Tiny Tatas at Last!

1 month pre

My story is not uncommon. I was a bit of a late bloomer but I hit puberty full speed in grade 10. I wasn't really bothered by it then, my breasts were large but still manageable on my slender teen frame. Fast-forward 3-4 years, I had grown into a woman and was filling out in all the right places but my breasts had grown to a 34H. Double bras were now routine, an underwire bra cinched tight as well as a sports bra over top to hold everything in place. As you can imagine this routine started to cause problems, horrible headaches, neck and back pain, shallow breathing, numbness in my right arm, just to name a few.

Now I know we are all discouraged from complaining about the psychological effects of large breasts, because we should all be “body positive” and personally I don’t feel that my breasts are ugly for their size, they have been worshipped by all of partners. I think that is why I am having a hard time, on the one hand they are beautiful, but on the other two hands they are painful and when it comes to getting dressed every morning a real friggin’ pain in the ass.

Since I got my surgery date, I’ve really given up on trying to look good. I work at a trendy but casual bar and I find myself wearing full coverage loose sweaters everyday, and that is honestly the only thing I feel remotely comfortable in. You may ask, well have you gained weight recently? And my answer would be no, actually I’ve lost weight. I am just completely exhausted, I have given up on trying to dress myself expressively because nothing fits me and no matter what I wear, all it takes is catching a glimpse of my reflection and I want to burn my outfit. It’s a really shitty feeling. So yes, this breast reduction is not only for physical reasons, it is to help my self esteem, these are the most beautiful years of my life and I’m sick of wasting them feeling awful. On top of all of this, I am an artist, I love the aesthetics of everything I touch, and I am so limited in what I wear that I have never found my style. I just want to be comfortable and confident, so I can stop wasting so much energy on this and direct my energy onto more useful things.

COST $$$

A lot of people have asked me about cost and it is kind of a long story… SO here is how it went. I live in British Columbia and I believe that in order to be covered by MSP you have to have a minimum of 400cc removed (correct me if I am wrong) and I hit that target easy peasy. So my first surgery was planned with a surgeon practicing publicly therefore my surgery would be 100% covered. From the get go I wasn’t very comfortable with the surgeon his manner was okay but he seemed annoyed by me, I felt rushed every time I saw him, and he wouldn’t let me discuss size AT ALL. As my surgery date crept closer I was feeling very nervous about having him perform the surgery as I wasn’t able to find many reviews of his work and the one that I did find was less than satisfactory :S. So two weeks before my surgery I decided to cancel, and explore other options.

After much deliberation and support from my parents I decided to go private with a female surgeon well renowned in her field. The difference was night and day! She was so empathetic to my situation and reassured me that I was a great candidate for the procedure. She let me talk about size and was very thorough about what to expect (though I had pretty much learnt everything from this website over my years of reading everyone’s reviews).

SO IN THE END.. I was able to go privately and have roughly half of the procedure covered by MSP. All I had to do was pay the anaesthesiologist and the fees to use the operating room at Cambie Surgery Centre -great place to have surgery btw! So the total cost of the surgery would have been $9300 but I only had to pay $5300.

1 Week pre:

I AM SO EXCITED! I just want to get it over with so I can start my recovery, I am surprisingly relaxed, I know I have picked one of the best surgeons and I am in good hands.

Day of:

Before surgery

Alright! So my check in time is 11:30 and surgery around 12:30! I feel great, I figure if you have done your research and taken all the right precautions then there’s no point worrying. My surgeon marked me up and I told her I would like to be a full B or small C and she told me the best results would be around a C cup, and she’s the expert so that’s fine by me!

After surgery

Woke up cold and really shaky with my teeth chattering so much I couldn’t talk properly BUT the pain was manageable and the shaking subsided after about 15 minutes. My chest was bandaged SO tight but the nurses reassured me that it was for the best. I sat up, ate some saltines, and ginger ale and then I was on my way home! I tried to sleep for the rest of the eve but I was so excited I had a hard time. The first night ice packs saved me, I was awake every 2-3 hours but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.


Day 2:

LOTS of netflix and elevated chillin lol. Getting a bit swollen now but still manageable with ice packs and pain meds every 4 or 5 hours.



Day 3 post:

Day 3 was probably the roughest, I think everything is swollen, all of my local anaesthetic is definitely gone and I would imagine the bruising is starting BUT IM STILL OK! There have been a few strange sensations from what I would imagine are my nerve endings having a delayed reaction to all the changes, kind of feels like a cold drop of liquid running down my side but I know there’s nothing there. I’m trying to get up and walk to the front door every once in awhile just to get some circulation.

Day 4 post:

It’s looking up! I’m feeling better and my energy is coming back, walked to the end of the road and back - about 200m. Still icing but im just on regular tylenol now. Can’t wait to get these bandages off on monday!!

Day 5 post:

Walked around the block today, in hindsight I may have overdone it a tad, but it’s not too bad, just going to take it easy for the remainder of the day. I can move my arms above my head with very little to no pain now, I tried to have a shower with a garbage bag, it leaked a tad on my bandages but i just removed the damp bits of gause, it’s coming off tomorrow anyhow! Oh one last thing, my left boob had gone numb, I can feel my nipple but the rest of it is almost completely numb whereas a couple days ago I had feeling, from what I understand this is a normal part of the healing process but I will ask tomorrow at my first post-op.

Day 6 post:

The big reveal! Well, not actually because I definitely peaked a bit already on day 4 haha. They’re perky as! The left is a bit bigger/ more swollen than the right but I’m okay with that, it’s not by much. I can’t wait to shower off some of the dried blood woooooooh! I will write more when I get back from my apt.

I AM OVER THE MOON.. I just saw them for the first time and they are everything I hoped for and more!! I can’t even begin to imagine all the ways this will improve my life… I finally feel like myself.

I went back to work yesterday and had a bit of aching and tenderness towards the end of the day, mostly under my arms. My nipples are definitely working! It feels a bit intense when they're hard but hey, thats okay with me!

I have avoided getting my boobies wet thus far by having sponge baths and just going in to the salon twice to have a $7 hair wash which was worth it and helped out a lot! I've had lots of cuts and scrapes and found that moisture only slows healing and increases discomfort so I just decided to stay dry and it has worked great for me. I have completely ignored my incisions aside from checking for signs of infection, all I can say is don't pick or agitate and keep your tapes on!

I see my surgeon on Wednesday to have my sutures removed. Ive kept almost all of my original tapes on, just trimming a few off that have lost their stick! I've seen parts of my incisions and they look great, light pink and a bit raised but definitely all sealed up.

As far as activity goes, I'm going on long walks (about 1 hour) in place of my usual runs but still paying attention to how I feel. i think with some good bra support I'll be comfortable enough to ease back into running (with my surgeons permission of course) starting next week!