I nursed both my babies for around 2 years each. While nursing I was a dd. My breasts deflated to the point where I could see my rib cage and pectoral muscles on top. The bottom portion of my breast was so saggy that they folded in on themselves. I looked like a zombie! My bottom half is very curvaceous. I workout a lot and have big hips, a big butt, and a lot of muscle. This didn't match my undead looking breasts. I wanted enough implant to bring life to my top.
The surgery went really well. He put in 320 cc of anatomical polyurethane dual plane. I did have nausea but I expected that. The pain isn't that bad, it's a lot like having your milk come in but with an elephant on your chest. I get to wear this snazzy tape for a week then I transition to a support bra. I'm also wearing compression stockings and taking daily lovenox to prevent blood clots as I have APS. Overall the worst parts are bloating, nausea, and feeling useless. I can't hold my kids, cook, or clean. I'm just a sleepy blob on the couch. I do worry 320cc is too big. Hopefully it settles a lot!
I have to say I'm so happy I kept my nursing chair because sleeping there was relatively easy. I'm very nauseous and constipated so I stopped taking any pain meds other than Tylenol. Frankly throwing up through my tight chest is more painful than having proper pain relievers.
My 3 and 5 year old are not happy that I can't pick them up, so I am crushed about that.
Otherwise the pain is very easy to cope with.
I stopped taking narcotics day two so I could get my stomach on track. Frankly I can manage pain a lot better than nausea. After two natural child births, pain is really in perspective and ba pain isn't really that horrible. My bandages are falling apart so I put a sports bra on to help hold them on until I see the nurse in 2 days. The girls look huge! I wanted a big b to a small c, and the boob pics I sent in were all of small chested women. I'm trying not to judge it now as I know they are super swollen. Honestly they are so big and shiny that I'm renaming them the beacons of Gobdor. I took my kids out for brunch yesterday and some man with his family could not stop starring at me. It was very odd. I'll be a lot happier when the girls aren't so out there. Side note, I'm up 6 lbs of boob and bloating. It feels very unattractive. That plus not being able to wash or style my hair has me looking like Courteney Love. Yaaaaay :/.
I'm slightly nervous that my ps put in the wrong size. I said anywhere from 250-300 as long as my saggy girls were perked up. The final size was 320. My waist is 26 and now my chest is 36! They better shrink to a big B/ small C range. I'm not interested in too much attention.
The girls look really good. Well, they look like swollen torpedos but I think after they drop and fluff they should be exactly what I asked for. The incision almost made me pass out though. Its so gaping and purple and crusty! The doctor assured me it was normal so I asked her to cover them up again so I wouldn't have to see them too much. They're terrifying!
I've started walking my kids to school/ walking the dog. I typically walk 6-8 miles a day doing this. Its such a big part of how my family functions that I couldn't put it on hold that much longer. It hurts for sure as I'm off every pain medication, but my options are pretty limited.
I've started sleeping in bed (off the arm chair) again too, which is wonderful as I missed my husband. So pretty much life had returned to normal minus my workout and cleaning routine.
One small annoyance is I still can't cook! I can't lift mixing bowls or chop things. I'm glad I froze a ton of food to allow recovery time. I would definitely recommend that people freeze a couple week's worth of food. Takeaway definitely wouldn't help the healing process the way a proper, Veggie filled meal does.
Biofreeze is saving my back and ribs. Since I'm shying away from pain killers I am very sore. Biofreeze works a charm. I updated my review of the procedure to worth it. My husband looked at me in a way he hasn't for a long time. He's a great man but a terrible liar. I knew he wasn't digging my tube sock breasts. But today he had a big grin when I undressed. That grin was worth it.
Mr Ahmad was one in a million; he gave honest, clear advice about my problem and his recommended solution. He made sure that I understood everything and was happy for me to take as long as I wanted to decide on what was right for me. A surgeon of this quality, practising in Cambridge was a huge benefit to me and will be to anyone else who wants to make the best of themselves.
I have had eye bags for as long as I can remember, huge great massive ones that no amount of creams or treatment shifted. So I decided to go for it and have them removed. I spent about a year researching and plucking up the courage to have surgery. I chose to see Mr Tariq Ahmad in Cambridge, he was recommended by a GP and an Oculoplastic Surgeon, you can't get better than that, so I made a consultation appointment. And I was so pleased I did. He agreed that I did have eye bags and that he could improve them - a nice way of saying that he agreed with me and I did have big ones!
This is what Mr Ahmad said he was going to do - " full lower eyelid blepharoplasty to include a canthopexy to strengthen the lower eyelid, minor redundant muscle and appropriate skin trim, an arcus marginalis release and fat pad transposition to mobilise the fat pads causing the 'eyelid bags'. I will also hitch the lateral retinaculum and orbicularis muscle to support the lower eyelid and perhaps undertake a limited SOOF lift to further support the eyelid but also provide an element of cheek lift."
Phew, an awful lot. I wanted to feel impressed but I rather thought that my eye bags were perhaps worse than I thought. Good job I had already made the decision to have this operation.
We agreed a surgery date of 31st August 2016 and this is my story...
OPERATION DAY - Feeling apprehensive and nervous, I arrived at the hospital, ready to get this over with. I just couldn't wait. Bravely, I took a 'before' photo in the bathroom of my hospital room, just to remind myself of why I was doing this. I was having a General Anaesthetic so staying in overnight.
DAY 1 - Feeling battered and bruised but strangely in no pain. A weird feeling not being able to open my eyes fully. So ready to go home and be in my bed. Need to sleep sitting up for about a week and ice my eyes several times a day. I so want this to work so I'm going to doing everything I am told to do (even if that is sleep sitting up!!!)
DAY 3 - Ok, still no pain but so tender and sore around my eyes. The worst bit is the numbness down my right side of my face. The absolute BEST bit is that I can already see that my eye bags have gone - goodbye bags, I won't miss you!
DAY 5 - Bruising going down well. Quite a dry left eye and now using 'artificial tears' eye drops to soothe it. Still using an ice mask several times a day as this is very relieving. Not being to open my eyes fully is now VERY irritating and I can't wait until I get my stitches out tomorrow.
DAY 6 - Halleluiah, hooray, stitches are out - completely painless and took just a few minutes. Blink blink, my eyes work better now. I'm off home for a good look in the mirror. Still got a dry eye which is tiresome. The numbness is still there, should I be worried about that?
DAY 9 - I can really see what Mr Ahmad has done now. NO eye bags left and my face looks like it has had a mini face lift. Hello cheekbones, not seen you for a few years. Stood in front of the mirror and had a few tears. God, I love Mr Ahmad....
DAY 14 - Went for my follow-up appointment today. It went well and Mr Ahmad was pleased with progress so far. He explained exactly what he did, more importantly said the numbness was normal but would last a couple of months (max). My eyes are blinking at different speeds, the left one slower and doesn't close completely - which probably explains why it feels so dry. Just a matter of time before it sorts itself out - can it please hurry up!
I have my next follow up appointment in 4 weeks time and I will update this progress review then, but this is what I learnt so far:-
1. I hate sleeping upright
2. I didn't expect the numbness, I think this will make applying make-up tricky until it goes
3. A longer recovery period than initially thought
4. The blinking out of sync is off-putting to people looking at me
5. Amazingly no pain, only had a few paracetamols throughout the whole process so far
So.....
Would I do it again? YES
Would I recommend Mr Ahmad? OH YES
Day 20 Things are improving every day. The stitches in the corners of my eyes are still there and a bit tight so looking forward to them dropping out. I'm so please Mr Ahmad told me honestly about how long it takes for fully recovery, I saw on here where people had been told 2-3 weeks recovery; if I had believed that then I would be panicking now (like some people are). My goal is to see how I look at my 6 week review.
Day 23 The dissolvable stitches in my right eye all fell out today but still some in left eye. Left eye sore and still needs drops for dry eye, hoping this will improve when stitches go. Right eye very comfortable. Numbness improving, now localised to right side of nose and under both eyes.
Day 26 All going well. Still a couple of stitches left to dissolve (the white bits at the corner of my eye in the photo). I have a little "blink lag" in left eye and swelling/tenderness under both eyes. I'm happy so far and will update again after my next visit to surgeon which is at 6 weeks post op.
5 weeks puts op - bye bye bags Really really happy. Back at work now, right eye very good, left eye not far behind now. Still a little swollen and numb directly under the lower lashes but other than that, feeling great!
7 weeks post op I just thought I would do a quick update at 7 weeks and show you my before and after pictures. I saw my surgeon, Mr Ahmad, yesterday and he said all was going well but that I would see the full results after 12 weeks. Well I am delighted now so god knows what I will be like in 4 weeks time. It was well worth it and I would do it again. My eye bags were huge, the before picture was actually on a good day too! Mr Ahmad performed a miracle and I can't thank him enough.
Mr Tariq Ahmad is very informative and has a lot of experience behind him, he really made me feel comfortable.
This site has helped me so, so much with research and preparing for surgery so I'd like to put my experience on here with the hope of helping someone else!
I am all booked in to have my rhinoplasty operation in less than 2 weeks which is very exciting but also scary as this is my first ever operation!!
I'll take you back to the start, I have wanted a nose job ever since I can remember, my nose was the first thing on my face to grow and it grew big!! As I have been 'blessed' with the family nose I was constantly being told I would grow into it, which is true to some extent but no where near as much as I would have liked. I have a very prominent tip and a large hump in the middle. ( I will post pictures later on)
So after years of saving I rushed into searching for a surgeon and booked in for a free consulation with a local branch of a national medical aesthetics company. They cancelled my appointment 3 times until I finally got in to see a surgeon (this should have been a warning sign), I walked into the consultation room, sat down and was asked why I was there (which I thought was pretty obvious) and was left to ask all my own questions, but being a newbie I literally had no idea what to ask or say so after less than 10 minutes of awkward questions I went on my way as I knew that it wasn't for me, if their aftercare was anything like the pre-care I knew I'd be in trouble!
I decided to spend a decent amount of time spread over a couple of weeks researching everything and I only looked for private surgeons on the BAAPS website. After much googling I decided to book a consultation with Mr Tariq Ahmad in the Peterborough Fitzwilliam hospital. This consulation couldn't have been more opposite to my previous one! He told me absolutely everything, took photos, had a really good look at my nose and drew diagrams to show me what he'd have to do to achieve my desired look, he even showed me a slideshow of what the surgery will be like! I was totally put at ease and knew straight away I wanted him to be my surgeon. He advised me to go away and think it all through for a month and come up with any questions and arrange a follow up consultation. In the next couple of days I received a letter from him almost 4 pages long with every detail of our chat with him which I was very impressed with! I booked in for a follow up consultation and got the last of my questions answered, he never once made me feel rushed or stupid for asking 'silly' questions (such as 'what if I wake up during surgery'). With my mind made up I called his secretary the next day to book an operation date and now I'm counting down the days until March 30th!!