23 and free, Free, FREE at Last! :3 - UK

Hi all, I'm sure those of you interested in BR already know aaall about The Struggle. I'm also sure those of you who don't would have already read all about it. But I have my own tidbits to add to all the pre-op recollections and I hope it can be as reassuring and insightful as the other thousands out there.

To start, I am actually Eastern European and growing up in eastern Europe was not a fun ride - I went from being teased about being black/mixed to being revered for it once Bulgaria discovered Beyoncè. I should mention that The Ideal Bulgarian Woman, to this day, has big boobs and a small behind and, although I've always wanted a big butt and underwhelming chest, around age 13 I had neither, so throw that into the mix and walking down the street quickly became even more of a nightmare than usual. I remember once, after puberty had done it's wicked work, forgetting my headphones on my way to school. When I realised this in a panic I couldn't remember why it had become so important for me to be listening to the radio (phones barely had mp3 capabilities at the time but bless Sony Ericsson's walkman series) and decided I'd survive without. I was speed-walking home in tears 10 mins later to get them, class be damned.

Safe to say the change from being called names like chimney baby, chalkboard, monkey etc to all of a sudden being harassed sexually at age 13 was enough of a trauma. You all know what happens next - back pain, neck pain, the ever ilusive bra size etc. Speaking of bra sizes, I didn't even know about back circumference and cup sizes until I moved to the UK at age 18 and discovered Marks and Spencer. I had, up until that point, never walked into a store and known what "size" to look for. As far as I was concerned sizes were for normal people. I, on the other hand, just sort of drifted towards the plus section and took anything that could hold the twins ( I use the term 'hold' very loosley). I also discovered the glory of Non-Padded and Non-Molded Cups in Britain. You know, the ones that are literally just sacks of fabric attached to an underwire? Hail thee granny bra, for if nothing else atleast I could bend without my melons slapping me in the chin.

You'd think all that would have been enough to get me under the knife but no. In fact I only learned breast reduction was a thing recently from my mom. The third-to-last straw was discovering I am actually a US size 4 (UK 8) in clothing if it weren't for my chest, shallow as that may seem. The second-to-last was finally getting into the habit of using the gym and actually loving it apart from the excruciating jolts when running which ruined it for me. The last was when I lost some weight (I am not fat or even chubby but I thought I had no waist for the longest time and have always had a bit of a potbelly) but the boobs would barely budge a quarter cup size! I didn't even want them to be perky I just needed them to shrink in volume. I could handle rolling them up into my bra for the rest of my life but at that moment I became painfully aware that unless I had the very flesh sucked out of them by no less than two ravenous babies (like my mother before me) I would actually have to carry the beasts until I died. And I was NOT ok with that. So my mom urged me to look into surgery. I was to look for said surgery abroad, as the cost in the UK is prohibitive and there is no such thing as insurance covering any of it (Ha! You dare think because your spine and psyche suffer that you have medical rights? Eh, no).

The rest is history in the making - I found a surgeon abroad, went under the knife and came out the other end in one, albeit stitched together, piece and do not regret that I did. Yet, anyway - I hope I won't have any complications ever. I am currently 14 days post-op and will share all my trials on here. Your reviews have helped me so much, one must pay it forward.

Hi all, I'm back to type up some of my woes. Alright, it's literally just one - I have mentioned this before in the odd comment but, for those of you who don't know, I actually saw my new breasts for the first time yesterday afternoon. My PS' instructions were to keep my bandages on for two weeks and then wash, dry and send a photo of his handiwork to await further instructions.

All good up until this point, although I did cry a little while taking off the crusty old gauze and bandages. Not from any pain - just messed up emotions.. although I'm not sure why. Probably a combination of fear and anxiety of seeing my mangled breasts for the first time, sadness at what I had electively done to myself, further sorrow when I allowed myself to think about the implications of parts of me being in some dumpster somewhere in Spain. In those couple of minutes before I actually saw my incisions, the full force of what had happened hit me. I had actually undergone surgery; it finally sunk in. I guess the last 13 days have just been a sort of limbo as, although I could feel and see that they were physically smaller and hurting and swollen, I hadn't actually SEEN them at all.

Anyway, after my mini-breakdown, sitting on the toilet lid in my mother's bathroom, I finally unveiled The Breasts and lo and behold there were white strings sticking out all along my incisions. I wasn't expecting that but I was actually relieved that there had been something other than gauze, pus and willpower holding these babies together. That was yesterday, day 14 PO. Now, on day 15 PO, comes the doubt and uncertainty - I haven't actually seen anyone on here (or on google) sporting white strings post-op. Don't get me wrong, I trust my surgeon knew what he was doing; it's not him, it's me.

I did some researching and now know that dissolvable stitches can also be white and that's reassuring - my PS always uses dissolvable stitches. What's got my bra straps in a knot is that the only other patient of his who bothered adding photos to her review had black stitches which were thinner and, as one would expect, melted away of their own accord, the same black stitches I see come up when I managed to find the odd BR patient who hasn't been glued or stapled together instead.

I cannot imagine these melting into my skin or perhaps the parts outside will fall off once the portions buried underneath the skin have dissolved? My worry boils down to this - have any of you ladies had stitches like these and what did you do with them? Is it uncommon or just wildly undocumented to have the white dissolvable stitches used on the outside? Again, I will stop wondering and worrying once my surgeon gets back to me after seeing my update photos. In the meantime I want to know what other experiences are out there :3 On that note, my back is killing me from sitting in bed all day. Just saying.

Just a quick update - the hanging stitches will come off on their own, my PS reassured me. Huzzah, hooray!

Some more good news - I've been given the go-ahead to sleep flat on my back! I'm cleared to sleep on my sides too but I'd rather play it safe and just not but the whole propped up on pillows thing really hasn't been doing it for me. I cannot wait to splay flat on my spine! My toes are curling in delight just thinking about it.

I will post some more pictures further down the line as for now I'm not really comfortable having my new boobies sprung free without my compression bra on. And I LOVE my compression bra - it is a bit pricey but well worth it considering I'll be wearing it night and day for the next several months. It's the i-bra from Macom, in case anyone wants to look it up and it's oddly comfortable to sleep in. And I'm the kind of person who cannot even stand to wear socks under the covers... Anywho, I will be wearing my bra from the hospital when this one goes into the wash but I will be buying another i-bra in white, maybe red too just to spice things up a little? Yes, me thinks.