I Got a Boob Job and This is What Happened
Okay so I am actually terrified to be posting this. I’m super open about having a boob job. Like I won’t even try to deny that I have one and I’m more than willing to answer anyone’s questions because I know what it’s like to have a million questions and to fear the unknown of undergoing any kind of surgery but it’s the judgement that I’m worried about. But I started this blog to be honest, right?? So here I go.
I don’t come from a very boob-y background. In other words. The odds of me getting boobs based on my genetics have always been stacked against me. It was around fourth or fifth grade when some of my friends started to develop. Most of my friends were wearing full on underwire bras by the 6th grade. I wasn’t the only one who noticed. You bet all the boys did and they paid enough attention to see that I didn’t have anything. Some girls get self conscious when they start having boobs..idk what it was about my school but that was not the case. People were proud of theirs at mine hahaha. It got them attention from guys.
I had another issue, my bottom ribs naturally stick out a little further than normal ribs. I called them ski jump ribs. They stuck out even further than my little mosquito bites to the point that they made my boobs look concave. So it looked like I had negative boobs. Awesome! They shouldn’t even be called “boobs” in my situation, though, because that gives the illusion that I had something there, which I didn’t. I looked like I had the chest of a prepubescent boy. THAT is more accurate. They were so little that if I ate anything my stomach would poke out further than my chest which gave the illusion that I had a gut so basically I grew up thinking I was fat most times I looked in the mirror and was ALWAYS self conscious ALL THE TIME. It was THE WORST. If I had just had some boobs, it would’ve given the illusion of a smaller waist or at least would’ve offset the fluctuating size and shape of a normal stomach when it consumes food! But, alas. I didn’t. I had prepubescent boy chest, ski jump ribs and a little tummy that poked out. Cute.
I started getting made of fun for not having boobs by dumb guys and sometimes even my friends that were girls. I just wanted to fit in so I started stuffing. Gosh, I’m so embarrassed even writing this. But it’s true. It made me feel so much better about myself and the way things fit until one of my friends found out and word spread like wildfire. I got made fun of even more. It was awful.
In junior high I got smart and started wearing sticky boobs under my normal bra. I’d push, pull, and prod til I had some makeshift side cleavage. I had a couple close friends who knew about it and I was still judged. Judged for not having boobs and then judged when I tried to have them! Haha ugh. I ditched the sticky boobs and just decided to deal.
I was hyper aware of my lack of boobs all the way til junior year of high school. If the way clothing fit or the way my bra gaped when I reached across my body for something wasn’t enough of a reminder, I could always rely on the comments offered by family and friends to never let me forget. I started openly acknowledging that I had no boobs and got used to laughing at myself and with people about it. Making myself the joke and beating people to it helped it not affect me as much. My dad always told me they would come and I just needed to be patient. Well, THEY NEVER DID.
In college I even tried taking pills for the heck of it. Those didn’t work either despite my roommate’s endorsement of them so don’t try that. I resorted to wearing loose fitting clothing all the time. I could get away with it since it was the style anyways. People started telling me I was lucky that I didn’t have boobs because I “didn’t have to wear a bra” and “it made me look so skinny.” Sure, I was fine to not wear a bra if I was wearing something loose but they were talking about wearing tight things with no bra. DEFINITELY not. Couldn’t and wouldn’t do that. I didn’t even have the shape of a boob so it would look like two swollen mosquito bites at best. NOT CUTE. NOT TRENDY. NOT FRENCH CHIC. NOT FASHUN sry.
I just wanted to feel and look like a woman and be able to eat something without my lack of boobs accentuating the size of my stomach. The ratio was off. Also, a typical woman’s shape naturally has curves. I am a string bean. Straight up and down. Zero curve. Even when I gained 15 lbs on my mission, it didn’t go to my chest. It went EVERYWHERE else. Hahahaa. Love that for me. So, a boob job was always in the back of my mind. I knew it was the only thing that would fix the situation.
Around the beginning of my junior year in high school I finally started to get over it. I fully accepted myself the way I was and finally felt pretty. The struggles with wardrobe hadn’t disappeared but I began immersing myself in nutrition and fitness and slowly began loving myself from the inside out. I also started liking how my body was responding to the lifestyle changes I was making. I figured if I couldn’t have boobs, I could at least be really toned lol. I was in control of that. A boob job became a distant thought in the back of my mind that I’d consider getting after I had kids, maybe.
Fast forward to when Adam and I started dating. I brought up getting a boob job to him very casually simply to see what his stance on them was. My stepmom was EXTREMELY against them and judged the HELL out of any woman who had one. She basically scared me and my two stepsisters out of even thinking about getting one. I used to imagine what it would be like showing up to a family reunion years down the road with a big, fake rack and seeing the look of horror on her face to my delight. Anyways, I digress. I told Adam because I needed to know if he was going to see me differently if he knew it was something I would consider getting in the future. I explained that if I could have things my way I would just want a full B cup. Even an A cup would be GREAT. It turned out he was totally supportive and basically took the stance of: “I love you how you are but it’s up to you.” (I’m sure he was pumped and hoped I’d see it through but he kept his composure. Good boy.) I wasn’t saying I wanted one tomorrow, though. I really was just toying with the idea with no REAL intentions of doing it because as nice as having boobs would be, my phobia of needles and surgery still outweighed the pros for me.
The summer before we got married, I somehow got talking to one of my clients at work about boob jobs and she told me about the guy she went to for hers. She sang his praises so I decided to go see him for a consult just to see what it was like. It was at that consult that I found out I was a 28 inch bust. HOLY TINY. You know how bras usually start at 32A? I was a 28AA!!!!! No wonder I always hated bra shopping! THEY DIDN’T MAKE THEM IN MY SIZE. Back to the consult, the guy’s office was tiny, dingy, and nothing special. I didn’t know what to expect but I could tell his office situation wasn’t great. He wasn’t the most talkative guy either and he never had me try on sizers (very weird) but he did go over all of the possible complications with me: capsular contracture, infection, etc. He even showed me a capsule (the layer of scar tissue that forms around the implant once it’s been placed inside). Capsular contracture is when the scar tissue becomes very thick and starts to squeeze the implant causing a lot of pressure and discomfort. It results in the breast becoming inflamed and misshapen. (Google “capsular contracture” you’ll be scarred for life.) You have to have surgery to get the scar tissue or “capsule” removed. It sucks but it’s a common complication. I learned a lot in that consultation but ultimately decided not to go back to him once I found out that he specialized in nose jobs…..lol. I don’t even remember if I mentioned this whole thing to Adam.
We didn’t revisit the whole boob job idea until a year and a half later. In the meantime we got married and were finally able to be intimate (aka we waited til marriage.) which was great except for every time he put his hand on my chest I would die a little inside. I knew it probably felt like he was grabbing a flat wall or just plain air. I knew he didn’t care. I mean, obviously. He married me. But I cared!!! I just wished I had enough to fit in his hand. That’s all I wanted! It made me SO self conscious. I had no idea it was going to affect me the way it did. This might be TMI but I couldn’t relax and just enjoy it for the life of me because if I leaned over him they looked like weird hanging triangles and if I was on my back they disappeared all together. And I always wanted the lights off because, in my head, if neither of us could see then I could ignore it and relax just a little bit. Hahaahaha. Oh gosh. How sad.
The boob job came up again somehow the summer after we got married. I think he was tired of hearing me complain about how hard it was to find clothes I liked or see how disappointed I got every time I did find something I liked only to then try it on and realize it wasn’t going to work. I would get extra distraught about swimsuits most of all and I think that’s what put him over the edge. Actually, I think it just made him sad to see me so sad and upset with my body so he told me to start thinking about getting a boob job. Around the same time I found out a friend of a friend had gotten hers done so I called her and asked so many questions. Mostly about recovery. I wanted to know how bad it hurt, how much it had cost, how she decided how big to go, etc. I also had read a lot about breast implant illness and wanted to know if she had experienced any of the symptoms of that too. BII is scary shiz!!!!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with breast implant illness, there are women with breast implants who self-identify and present with various symptoms and believe that these are related to their breast implants. They refer to these symptoms as Breast Implant Illness (BII).
These women describe a variety of symptoms including (but not limited to) fatigue, chest pain, hair loss, joint pain, headaches, chills, photosensitivity, chronic pain, rash, body odor, anxiety, brain fog, sleep disturbance, depression, neurologic issues and hormonal issues that they feel are directly connected to having implants. It’s not actually an official medical diagnosis and a lot of people have mixed opinions on it. Is it just in a person’s head? Is it an allergic reaction? We don’t know. I mean, implants aren’t necessarily a natural thing. The body still views them as a foreign object and does respond accordingly. Maybe more severely in some cases than others? I think BII can be real for some people and possibly a placebo for others. A girl I followed on instagram talked about it a lot and had just gotten her implants taken out because of it. She said she felt a lot better afterwards. I reeeally didn’t want to have to go through that.
This friend who had just got hers done told me first of all to request to follow an instagram page called @mybajourney8155. It’s a page where the account owner posts a lot of before and afters giving the doctor’s name and describing which kind of implant and procedure was used as well as lots of FAQs that people answer in the comments. She said it was super helpful. I joined later and highly recommend it.
I then asked her how she knew that it was something she really wanted and she said ever since she was a little girl, she wanted boobs. When she was really young she told her mom she was super excited to have boobs one day like hers and her mom was like well...you’re gonna have to pay for them because these aren’t real. She said that from then on, she decided she’d get a boob job when she could afford it. It was really similar to how I felt. I asked about her doctor and she had nothing but good things to say about him. She said he made her feel so comfortable and his office made a great first impression on her. It felt luxe (as it should!) and the staff made her feel special. She said her recovery was a breeze and he did an amazing job. She could not be happier with the results thus far. (She was about a week or two post op when I talked to her if I remember correctly) She sent me pictures and I DIED at how good they looked. But the fear of needles and surgery were still screaming in my head. I decided if I was going to get it done, I wanted to go to her doctor because of how good her recovery had been and how good she looked. The only issue was that he was in Scottsdale, AZ and I was in San Antonio, TX at the time for my husband’s summer job and we both had to go back to Utah for school right after his job ended. When would I be able to get this done? And who would take care of me? My inlaws live in AZ but I really wasn’t comfortable asking my mother in law to do that. My husband told me to tell her about it and just ask to see if she’d be okay with me crashing in a bed for a few days to recover which I did which was painfully awkward. She took it fine but it would’ve been really rushed and I decided it was something I didn’t want to rush.
That fall, Adam suggested I start looking around at plastic surgeons locally. Now, I know it might sound like he was pushing me to do this but he knows me really well and he knew that it was something I really wanted but was too afraid to go for due to my irrational fear of needles and surgery. So he pushed. He had to and he did it for me. That might sound weird but it was necessary and he knew how happy I’d be once I got it. I continued to drag my feet though so he started researching and recalled one of my cousins recommending someone who was really good whose office was at the Riverwoods in Provo. He gave me the numbers and told me to just take the first step and set up consultations with some of the doctors around there. I didn’t have to make any commitments. I just had to go in.
Side note: When searching for the right doctor I definitely recommend asking around to people you know, using your online resources to research (aka google), and going to multiple consultations. You want to go to multiple so you can get a feel for each doctor and what they’re like. I had no idea a doctor’s personality would matter so much to me hahaa. Feeling comfortable and confident in my doctor helped a lot with my anxiety toward the whole thing.
Most doctors offer free consultations or they charge a fee (I saw people charging $100-$150 for a consult) that then goes toward the procedure if you decide to book with them. I’m pretty indecisive and wasn’t committing to anything yet so I decided to only do free consultations. The first doctor I went to in Utah was Dr. Trevor Jones. His office was nicer than the one I went to in California. But it smelled really weird. That might sound ridiculous but that was the first red flag to me. This is an elective, luxury surgery. The office should reflect that and if the doctor is good, he should have the money for it to look good. Lol. There also wasn’t another soul in there. Red flag number 2.
I went into a room for the consultation with him and one of his nurses. I asked if she had gotten hers done and she had but not by him (also thought that was weird). We talked and he just assessed me with his eyes and handed me some implants. He didn’t measure me or anything. He gave me a different bra and a t-shirt to wear over it. I put the bra on and stuck the implants in and put the shirt on. He tied the shirt up in the back so it was tighter. When I looked down, the implants looked HUGE to me. I asked what size he had given me and he told me 450 ccs. I didn’t know if that was a lot or not. CC’s stands for cubic centimeters and those didn’t make sense to me yet. I was still thinking in terms of bra size and that’s not how they measure things. Like I said, they just looked huge and that’s another thing; Anything bigger than what you currently are is going to look huge but don’t be alarmed. Allow your eyes to adjust. They will. I looked in the mirror and I looked normal, good even. I looked back down again and was shocked at how huge they were. I went back and forth like that for a bit trying to get used to it. I decided I was pretty happy with how they looked in the mirror. Both the doctor and his nurse assured me that they looked amazing and that I would regret going smaller. He said most women wake up and wish they had gone bigger. I knew that wouldn’t be the case for me and I asked if I could try an implant that was a little smaller just to see what it would look like. I put the smaller one on and thought it looked a little better. I wasn’t getting fake boobs to look like a porn star after all. I just wanted to look normal. Proportionate. I made sure to take pictures of myself wearing both sizes to show my husband and close friends after (don’t forget to do this so you can look at them later as well!).
I could tell this doctor was a salesman. He was giving me pretty slimey sales vibes and I wasn’t loving that. He told me he had a special technique where if I got the surgery in the morning I’d be able to do my makeup and go out to dinner that night. I was very skeptical and really just wanted to talk to someone who had gotten them done by him so I could hear what their experience was like first hand. I was told he had done the main nurse’s so I waited around after to talk to her. She came out and gushed all over me about how amazing he was, she’d gotten them done by him twice and both times went out to dinner that night, and then something about how sleeping on your stomach makes your boobs look more natural?? (turns out you’re not supposed to do that. Side sleeping is best for maintaining shape.) She was selling me harder than the actual doctor was, which is saying something because he was tryin hard.
The most helpful thing she did was address my concern with getting a boob job before I had kids. I wanted to know if I were to get one now, would it ruin them and make me have to get another surgery later to fix them? Would I be able to breastfeed if I wanted to? She asked me when I planned on having kids. I told her in a couple years. She then explained that if it was something I really wanted, to not hold myself back from enjoying one now. God forbid, I happen to have infertility issues and end not being able to have a kid when I start trying and it takes years to get pregnant when I could’ve had boobs that whole time. That really put it in perspective for me. She also said that breastfeeding wouldn’t be an issue and that getting them redone is a possibility but that I would probably end up getting them redone sometime in the future anyways. Basically it all just pointed to getting them done sooner rather than later and that was helpful advice for me.
I went home and did a little more research on this doctor and found out that that nurse was his wife and they were totally trying to make a buck. My gut feeling was right. I was just a dollar sign. I read reviews that said they had talked other patients into things that they didn’t really want to do too so I crossed him off my list.
The next doctor I went to was Dr. Rose at the Riverwoods. His office was much nicer. His staff was super nice and helpful. The office seemed busy with other patients too which was a good sign to me. I also brought one of my best friends with me since Adam couldn’t make it and it helped a lot having her there to give me her opinion. I definitely recommend bringing someone whose opinion you trust and who is very supportive of your decision. It made me feel more calm and more confident.
The head receptionist (turns out she was actually head coordinator) that brought me into the consultation was about my height, weight, and size and had gotten hers done by Dr. Rose so I asked her tons of questions and really trusted her opinion on what size I went with because she looked incredible. She told me he was wonderful. She had gotten hers done twice. First by someone else, the second time by Dr. Rose. Her daughters had gone to him as well. She had opted for the second operation because she wanted to trade her saline ones for the newer silicone kind. It didn’t feel like she was trying to sell me at all. She was just really nice.
The nurse that came in shortly after to help with measurements had just barely gotten hers done by him a week before and was on her feet at work. She said she was super happy with them and felt great overall. I was shocked that she was working and wasn’t even on pain meds anymore. That was really reassuring. Then Dr. Rose came in and talked to me for a bit. He was quiet, kind, and very straight to the point. He took very thorough measurements and used a chart to determine the range I should consider for optimal appearance and recovery. (I REALLY APPRECIATED THAT MATH BEHIND THAT) He said that 420 ccs was my max based on my measurements. He said if I went any bigger than that I would risk getting stretch marks, experience rippling and possibly other complications. I was shocked because the other doctor had been pushing so hard for 450 ccs! It was terrifying to me that I could’ve made that mistake and ended up hating them! Dr. Rose didn’t try to persuade me to do anything. He just gave me the facts and told me I was going to look amazing and love them. I told him, based on my research, I wanted silicone and for it to be placed under the muscle. Everyone agreed with that decision and then he left the room so I could try on the sizers with my friend and Jodi, the sweet coordinator. I was stuck between the look of 350/375 ccs so I scheduled another appt to come back with Adam and make a decision.
When I came back with Adam and tried on those sizes for him he was suuuuper indifferent. NOT HELPFUL at all. Hahaa. He was like well it’s your body! I don’t want to tell you what to do with it! And I was like well this is for US so I kind of need your opinion because you’re going to be looking at them as much as I am sooooo... He still wasn’t very helpful but I decided on 350cc textured medium profile silicone implants. (Textured apparently helps prevent capsular contracture) For my procedure (just a breast augmentation) it was $5900. I also opted for a $330 numbing shot they offered that would keep the area numb for up to 72 hours afterward. The nurse and Jodi both recommended it. So the total for my surgery would be $6200 but we left without picking a date yet bc I still wasn’t ready to commit. I was still 100% terrified. Of the pain, of the possible complications, of breast implant illness, of having to get a second surgery, of the needles, of the unknown. I had never gotten surgery before except for my wisdom teeth and I don’t think that really counts.
We went home and discussed when would be a good time to get it done. I was in school and was about a month and a half away from finals and graduating. There was a 3 day weekend in a month so we decided that would be my best bet because we would leave for the summer right after school ended. I booked the date for Thursday 4/5/2019 and proceeded to have a nervous breakdown and then 2 panic attacks later than day. We’re talking full on sobbing and hyperventilating because I was SO SCARED. Like paralyzed with anxiety. I felt like time was dragging me to my doom. Most of this fear was literally about the IV. HAHAHAA. I AM A BABY. The rest of the fear was about the pain of recovery and the possibility of having to go through this again due to an infection or other complication that I had no control over. I was also worried about possibly not liking the size. So, two weeks before my operation I went back in with another friend just to try on the sizers one more time to make sure it was what I wanted. I ultimately decided to go down to a 335 cc implant and felt REALLY good about that.
Side note: in regards to choosing a size, most people end up going up 2 cup sizes but that’s not the case for everyone. You need to know yourself and what you like. Look at pictures of models and bring those pictures into your consultation. That way, the doctor will have a much better idea of the look you’re going for. Alexis Ren and Adriana Lima were my inspo. I wanted something natural-looking, proportionate to my body, and perky. I did not want to look like a pin-up girl or a stripper. BUT some people do want that look and that’s not a bad thing. It’s just their preference. I just didn’t think that would look right on my little body. But my sister is small like me and has gotten her boobs done and she loves the look of huge boobs so the regret of not going big enough probably would’ve applied to her if she had been more conservative with the size she chose. Thankfully, she went bigger and is super happy with it. You just have to know yourself, look at lots of pictures, and talk to people whose opinions you trust.
Back to my looming fear of IVs...I was talking to another girl that had gotten hers done and I told her about my needle phobia and she said her doctor gave her gas to put her to sleep before she even got stuck with any kind of needle. I was like WTF? Why can’t they do that for me then??? I called the office and asked if that was a possibility because it would help me relax so much more. They checked and said that would be just fine. They left a note on my chart with the request and I was good to go. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH RELIEF THAT GAVE ME. So, if you have a fear of needles like I do, you can ask them to knock you out with fumes before they place the IV.
As the date grew closer and closer, I searched that instagram page I mentioned earlier for recommendations and tips on anything I would need for recovery. Here’s my list:
Front zip or front buttoning shirts and sweatshirts
Straws to drink out of
A supportive back pillow.
A recliner if you have it (I didn’t and I wish I did. Sleeping and getting up and down would’ve been SO MUCH easier)
Big, comfy pull-on sweats
Mederma scar gel for when the tape comes off
Scrunchies for your hair
Saltines or pretzels and ginger ale for the first day or two post op to calm the nausea
A stool softener and maybe even a mild laxative because the pain meds will make you hella constipated
Extra strength tylenol because you’re gonna want to get off those pain meds asap so you aren’t so constipated anymore
A person to help take care of you while you’re recovering. ESPECIALLY if you have small children that need to be held because you shouldn’t be picking up anything heavier than 5-10lbs for a solid few weeks. And won’t because you don’t want to risk aggravating your implants or incision and getting capsular contracture, right????
My sweet, angel aunt who’s also a doctor came to town the night before my surgery to take care of me during my recovery. Looking back I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done without her. She cooked, cleaned, and kept me on my pill schedule. Adam had to be gone a lot for work and school things during my recovery so I would’ve been alone a lot. I definitely recommend having someone there to help you get around your first few days.
My doctor prescribed me xanax to calm my nerves so I took one the night before around midnight and I’ve never slept so well. I also opted to be the first operation of the day (6 am) so I left the house at 5 am still a little high. I recommend the xanax and I recommend being the first surgery so you don’t have time to think and stress. You just wake up and go.
Adam and I got into the waiting room. The nurse told me to change into my gown and compression socks on and someone would be in soon to give me my IV. I was like EXCUSE ME?!?!!? I started panicking. The anesthesiologist came in to see me and I was like, there is a note on my chart that says GAS BEFORE IV. Adam was like you’re fine. You can do this. I was like BUT IT’S ON MY CHART. I double and triple checked before this! The anesthesiologist got frustrated and was like if you’re not able to get an IV then idk what youre doing with this surgery. Gas before IV is just not how we do things and left. My doctor came in to check on me a couple minutes later and I was basically in tears. He was like don’t worry we’ll do exactly what you want. We want you to be comfortable. He explained that this anesthesiologist was very by the book and was different from the anesthesiologist who had approved my request. WTF. Whatever, as long as I was knocked out before I got stuck with any sort of needle.
I then walked myself into the operating room, laid myself on the table with my arms out in a T. The A-hole anesthesiologist leaned over me, clearly pissed and was like, “Well, this is what you asked for!” and slapped the gas mask on my face. I choked the fumes down as fast as I could.
I was told the whole thing took about an hour to an hour and a half. Then it took me about another hour/hour and a half to fully wake up and be okay enough to get up and leave. The anesthesia made me suuuper nauseous but I never threw up thank goodness. I had no strength at all. I felt every bump in the road on the way home. I also had a wide, thick velcro strap that awas cinched tightly across the top of my boobs to push them down that I had to wear for a week. That was very uncomfy too.
Back at my apartment, I had this crappy sectional that had deep seats with zero support. I set up camp on the chaise for the next 4 days where there was a huge butt dent due to it being Adam’s favorite spot in the house. This made it VERY hard to get up and down. I couldn’t use my arms because everything engaged my chest muscles. I couldn’t make it to the bathroom on my own or do much else the first day. Walking made me so nauseous. All I wanted to do was sleep. I didn’t feel pain necessarily. I was mostly numb from that shot. I just felt A LOT of pressure. And it was uncomfortable - like my chest was going to explode. It was a really weird feeling. And every time I got cold it was EXTRA uncomfortable because everything got even tighter and the pressure in my chest would increase.
The day I came home Adam and my aunt had me raising my arms over my head. It felt like I had done the most intense chest workout of my entire life. Raising my arms was HARD. Every few hours my aunt made me get up and do sets of 10 arm raises to gain range of motion back and walk laps around my apartment to prevent blood clots in my legs. I would end up exhausted and then sleep for several hours. I took pain pills the first 3 days but it was mostly for my back. Sleeping propped up made my back hurt even worse than my boobs. The pain in my back would wake me up in the middle of the night those first few nights that I had to sleep sitting up.
I took a shower my second day post op and saw my boobs for the first time. I remember getting so overwhelmed I sat down on the floor and cried. They were super boxy and sat really high on my chest. (This is 100% normal, btw. It takes months for the implants to “drop and fluff.”) They looked so weird and I had been adequately warned that they would but I think I was so high on drugs that I couldn’t handle it. I was just like what did I do??? What if I get breast implant illness? What if I have to go through this all over again? I got over it though and felt so much better after showering. Lol
Day 3 I started feeling extremely uncomfortable because I was SO BLOATED and constipated. Even though I had been faithfully taking the stool softener, I looked pregnant and felt terrible. It felt like food was just stacking up inside me and my stomach was going to explode. I stopped taking the pain pills and switched to extra strength tylenol so my digestive system could start working again. I ended up begging for an enema about 5 to 7 days post op and it rocked my world. At first it felt like the most painful stomach cramps where I was gripping the counter next to me for dear life and then I felt so much relief when it was over. Soooo you potentially have that to look forward to but I don’t think most people get enemas. I just couldn’t stand being that bloated and uncomfy anymore.
Day 5, I felt okay enough to try to go to school. It was a week and a half before finals my senior year of college and I was stressed. (Hahaahah why did I do that?) Going to class was hard. I had to drive there which was surprisingly difficult. I had no idea how much you use your chest to turn the wheel. And then I had to walk up 5 flights of stairs to get to my class which about knocked me out hahaa. I was so uncomfy sitting in class and sweating in my zip up that I couldn’t take off. I left early. By one week post op I was fine and back at school. Around that same time I put on lingerie for the first time after surgery and felt AMAZING about the way I looked.
I went to my one week post op appointment and my doctor said everything looked good. I was told to just leave the steri strips on and let them fall off on their own. That was fine by me. I wasn’t gonna mess with my incisions. It made me queasy even looking at the strips knowing I was cut open under there. They sent me home with directions to do these boob squeezes for multiple seconds multiple times a day. Those were annoying and felt really weird. There were two squeezes. One where you made a V with your hand and pinched your opposite boob under the nipple to force the implant to pop up under the chest muscle. This was to keep the pocket open so the implant didn’t drop too low. Repeat with the other hand and boob. The second squeeze you had to use both hands and squeeze both boobs together to stretch the skin in the middle to form cleavage. I had gone from nothing to a lot of something so my skin was super tight and needed to loosen up. These helped with that.
I was able to start walking on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike at 3 weeks. At 30 days they measured me for a real, underwire bra and they told me I absolutely had to wear that during the day and my surgical bra at night. They measured me for a 30 D. That was a bit shocking lol. Going from A to D. But you really couldn’t tell since I had such a narrow ribcage and all my clothes were baggy anyways.
It was around 5 weeks post op I was given clearance to start working out and lifting weights again. My doctor just told me to take it easy and pay attention to my body. If it didn’t feel right, don’t push it. He also stressed the importance of a high impact sports bra. I recommend Victoria Secret’s Knockout Ultra Max Front-close Sport Bra and Lululemon’s Enlite Bra. Even now, a year later, I still don’t do push ups or chest workouts very often because they feel super weird. But I figure that’s okay since girls don’t really need a chest.
In conclusion, I got the boob job for me and for my husband. Not so I could flaunt them and wear slutty clothes. In fact, most people can’t even tell I got one unless they see me in a swimsuit. I haven’t experienced any of the symptoms of breast implant illness and I took super good care of myself so I haven’t experienced capsular contracture either. If you’re thinking about getting it done, I say go for it! The recovery honestly wasn’t that bad. It was just rough the first 3-5 days. The part that got to me was not being able to work out. It made me a little crazy. That being said, I don’t regret it AT ALL. I love mine SO much. Swimsuit, shirt, and bra shopping are now fun for me! I feel so much sexier and confident in myself and in my marriage. The size I got was so perfect for me. Also, everything I have still fits me besides a couple sports bras and swimsuits so I didn’t have to buy a whole new wardrobe or anything. My doctor did a phenomenal job. I felt so safe. I now believe my husband when he says I look good. It was like I didn’t believe him when he would tell me before because I didn’t think so myself. How could he find me, a woman, attractive when I didn’t have the things that made women look womanly? I know reading that might trigger some people but it’s just how I felt. I am a huge advocate for women loving themselves just the way they are but sometimes a girl wants boobs, yanno? You can still be a femenist girl boss and want boobs too. Also you’ll live. I’m proof.
Hopefully this helped! If you have any other questions that I didn’t answer in this, feel free to comment below!
xxx,
Sam