33, 5'10, Athletic, 32DDD,small 32C pre-op, Inspira 415cc full profile

Hi everyone!

I haven't been on here very much in the last 4 months because I forever myself to take a brake from constantly analyzing my boobs :-) I wanted to check back in to post some comparison pics because I had a hard time finding updates past 2-4 months and I am hoping these pics will be helpful for others.

***Am I happy with the size?***
Yep!! Very happy. I would not go up in CC at all. So I think my doc helped to pic a great implant size based on my wish pics.

***Did I still notice changes after 4 months?***
Yes. One hundred times YES.
At the start of this, I know my doctor said that the final results would take 9 months to a year. For some reason I refused to accept that and got it in my head that I should see the final results at 2 months or so. Lol. I think it's because my results looked pretty good the first few weeks so I was feeling like I would heal SUPER fast and that was just not the case. Waiting and having patience is the WORST part of this process. BUT I hope that seeing how much my results have changed even after 4 months will demonstrate that if you aren't happy with the results early on, get your mind off it and give it time. I had a nurse tell me at my two month check up that my results would be how they would look. I burst out crying because I hated them at 2 months. I wish she had told me, don't worry. There is still a lot of changing that will happen. So that's what I'm sharing with you all. Give your body time and be patient and take comparison pics in the same tops so that you can see the awesome changes that will take place 4 to 9 months after surgery. (Who knows, maybe mine will change even more in the next 3 months).

****Cleavage****
If you have scrolled through my journey you may see my tourmoil and whining over my cleavage (or lack thereof). Well if anyone else is feeling this way early on after surgery, there may be sunlight at the end of the tunnel. At least for me, I have seen huge improvements. And I am Very Happy with my current cleavage situation. :-).

***Did they get bigger/look bigger after 2 months?***
In my situation. Yes on both accounts. The cup size increase that I had at 4 mths has officially stuck around. So I guess that is just how they settled. I'm A-ok with that. Interestingly, I still fit in the same bralettes as pre-surgery (I could probably go up a size in some of them through. Hehe). My major concern, as dumb as it sounds, before surgery was that I wanted to still be able to wear bralettes and not have to wear underwire bras all the time. And I am able to achieve that. However, I wear a supportive bra almost every day and the bralettes only for cute outfits on the weekend.

My most favorite bra (that I now have 3 of) is the Simone Perele Delice 3D molded underwire bra.

***Any Complications/Issues?***
At 6 mths I started to randomly get strong pangs of pain in my right nipple (it felt like a dull pain just shooting through my nipple). When that happened I would push and apply pressure on the nipple and it would make it feel better. After it happened on and off for a couple weeks I decided to write to my doctor. I had never lost nipple sensitivity through the process so we ruled out nipple sensation returning as a reason for the pangs. At the same time, when I was laying on my stomach I started to feel like my right boob felt like I was laying on an implant whereas the left boob just felt normal. After telling my doctor this (over email) and a number of back and forth questions he ended up prescribing me 3 mths of Singulair. I'm assuming bc he thought I was getting early signs of capsular contracture (though he never outright said this). I have been taking 10mg every day for 2.5 mths and the nipple pangs went away and when I lie on my stomach my right breast feels more like my left. Sometimes (like after I work out) my right breast feels a little firmer and tighter than my left. This is especially true when I am laying on my back. But I think that might have more to do with me being right-handed. I am most likely going to stop taking Singulair once the three months is up and then I might go in to see my doc so that he can feel both sides and see if things are now good.

***Flex distortion/implant animation***
Aside from my bralettes concerns pre-surgery I was also pretty freaked out about the possibility of implant animation / distortions since I was going under the muscle. I had a hard time finding feedback on RealSelf that wasn't focused on the more extreme cases. So although the pics aren't flattering, I wanted to post some to show what happens when I flex really hard.
The flex distortions that was there at 9 weeks is still there but in the pics I posted I am flexing as hard as I can and I'm naked. So the reality is that while my implants do move when I do certain things I think I am the only one that notices the movement because I can actually feel it. Since I don't flex my biceps like that on the regular, another time that I notice movement is when I open jars or push down on something with force. I can also make them both push outward very easily like by flexing my chest muscles. I have guy friends like can make their chest muscles jump around and now I can do the same... :-/ :-/ :-/ :-(
But I obviously don't try to make them push out to the side, but it happens rather easily and I wish it didn't but (1) I guess that is the reality of under the muscle implants. And (2) I don't think anyone notices but me.

I think that's about it! Here is some basic info:
-I got a periareolar incision.
-415 Inspira full profile implants under the muscle.
-5'10, 155lb
-34B/32C before and now I wear 32DDD. From month 2-4 I wore 32DD.
-Only a couple button-down tops no longer fit after surgery.
-I work out and when I went back to lifting upper body I hadn't really lost any strength despite taking time off. (I don't do predominately chest-focused exercises because I don't like feeling my implants move that much.)

To sum it all up... I love my boobs. My husband loves my boobs.
I would not go any larger in terms of CC size.
I wish they didn't move so easily if I work my chest muscles at all, but there isn't rippling so I guess, for me, staying under the muscle was still probably best.
I wish I could go back in time to 2 mths post surgery and tell myself to chill out because they have a lot more changing in store :)

Yesterday I went back to the same bra store that I went to two months ago to buy one of the bras that I had put on my wish list. I tried on the bra in the same size that fit perfectly two months ago and this time it was entirely too small. So the lady brought me the next size up and I was shocked that it fit perfectly. My weight is basically the same (maybe 1-2lbs more now) and my band size stayed the same. I am still a 30 in Simone Perele and 32 in Chantelle. I figure that the cup size increased either because they have dropped and now they fill out bras differently OR there is a slight possibility that they are swollen due to PMS. But I am on the pill that you take for 3 mths straight and then you take sugar pills one week. I am on month 3 and in 2.5 weeks I take the sugar pills and the other day I was spotting a bit (TMI sorry) so there is a possibility that hormones can account for it. I still bought the bra in the larger cup size because I really only have one real bra right now (the Simone Perele I bought two months ago). I've been wearing sports bras and I'm really over doing that all the time.
I don't *feel* like they are bigger now.... So I think it is probably just that they have dropped and sit differently in bras. I really love the size and am VERY happy with the fun changes that continue to happen well past 2 months. Woot woot!! (Insert happy dancing salsa lady here!)

So, in the chance that this cup size increase is gonna stick around, I thought I would tell you all so that you don't stock up on bras too early as more changes may still come later on in the healing process!

Also if you are in the early months and freaking out about cleavage gap issues like I was, I am posting a side by side to show huge changes in cleavage from month 1 to now. Patience is a [RS bleep] but it is also key. Hang in there and feel free to message me if you have questions!
Happy healing all of my lovely RS friends! Xo

At exactly four months (last Friday) I had a 4 mth checkin with my PS. I have to be honest, I was REALLY nervous and could barely sleep the night before because he isn't exactly a warm Doctor and I didn't think he would react well if I voiced any concerns whatsoever.
I am happy with my results I just was curious about my right breast reacting differently to flexing (it shows some upward pulling when I flex but the left doesn't) and I just wanted to see my before picture to see what kind of improvement was made to the asymmetry.

So I get there and he does an exam, unsmiling and very serious, and notes I am healing perfectly and things look great. Then he sits down and has this blank/annoyed look on his face and says "so I hear you want to talk to me about some concerns". The way he stared at me was so intimidating that I almost lost my nerve!! But I powered through and asked about the things below.....

**Asymmetry, the wonders of Lowering a Crease and the power of an accurate before photo**

In the before photo that I first posted on here I now know that I, perhaps subconsciously, tilted my shoulders ever so slightly to reduce the asymmetry. Therefore, when I looked back at that pic I didn't really see any asymmetry and was sad that I now have some asymmetry. Well let's just say that I was wrong wrong wrong. Lol .. In the "true" before picture that the PS took (which I took a picture of that picture so excuse the quality) I was shocked at how high my left crease was and I guess it turns out I had about a 2 cm difference in nipple placement... It is now a 1 cm difference and the crease is at the same place. My PS made sure to let me know that "I made your breasts considerably more symmetrical and the change is about as good as you can make it"
As a note, The other two doctors I had consultations with didn't mention doing a crease lowering so I feel very confident that I would have been very unhappy with my results because the asymmetry would have been much more amplified. After seeing that true before photo all of my issues with my one inch asymmetry and slightly different shape of my right breast went away.

BUT. What I DID NOT appreciate was how my PS pointed this out to me. He was so smug when he pointed out that he made "a huge improvement" and I should be thankful. He also kind of insulted my before photo and that offended me. Yea I know they weren't great before but that's for me to say, not you!! Before surgery, I knew he had a cocky personality but I figured that was fine as long as he could back it up, well now that I now how important the after care and follow up process is to my sanity I wish he had a better bed side manner. And also cocky turns downright abrasive if you (God forbid) don't think they did the best job ever. I digress.

***cleavage questions***

I showed my PS my wish photo and noted that the size was spot-on but that I wish that my breasts were closer together like hers. I asked if I would ever be able to achieve that or if I would have had to go with a larger implant to achieve that
((((Please note that when I showed him this photo BEFORE surgery he never once said anything about me not being able to have that kind of cleavage because of my body shape. If he had said that it would have made my healing process so much better because I wouldn't have had these unrealistic expectations.))))

He goes on to say if I look at my before photo i had nice cleavage but that my nipples weren't pointing directly forward or weren't completely centered. He has to place the implant centered before the nipple so in my case that meant not as close to the center. So if my nipples had been pointing forward and not slightly out to the sides then I would have gotten my wish pictures result. Then he said "the only way that you can get more cleavage is to take out about 3 inches of your sternum" <<---He was Super smug and condescending when he said this.... But despite being a jerk I heard his message loud and clear. Again, I just REALLY wish he had said these things before surgery so that I would have had more realistic expectations. Perhaps doctors don't want to really be honest about what results you might get because they want you to choose them. Who knows.

**working out**
I told my doctor that I hadn't really been doing upper body workouts because when I do I feel my implants moving to the side. I was concerned that in the long run this would make them wider. He gave me a ridiculous look like I was an idiot and then said that I can work out all I want and that doing that will not make my boobs Wider and that "they are where they are". Because my implants are partially under the muscle I am just feeling the tension of the muscle pushing on the implant, but that is just temporary. Also he said that after time the muscle atrophies a bit so I won't feel it as much. So again, good news delivered in a rude way. At any rate, I am sooo happy to say I will finally start doing upper body workout regularly again.

***when can I push boobs together with arms (see pic***
So when I bend over I still can't push my boobs all the way together (I took a pic to show what I mean). I asked if that would change and he said that yes, my implants will get softer with time and my skin with stretch a bit to accommodate them more. Check back at my pic from Day 18, there really haven't been any changes in this respect. Hopefully that will happen in the next couple of months.

(((The rest of just general updates not from the appointment ...))))

**Itchy skin on side of boobs**
Starting right before month 4 my boobs started itching more on the sides. I wonder if that's a sign my skin is stretching more to loosen up (which might account for the change in shape). I haven't been putting on bio oil or anything because I haven't noticed any new stretch marks. The itching isn't terrible just something new.

**Scar progress**
My scars are imperceptible EXCEPT for one inch on my left side where my PS colored outside the lines (i.e., went slightly outside of the outline of my areola). I'm glad he was a perfectionist for the nipple incisions because I would have hated to have those bright red scars around the complete incision for both sides. I scar REALLY easily so I was hesitant to do the nipple incision, figuring that I'd rather have a scar under my boob, but in the end I LOVE that I did a nipple incision-- but I'd check that your doctor does them regularly and can show examples of how they heal to make sure it is done well so that you can't see the scars.

**Scar treatment**
My fabulous scar treatment (in pictures in previous posts) ran out (I literally scraped out every last drop). It was so worth the money but I couldn't bring myself to buy it again bc I was pleased with where my scars are at now. I stopped using my silicone strips after they got old (mine last about 2 mths after wearing them all the time except to shower). I really noticed a difference with the strips (even without my precious scar serum). Now I bought ScarAway --a roller ball stick-- on a whim (I want to say it was less than or around $20 at drugstore). Just started using it about 2 weeks ago and after the first week I noticed my scar was smoother and less red. So that's exciting!

SUMMARY TIME! :-P
Seeing my true before photo really has made me prescient the results that I have and I could not be happier. Perfection is unattainable I will certainly take a huge improvement. I have seen some pics on here were girls have really changed their shape by month six and month eight so I'm really looking forward to the changes ahead. For those ladies early on in the healing process, keep your head up, stay positive and try your best to remember that changes really do take months and months. Patience is definitely the hardest part.


Now my dilemma is how to review my PS. I haven't done that yet because I was waiting to see how he was throughout the follow up process. I am torn so how to rate him because as a surgeon he did a great job, but if he had spent more time with me before surgery and been forthcoming about what was and was not attainable that might have saved me months of anguish. Also his general demeanor which is both cold, defensive, and rude makes it extremely hard to feel comfortable asking any questions. (So bedside manner and follow up care get a low score for sure!!) I know there are different categories on realself to rate him, but I'm having a hard time deciding on the overall score. If you have any thoughts that would be helpful!!

I will keep trying to Check in here randomly to see how you all are doing and I'll be sure to keep updating to document any longer term changes!! Xoxo