I did a search on this topic, and although there was an “Ask the chick who had breast reduction surgery,” I didn’t see one exactly like mine. If it’s been done and I didn’t notice, no worries – you can just tell me politely and we’ll move on.
Anyway, in case anyone cares, I had the above procedures on Tuesday, in Tijuana, Mexico. I’m posting this on Thursday. I live in San Diego. The surgeon is board-certified, did a residency at the Mayo Clinic, as well as extensive training in Mexico, and came with good references. The facility was immaculate, the staff professional and kind as could be.
I had NO IDEA it was going to hurt this much. I have been living on Vicodin and Benadryl (to put me to sleep to escape the pain), as well as the painkillers and anti-inflammatories they gave me. No position is comfortable. Everything hurts-- moving, getting up, sitting down, lying down.
As for results, I caught one glimpse of my new breasts when the nurse was changing the dressing. They looked very pretty, but I was in too much pain to really care. I still haven’t seen them aside from that. I’m wearing very tight bandages that are extremely uncomfortable. On Saturday they’ll take my bandages off and give me a really tight garment to wear for a month or so.
Anyway, I’ll try to answer all your questions if I can.
Okay, hope I don’t ask anything too personal, but…what did you look like before the surgery? Like, measurements…how much did you weigh/lose, etc.? And what size were/are the breasts–before and after?
Also, do you think it would have been less painful to split up the surgeries–i.e., breast lift, then break, then lipo?
What did I look like – I am 5’6" and weigh about 165 lbs. I don’t know my measurements pre-op exactly, but I have them written down somewhere. I work out a lot, so I have pretty good muscle tone, and I look good in most clothes, but I also have, and have always had, a big butt, hips, and thighs. Don’t get me wrong - I like being curvy, but – and I think the following should answer Chasing Dreams’why? question too – I just wanted to be a little less curvy, and there were those saddlebags that really did not respond to diet and exercise. I’ve also lost and gained about 25 lbs. several times in my life and the redistribution was not as good after the last few times. I’m finally at a place where I’m happy with my body, basically (which may sound like a contradiction), but I have always wanted to do this, and I finally decided to just do it. I never had much trouble getting dates, and I am happily married, at 35, to a man who has no complaints about my body, but who has indulged me in this unnecessary and somewhat vain surgery.
The breasts were a saggy 38 B/C. Totally unfair, as they have been saggy all my life. I haven’t even had kids! I’ve always hated my breasts. Most of the breast tissue was above the nipple, causing them to sag and to point down. When the nipples are hard, they look better, and with exaggerating my posture I can make them look perkier, but for years I have worn bras that completely reshape them. No one has seen what my “real” breasts look like for years. Even my husband has never seen them when the nipples are soft – I won’t let anyone see that. They are pointy, and ugly when soft. He doesn’t know that – I just always touch them when I am taking off my shirt so they’ll be hard by the time the shirt is off.
Yes, I think it would have decreased the pain to split it up, but then you have to pay anasthesia fees twice, and also, as I’m thinking about it, I’d have to go through this horrific post-surgery experience twice. So maybe not…
Sure, I don’t mind telling you. I got a really good deal, I think – the surgeon himself sat down with me and gave me the quote, and a nurse told me later, “Wow, he gave you a good deal.”
Also, I get the feeling that he is a perfectionist and I think he just really wants his patients to look good, so he basically added a lipo area that I’m not sure I paid for. For $6000, I got breast lift, implants, and circumferencial lipo on the flanks, abdomen, buttocks, and thighs. I think I only paid for 3 areas.
I told my husband before we got married that I wanted them, and he agreed. He brought poor credit and some debt (maybe 6,000) into the marriage, and I brought good credit and no debt. We are consolidating and whittling down the debt, partly due to my ability to get 0% credit cards and good loans, and so it was sort of an exchange. I paid for the surgery with a 0% card for a year. I plan to just pay it off before I have to pay interest on the money.
Oh, I forgot to answer Zoggie’s question about how big the breasts are now – I only wanted a full C. When I say full, I don’t mean large, I mean full and round – which my breasts have never been. I’m not sure what size they are now – they looked like a large C or a D when I saw them quickly – but I hear they settle down when the swelling goes down, so I think I will have what I wanted, a C.
Something else that I found quite interesting is that my surgeon’s right hand is not a full hand! He was in the Mexico City earthquake as a medical student and was trapped underneath the rubble for FOUR DAYS, and his right hand, his dominant hand, was crushed. His brothers went down to the site and dug him out. I checked the story out and it’s true – he was featured in Reader’s Digest and various other publications. It may seem like I was crazy to trust my body to someone who himself has had numerous surgeries on his hand (he has three fingers, I think, and two toes on that hand), but I had such a good feeling about him, in addition to the good results I’d read about, that I went ahead with him. At one point, when I was asking how his hand affected his ability to do surgery, he said something like, “It’s not a problem. I’m the best!” I liked his confidence. Anyway, so far I’m very pleased, because I’m about the same size or smaller than before in the hips and butt, and I know that there is a lot of swelling, so I’ll definitely be smaller. And like I say, the breasts looked nice. This is more of a “me babbling” thread than an “ask the” thread – sorry – I’m just stuck here and am in too much discomfort to go anywhere or do anything!
Interesting, and thanks for sharing your experience. I consulted with a surgeon about a tummy tuck and a breast lift, but I can’t do it for a few more years, because of the recovery and restrictions on lifting heavy objects (like my kids). I’m reconsidering the whole idea, after hearing how painful you found your surgery.
My wife has talked about getting similar procedures done… add me to the list of folks that would be interested in seeing the results, and not entirely for prurient reasons. Heheh…
How would you consider the level of nursing care in Mexico? Comparable to US?
Where there a lot of US folks getting procedures done there?
I’ve heard that they are starting to be able take your own fat and add it to the breast area, is this something you considered, and decided against, and why or why not. I’m curious as to whether it keeps a natural shape and if the effects are long term.
Ha. I really won’t mind posting pics once I get to see them my own self and once they’re in their right mind and settled down (which takes weeks, by the way). With the caveat that if I should I ever meet any of you IRL, you are forbidden to mention the pictures!
You’re welcome, Miss Gypsy. You know something strange? I just realized that I feel way better now than I did this morning, and I actually feel better than I did since I started the thread. I think I’ve crossed some line between feeling like a piece of raw meat that’s been run over by a train and feeling like a regular person again. Hmm! I know it’s the first few days that are the worst.
Tristan, I found the level of nursing care to be exceptional. I don’t have any personal experience with inpatient nursing care in the States – I’d never stayed all night at a hospital before – well, this was a clinic, but I’d never stayed all night anywhere before. I have visited lots of people in the hospital, and seen a range of care levels, and these nurses would all be as good as the best I’ve seen in the States. They were knowledgeable, professional, kind, warm, and never begrudging of their time. Whatever they could do to make me more comfortable they were willing to do. If I rang the bell, they’d cheerily come in right away and say, “Digame!” (“Tell me”, literally, but more like, “Talk to me – tell me what’s on your mind.”) To be fair, I was the only person staying the night (it’s a small clinic) so it was a 1-on-1 ratio of nurse to patient. In the morning, there were others there, though, and the service was the same.
I saw one couple that I assume were from the States – Mexican heritage but spoke English with no accent. The other two patients I saw I think were Mexican. Almost all of the staff speaks English, and they advertise in English with a toll-free US number to call from San Diego, so it seems clear that they cater to US residents as well as Mexican residents. My surgeon lives in San Diego, too, incidentally.
miamouse, I actually did have that done on the buttocks area. He took some of the fat from the lower section of the butt and reinjected it higher up! Isn’t that crazy? I love how you can cheat gravity these days. I hadn’t heard of it for the breasts – I don’t know how that would be. I’m purely speculating, but it does seem like a nice idea to be able to use all of your own “material,” as it were. However, I wonder if it would be hard to make sure the breast was smooth and shaped right. A perfectly smooth surface isn’t as necessary for the buttocks – I mean, often they have cellulite already anyway. Mine do, anyway!
Oh, yeah, Hostile Dialect, I need to change my profile, thanks. I think I noticed something about a Dopefest, but I’ve recently made some huge changes to my life (changed careers, got married, moved) and so I’ve been really really busy!
I’ve heard that you can get the fat in your ass taken out and injected into your face for wrinkle free-ness. Well, it was a Sex and the City episode, so I’m not sure how true that is.
