My Surgery Complications

I thought LONG and HARD about rather I would ever share this post.
Mainly because I know there will be individuals who feel the need to leave mean comments and snicker at my experience, but in the end I feel like sharing the experience to help others outweighs the malicious actions that may come.

As you all know I have a breast augmentation last October.
I should start out by saying I am still happy with the results and would have it over again in a heartbeat. I'm sharing this post to educate ladies who are considering this procedure of what COULD happen and to spread awareness on the possibilities of complications.

When you go to a consultation, any good doctor is going to explain the risks associated with this procedure. However, what they do AFTER they explain the risks is SELL you on their services. They are going to tell you that those complications are NOT common and in my case they are going to explain why I was the perfect candidate for the procedure.

Lets start with my history.

I was a 26 year old healthy woman with full A/small B breasts. My boobs were perfectly symmetrical (they measure you pre-op) which from I am told is VERY uncommon. Most women do not have perfectly even boobs. I have a history of hernias (muscle tearing) and get stretch marks easily. All of this was discussed in my consultation for the following reasons. 1. I did NOT want uneven boobs and 2. I did NOT want stretch marks on my boobs.

I was told by my surgeon that I was "the PERFECT candidate" because I had enough breast tissue to cover my implant and my boobs were symmetrical so he would simply put even implants in both breasts and that he would not have to even them out to make them symmetrical. He also assured me that women getting stretch marks from breast augmentation is VERY uncommon. The few cases that he had seen it in, were women who got huge impants (A to a DD). Your breast tissue naturally has elasticity to grow, therefore I should NOT have issues with this because I was not getting large implants and that worrying about this was a waste of my energy. PERFECT CANDIDATE.

Now lets talk post surgery.

Immediately following surgery I was convinced my right breast was bigger than my left. I voiced this at my post-op appointment and was reassured that this was only the case because I am right handed and that I was using that arm more, which would cause it to be slightly more swollen.

Around 1 month post-op, the swelling was finally gone and I could see what my actual breast size was. My implants were the same size and all right in the world! No stretch marks, everything was fabulous. I was now just waiting for them to drop into place.

{Even but the implants were still very high so the nipples are low on the beast}

2 months post-op was when my initial issues began. I noticed about a week before my 2 month visit that my left breast was falling into place and that my right one was not. Obviously, this meant that my boobs were uneven and looked lopsided. I had one breast that was clearly farther down which made the nipple placements uneven and to be honest, look pretty goofy. Being a woman who had perfectly symmetrical breast her whole life, I flipped shit. There was crying. There were many discussions about boobs and there were was WAY too much time spent in front of the mirror. As you can imagine I was devastated at the fact that I paid someone to ruin my boobs. They may have been bigger, BUT they were LOPSIDED!

{The left moved into place so the nipple placement is normal, but the right stayed high leaving the nipple at the bootom of the breast. Lopsided}

At my 2 month visit, I voiced my concerns to my doctor who to my surprised agreed with everything I said. He said they were in fact uneven. The left had clearly dropped and that the right had not. He then explained that I had formed scar tissue under the right breast at the incision and had not under the left. This was why I was experiencing this. Makes sense, but I wasn't looking for an explanation I was looking for a fix. He then told me that this could be fixed with a simple surgery where he would cut through the scar tissue and lower the implant. Another surgery? Not something I wanted. So he gave me breast massaging exercises to preform only on my right breast hoping to stretch the scar tissue and move the implant down into place.

For the next 4 weeks my roommate (bless her heart) and Chris got to wonderful job of pushing on my boob twice a day, every day, hoping to help it fall. TALK ABOUT HURT. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone involved. After about a month of this, I began to notice 3 tiny pink marks under my skin. I'm no stranger to stretch marks so immediately I KNEW that the "massaging" aka boob pushing was tearing my tissue and creating stretch marks. I immediate stopped all massaging and took my happy ass back to the doctor.

At that point I'm pretty sure I became his most dreaded patient. I was always VERY nice to him because lets be honest he isn't God and my mother put that into perspective very early on. He had no way of controlling what my body was doing and he was my only lifeline to fixing this mess. I think he wanted everything to work out as badly as I did and all my post-op appointments were free, so he wasn't making a dime on seeing so often.

We discovered at this appointment, that my breast had in fact developed 3 tiny stretch marks. It is most common for this to occur shortly after surgery, NOT 3 months later which left him speechless. They were TINY and barely noticeable, but none the less, they were there. Thankfully, I noticed them quickly and was able to begin applying cream to prevent spreading and before they actually penetrated the top layer of skin. The good news from this appointment was that my right breast had in fact began to drop and my unevenness was finally evening out.

{ Finally even with normal nipple placement, but you can still see the 3 pink lines near my nip. Thankfully you cannot see them in a swimsuit!}

We agreed then to give the healing process time to work itself out and that I would follow up at 6 months to see where I stood then.

Present Day - 5 Months Post-Op.

My breast have finally completely settled into place and are no longer uneven. Thank Jesus! I do still have slight pinkness from the tiny stretch marks, but they are slowly turning white and have not gotten worse. All in all, I am VERY happy that these issues worked themselves out. I say that I would do it all over again and I genuinely think I would, but this may be because I cannot change this decision and I'm an optimist who chooses to look at the good rather than regret!

My whole reasoning for sharing this is to try to make women understand that plastic surgeons are NOT God. Even the BEST surgeons cannot GUARANTEE an outcome because your body can react in ways that they are unable to control. I feel LUCKY to have only had small problems with my surgery and I was "the PERFECT candidate".

I also want to stress that your expectations need to be realistic. Just because you do your research and pay thousands of dollars does NOT mean you will feel "perfect" with your results. After this experience, I look at plastic surgery differently. I have discouraged friends from altering their faces via nose job, over and over again. I was lucky enough to walk away with beautiful boobs that look perfect in a swimsuit and to have a boyfriend who could can less about tiny pink marks that will fade away. Your face is a whole other story. You can't cover in up with a bikini top or clothing!

I guess my final thought regarding the topic is... If you believe the risk is worth a WORSE version of your current problem, then go for it. Because in the event that your body doesn't agree or something goes wrong in surgery, you do have to live with whatever results you end up with. Surgery is NOT a guarantee and as a patient you need to fully understand this! A surgeron can sell his services but he cannot GUARANTEE the outcome.

I hope this spreads an honest light on what CAN happen via plastic surgery. In many cases everything goes perfectly and I hope that is/was the case in any of yours, but it can also go wrong. You can have unexpect complications and result and this needs to be something you understand and are prepared to live with!