Week 2 post Op

I had my week 2 post op appointment. I drove myself (3 hours each way) all the way to Katy for the appointment then back home. I was sore but so proud.

They said my incisions look really good. My breasts have a lot of internal stitches (that will dissolve) so they look boxy at the bottom. I can't tell yet if my downsize is going to be noticeable since it will take awhile to D&F.

My tummy tuck/lower body lift incision is gross! Sorry, it is. But they said it's healing well. It has adhesive painted on it, which is like liquid tape. That protects it but apparently some blood was trapped under it and that's been freaking me out. I keep trying to wa**** and it doesn't come off. Now it makes sense lol.

They took 18 cups of fat from my body and put 9 cups on each buttock to build my buttocks after the lift. They also took over 5 lbs of skin from my arms and tummy. They took nearly 3 pounds of just skin/tissue from my stomach. That made me feel better because my boyfriend kept insisting that I just needed to "eat better and run more." I couldn't have shrunk the skin no matter how much running or nutrition I did.

My belly button is ewwwwww. I took the ear plug out because it was crusty and gross. Now it's dry and looks like it's trying to close. he does revisions in the office if the BB doesn't turn out beautiful. However, he's hoping that after a week of putting aquafor on it, I can put the ear plug back in.

I had a post-op massage at his office. Ohemgee. It was AMAZING. It sounds painful and it was a bit uncomfortable but afterwards, I felt like a million bucks. It really does increase the circulation and help soften up the tissue around the incision. They are only supposed to be done in a medical facility to avoid infection so I booked another one for next Tuesday when I have my 3 week follow-up at his office.

I am still numb on my abdomen. It feels creepy weird. I also still have trouble getting up from a laying on my back position. If I sit too long, when I stand up, I feel stiff all over. I think this is because I have an incision that goes all the way around so it's impossible to not have stress/pressure on parts of the incision at any given time.

I slept on my side some last night. I added maxi-pads to my vest compression garment to cover my side incisions and that helped the comfort level. It felt amazing to get off my poor back and I slept 2 hours longer than normal. They swear that I will be able to sleep on my stomach by next week but I don't see that happening.
    My arms look amazing.  I don't have pics yet but will take some soon. The incisions are healing nicely and the tugging feeling has slowed down. The most uncomfortable incisions at this point are the ones that go under my breasts around my side and up my back. Those are tugging and stinging and irritating. I think it's the location and the parts of my body that they are on.   Again, I wouldn't recommend anyone do so much at once, unless it's price driven (as mine was) and it's a time that you can schedule a LOT of help and be prepared to manage your pain and pretty much be immobile for about a week or two. I am just now, 2 weeks out, feeling somewhat normal again. I pass by the mirror and don't recognize myself. I can't wait for the incisions to heal and the swelling to go down. I am very swollen. It's just the healing process. They haven't given me anything to reduce the swelling. I am eating pineapple and taking arnica but I ran out of the other supplement I was taking (bromelain) and wont get more until next week. Unfortunately, with the swelling, I can't tell what size I will ultimately be.

What all did you have done? 

I go for a consult next week and hoping to have a TT with breast lift in about 7 weeks! 

I am nervous about the pain. I thought the WLS would be a breeze, but it was very painful for me. I've had a c-section and that was great, never bothered me! 

Thanks for your post and any info you have :) 

I had an arm lift and lipo, I had an upper body lift and a breast fold repair on both sides, swapped out for smaller implants, extended tummy tuck, lower body lift and a Brazilian butt lift. Lipo on arms, flanks and torso.

Why did you swap out for smaller implants? How many cc did y have before and what did you get afterwards? Thanks!

I had 735 and 760 saline. They had bottomed out (dropped below the pocket, 90% were areola and below). I traded for 650 and 700 silicone. It made sense to do so while having the fold repair done on each. (To fix the bottoming out) They look funny now, all boxy. I'm waiting for the internal stitches to dissolve to see what happens.

Oh, that is not much smaller. How long did it take for them to bottom out? I am having an augmentation in September and want to go about 450cc saline. A patient cautioned me that these may be big implants for a mature MWL woman whose skin quality may not be the greatest. Her surgeon cautioned her on this but mine said nothing to me. What did your surgeon say? 

I had my lift and implants before my sleeve. The right implant had bottomed out before my gastric surgery. The left one followed sometime after gastric surgery. My lift was 09, my implants were 2010, my sleeve was 2012. I don't remember exactly when the right one bottomed out but it happens over time. Some argue that it's based on the pocket and the size of the implant, some say its genetic. The bottom line is that large implants do bottom out more often. 760 and 735 are pretty big. I think 450 is reasonable. ALL implants sag over time. Poor skin shouldn't contribute to bottoming out, that happens when the implants slips below the areola and pocket. Skin quality will make them sag but that's also more genetic than anything.

When I asked my surgeon was sort of complications I may have with my massive surgery, due to being a weight loss patient, he said my tissue/skin may not heal as well or as quickly. I don't know the connection but there seems to be one between weight loss patients and skin/tissue quality. However, I have shown no signs of delayed healing or any other effects. I am healing on schedule. I am tired and my age contributed to me being more tired i think, but my incisions and surgery areas are healing and getting  better every day. I lost 100 pounds very slowly. I had sleeve so I have no absorption challenges. I take supplements, maintain protein, drink water, but I also was exercising frequently. I was doing cardio and weights for months before the surgery. Circulation is critical and I think that helped a lot.

450 isn't that big. You may have a D cup, depending on your frame. You might be smaller, again, depends on how the implants sit in your torso. If you do under the muscle or over the muscle, impacts this as well. If you go high profile or not. There are lots of factors that will impact cup size and sagging or complications such as bottoming out or rippling or capsular contracture. My opinion is that you could pull it off just fine, Have you done the BWD measurement on yourself?

This is very helpful, thank you. I already did a sizing with my surgeon but I left not feeling confident. I simply could not see what my breasts would look like with the sizers. Part of that may be that I was wearing a bralette and it did not support the sizers well. And part of it is that the sizers just don't give a very good visual. Dr. Capella did not measure me or figure out my BWD. I am not sure how to do that or how it correlates to the implant. 

I am a natural 36DD but I am still saggy after my lift last year. So, he is going to lift me again and that should remove a cup size, I think. I do not have upper pole fullness. So without my bra, I don't look like a DD. So I truly doubt that putting an implant in me is the same as putting it into a normal 36DD. Nor do I think the results will be the same. 

I have been testing out two padded bras. One is a 36D that adds two cup sizes and one is a 36DD that adds two cup sizes. I want to see how I like the larger breasts. If the bras are accurate then I am trying out how I would look and feel as a 36DDD and DDDD. They do not look huge on me, but certainly make me large breasted. I think I like the 36DDD better but am undecided. I do have concerns with sagging etc to a point that would necessitate a lift or explanat down the road. 

Initially my surgeon recommended 400cc filled to 420. He said this would give me a D cup. When I did a follow up call and sent him pix of me in the padded bra that made me 36DDD, he then told me that the 420cc would get me to that size, that I would be well into the D range. So those contradictory statements were not helpful. He did say he would go up to 500 but by the end of our conversation he said that he really felt the 420 was the way to go and that I did not want to go too large. 

I want saline and he recommended moderate profile. I told him that because I am deep chested that I do not want to add a lot of projection and because I have a thick waist I want side boobs to make me look curvy. But now I am wondering if the moderate profile will give me nice upper pole fullness. I do know that a moderate profile saline is more like a mod plus or HP silicone. 

Did your surgeon use Strattice or Alloderm? 

I think they truly don't know what your body will do with the implant and can't predict the cup size. My surgeon won't talk cup sizes because there is no exact science to it. I have Mentor cohesive gel high profile. I had saline but they rippled at the bottom and since I didn't have a lot of breast tissue, I could feel the bag along the bottom. That was part of what contributed to the bottoming out issue, as well. A different surgeon had done my lift and I had two different sized boobs and areolas. I had to go to my current surgeon for a repair and he added the implants of 735 and 760. There just wasn't a whole lot of natural breast tissue along the bottom. I really like the silicone better. They feel firmer and more natural. They seem less round but I can't tell how they will look once they drop. I had internal and external fold repair so that's made them look boxy. I HATED side boob because when I laid down, the implant shifted to my armpit, not horribly but I had a lot of implant trying to sit under my arm. I was 200 pounds when I got them and was a 44C, as I lost weight to 160, I became a 36DDD/F. They were saggy and bottomed out and not pretty. I never did get sensation back in my left nipple. My surgeon took 600, 650 and 700 into surgery and decided literally in the OR what he was going to use. I trusted him and I like the look. I'm not as big as I was but I'm also not as saggy. I wanted to be a D or DD but not a DDD/F. The more weight I lost, the bigger they got. I was headed towards a H cup and my DDD/F bras were almost too small. With the lipo and lower body lift, I knew that they would look ridiculous so I downsized. I think the HP provide the upper pole volume. I'm not sure though.

Do you have any photos of your boobs in a tight shirt? I would like to see how you look with the 36DDD. I would not want my boobs to fall into my armpits when I am on my back. Currently my boobs completely disappear when I lay on my back. I am so looking forward to actually having breasts when I am on my back!

I am thinking of asking Dr. Capella to take different size implants into the OR and see what looks great on me. I am so undecided between 400, 450, and 500 (and he overfills them for 20cc, so they are a little larger than that). I did tell him that he has seen more naked breasts than most any man on Earth - good bad and everything in between - and asked what he would do to give me beautiful breasts if the decisions were all his and there was no input from me. He chose saline mod profile under muscle 420cc. He told me, "You won't go unnoticed." LOL. 

Also, the smaller the implant the more he can lift me.