Mine were nowhere near big enough for them to have to completely detach the nipples – my surgeon told me that that’s only done if your breasts are really, really, extra extra big. They want to avoid that, since it ups the complication rate. So mine stayed attached. It sounds like we had the same procedure, which I think is the most common one anyway. My nipples are a little smaller, and it took close to a year to get full sensation back in them, and if anything they’re a bit oversensitive now. They must be handled very…gently. And I’ve got some loss of sensation on the undersides of the breasts themselves, but that’s not a problem.
The scars are fairly visible, though mine have faded a lot – it took a couple of years for mine to really start fading, though, patience is called for here. Anyway, anybody who’s going to be seeing them will presumably know ahead of time about the surgery. And if they have a problem with my having had that done, then they’re not seeing them at all!
I’m very very short, and while I was only a D (shoulda been a DD, I’m pretty sure, but at the time I refused to consider moving up another size), I was so far out of proportion it was ludicrous. Now I’m a big A or small B, though I haven’t found a B yet that isn’t just a hair big.
Now if the bra companies hadn’t decided that nobody wears a 36A so we’ll just not make them…grrrr…
I’m another member of the happy smaller boobs club! I had my reduction done in April of 2001, and like Jadis, only wished that I had done it ten years earlier! I went from DDD to a nice C cup. I also flashed my sister about once a week for the next two or three months, because I was so delighted with my cute perky boobs. We work together, and every now and then I would say, “hey, look!” She got really tired of it.
On the insurance question, I can just add that we had IIRC United Healthcare POS at the time. They did cover it, although it took a few months to get the full approval. I also had a history of doctor visits for back pain, as well as physical therapy for back pain as well.
This truly is a lifechanging procedure. My husband was really opposed to it, but he has since regretted his attitude, because he sees how much better I am physically.
We did have to fight the insurance company pretty hard, but my mom is an expert at that. Over the eight or so years prior to my having had it done, two other surgeons had said I’d be a candidate when I was eighteen or so (unless you are endowed with truly ungodly huge breasts they avoid doing the surgery until you’ve quit growing) and while yes, the doctors want to make money, still I’d believe them over a peon at the insurance company looking at headless pictures of my torso to determine if I really needed it. :rolleyes:
There was a scary miscommunication between the insurance company and the hospital that ended up with my getting a $7000+ full itemized bill several weeks after the surgery. Actually, the bill made for some interesting reading, but you people can just imagine the heart attack I had when I got it! ($50 for a pregancy test…on a virgin. Yes, I was old enough they do it routinely. Yes, it was still funny.) We got everything straightened out finally.
As far as recovery times go, I heal fast. Two weeks out I went out of town for a weekend. I was only on serious pain meds for three or four days; I hated what they did to my head, but I did need them. I made the mistake of trying to switch to plain Tylenol a day too soon. After several hours of horrible pain, the lesson was learned. Under the right circumstances, Vicodin is my friend.
I’d been wanting something done since I was 14. When I bloomed, I BLOOMED. But no more! Ha!
I found breasthealthonline the best website I’ve ever seen in educating and supporting women (and men!) who are planning on having a reduction surgery. It’s in message board form, where everything you ever wanted to know (and I mean ever) is asked and answered. I highly, highly, recommend it.
They also have sections for augmentation, breast cancer and reconstruction, etc.
Bra sizes completely befuddle me (I don’t have breasts). My friend is is a 36 C, so I have an idea of what 38-40 C is like, but how big is 40DDD? I’m not sure if there is any good way to describe it, but I figured I’d ask.
Ruken, bra sizes aren’t all that difficult, honest. [url=http://www.biggerbras.com/index_sizecharts.shtml]Here’s a link to a basic bra sizing method**.
The essense is, the numeric portion indicates how big around your torso is just undreneath your boobs. The cup size indicates how much bigger your measurement around the fullest part of your bust is than the band size (numeric portion). So, an A cup is 1" bigger at the fullest part of the bust than the band, a B cup is 2" bigger, etc.
You’ll occasionally see DD and DDD referred to as E and F cup sizes instead, which correspond to 5" and 6" bigger than the band, although some wonky bra companies go D/DD/E/F, which is logically wrong and messes some people up (see chart on linked page).
It’s always annoyed me that porno stars with enormous boobs are billed as silly things like 52G, because if the woman really had a band size of 52, she’d be enormously fat in the torso with not very proportionally large boobs. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a porn star who’s band size is above a 36 or 38, since they’re usually pretty slim in the rest of the body. It’s the cup size that should be inflated (ha!), probably up to something insane like a J or so (10-12" larger than the band).
