My New Life Starts Here. - United Kingdom, GB

Ok... It's done. All booked for the 25th march 2014. Breast uplift with implants, tummy tuck and mini arm lift! Am I mad? Yes! Am I scared? Yes! But I still want this done more than anything! Let me just explain a little but about me. I was an active child, but when I was about 12 I started getting a bit podgy so my mum put me on a diet. Didn't know at that point I was over weight so I was shocked that I was fat and my mum wanted to put me on a diet! But I went a long with it. That's when my obsession with food, and dieting began. I went from being a bit podgy round the edges to skinny and gaunt to massively over weight. I have abused my body with fad diets, pills, lotions options and it has all resulted in saggy skin, mental and physical scars and a hatred of summer time (no bikinis for me!). So a few years ago I made the decision to stop the rubbish and start using food as fuel. Stat using exercise as something to make me happy and it worked. I've not looked back. However..... The skin has remained! The stretch marks have remained! And even though I'm in a happy place with my diet and excise regime, it's not getting rid of the stubborn bits :( so after 2years of research and saving I've decided to bite the bullet. And go for it! I just hope that this all goes according to plan!

Just to let you guys know too, I don't have kids or a bf/husband. It's very hard to meet someone and keep them happy when I feel so unhappy in myself. This is another reason I'm doing this.

Will put some before pics on just before surgery :)

Ok so I can't bring myself to put up boob pictures yet, I still cringe when I look at them! But here's some tummy ones. Not so bad standing up but if I lean to one side or bend over it just hangs there. When I'm running or exercising it moves so violently! Can't wait to get rid of it!

Firstly I have to just say what a lovely, highly professional, informative AMAZING lady Sinead is. I drove 4 1/2 hours to have my sizing appt and although I was tired it was well worth it for the brilliant help and advice she gave me.

So, we decided on the moderate profile 360cc implant but she is getting the next size up as well incase the bigger one will look better after Mr Richards has done the uplift. She explained all the surgeries and what I was to expect. I felt a lot happier and a lot calmer after meeting her.

However when I got home I started google-ing implant sizes and thought it was too small so I left Sinead a message in a panic! And she got back to me quick as a flash, spent ages on the phone to me and answered all my questions and said she would order the next size up and the higher profile implants just in case I changed my mind again, but thought what we decided on was the best option for me. She said Mr Richards would have a chat the day of surgery about implant size again, which really helped calm me again! What an amazing lady!

So the count down continues! 12 days to go!!!!!

Ok so I have two more days and then it's my day of surgery. I am so nervous I haven't slept for days. I'm wondering why I feel so nervous and scared even though I want this so much.

I have to say though, I've been on the phone and email to Sinead nearly every day and she has been amazing. Even rearranged her work schedule to be with me on the day of surgery! I cannot express how much that means to me, she's shown more than just good customer service, she's gone above an beyond for me and I couldn't be happier. I just need to get my head around the next part which will be getting to the hospital and having all the needles. Have been told that the spinal injection (epidural) is sometimes given when patients are asleep but my anaesthetist will do it when I'm awake. So that's made my heart race thinking of that. Sinead told me she will make sure I have numbing cream prior to all needle stuff lol! I'm such a baby but I've never had an operation before, so think it's the fear of the unknown.

The only negative thing I have to say so far is the hospital that aurora use has been really unhelpful and even a couple times rude. The fact they were so unorganised has also made me panic, but again Sinead was there to save the day and sorted it all for me.

I'll be posting more before pictures on Monday this time it'll be the dreaded boob pics. I still feel sick looking at them even though I know it won't be long before Mr Richards works his amazing magic and makes me beautiful. ..... Or...acceptable lol. I think the whole point in this journey is to be comfortable in my own skin, so I can finally be ok with who I am, and how far I've come in my life if ups and downs, both in weight and other issues.

Anyways! I'll keep you posted :) xxx

Just packing my bags as I'm leaving tomorrow after work to be closer to the hospital for Tuesday morning (hospital is 5 hours away from me). I have no idea how I'm going to work tomorrow and concentrate!

Thing is... As I'm packing... My mind has gone blank!! What am I to pack!! Have I forgotten anything majorly important??! OMG I am so nervous. I haven't slept for days!

Anyone got any suggestions for packing??!!!

Man??! I meant am??!!!! Geez

Ok so I'm lying here exhausted. Haven't slept properly for days and I'm starting to properly wind myself up. I'm so scared if tomorrow it's actually making me feel really upset and sick. I'm such a looser. I want this done so bad what's wrong with me??!! Just got to suck it up!!!

Day of surgery.... Really really nervous. Sinead came to the rescue again. Don't know what I would've done without her!

Mr Richards has marked me up and I'm preying he will make me as beautiful as the other ladies... If not more ha ha!! I have numbing cream on my hands and waiting to go in for my hand jabby thing for the anaesthetic.

Will write more laters after I've stopped shaking!

Ok so the day of surgery (25th march 2014 11:30am). I get up at a little before 5am and get to the hospital at 7:30am. I stayed at my mums so I'd be closer than 5 hours away!!! Very nervous very shaken up I went to reception, was asked to take a seat and an hour later I was shown my room by the lovely Sinead. If she hadn't had been there I'd have burst into tears. I was asked to get undressed put on the lovely surgical gown and that Mr Richards would be in to mark me up.

A little while later Mr Richards, a nurse and Sinead came back and he marked me up, it all happend so fast I wasn't sure what he was marking as he was asking me lots of questions about where I worked etc trying to take my mind of the fact he was marking me lol! Apart from the fact he called me Katie the whole time till he was corrected (my names not Katie lol) he was very lovely and polite and calming. I had only met him for 15 mins before and so this was the 2nd time we had met. I have to say that I had seen him work on you tube, his website, all over magazines and even listened to an American radio show where he gave advice so I knew I was in safe hands. However, I feel that maybe if i hadn't done so much research this amount of time wouldn't have been enough.

Anyways, I had lots of pictures taken and then they all left. Next came in the anaesthetist dr reves, with another nurse and they were lovely, dr reves (not sure how you spell her name but she was brilliant with me) asked me lots of questions and then decided not to do the spinal injection as I wasn't having muscle repair. They put numbing cream on my hand, weighed me etc and then I was left for the cream to get to work.

An hour later I was take. To a room and was told actually the spinal might be a good idea because of the pain, I was fine with this as I trusted her advice completely, even though I am soooooo scared of needles and would normally do anything to get out of an injection I knew I had to be smart about this as the pain could be unreal. Unfortunately turns out I'm hypersensitive to needles and couldn't have the spinal as I passed out like a complete idiot after a couple attempts and my blood pressure went down, so instead I had the one in my hand and bam out like a light. Next thing I know I'm waking up to Sinead's voice and my throat is in bits! No pain just a sore throat. I couldn't open my eyes but I was wake .... Just! Oh just to mention James, (think that's his name) he was brilliant too kept my mind off the needle going in my hand when Sinead and dr reves we're sorting me out there. Plus he helped when I passed out! Sorry guys!

So when I eventually wake up properly, I'm back in my room. Alone. No mother in sight. Ah we'll I needed to sleep anyways. Catheter in, lots of needles now in my hand, I thin there were three, and I'm boiling hot, I remember someone telling me if I was in pain to push the button, I think I was so scared of bing in pain I pushed it all the time!

Anyways, I was feeling a bit yucky and remember being woken up by a nurse and she was checking my monitor, there were two nurses that night ester who was fab and this other lady who wasn't exactly ...... We'll with it. She tripped over my tubes and I just fell back to sleep next thing I know I'm being woken up again by a Dr telling me I've ripped my needles out my hand and she was really mad told me I must've do edit with real force and why would I do such a thing. Well let me tell you, I was soooooo aware of those needles being there BECAUSE I hate them so much so I doubt that I pulled them out but then I can't be 100% so I can't say it was because she pulled them when she tripped. Also the same nurse I called twice cause the catheter bag was full and causing a pushing pain in my groin, very bizarre feeling. I just don't think she really wanted to be there. Allllllll the other nurses were helpful and lovely though. So! I had to have another needle put in without numbing cream. I started to panic to cry to get short if breath and I called Sinead again!!! I feel so sorry for her ever giving me her number!! Anyways I think I was half out of it cause the Dr walked back in I apologised to Sinead and she eventually put numbing cream on for me to put the other two needles in. Done!

Next day I have the catheter out, start to potter and watch crap tv. Just relaxing and finding out where the pain is. I have the needles out my hand and I get a better nights sleep, even though I have noisy air bags round my legs to stop DVT.

It's now 5 days since surgery and I think I'm doing ok. Only pain meds are paracetamol, and an anti-inflammatory called celecoxib? But to be honest if I'd had my muscles pulled together I'd be popping pills even five mins, I have no idea how you ladies have done that!! Also I keep forgetting I've had 4 procedures so sometime leaning over or reaching for something can catch me by surprise! I'm almost standing straight so that's good, so,e weird feeling in my belly button like something's stuck in there lol but guess that's normal, no pain in there so that's ok.

My arms are ok and I've been in this jacket bra thing, kinda like a balero that fastens at the front, but think it's too small as it's rubbing in the incisions under my breasts so that can be sore. I do lift it up just to readjust so it's not rubbing, whilst readjusting I took a couple pics to update with.

I am happy so far with the results get my dressings changed in two day so guess I'll see the incisions then.

I think I'm recovering ok, trying to just get on with it. I don't have the best support around me, my mum was meant to be looking after me but ..... Let's just say if I had my time over I'd make sure I had more support. I'm really independent so hate asking for help, so when I do ask it's not easy. So some if this recovery is killing me emotionally as well as physically.

So I hit the one week mark today! Had my dressings changed by the lovely Sinead, all seems ok, had a couple slight open bits but was told over all I'm doing ok so was happy with that. I have to say I am so pleased with my boobs so far. Had a sneaky peek at the wounds and they look good for just one week! Thought it was going to be really gory!

Only one small bit on my tummy... Well it's more on my side that sticks out, but it might be swelling so not sure if I should mention it yet? Keep forgetting to put arm
Pictures on too, I don't have good before ones as the stretch marks and saggy bits were silvery white and the camera didn't really pick them up, but believe me in real life you could see all the marks and dents and yuck!

Just a couple pics ......

Just a few quick pics. I'm not on any pain mess now, or anti inflammatory tablets, just lots of water, fruit and veg. Still feel a bit "thick" round the waist/hips, but doing ok. :)

Will put back up soon. I wanted to do this blog to help other ladies as you have all helped me. I wanted to do it anonymously but unfortunately someone has let the cat out of the bag and it's gone to people I didn't want to see my bits let alone know I had the operation. So, once the storm has passed I will put pics back up.

Ok so I'm now 2 and half weeks post op. I'm so happy with my boobs, the shape and the size are great. (Think the right is slightly bigger but might be swelling not sure yet). Think my right nipple will need looking at again as it has a straight knife edge and is larger than the left which is a perfect size and shape. My tummy on the left is fabulous even though I have this ridge where I look podgy as I didn't have lipo with surgery, but I think with more diet and exercise this will go down. my tummy on the right is wonky and I have a lump on my right hip, like a large fat pouch that may have been missed being chopped off. As you can see in my pictures the incision starts low on my left and goes higher on my right. So I'm a funny shape, so that will need addressing, but happy with it overall. My arms are good now, had two open areas that got gooey but I've continued to be really clean with my dressings and put inadine like the PS nurse told me so they're starting to look much better. I can't reach out properly yet as when I do I feel like my arm veins are going to burst so I have to be very careful as I get nasty bruises by my wrists for some reason. So I need to just take it easy till I have healed properly. My belly button is good and healing really fast.

So, I decided to get back on track with my diet last week, hoping that the lumps and bumps will even out. So far so good on the diet front. I haven't weighed but can tell in my clothes I'm losing weight. Lumps on my stomach and bits below are still lumpy ..... I'll give it time.

I am SOOOOOO happy with my boobs. Words cannot describe how happy I am with the shape and size. Left nipple is perfect, right needs looking at I think, it still looks larger than the left with a sharp edge.

My arms are healing nicely, small open areas have closed up and they hurt a little less every week when stretching out.

My stomach is great on the left, my right side with the lump is still bugging me. I also have that "ken doll" thing going on. That, I think, is the most upsetting. More than the lump. I believe it's called the mons pubis. Well mine is a big lump :( looks really prominent from the side, another reason for me hitting the diet hard. Hoping it'll go down. On a plus side my belly button has healed and my open nasty bit has calmed down and started to heal. Think it might've been a stitch. Not sure though.

All in all I'm really happy. I want my stomach, mons pubis and nipple to be right. But hopefully losing a bit of weight will help two out of three.

I'm seeing my PS on the 30th so I'll see what he says. He's a brilliant surgeon and I trust his opinion so I'm hoping he tells me he can fix all the little things that upset me. I know it's early days yet too. But when you look in the mirror every day and look at every detail, sometimes it's frustrating.

Anyway I will put some more pics up in the next couple days. See what you guys think then :) xx

So went for my 5 week check up on Wednesday, and I am so upset. I had so many questions and I felt like I was not important enough to my surgeon to talk to me for a couple minutes. I have to say that Sinead was there and was so lovely and helpful, but I thought I would've got to ask all the questions I needed to. But unfortunately I had less that a few seconds of my surgeon saying that he wanted me to leave it all settle more then he'd address my issues. Shook my hand and walked off before I got to ask everything else. My nipple, or areola, really is larger but he made me feel like I was an inconvenience saying anything. Also my sides are so lumpy that I thought he'd understand how upsetting it was in clothes and having these lumps stick out. I'm trying my best to lose weight to correct the parts he missed cutting off. Thing is I've seen his work and it's brilliant, his audio CDs are really informative and his staff are amazing, so why did I feel like he couldn't be bothered with me? I spent all my savings on this and years of research I'm just feeling really ...... Down now. I'm lopsided and it's depressing. I have been going on about mr Richards work to all my friends and a couple have looked into using him themselves. But now I think I'd say to them to look into other surgeons if you want a bit more care and attention. I mean I'm perfectly happy with having a revision, and with the results so far on my boobs and arms and I'd feel much better if I'd had a bit of reassurance that he could fix the bad parts. He seems like such a nice man but it's more about quality of time spent rather than quantity of people he sees. I mean now he could miss out on my two friends having a breast lift and the other wants her arms done before her wedding next year. So I don't understand why he'd want to do fly by visits when a bit of time and care will get so so so many more patients.

I go back in 2 months to have a another check up and he'll decide if I'm to have any revisions done. I just hope that maybe then a bit more time will be spent with me. Also I have to point out the car journey is over 5 hours each way. I was there for half hour waiting and then Sinead talked me through everything before mr Richards came in for exactly a couple minutes. It wouldn't have been more than three minutes. Honestly. Then Sinead talked a bit more about bras and exercise, oh and procil for the scars. And then I left. So about 20 mins altogether. All I can say is that his staff, like Mel and especially Sinead make aurora clinics. The service and advice they give is spot on. Without them I should think a lot of people would have opted for another surgeon.

I don't want to put people off using mr Richards, he really is a good surgeon, just maybe I'm upset at the moment and overly sensitive. But I do wish i could've had a bit more reassurance that I could be fixed x

It's some pics to update. I've also lost over 17lbs to help with the issues I was left with after surgery like the bulges and pockets of skin that will need to be sorted when I go back in 3 weeks.

Hello again all!!!

So I had my revision done today on the lump on my side. It was a bit painful but all ok. Mr Richards was lovely and chatty this time round. I think maybe I must've caught him on a off day before! I could see straight way the lump had gone!!!!! So so so happy! Just hope when I take the bandages off I have a good result!

I also had injections into my scars as unfortunately these have gone hypertrophic which means they are raised, very wide and thick. So maybe a revision on those in the future will be needed. I'll put lots of photos up hopefully this weekend with a complete update. It's been just over 9 months now.

2 years and 3 months on.... I have had so many issues. Scars have gone bad ...really bad. Hypertrophic. I have had to have steroid injections in them to flatten them out but they are about and inch thick. I had to have revision surgery on my side because a chunk of skin was left begind (see pics, not a dog ear!).My breasts have begun to sag again apart from the left one which looks like I may have capsular contracture. Contacted Sinead at aurora clinics around a week ago, nothing back. I called the office and asked to see Mr Richards, as I am totally freaking out. I got a call back from aggie saying to send pictures so I did. She showed Mr Richards who told aggie to tell me to see my GP for antibiotics and a scan. Saw my GP, put me on amoxicillin, no improvement. In fact it's gone worse. No scan booked in. I may have to wait 4 weeks for that ...and the worse thing of all???? I finally allowed myself to be in a relationship with someone after 33 years of hating what I saw in the mirror. And we are meant to be going on our first holiday together and I feel like my life has just collapsed. No one seems to want to help me. I'm devastated to say the least. I'm writing this is absolute bits because I feel like this surgery was going to allow me to start living my life and it's made me not want to get up and live at all. I spent every penny I had to get this surgery. Researched for 2 years. Booked the surgery 4 1/2 hours away from my home because I thought that I'd go where ever the best surgeon was. And I feel like screaming "someone help me make this better please!". I have no idea what to do next.... Go back to my GP?? He just asked me what the Surgeon said as he had no idea what to recommend. Great help. I've researched again, what could this be if not capsular contracture? Mastitis? Infection? Fluid because I might have banged it or had a slight trauma?? Any ideas ladies...? Gents? Surgeons??