A truly uplifting story

DJ
A truly uplifting story!

Eurosilicone/325cc textured/rounds/unders/crease incision

Pre-op 34AA - 2 Days post - 12 Weeks post - 10 Months post 34C/D

My Story

I’m 36 years old, married and a mother of two beautiful girls and from the UK. I have a nice house, terrific husband, good income and a great family. What more could I possibly want?

BOOBS!!!!!!!

I’d always wanted them. I was one of the first people in my class at school to start ‘developing’, (and was so embarrassed when my mother said I needed a training bra!). So it was quite shocking to me that all my classmates started to overtake me in size.

Since school I always had small breasts, even a 34A was sometimes difficult to fill – thank god for wonder-bras) but up until now I just lived with it and envied everybody else who had bigger ones. Life carried on, but I always joked to friends and family that one day I would have a boob job!

Through my pregnancies I suddenly grew boobs and whilst I was breastfeeding I felt like Dolly Parton!!! It was fantastic. However, the drawback is when you stop! They were left deflated and empty looking. Although I didn’t have enough breast tissue to ‘sag’, I just felt I looked like an ironing board with nipples! Once again, I was left envious of well-endowed women.

Fortunately just as my old car decided to retire from old age and over use! my husband got a big bonus, he offered me the choice of putting down part payment on a new one or buying another second hand one and making my dream come true i.e. get a boob job!!!!!
Needless to say, my second hand car is great!!

Pre op

THE SEARCH WAS ON

I had already started my research a couple of years previously (thinking we could get some kind of finance or better still - win the lottery!), and I then stepped up my researching vigorously. I’d read all the bad press regarding silicone and seen the horror pictures on the net, although I couldn’t find any evidence to support the bad claims. However, the www.implantinfo.com site heavily influenced me, which is a great resource for information and guidance. (There seemed to be nothing based in UK to match it, until I found www.cosmeticsupport.com.) Because everyone appeared to prefer saline implants, I thought that was the best way to go. (Later I realised that silicone had been banned from the US since 1992). Since I’ve had my implants, I now realise that women in the US would love to have the option of silicone and are angry that they are not given the choice. In some States they can only have silicone implants if their saline implants had ruptured or other problems had occurred, requiring another BA. It’s also worth noting that there appear to be only two dominant manufacturers in the US, McGann and Mentor, though I understand them to be excellent.

Armed with lots of info and pre-prepared set of questions, I set about finding a clinic/surgeon. I did not want my GP informed, as I do not see a regular GP, I just attend an open surgery and see the first GP who is available. There is no personal relationship there, so I figured I would reveal my ‘secret’ only if I needed to. Therefore, it was necessary to find a surgeon myself!

I opened the Yellow pages and rang a couple of clinics, and found that for a first no-obligation consultation it was going to cost me around £75. If I wanted to ‘interview’ several surgeons, the cost was going to mount up somewhat. Then I stumbled upon a clinic which caught my interest and I took a deep breath and picked up the phone. They had two clinics with about 3 regular surgeons operating in both. They were prepared to send an experienced ‘Advisor’ to my home for a consultation (free of charge and obligation) if I didn’t want to come to them. I booked an appointment and had an hour’s consultation, which was very informative. They gave door-to-door service, meaning a car would pick me up and take me to the clinic (about a 2 hour drive) and bring me back the next day, having stayed in overnight. The brochure looked good. I was told I would have up to an hour’s consultation with the surgeon before the operation to answer any questions I needed answered. The aftercare sounded good (although yet to be tested). All my questions were answered and implant samples were ‘sampled’. When I mentioned I wanted saline implants, I was told that there was a new kind of silicone implant, which had been out for a couple of years and was new and improved. The manufacturers were Laboratoire Eurosilicone (France) and the implants were called Christalline Paragel. I opted for these. I also opted for textured rounds under the muscle, as I thought some of the pictures I’d seen of ‘overs’ looked a bit less natural, although not all of them did. I also thought going under the muscle would not interfere too much with any future mammograms ( I am no spring chicken anymore) and I also smoke. The textured seemed to be promoting less of a chance of capsular contracture and the rounds, as opposed to anatomical sounded better on the ‘bottoming out’ risk.

I read, read and re-read the brochure and other literature I had received over the next few days. I also talked to a friend who’d had it done and I decided to book it for after the Easter holidays, when the children went back to school. Once I’d booked it and paid my £500 deposit, the waiting was agony. I had about a month in which to contemplate.

DAY OF THE SURGERY

I was told to starve and not drink from 6am. I got up at 5.15, showered and washed my hair. I managed a cup of tea but was too nervous to eat. I left my husband and children in bed. The car came at 6.10 am and the driver instantly put me at ease. He was very chatty and said that we had to pick up another lady on the way. I was so nervous, I imagined that we would be picking up a very glamorous tabletop dancer or a beautiful model etc. When we got to the other house, the girl turned out to be really nice and was just as nervous as me. She also had young children and wanted a reduction. We chatted and expressed our fears, which was comforting for the rest of the journey.

Once in reception, I registered and paid the rest of the money (£3,200 in total), and was then instructed to have a shower and produce a water specimen to test for any possible infection. I put on the awful surgical gown and Jcloth knickers and was shown to my bed. The clinic was small and comfy and the staff were welcoming and nice. I was instructed previously to bring along two sports bra’s of different cup sizes, which were bigger than I wear now. I had bought two sports bras, one at 34C and one at 34D (being optimistic). These had to be placed on the bedside table in order for the nurse to fit onto the new breasts immediately after surgery. There was a TV to watch until it was time! There were 5 beds (4 occupied) on the ward and we all chatted, which made me more relaxed. I had a brief interview with the Anesthetist, who was very nice. It turned out I was the last one to ‘go down’, so to speak, so it was approx. 4.30pm before I got to see the surgeon. I must admit, by this time I was pretty delirious having not eaten since the evening before. I was feeling a bit dizzy and not quite with it, and it was difficult to concentrate on what the surgeon was saying. However, after the consultation, I signed some papers (permission to operate) and had a ‘before’ photo taken. After which, I was led to the trolley and received my anesthetic via IV. I remember laying there staring at the ceiling and thinking ‘this is it, oh my god, there’s no going baa……………..’.

The next thing I knew I was waking up in my bed at some point in the night feeling very very uncomfortable. I tried to shift my body and was then aware of what felt like an elephant sitting on my chest. It was quite difficult to breath, but once I realised where I was and what I had just had done, I relaxed and went back off to sleep. At about 4.30am I woke again with some discomfort and soreness. A nurse appeared and I asked for some painkillers. These were taken with a sip of water and I drifted back off to sleep once again. In the morning I woke around 6 a.m. and was feeling some pain, but bearable. I needed the toilet and that’s when I noticed I had drain tubes coming out of the side of each breast. I reached down to the end of the tube and noticed blood collecting in a bottle. Feeling queasy, I asked the nurse to sit me up so that I could attempt to get out of bed and go to pee. This was a tricky maneouvre as I was as stiff as a board and had to take the two bottles with me. It took quite some time, but I managed it on my own. Upon getting back into bed I asked the nurse for two more painkillers as I was quite sore.

Just before breakfast, the nurse removed my drains. This was done slowly and carefully, was extremely uncomfortable and not a very pleasant sensation. However, I got a chance to see my new BOOBS. Although swollen, they looked terrific from my point of view (looking down). This cheered me up immensely. Once the bra was back on, I was able to eat breakfast, a small piece of toast and marmalade, two cups of tea and one glass of orange juice. After this I felt much more alive again and chatted to my roommates, comparing experiences.
At around 8.30a.m. I dressed, put on some make-up and said my goodbyes and thanks to the staff. Back in reception, the driver came and delivered myself and a couple of fellow roommates safely back home. I have to say that I found the drivers to be terrific, careful drivers with caring natures.

2 Days post op

RECOVERY

Once home, I was greeted at the door by my husband who couldn’t do enough for me. I sat around the house for a while discussing my experience in a straight-backed office chair, before retiring to bed with lots and lots of pillows and clean sheets and my every whim catered for. I managed to sleep ok, but not comfortably. I needed help sitting up from laying down in bed for the first 4 days and was feeling pretty worn out. The medication prescribed from the clinic were a week’s worth of anti-biotic (as a precaution against possible infection), and brilliant pain killers. I'd been taking Arnica 30 (herbal) tablets which were a great help with bruising and swelling (which wasn’t too bad anyway). A word of warning – the prescription is a private one and therefore cost me around £30, fortunately the driver had pre-warned me of the cost on the way to the clinic the day before. I was instructed to keep the sports bra on (which turned out to be the 34D WOW!!!) for the next 10 days, after which I could take a shower and peel off the steri-strips placed over my scars (in the creases under the breasts).

I am 11 days post now and my recovery has been excellent so far. Improving dramatically each day. I am in a 34C bra now, however my band width is tight ( could do with buying a 36C – maybe due to slight swelling still under the arms). I'd received 325cc's. The cards, good wishes and flowers from family and the few friends I’d told also aided in my speedy recovery and my girls were great (largely uninterested). My mother was also a great help. My husband took two days off work, followed by the weekend and my very supportive mother had arranged to do all my ironing and school trips etc. the following week. As it happened, I only needed my mother for company. I was feeling much improved by the 5th day and even started to do the short school trips in the car myself.

Anyway, I will end this now by just saying how happy I am with my Twin Peaks. I am extremely happy, and you can bet my husband has a smile on his face. I should have done it years ago! I’m still in recovery and from what I have read; I have a way to go yet. I feel extremely lucky that everything so far has gone so well. They are still feeling a bit tight and hard and my nipples are very tender and yet numb! (they are also stood to attention at all times and suffer discomfort in the cold), can’t wait for my boobs to soften up a little and drop slightly. This time next year, I hope my scars are thin white lines. I have a post op check in a few days and I think I have to start massaging and rubbing vitamin E oil on my scars after this. You can be sure I will be doing this because of the dreaded fear of CC (which I suppose will always be in the back of my mind).

I will keep posting with developments! Hope I didn’t go on too long and bore you, or put you off with all the gory details. For me it was worth it. Looking forward to wearing bikinis and looking good in clothes in general! Good luck to all you pre-ops and here’s wishing your experience and recovery is just as smooth. (Check out the pics).

12 Days post op (tight & shiny!)
Scars and Clothed