Hello!!
So I had a boob job (breast augmentation) on May 30th 2014, unfortunately it didn't go too well! I want to share my story so other women are aware that the risks can come true. It's not to put anyone off having breast augmentation, but if you are planning on having the surgery then at least hearing my story you might be more prepared to be able to do deal with some of the things that can go wrong and make sure you discuss the risks with your surgeon and make sure that he/she will take care of you after the surgery if they do come true!
This is also for anyone who is interested in having surgery and want to see how the process goes. Research and finding out as much information as possible is important when you are contemplating having any kind of surgery and it should never be taken lightly.
So here’s my story….sorry it’s really long lol
I wanted boobs because I’ve had 3 children, breast fed all of them for a year each which left me with empty sagging boobs which didn't even fill a 32a cup. I stopped breast feeding on November 1st 2013 when Dylan (my youngest) was 2 weeks away from his 1st birthday. I absolutely hated the way my boobs looked every time I stopped breast feeding, they looked like little empty sacks of loose skin, they were droopy and just disgusting I hated them!! I always had very small boobs anyway, not even a 32a before my first pregnancy but all 3 times, as soon as I had given birth and the milk came, my boobs were huuuuge!! To others they might not look big at all but for me it was like WHOOOOAA they are massive! And then when I stopped breast feeding, they were smaller than before and had lost all the perkiness!
This is the only picture where you can actually see a bit of boobage! This is when I was breast feeding Charlie, to me my boobies look big, compare that to having absolutely nothing and it is a big difference! They actually look bigger there than my boobs do now after surgery!
So after I finished breast feeding Dylan, which altogether was a total of 3 years constant breast feeding, my boobs were just hideous, I hated them so much that I just wanted them gone, I literally just had loose skin and a nipple on the end lol! I always felt so insecure, I never wore pretty tops and for years (since I was 18) I wore chicken fillets, a very padded gel bra and then a bigger bra with a bigger cup but still very padded on top so you couldn't see the first bra underneath. So that made it look like I had small boobs underneath my clothes but in the summer it was horrible, I always wore t shirts so you couldn't see any of my chest area or all the bra straps and they would dig in so bad! I never took the kids swimming or anything like that so it was just a massive insecurity that held me back living life, which sounds so silly they are only boobs but as a women it can be such a huge insecurity! Since the age of 13, very young I know, but that was the age when girls at school were or already had, developed boobs, I had nothing! Boys used to take the mick out of me and ask "why are you even wearing a bra when your flat chested?" etc etc. So by the age of 16 when I still hadn't really developed boobs I started becoming obsessed with wanting a boob job! I worked as a waitress / barmaid and saved up all my money but by the time I was getting close to how much I needed, I became pregnant with Jessica at 19 years old. So then I always thought, well I want 3 children, when I've had all my babies, I will see how I feel then about my boobs and if I still want to get surgery. So once I had stopped breast feeding Dylan I became extremely obsessed again with my boobs, I didn't have all my boob job savings any more, so I thought that's out of the question for years to come yet unless I win the lottery, so instead I just wanted all the loose skin (boobs) gone, so I became obsessed with exercise, weight training focusing on the pectoral muscles and losing weight. I have always been very slim anyway, at least I've always been lucky in that area being able to eat whatever I want and not putting on weight, but I thought since boobs are mostly made of fatty tissue, if I lose weight and tone up my chest, then my boobs will be gone.
So this is 3 months after I had stopped breast feeding Dylan (probably why he looks so miserable lol) and as you can see I was completely flat chested, very slim/muscular. But at least being very toned gave the illusion of cleavage with the groove in between my chest (does that make sense?)
So I think people started becoming a bit concerned with my weight, it's not that I was unhealthy, in fact I was feeling pretty fit and had lots of energy, I think it's just when you are flat chested it makes you look skinny when I actually wasn't! But Adam (my partner <3 ) he had to listen to me moan for years about wanting a boob job and how I hate my saggy non existent boobs etc etc and when he saw how obsessed I was with working out my chest area to just get rid of anything that was left there, I think he was really concerned and he knew how unhappy and insecure I was about my boobs so he told me that he had been saving up for a year and if I want to get a boob job I had to research it and look into the best company / surgeons etc and then I can have it done!! I was over the moon and I had already spent years and years researching and I already knew exactly where I was going to go and who my surgeon would be, so I booked a consultation with MYA in Chelmsford.
So I had the consultation, the lady just asked a few questions, she recommended Dr Frati which I was pleased about because that's who I wanted because he had a very good reputation, he was known as "the boob god" and he liked to give very natural results which is exactly what I wanted. Some surgeons like to give big fake looking boobies and I have never been interested in getting that!
A week or so later I had the consultation with the surgeon, I had to wait for over an hour to be seen by him which was not a one off because I had to do that at LEAST 20 times after my surgery when I had to keep going back to see him (which I will get to eventually lol) So my first impression of him was "oh shit I don't like him" he was just so rude, he didn't greet me when I entered the room, I sat down at his desk and he just ignored me so I was like =-/ then he said hello and he didn't seem interested in me at all, I thought maybe he's just having an off day, but no he's always like that! So the consultation didn't last long at all, to be honest I couldn't wait to get out of that room! So I explained what I wanted, which was very natural looking boobs, over the muscles because at the time (lol) I liked exercising (if you work out a lot it's best to get the implants put over the muscles) and I wanted to from a 32a to a 32b or very small 32c just to get it to the size they were when I was breast feeding to fill them back out again without stretching the skin anymore. Since my right boob was slightly bigger than my left which I think was due to me using my left boob more when breast feeding (the rght side never seemed as comfortable) . So he gave me a 250cc implant to slip into my bra to see how it looked and it was perfect, that was exactly what I wanted! It gave me the size that I was when breast feeding which was big enough to fill them back out again which was all I wanted so there was no more loose skin and it wouldn't have been such a drastic change that people would even realise that I had a boob job (and no one ever has realised......secrets out now lol DOH)
So when we left (me and my Aunty) I was really excited but I said I'm a bit worried now because I wasn't too keen on the surgeon but she said "He was rude but he seems to know what he's talking about and you said he has a good reputation so I'd just stick with him" so I did. On the MYA forum, so many girls raved about how great he is and they loved the results he gave them and quite a few people had mentioned his attitude so at least it wasn't just me that he was off with!
So the next month went by super fast, I wasn't nervous at all just super excited!!
The day of the surgery, my Aunty came with me for support which I really appreciated, my admission time was 10.30am at Highgate hospital so we left at 7am and got the train to London. We had to wait for AGEEEEESS, Dr Frati is ALWAYS late for his appointments, so even though I wasn't nervous at all before then, the waiting around, being so hungry and thirsty from not being able to eat or drink, I had hardly any sleep the night before because I was too excited so the waiting round got me feeling anxious, but finally he came into the room and drew on my boobs. I was having a 250cc high profile implant in my right boob and 270cc in my left boob. He said he will be ready in 15 minutes but I ended up waiting another hour and a half! So then a nurse took me down and I was told to lay on the bed, I had the drugs injected into me, fell asleep quickly, had my surgery at 1pm, it only took 45 minutes, got back to my room and i felt great at first I was so excited I actually had boobs! I wasn't really in any pain, I felt tired but I would have felt rude going to sleep because then my Aunty would just be bored sitting in the room so we just talked for a while. By 3pm my Aunt noticed that my right drain was filling up really fast with fluid/blood and the right boob was double the size of my left boob. So I asked the nurse about it and she said she had noticed as well and thought I might have to more surgery to correct it!! I was like =-O WHAAAAAAT??!! So I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink and omg I was sooooo thirsty it was horrible. We had to wait for hours for Dr Frati to come see me because he was busy doing other surgeries, so when he saw me he said I had to stay overnight to see if the bleeding would stop. I had hemotopia or something I can't remember what it's called but it's basically just a blood clot. He squeezed my right breast over and over and it hurt soooooooooooo bad, squeezing it made the fluid pour really fast down the drain lol and then he put extra strapping on to make it extra tight and said keep ice on it.
So then my Aunty had to leave as it was getting late. A lot of the experience in the hospital was a blur, even though I was so drugged up I didn’t sleep til 2am because I was so worried about it all, I was so upset! Before I wasn't nervous at all, I thought nothing will go wrong, I'll have surgery, finally have boobs and get on with life being more confident and never have to feel insecure about my boobs again! I missed my kids, Adam was reeeeally worried about me and cried on the phone because he was so worried about me and then I was thinking omg if I die now (bit extreme) and it's all because I was vain and wanted boobs and my kids are left motherless now etc etc!
Anyway after the surgery I was given two injections in my legs, one was for the pain which hurt so bad and the bruise on my leg took weeks to go away! I can’t remember what the injection in the left leg was for but straight away it affected me and apparently I went really pale, light headed and I was sick. I was sick later again at about 1am as well but I can’t remember much about that but I remember feeling really bad because the nurse didn’t get to me in time and I ended up being sick all over the floor and she had to clean it up =-/ she was so lovely about it though! And when I needed to go for a wee I would have to buzz the nurse and she would come in and help me over to the toilet dragging the IV and drains along lol.
So the next morning Mr Frati came in and said I will be fine to go home and have my drains removed at 2pm which was such a relief! A nurse came in at 1pm and removed my drains which was actually quite painful, especially on the right boob, it might not have been so bad if it had been removed hours later but because it was a day later i think maybe my skin was maybe closing in on it where it was already healing, I don’t know but it hurt!! I was a bit worried though because even though my drains were not as full of blood (the nurse had emptied it a few times already) but there was still blood dripping out along the tubes it was still going down it but no where near as much as the day before and my left one was fine. But I kept saying "are you sure it's fine now when there's still blood coming out?" but they reassured me it was fine.
So the journey home was fine, the pain for the first week wasn’t too bad with the painkillers I was given, I had no energy though, I was so lucky I had my mum looking after me at her house and a brilliant partner who looked after the kids and did everything for the first 2 weeks before going back to work! And even when Adam did go to back to work, he was still coming home and taking over with the kids and housework so I could go to my bedroom and relax, so I was very lucky to have such a wonderful supportive partner =-D
Out of the whole experience, getting to relax those first two weeks was the best thing about it lol, I watched every episode of Orange is the new black which is such a good show!! The worst thing about the recovery was having to put ice on my boobs all the time and the strapping which was so tight and uncomfortable!
At my one week appointment to see the nurse on a Friday and have strapping off (thank god it was so itchy and sweaty with it on but it didn’t hurt at all to have it taken off) the nurse made me an appointment to see Mr Frati on Monday because my right boob was very swollen and thought it could be fluid build up.
So Monday i saw Mr Frati, i did have fluid (seroma) so he squeezed the right breast which was horrible, it hurt so bad but he got all the fluid out. He also used a needle to poke all round my boob to see if it was numb, most of it was and I didn;t feel the prick but where it wasn't numb it frickin stung lol! He put strapping on again for another week and told me to keep putting ice on for another week.
So Monday i saw Mr Frati, i did have fluid (seroma) so he squeezed the right breast which was horrible, it hurt so bad but he got all the fluid out. He also used a needle to poke all round my boob to see if it was numb, most of it was and I didn;t feel the prick but where it wasn't numb it frickin stung lol! He put strapping on again for another week and told me to keep putting ice on for another week.
So this is how bad the bruising was after the surgeon got the fluid out and had to squeeze them!
The following week when i saw him again my right boob was very swollen again so he used a syringe to extract the fluid, he got out over 120cc using the syringe but every time he had to take the thing off to empty it, the fluid was literally just pouring out of my boob, and then he had to squeeze it again and even more fluid was coming out! It was dark brown liquid like coffee it was disgusting!! The experience was not nice at all but my boob felt soooo much better afterwards, even though it hurt from the squeezing but the relieve of the pressure was so much better. I was also given another prescription for antibiotics.
So here are some ugly pictures showing the bruising over a few weeks
Then i saw him again 4 days later because the swelling was coming back and he did the same thing again but didn’t get as much fluid out this time and he said that should be the last time i needed it done....he was very wrong about that!!
Double the size they should have been because it kept filling up with fluid and from the swelling!
Before and after he had squeezed/emptied out the fluid
Next day and it was filling up with fluid again
I had to go back again on the 26th because the swelling had come back again, he didn’t want to use a syringe this time because he said it’s too invasive so just squeezed and squeezed and squeezed the breast and fluid came out, he also said he thinks I might have capsular contracture so the squeezing then was to break up the scar tissue. The squeezing went on for 20 minutes and at one point I felt like I was going to pass out from the pain lol but he and the nurse both said they were very impressed with how brave I was being =-p He wrote out another prescription for me to have antibiotics and said I should come back on Saturday but I felt so unwell I didn’t have the energy to go that day but I wish I did go because I called MYA to tell them that morning and was told he wasn’t due back to the clinic til the next Saturday, so I had to wait for ages to hear back from them to see if I could go to London where he was going to be that week to see him so he could extract the fluid from my right breast again because it was so painful and swollen, it felt like it was going to explode and no matter what i wore you could see the difference in size which was so embarrassing! On Friday i felt fine and healthy, took my first antibiotic at 5pm and an hour later i came over all light headed, felt really weak and felt sick, so i went to bed and slept til 2pm the next day which is so unlike me and the next day I still felt poopy, like I just had no energy and was feeling so down about all of this, I knew what the risks were, I had researched getting a breast augmentation for years, but to be honest I never thought I would be one of the unlucky ones, it had been a month since my surgery and I still couldn't enjoy having boobs, I felt miserable, worried about what was going to happen next and I was starting to regret having it done and felt like I should have just stuck to wearing padded bras =-/
So after that I had to keep going back to see Mr Frati at least once a week either at London Fitzroy hospital or the Chelmsford clinic to have my right breasts fluid extracted with a syringe and by squeezing the fluid out, it was getting less and less but the capsular contracture was getting worse and my boob was like a rock and it was soooo uncomfortable! Even though Mr Frati had been great and always saw me whenever I needed to go back again as soon as possible, so the after care from him was good!!! But the constant travelling and waiting around to be seen for over an hour was really getting on my tits and I wasn't happy!
I wasn't happy with the way my boobs were looking either, the left boob had always been fine and healed really nicely and settled very quickly!! But on the right one, I had a weird ugly purple blister at the end of my incision under the right breast, it had been there for ages and was rubbing on my bra, which made it leak fluid and looked like it was full of puss but Mr Frati didn’t seem concerned about it. Every time I saw Mr Frati he always said make sure you wear a tight bra, which I always did, I always wore all 3 Macom bras (which are recommended for after breast augmentation surgery) and one night I woke myself up, where the bra was so tight I was always stretching it down to make it more comfortable, when I did it pulled on the blister thing and it hurt so bad, it felt like I had ripped my skin off, where it must have leaked a bit it must have dried and then stuck to the material, so I got up to look at it and gave it a wipe with an anti septic wipe and it stung a bit, then I went back to sleep, when I got up and looked at it again, I gave it another wipe to keep it clean and the fluid just started gushing out of it for ages, if I wasn’t used to this from when Mr Frati did it, I would have freaked out! So I just did what he does and pushed down and squeezed the breast to make it all come out, it took ages and hurt but at least my boob got smaller and felt more comfortable after the fluid was leaked out! So this is what I ended up doing nearly every day and during the summer holidays when we would have days out to the zoo, Lego land etc, I would have to spend an hour squeezing my boob to get all the fluid out before we left so I wouldn't feel so uncomfortable all day!
Also I started to notice I was getting rippling in both boobs, I can always see it when I don’t have a bra on with my left one, it's like it dents in above the nipple but to be honest I expected that would happen because from breast feeding that part of my breast was completely flat and empty and when my right breast is normal and not full with fluid I can see that was the same as the left one. These days the left one doesn't seem to have rippling but the right one does still, on the sides and above the nipple but hopefully it will settle like the left one did.
So this is what it would look like after having the fluid syringed out after all the bruising had gone even though it took 2 months for it to disappear!
This is what the weird blister thing looked like at first when it would leak fluid and rub on my bra
It would start leaking if my bra rubbed on it but the fluid wasn't so dark by now so at least it didn't look like I was leaking coffee!!
This is what the blister thing looked like when it got bigger. It got much worse then that but I can't find the pictures which is probably a good thing because it looked really disgusting close up!
In the end after I went back to see Dr Frati at least 20 times, he said I'm going to need to have revision surgery, the capsular contracture was really bad by then and the fluid just wouldn't stop, even after 3 months it still kept coming back and I was getting so fed up with all the travelling to go and see him, that's why I started leaking it myself. Where the blister was, I just steralized a needle, poked it in the blister and the fluid would pour out, I don't think he was very happy when I told him about that lol he seemed quite shocked but if I didn't empty the fluid every day the blister would get huge and it constantly hurt, so even though it could take an hour to empty it and it hurt from squeezing my hard boob, it was just such a relief to get it all out! So on September 10th, 3 months later, I went to Fitzroy in London and had the revision surgery. This time I went by myself and it was so boring, I had to wait for 7 hours because Dr Frati was running late as usual!! So it all went fine, even though when the nurse gave me some toast and tea afterwards I was sick and vomited into the cardboard bowl and my denture came out and the nurse flushed it down the toilet lol so then I was toothless for a few days which wasn't great and then I had to pay £350 for a new denture! I have a video on my youtube channel all about my teeth story if you want to check that out!
This time the recovery wasn't so bad since it was only one boob and I had already had the implant put it on so it wasn't a new feeling like the first time you have it and it feels really heavy on your chest, since my implants were small it wasn't so bad but I know a lot of girls have said it's like having an elephant sitting on your chest lol.
Also the fluid never came back yayyyy!! But I do still have a slight case of capsular contracture, it's not as bad as before and every day I have to massage my breast which basically just means I have to squeeze it to keep the scar tissue from going hard again. It's a bit funny shaped still, it's still higher up and in the middle it's still swollen and it has now been 4 months since I had the revision surgery! I went to see Mr Frati for my 3 months post op check a few weeks ago and I was actually really annoyed, I had to wait nearly 2 hours to be seen by him and he was once again so rude and obnoxious towards me, he squeezed my boob to break down the scar tissue and that was that, he didn't even say bye and so I asked the nurse when I left the room if I need to keep coming back and she said no that should be it now, unless I feel I need to come back, but if I still have capsular contracture then surely I should be seen by the surgeon again in 3 months time? And to piss me off even more, when I went back to the car I had a parking fine for £50 which was reduced to £25 because I paid it straight away, but if I hadn't been kept waiting for so long I wouldn't have gone over and I wouldn't have had to pay £25.
So that's my boob job journey so far, hopefully I wont have to go back again, after all the money we paid to have this done I'm not happy and I wish I went with a different surgeon to be honest but it's done now, I don't think my boobs are perfect at all, my left one seems to have really dropped and my right one is still high up, when I wear a bra with padding in, when I take it off my boob is so funny shaped, it looks like a cone shaped boob and takes ages to settle back but the right one isn't the same or size as the left one still....even though I am very happy with the left one, even if it is a bit droopy still!
So it might not have been a successful surgery but all I ever wanted was normal sized breasts and even though some people might be like "if you're going to pay all that money you should have got bigger implants" but I'm very happy with the size, I think they suit my frame and I wouldn't want to get the sort of attention that bigger boobs can give you from men!
And I don't think they are even very nice to look at, they certainly do not make me feel sexy but that's not what I wanted them for. Last summer after I had them done I still felt very self consious about them because obviously the right one was much bigger than the left and I had never worn clothes that show any of my chest area so I still felt weird about that but hopefully this summer I will feel confident enough to wear pretty tops and dresses =-D and everything that happened will be a distant memory and I can take the kids swimming and enjoy life to the max =-D
It is April 2016 and my boob is looking better but it still hasn't dropped and is still quite hard, I squeeze it every day to soften it up and I have been sleeping without a bra on which is helping to loosen it a bit I think lol but it still looks completely different to the left boob which looks saggy compared to my right boob but I like that tit much better!!
If you are planning on having a breast augmentation done, make sure you do lots of research, find a doctor with a good reputation and research him, make sure you feel comfortable with him and are able to ask as many questions as you like, be prepared for the risks to happen and talk about the after care you will receive after the surgery. You are paying a lot of money for the surgery and making sure you get the right after care is important.
And one thing I wished I did, was to go in there and act like I was super confident and I wont put up with any crap and that I demand to have the best care and work done and wouldn't put up with being made to wait around for hours. The amount of time I wasted just waiting to be seen was ridiculous.
Also if I went to the consultation and said I want a boob job because I am an inspiring model and acted like people would see them instead of just saying I want them to make myself feel more confident, I can't help but wonder would the surgeon have done a better job? Maybe not but if the surgeon thinks that his work is going to be seen by many people, maybe he would try and do a better job, so if I had to do it again I'd go in there and show that I expect the best! And don't be afraid to speak up and ask lots of questions!!
After having a breast implant, your body will create a capsule of fibrous scar tissue around the implant as part of the healing process. This is a natural reaction that occurs when any foreign object is surgically implanted into the body.
Over time, the scar tissue will begin to shrink. This shrinkage is known as capsular contraction. The rate and extent at which the shrinkage occurs varies from person to person. In some people, the capsule can tighten and squeeze the implant, making the breast feel hard. You may also experience pain and discomfort.
Capsular contracture is an unavoidable complication of breast implant surgery. Everyone who has breast implants will experience capsular contracture to some degree and it is likely further surgery to resolve the problem will be needed in the future.
Seroma
After having breast implant surgery, fluid can build up around your implant. This is known as a seroma and is fairly common. Further surgery may be needed to drain away the fluid in severe cases, but most seromas resolve without needing to be drained.
Creasing and folds
Sometimes a breast implant can affect the appearance of the skin on your breast. For example, after your operation you may find your skin has creases, kinks, folds or ripples.
Creasing and folds tend to be more common in women who have very small breasts before having breast implant surgery.
Infection and bleeding
Infection and bleeding are relatively rare after breast implant surgery. However, if you are having an implant fitted for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy (breast removal), you may have a greater risk of infection and bleeding.
Most infections can be treated using antibiotics. But if your breast becomes severely infected, you may need to have the implant removed to prevent further complications developing. You should be able to have the implant reinserted after the infection has cleared up.
However, it is important the implant is not reinserted too soon, as this can increase the risk of infection. Waiting a few months after the implant was removed is usually recommended.
Some research suggests your risk of infection and bleeding may be increased if you smoke because your wounds will take longer to heal. Your surgeon may recommend not smoking before your operation to reduce the risk of developing complications.
Thank you for reading
xXx
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