27 Year Old 38H Need a Breast Reduction! - Washington

I've been thinking about getting a reduction for years. I was a D by the end of middle school. I'm now at a 38H. I know I need to lose some weight overall, but I've always felt very unproportional. Even when I played sports and was skinny in high school, I was at least a DDD. After finding and obsessively reading posts on this website the last two weeks, I've finally taken the first step, and set up a consult appointment with a plastic surgeon for April 20th. I've talked to my insurance, and they said that IF I get approved, they will cover 80% of it, with my max out of pocket being $5,500. More than I wanted to pay, but probably worth it. I've always struggled with back and neck pain, but never been to a chiropractor or anything for it. So I'm hoping that I can get approved just based on my consult meeting with my surgeon, and not need documentation of previous problems. Other than insurance coverage, I am worried about a couple of other things. I am 27, and will probably want to have kids a few years from now. I'm worried about being able to breast feed (I know it's possible with the way they are doing surgery now) and also worried about my big scary boobs coming back after having kids and wasting all that money...

So I finally had my consult today! The surgeon said that in order to meet the Schnur Scale requirement he would have to take out 800-900g, and he said that wouldn't be a problem because he would probably want to take 900-1000g (almost 2 pounds from each) anyway. He seemed to think that my insurance would approve the surgery, but now we just have to wait and see! I hope they get it figured out soon, I'm getting really anxious! I'm a teacher and would really like the procedure done at the very beginning of my summer break so I can spend break recovering. But that's coming up here in 3-4 weeks, so it needs to go fast! Oh - He said that a D cup would be best for my body, so that would be a decrease of about 4 cup sizes!!!

Woohoo! Got the call today, three weeks after my info was submitted to my insurance, that I'm approved for the surgery! My surgery date is June 20th, soooo soon! I have my pre-op appointment June 14th. Now I can really start to get nervous, lol! Any tips for preparing would be greatly appreciated!!!

So I have less than a week until my surgery date! I got a couple bras today, crazy to think that these might actually fit me in a couple days! I finally got an estimate of how much I'm going to have to pay. My insurance will pay 80% and I have to pay the remaining amount, which ends up being $4.400... Was hoping it would be less than that, but I'm sure it will be worth it. Luckily they will let me set up a payment plan.

Today is surgery day! It feels like everything happened really quickly. I'm nervous, but also really excited. I'm also hungry and super thirsty, since I was told not to eat or drink anything, including water, after midnight. I'm supposed to show up to the hospital at 8:30, with a surgery start time of 10:30. Only a couple more hours left with these monsters!

Yesterday I showed up at the hospital at 8:30 am, registered, and got taken back to my room right away. My nurse applied lidocaine to my left wrist and tried to get the IV in, but it wasn't working. At this point I started.to get really warm, and was worried about getting sick. She switched to my right side, on top of my hand. She got the IV in, but didn't use lidocaine on this hand, so it kinda hurt. It wasn't horrible, just not pleasant. At that point I had about an hour left until surgery. She put an anti nausea patch behind my eat for after surgery. At 10:30 they wheeled my down the hall to the operating room holding area. My surgeon marked me up, and my anesthesiologist came in. He told me that they would take me into the operating room and I would slide myself from my bed onto the table. He then injected something to make me relax into my IV, and that's the last thing I remember. My surgery went until 2:30, so four hours. After that I was wheeled back to my room, but I got really nauseous on the way and threw up. I think they gave me something in my IV for nausea, and then I was drifting in and out of sleep until about 5, when one of my friends showed up to visit. My boyfriend and sister had already been in the room with me, and apparently I kept waking up and trying to talk to them and falling back asleep mid sentence lol. I was released to go home at about 8:15, so I was at the hospital for almost 12 hours. My sister and boyfriend took me home and have been taking care of me ever since, I am so grateful to them! My surgeon used internal dissolvable stitches on my, and inserted drains. I am wrapped up really tight and have a compression bra on over my wrappings, so I haven't seen my breast yet. I go back in on Wednesday to hopefully get my drains out, but I'm not sure he will be unwrapping me then yet, so I might have to wait until I go back next week to see them. I don't feel too bad when I'm sitting in the recliner that I slept in, but when I get up and walk around to go to the bathroom my incisions hurt a little, but not bad. Woo, long update! I'll post pictures as soon as I'm feeling up to it, I haven't even removed my shirt yet to look at them with the wrappings and bra on. I'm not sure how much he ended up taking out yet, but I will ask at my appointment wedneaday.

So I had my post-op appointment today. I had my drains removed (barely felt it, thankfully) and also had my compression bandage removed. I can breathe so much better now. My surgeon was originally planning on taking 990 grams from each breast, but he said he ended up taking about 1200 grams from each. That's about 2.6 pounds taken from each breast! I'm hoping they aren't too small now. They look really small to me since I'm used to being so huge. And I'm super constipated and bloated from my pain killers, so my stomach sticking out from that probably makes them look small also. I'm cutting pack on my percocet from one pill every two hours to one pill every four hours. Tomorrow I might try switching to Tylenol. The thing that's really bothering me right now is the constipation. I've been drinking prune juice and took some miralax, but it hasn't helped yet. Other than that everything is going really well so far!

Yesterday I was feeling great. Didn't take any pain meds, and even went to get my nails done and out to dinner with a friend. Probably a mistake of doing too much too soon, because I woke up very sore today, and had a little spot on the bottom of each breast where I leaked through by bandage onto my bra... I'll upload a picture. It seems dry so hopefully I didn't do any serious damage, I don't have an appointment scheduled until Wednesday. Other than that I'm feeling alright. I've been very emotional the last couple of days (my poor boyfriend, I cry every time he has to leave lol). Also, my right theigh is tingly and numb. It feels like it's asleep, but it doesn't go away when I move around. I still haven't seem my boobs, since my doctor told me to keep the bandages and bra on until I see him next week. They feel slightly softer, but still very swollen. Still haven't been allowed to shower (gross), and sleeping on my back has been rough, but it'll be worth it in the end.

I had a post op appointment today. He removed the few non dissolvable stitches I had on the sides, and told me I could finally shower! Saw my boobs for the first time, and I'm very happy with them! Not as much bruising as I was expecting. Still very swollen, but I feel a lot better without the extra gauze and bandaging he removed, and after my shower.

Today is my two week boob anniversary! I was finally able to sleep on my side last night, and I feel great. My surgeon has been telling me I could sleep in my side from day 1, but it just hurt too much any time I tried. I woke up this morning and my boo s were a tiny bit sore, but nothing compared to how badly my back has been hurting when I wake up from sleeping on it.

My surgeon said to leave the tape on until it fell off, and then put more on to help keep the scars from widening. It's been kind of frustrating, because I want to look at the incisions. I tried taking the tape off my nipple while in the shower the other day, but it made me feel really light headed and woozy, so I guess it's best to keep it on after all.

I haven't been taking any pain killers and have been feeling really good the last couple days. My boobs are starting to feel softer, but are still pretty dang swollen. I bought a Bali comfort revolution wire free bra from macys the other day, and fit perfectly into a 38dd. I almost cried because I was shopping in the regular section and every bra I tried on fit me. After my swelling goes down I might end up at a d, which would be awesome, but I'd be just fine with dd also.

I finally changed my tape today so I thought I'd upload a couple pictures. There was one little spot about an inch below my nipple that was leaking a little bit of clear liquid when I removed the tape, but it might have just been a tape blister. I stuck a band-aid over that spot before reapplying tape. Overall I think they are looking pretty good for two weeks post op!

Everything is going really well, except for this weird hole in my right incision. I think it was a blister from the tape. Last week I noticed it, so I put a band-aid over it before reapplying tape. I was expecting it to be healed when I took the band-aid off a week later but it looks the same, and was still a little moist (gross I know). It seemed to dry up after being exposed to the air for a bit. So I'm thinking I shouldn't put more tape on, but I'm worried about my incisions either opening or stretching if I don't tape them. Also, one of my dissolvable stitches is popping out from my incision around my right nipple. But other than those two things everything is going really well. My bruising is gone, a lot of swelling has gone down but I can still definitely feel some swelling in the center of my boobs.