Hello Friends! I had my surgery on March 12th, two days ago! As promised, I am blogging about my experience with the surgery and how I am doing currently. I had to be there at 7am and my actual surgery time was 8:30 am. My boyfriend, Stephan drove me to the surgeons office and stayed there until I was released to go home. When I first got there they made me take a urine sample to make sure I wasn't pregnant. This is typical protocol for everyone just a warning! After that they made me change into one of those oh so pretty hospital gowns lol and made me put on these super tight compression tights on my legs to prevent blood clots.
I was then hooked up to the machines to get my blood pressure reading and check my vitals. I was given a local and then the big IV needle when into my vein. They fed an antibiotic through my IV and then the anesthesiologist arrived. She asked me a bunch of medical history questions and then I was taken to the OR. I remember the anesthesiologist telling me that I would be falling asleep any minute and to count down from 10. After that I don't remember a thing! I woke up and was shocked that it was all done! The whole procedure only last a little over an hour. I felt a tremendous amount of pressure on my chest, but it was bearable. I also experienced pain, but it was nothing as severe as I thought it would be!
The nurse came in and gave me my first dose of pain killer medicine through my IV which was hydrocodone. After I was able to walk to the bathroom, use the rest room, and eat a little something, I was able to go home. I left the hospital two hours after my surgery ended. I was very happy about that! I don't like sitting in hospitals. I would much rather go home and rest in my own house. When I got home I took another dose of pain killer medicine and ended up falling asleep for several hours. The pain wasn't bad at all! As it started to approach night time, the pain started to increase and get more intense. My wonderful boyfriend, set his alarm every four hours and woke me up to give me my pain medicine throughout the night. You really want to make sure you are ahead of your pain. If you get behind, the pain medicine wont do its job as well as it should.
The following day, which was yesterday March 13th I felt a lot more pain than the pain I felt on surgery day. That has been by far the worst pain day, but still it isn't something that's not bearable. Your chest will feel extremely tight and you will feel very sore! Also you feel a burning sensation where your incision is which is totally normal! I ended up just laying in bed and on the couch sleeping and watching TV all day. I wasn't up to doing anything more than that. The pain again was worse at night than during the day, but it was manageable.
Today, March 14th, I woke up with very similar pain to yesterdays pain, but it has definitely gone down. I feel like each day that goes by from here on out the pain will lessen. I think the worst part is over for sure! Overall, I am extremely happy I got this procedure done and its not as bad as you expect it to be, honestly! I suffer from anxiety and have been diagnosed as having anxiety disorder. I was so worried this surgery was going to cause me to have panic attacks and the pain would be excruciating, but it wasn't bad at all! I haven't had any anxiety after the surgery. I feel great!
I am just very drowsy and feel kind of out of it due to the pain killers. I apologize in advance that the quality of my writing in this post is not up to par but I blame it fully on my pain killers!
She ended up putting 400ccs in both breast. She went under the muscle and with an inframammary incision. 400cc's was the absolute highest amount of cc's I was able to go due to my skin being extremely tight, not having any lose skin, and simply not having the room to go any higher. My surgeon said after a few years when my skin stretches more I will be able to go higher if I would like. Right now I extremely happy with the 400ccs. My surgeon said I will end up measuring around a DD which exceeds my expectations! I knew I wanted to be a D and hearing I will be a DD is amazing! I don't think they are too big for my frame. I think they look just tight.
I went with silicone because more people are using silicone now than saline. Also I like the feel of the silicone better than saline. Silicone feels more real to me. I went under the muscle because there are less risks involved. There is less risk for capsular rupture and under the muscle provides better mammograms.
You will notice that your breast will change every single day. They wont look perfect when you first get them done. They are extremely squished, tight, and rock hard. When you go under the muscle, the muscle is holding on for dear life and pushing your implants back. Over time, the muscle relaxes and your breast will "drop and fluff" which will make them softer and project more. My surgeon says that some women go up as high as 3 cup sizes when they are all done dropping and fluffing!
I cant wait to see what mine look like over time and see how big the are once they drop and fluff!
Thank you all for your loving support and kindness!
ps. sorry again for this sloppy blog posts but I am highly medicated right now! lol
Hi Friends! I had my pre op appointment last Friday. This appointment made it seem VERY real. I have been taking this process seriously, but actually going to this appointment and going through every single detail of what will take place on the day of the surgery made it all real to me! The pre op appointment summarizes everything that you went over in the consultation process. I went over the type of implant, sizing, profile, incision spot, and where she was going to place the implant. Silcone, 375-400ccs, under the breast incision, and under the muscle placement. Most of the pre op appointment is collecting your payment and going over what you can and cant do the night before the surgery and the morning of.
I was told by the surgeon not to eat or drink anything past midnight the night before my surgery. Not even a sip of water! Not to shower with anything but just hot water, no makeup, no perfume, no lotion, and to wear comfy clothes! Basically just brush your teeth, get up, and blast off to the surgeon's office! I will arrive at 7am on Thursday, March 12th. My surgery will be performed at 8:30am. The surgery will be about an hour and a half long. She mentioned that I will be able to leave in the late afternoon if I am feeling well. She gave me prescriptions to fill ahead of time. The prescriptions consisted of an antibiotic and a pain killer.
After I talked to the surgeon, the anesthesiologist came in and asked me questions about my current health and I had to fill out a health questionnaire. She let me know that I would be getting general anesthesia and would be completely asleep while the whole surgery was taking place. Thank goodness! She told me that I would wake up fairly soon after the surgery and I would feel a lot of pressure on my chest and not to be alarmed. She mentioned the pain of course varies from person to person, but generally people are in the most pain the first day or two after the surgery, by the third day people are almost fully functioning and pain free.
I have to admit that I am starting to get very, very, VERY nervous! But I think its completely normal to be nervous of a surgery! I keep having positive thoughts and I am trying not to let my nerves get the best of me! Although I am very nervous I couldn't be more excited! I can't wait to embrace the new me and go out shopping for new tops! : )
If you are interested in watching my consultation video then please click the link below!
Consultation Video
Video of Me
If you click the link above, it will direct you to my video where I talk a little bit about myself and why I decided to get breast augmentation. I wanted to do a video so everyone can get a better visual of me. I don't feel comfortable uploading close pictures of my boobs and close pictures of what they look like after the surgery. I feel more comfortable creating a video so you guys can get the overall look from that! I believe its important to see someone in a video so you can see their proportions and get a better representation of the person! Hope this is helpful!
The consultation process. This will be a lengthy post because to me this is the most important step of the process so grab a snack and read on! I like to refer to this as the "brains of the operation" process. It is absolutely crucial that you take this step in the process very seriously and do your research beforehand. In my opinion the best form of advertisement is a referral. If you have 110% decided that you want to go through with getting breast augmentation the first thing you should do is ask around and start to network. Capitalize on the use of your resources! Have your friends and family ask around for you. The more referrals you can get and the more reviews you can get from a surgeon the better!
After you have gathered some names of some surgeons, research, research, research! The internet is your best friend. Gather up as much material regarding the surgeon as possible. Explore their website, read their about me section, and most importantly really and I mean REALLY evaluate their before and after pictures. Do you like what you see? Personally, whether right or wrong, I judge the surgeon a great deal from the before and after pictures they post online. To me if you are hand selecting a few photos to put on your website you are selecting your best work! If I don't like the surgeons best work, I take this as a HUGE strike against them. Become knowledgeable of their credentials. If they don't display their credentials that is an automatic red flag! Make sure they are BOARD CERTIFIED. Certification matters! There is a website you can go to that lists the surgeons that are board certified. Just because the surgeons say they are it is always best to double check rather than take their word for it.
When you have referrals, researched, and studied surgeons now its time to figure out the look you want. What do you want your end result to be? There are many different looks that you can get aesthetically as far as size, profiles (the shape of the breast) and where the breast sits on your chest. You want to be very clear with what you want. Crystal clear. If you aren't crystal clear you wont communicate clearly with the surgeon what you want and this could skew your results. I went online and looked at HUNDREDS and I mean literally HUNDREDS of photos. I saved photos of the breasts that to me were EXACTLY like I wanted. I then went on to look at before and after pictures. I saved photos of the before pictures of the breasts that are almost dead on to the breasts I have now and their results were dead on to the results I want. I saved multiple photos like this. I thought about the sizing, profile, and placement of the implants on my chests for WEEKS. It was not something I looked at for a couple of days and made a concrete decision. I looked at the pictures I saved weeks after I saved them to make sure that I still was just as in love with them weeks later as I was the moment I saw them.
I made the decision to go to a size D. Yes a size D! I didn't have a fixated idea of the amount of CC's I wanted (CC's are what they refer to as sizing) because you have no idea what 300 or 400CC's actually looks and feels like until you see it in person. Now, yes, at a size D, my end result breasts are without a doubt going to be large, but at 130lbs and with my muscular, curvy physique it is my personal opinion that they are going to be exactly what I am looking for. Its about what YOU want. Its not about what your boyfriend wants or your husband, sister, mother, father, or even the surgeon wants. Its ALL ABOUT YOU. Y-O-U have to walk around with them! You have to be happy with them 365 days a year! I want to make a note that everyone's idea of sizing is different. You can say" I want a D cup" to someone and they gasp and fall over thinking you are going to look like Heidi Montag and then you can say that same size to someone else and they think of it as much smaller than what it is. Its ALL personal perspective. A size D cup on someone who is 100lbs is going to look a lot different than a size D on someone who is 150 lbs. The same thing applies to the profiles. One persons idea of high profile could be completely different to another's. This is why you need to supply PHOTOS to your surgeon. Show the surgeon what you want your end result to be.
With that being said, I choose a size D, high profile, and for them to sit fairly high on my chest. (again, I have no idea how many CC's at this point prior to meeting the surgeons) I also was 90% sure that I wanted to silicone. There are currently 3 different implants that I know of that are available: silicone, saline, and gummy bear. Do your research on these and find out what you think you prefer prior to talking to a surgeon. Now the overall look I am getting is considered to be the "augmented look." They are absolutely going to look augmented but that's aesthetically my personal preference. I don't want them to look EXTREMELY augmented either. There is a FINE LINE between looking too augmented and just right. Again, pictures are KEY! And CLEAR communication of this to your doctor is absolutely one million percent VITAL! When you are going through this process put on your PERFECTIONIST HAT. Act like a perfectionist even if you aren't. Be a perfectionist. This is your body and you want it to go as perfectly as humanly possible and you want your results to be as close to what you envisioned as possible.
Now that you have a clear idea of what you want its time to start calling and setting up consultations with the surgeons you have selected. 9 out of 10 surgeons will have a consultation fee. I welcome a consultation fee. Some people look at this as a negative aspect but to me I respect a surgeon who requires a fee than the surgeon who advertises the "free consultation." To me the connotation of a "free consultation" means you are hurting for business, the quality of the consults will be poor, and you will act like you can do anything possible even if its not possible to get the business. I would much rather prefer spending the money on a consultation fee to go to someone who is serious with their time and to me this fee portrays quality consultations. I learned this from my step father who is a lawyer and has been a lawyer for many, many years and absolutely exceptional at what he does. He has a consultation fee and the ones who don't see him because of the fee and go to a "free consultation" lawyer are always coming back in the door to him and doing business with him instead.
Do not and I mean do NOT skimp out on the consultations due to the price. Do not just go to one surgeon and call it a day. Always, always get a second opinion, even if you fall in love with the first surgeon. Its always best to hear someone else out and use that to do 2 things: reassure you of your love for the first surgeon or change your opinion of the first surgeon. You will never regret getting more reassurance of your decision to go to a particular surgeon! Most consultation fees are $100-$200 dollars and this amount of money is extremely miniscule compared to the price of the overall surgeon and the amount of time you have to live with these implants!
I went to two consultations. The first surgeon I went to was in Rochester. I knew of people who went to him and his credentials are top notch. On paper he looks like a superstar and the "must go to guy." I paid the consultation fee and met with the chief resident first and then met with the actual surgeon. I am here to be completely honest and not here to sugar coat anything. I will flat out say he did not exceed my expectations. Prior to going to my appointment I was extremely excited to see this doctor. I heard nothing but positive reviews about him. He went to an Ivy League School, graduated with honors, and as I mentioned before looked perfect on paper. I was expecting the consultation to be out of this world informative and to walk out of there with no doubt in my mind that he was my man for the job.
I left unsatisfied. I found that he was not thorough enough for my liking. I don't know why that is. I don't know if he was behind on his consultations or he has been in the business long enough where he thinks he knows exactly what the patients want and need so he doesn't feel the need to be thorough with patients. He almost was telling me what I was getting rather than listening to what I wanted. In my opinion he was putting his ego into it too much and this rubbed me the wrong way. I wanted to be honest with this and share this experience because I feel like this can happen ALOT. You hear about this super star hair dresser and you tell them what you want and they end up giving you the look that THEY want and you don't like it! Just because someone looks great on paper and gets great reviews, don't let that be the only thing you focus on. Make sure they listen to you and listen to what you want. Make sure its not about them and don't put all your trust in them and leave with doubts!
I admit I got too caught up in his credentials and I was thankful that I really took the time to think about my feelings about the consultation and had a paradigm shift. I then called my second surgeon who practices near where I live. I again knew of people who had breast augmentation done by her and were very pleased. I called and paid the consultation fee and met with her for a consult. I fell in LOVE with her. She completely exceeded all expectations! She was extremely thorough. She spoke with me for 55 minutes rather than just 20 minutes from my first surgeon. She listened to everything I said and even printed off the pictures that I showed her I wanted to put in my medical file. This was something that my first surgeon did not do. I tried on multiple different implants with a bra on and then she provided a tank top so I could see how they looked under a tight tank top. I was really able to get the FULL effect of how the implants look. This was something that I did not do with my first surgeon. He seemed to already know the size that looked best on me. In my opinion its so important to try the implants on in a sports bra AND put a tight shirt over it so you can see how you are going to look with clothing on.
After trying on different sizes, I simply solidified my want for a size D and silicone. She also gave me the range of CC's that she was going to order and use. With her help we picked out 375-400CC's which will give me a full D cup. Exactly what I want! Also with her help I chose to go under the muscle (submuscular) and have the incision be under the breast (inframammary incision) I did research on incision options and over and under the muscle options, but it was hard for me to make an informed decision prior to meeting with the surgeons and getting knowledge from them. The incision and the placement of the implant very much are best determined by the surgeons looking at your current breasts, the elasticity of them, the way they sit, how far apart are they, etc. After the surgeon gave me an exam we made the decision together based on my current breasts: submuscular, and inframammary incision.
The costs of the surgery highly depends on your surgeons demographics. The surgeons I saw in upstate NY and from hearing the cost of the surgeons of people who have gotten breast augmentation done around New York State have an average cost of right around $6500-$7500. The surgeon I am going to is $7,200. I would absolutely not go to a surgeon based on the cost UNLESS you love the two surgeons the same and they have the same amount of positive reviews. To me, it was crucial that I picked the surgeon based on how I felt about them, their reviews, their credentials, and the cost was simply just the cost. If you are nickel and diming on this surgery you are making a mistake! I am in no way saying I am rich and money is no object but this is a surgery, expect it to be expensive, make sure you budget wisely for it.
The recovery time from this procedure is a good 3 weeks to a months time. The surgeons both stressed to me that you don't want to rush back into it and risk the consequences by doing so. I will be taking a full month off from lifting. I was told I might be able to ride a stationary bike 3 weeks after the surgery but it cant be certain. The hardest part will be taking time away from the gym but its totally worth it!
With all that being said, my surgery date is March 12th at 9:30 am. I have to be there at 8:30am. The surgery is said to be an hour and a half long. My surgeon said do not expect to leave the facility until at least 3pm and that's if I am good to go when they evaluate me at the time. I have my pre operative appointment this Friday at 10:30am and I will make my next blog post about that appointment!
I hope this information is helpful to you and if you have any questions you can comment below!
Thanks for reading!
xo,
Marlena
Hi Friends! : ) I wanted to create a blog about my journey with breast augmentation with the purpose of informing other woman of this procedure. If you are thinking about breast augmentation or just want to become knowledgeable of this particular surgery then read on because this blog will benefit you!
I of course wanted to make my first post about WHY I decided to get breast augmentation. This is not a justification post, this is simply to let people know what intrigued me to get this done. I know when I was researching breast augmentation stories I was always interested in hearing other women talk about why they decided to get it done. I often times found out how their story related to mine and it always made me feel good when I realized I wasn't alone with how I felt.
I will start off by saying I was a late bloomer from the get-go. I remember being in 8th grade and all my other friends started menstruating and I didn't. I saw my friends boobs start to blossom and I just figured okay, when I start to menstruate I too will blossom like them! I cant wait! Well guess what, I turned 14 and nothing happened. I turned 15 and nothing happened. Finally, I turned 16 and started menstruating, but I never blossomed like the rest of the girls. Damn it! HUGE LET DOWN! I was very thin compared to my classmates. I was 5'7 in high school at 100-105 lbs. My weight didn't bother me at the time, but I can remember clear as day even back then that my boobs bothered me. I had it in my head that as time went on I would develop. WRONG. Very, very wrong! I graduated college the same size I graduated high school with. 34A. Ugh! Talk about a big disappointment!
After I graduated college, I started living on my own, and that's when I first thought about breast augmentation. I stumbled across girls who knew of people who had it done. I started to become very intrigued by it, but didn't think I could ever afford it. I always thought, cosmetic surgery, insurance wont pay for it, therefore it will be extremely expensive. And after all, I am just a broke student loan paying alumni trying to make ends meet with my first job after college! Lets work on upgrading from eating $1.50 a box Kraft Mac and Cheese on the daily (so I could buy more important things like makeup, clothes and shoes obviously!) and then maybe we can start thinking about spending thousands of dollars on a pair of boobs!
A couple years went by and I finally started to get financially stable at 25 years old and for the first time felt like my college degree actually meant something! I became pregnant for the first time and heard and witnessed all the pregnant women's boobs double and sometimes triple in size. Yes! I cant wait! Well, just like they didn't appear after menstruation, and how they didn't appear in college, they didn't appear in pregnancy either! What. the. HELL. My boobs are HELPLESS! Mom, what happened to the boob gene? Why did you not pass down this gold standard gene?
I ended up gaining nearly 60 lbs during pregnancy and maybe, MAYBE a pound of it went to my boobs. I had my son in 2012 and was still a size A cup. I started to get into fitness after I have my son in order to lose the baby weight. I did Insanity everyday at home and lost the weight very fast, in just a few months time. I went right back to being 110 lb, thin framed Marlena. And that was the first time I felt bad about my weight AND my boobs. Double whammy! I decided I was going to do something about my weight and I miraculously still had a little bit of hope that if I gained some weight my boobs would develop. I started lifting weights and over time I became very serious with it. I was hooked! I started "bulking" which was simply eating a high caloric diet filled with protein, carbs, and some fats to gain weight and build muscle. I was successful at gaining weight and gaining muscle, but not on getting passed a 34A.
I looked in the mirror and saw curves. I developed hips and full round glutes that stuck out, and to me for the first time, I looked like a woman and felt like a WOMAN! I was in love with my new curves, my new me, but there was something missing, something obviously missing and obviously being the key word. I had wonderful curves on my hips, glutes, legs, arms, shoulders, but no curves on my chest, just a flat slope! My chest was holding me back from fully feeling like woman.
(These are MY own personal thoughts regarding MYSELF. These thoughts of mine aren't to be confused with how I feel about other females and whether or not they look like a woman. Just because you are thin doesn't mean I don't think you look like a woman. This is SOLEY how I feel about MYSELF. I really hope I don't offend anyone by my thoughts that are reflected about how I see myself, not others! )
Anyway, after almost a year of lifting, putting on 25 lbs, most of it being muscle, and developing even larger curves on my physique, but still being a 34A I said enough is enough! I have exhausted all avenues to develop my boobs, I have given them MORE than enough time to develop. I DESERVE THIS! I want to look and feel like a true women inside and out! I started seriously and I mean seriously, researching and reading about breast augmentation and personal experiences with it. To my surprise I didn't stumble across many personal stories at all! I was disappointmented about that part. I watched a few videos of it online on youtube, but only a handful were informative and beneficial. (I am hoping my blog will be more benenfitical to ladies!)
When I gathered as much information as I possibly could from the computer and read both the positive and negative aspects to the surgery I knew 110% I was going through with the surgery. I am financially stable. My son is now a toddler and has more independence. I am a stay at home mom at the moment and have the next few months to continue to stay at home before school in the fall. The timing is right to get the surgery!
It was always important to me that I had my priorities in check. I didn't want to be that person that couldn't pay her bills, but was saving money to get breast augmentation. I didn't want to take out a loan for breast augmentation and make payments on that loan, but miss payments on my car loan. I didn't want to get the surgery when my son was first born, when he needed me the most and not be able to take adequate care of him. And most importantly I didn't want to get the surgery if I knew there was something I wasn't doing in order to help develop my boobs. I tried EVERYTHING. I made sure everything was right money wise, with my son, and with where I was at in life so it didn't effect anyone or anything in my life negatively. I wanted to be responsible and I wanted to be smart with my decision.
To me, its not just about the WHY you want or WHY you are getting breast augmentation that is important, but its if its RIGHT when you decide to go through with it. Is the timing truly right? The timing is really something that needs to be thought about thoroughly. It is easy to get caught up all the amazing aspects and thrills of getting breast augmentation and you ignore your money situation and whatever else your life entails. I wouldn't suggest going through with a surgery that cost thousands of dollars if you really can't afford it. It took me until I was 27 years old to be able to afford it and I have no shame in that! I believe when everything is right that is the only way you can get the FULL benefits of enjoyment from this surgery. So make sure the timing is right! Don't rush into it!
Now we are at the point where many of you are wondering about the costs and that's what will lead me to tomorrows post which I will title my "Consultations." I will cover costs about the surgery, talk about the surgery itself, the options you are able to choose from regarding implants, the surgeons I went to, and my general feelings about the whole consultation process. Thanks for reading and I hope to benefit you more along the way as I go through this journey with you all!
xo,
Marlena
