s very experienced and has even taught other doctors about fat transfer, but fortunately he still answered my questions (and he answered them right).
The plan is to do liposuction on my outer thighs (my initial desire) and also to my lower stomach at a discount (bonus!) to make sure Dr. Engel can harvest enough fat. If he still needs more fat, he will lipo my inner thighs. Our goal is to get at least 200cc of fat injected into each breast. 150cc is supposed to be one cup size, so hoping that much will survive so I will have B cup in the end. He thinks 70% of the fat will survive, though at first he said 50%- I think to not get my hopes up too high.
This week before my surgery, I have been making preparations. I have been working on house chores so that everything is clean and ready. This weekend I will be stocking up on groceries and easy freezer meals. I have already set up my “recovery station” in my room with medical supplies like my prescription pain pills, anti-nausea pills, Tylenol, hydrogen peroxide, gauze pads, natural arnica pills and gel, bromelain, and grape seed extract. I have the doctor’s Rx and supplies as well as some natural proven remedies that decrease swelling and pain. I also have high potency probiotics in my fridge to take after my antibiotics during surgery to replenish the good bacteria in my gut.
Before surgery, patients have to stop taking vitamins and supplements since some interfere with surgery, so I’ve stopped my daily natural supplements. The only things I’m taking is the arnica, bromelain, and some vitamin C/zinc now before surgery. I’ve also been trying to eat super healthy, drink lots of water, get sleep, and trying to just be the healthiest I can before surgery. My husband has been sick this week, so I’ve been washing my hands and everything like crazy because of course I don’t want to get sick!! I want to be as healthy as possible before the big day.
Well I will try to update this review as I go through this process. I’m going to take a couple before pictures soon. Also, I’m going to try to get copies of the before pictures and then after pictures they take at my plastic surgeon’s office. I always preferred the reviews with pictures because they’re usually more helpful.
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Before Pictures
I had my husband take some "before" pictures. I had him try better for the close-ups of my breasts. We took full body pictures of front, back, and sides. Then took some pictures of just my breasts. My breasts do look quite small in these pictures. They feel bigger to me on my body, but I know they are only A cups. I think my breasts look extra small to me because I've been looking at so many big boob pictures on this site haha! Let's hope that these boobs look nice and full after my breast fat transfer! Also, I forgot to mention in my first post that I will have general anesthesia for my surgery. At first, I was looking for local anesthesia since it's supposedly safer and I thought that it would be an option if just taking fat from outer thighs and injecting into breasts. However, both surgeons who examined me said that it would have to be general anesthesia. I thought that there would be more than enough fat to take from my thighs, but apparently they're not as huge as I think. Both surgeons said we should pick a second body area for lipo in order to harvest enough fat for my breasts. So I am happy to also have lipo on my stomach and adding that part to the procedure means that general makes the most sense. Dr. Engel said he can do his best work with general, and also I shouldn't have unpleasant memories or pain during the actual procedure.
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Risks and Fears
As I posted earlier, I was overjoyed when my husband agreed to this procedure. It was going to be life-changing for me! It may be vain, but a good body shape has always been important to me but after kids, my body changed and there’s not time to exercise like before. I’m not totally blaming my kids though because certainly some of my extra fat comes from me eating too much. It would be amazing to be in great shape again, but then I started thinking that even though I can do this breast fat transfer, that doesn’t mean that I should do it. For weeks, I went back and forth about whether I could accept the risks of this surgery or not. My biggest concern was putting my life at risk (even a tiny risk) for an elective (not needed) surgery when I am the mother of young children. How awful to die from a superficial surgery and leave my children motherless? Well for a while, I obsessed over the risks and did nonstop research. A fat embolism was the scariest thing to me, other than death. Fat embolisms lead to death too. When I first researched breast fat transfer, the risks seemed minor: not keeping all the fat, benign cysts, some lumpiness, infection (easily treated with antibiotics), asymmetry, interference with cancer screenings (but didn’t actually cause cancer), and poor healing, etc. But then I saw listed “all risks associated with liposuction.” I hadn’t really thought about the liposuction risks, and I didn’t realize at first how serious they were, even deadly. So when I started to see cases of people (especially mothers) dying from liposuction, that’s when I almost called this whole thing off. I could accept many risks, but not the risk of not being around for my kids.I’m not actually afraid of death myself since I trust in my savior Jesus Christ, but dying would be devastating to my kids and family. And then this surgery would be seen as utterly selfish and stupid. I would crumble thinking about leaving my kids without a mother. Fortunately, the chance of death is extremely small, but it is still real, so I had to process it. There are studies showing liposuction deaths are 1 in 5000 and too high. I agreed with a study comment that said "is there any risk of death that is acceptable for a purely cosmetic procedure?" The 1 in 5000 stat is more for larger scale lipo and not really what I’m doing. There is a 1 in 100,000 risk of dying from general anesthesia. I will have general anesthesia, which I forgot to mention in my first post. Other studies and estimates show 1 in 50,000 chance of dying from liposuction. That risk is similar to the risk of me dying in a car accident this year. The risk is similar, and I still choose to drive my car. Benefit outweighs the risk.I was still not sure I could accept the risk of surgery. I found out that any 30 year old has about a 1 in 2000 chance of death this year. I thought that was crazy and interesting. Also, I have dealt with the risk of death before. Anytime a women becomes pregnant, there is a risk of death and the c-section risk of death is about 1 in 2700. So I have dealt with worse risks of death. But the difference is risking my life for precious babies over cosmetic surgery. The similarity is greatly improving my life in exchange for a tiny chance of death.But one thing that did help me was thinking that having another baby would be way riskier than having this breast fat transfer. Another thing that helped me overcome the fear is that I have not found one case of death from a breast fat transfer. Clearly it could happen. But I have not found one. I have seen the rare deaths from breast implants, liposuction, and from fat transfer to the buttocks. Breast fat transfer appears safe- although the numbers are not nearly as high as other procedures. The more procedures that are done, the greater the chance of something going wrong. I would estimate that I have between a 1 in 50,000 and 1 in 100,000 chance of death or less. I decrease my chance of death by having only conservative amounts of lipo and fat transfer, being an overall healthy person, and using an excellent board-certified plastic surgeon. And by praying often to the Lord to keep me safe!Since I’m a planner and often over-prepare, I ended up writing a letter to my kids in case of death: basically an apology, expressing how much I love them, that I would see them in heaven, sorry for this horrible tragedy that almost never happens, that mommy and daddy thought this was the best decision for us, etc. It made me feel better to get it all out. Likewise it makes me feel better that this is a joint decision between my husband and me, so I told him he better take some of the blame if I die (haha, not really funny though). I also developed an advanced directive and instructions for my husband, in case of tragedy. Being prepared for the worst has helped me through this process.Clearly, the chance of death (however rare) was what I struggled with the most, especially as a devoted mother. There are other risks and complications, but they appear minor and managable. There seems to be a 5-10% chance of having fat necrosis or some other annoying lump, which may cause alarm in cancer screenings and unnecessary biopsies. Fortunately, I do not have any family history of breast cancer so I can feel more comfortable with this procedure. I will still be vigilant with my breast health regardless. My doctor said less than 1% of his patients have complications, so that is reassuring. Even though it’s only 1%, it still can happen. There is a 1% chance of infection (treatable), small chance of seroma (treatable), and there’s always a chance of not being satisfied with the results. My cellulite could worsen, although it’s already pretty bad so hard for me to imagine disliking it more than I already do (I dislike it hardcore). Cellulite treatments in the future are on my radar. Another negative that is not just a risk but a definite reality is the pain during recovery.Overall the risks seem very small compared to the very big benefits. Again, I’m hoping the pain during recovery and small risks are all worth it in the end.
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