My Breast Reduction

I toyed with the idea of not writing a blog post because it’s pretty personal, but with everything in my life, I try to be 100% transparent with you, so I wanted to shed some light on my experience. If you are thinking of this process and want to see actual photos – I can email them to you. But since this blog is mostly a home decor blog, I didn’t want to expose my breasts online.

If you’re reading this you’re probably shocked that I even had one as I haven’t talked about it on my blog at all.

Truth be told, I’ve been a D since I was in grade 6. When you’re 12 that is not a size you want to be. I remember being embarrassed of my size from a very young age. I couldn’t wear things that my friends could – bikinis, certain shirts and dresses. And when I did, I felt like I was revealing too much. At the age of 19 I was an E and it kept climbing from there.

I specifically remember my dad telling me to “cover up” when I was twenty while I was wearing a knee length sun dress. I do not hold it against him as he was truly only concerned about what other men/guys were thinking about me.. but from that moment on, I refused to show any cleavage. Meaning wearing oversized shirts, constantly tugging my shirts up and wearing bras that would flatten my chest. I was truly so embarrassed of my chest. It wasn’t pretty, it made me look larger than I was and gave me such horrible back pain.

People who are smaller want a bigger chest, but rarely do people think about the other side of the spectrum. The embarrassment, severe back pain and limitations. Even when I was at my thinnest at the age of 19 ( riding between a size 4/6 ) I was still an E/F cup. And that weight wasn’t healthy for me. Being 127 pounds at almost 5’8, I was working out twice a day and eating like a bird to keep that body. I have a larger framed body, meaning I have bigger bones.. so being that size wasn’t healthy for me. But even at that size, I still squished into XL sports bras because nothing would fit

I’m now 179 pounds and a healthy size 12 and my chest was a G/H. I couldn’t go to the gym, jog or even wear my baby in the sling longer than 10 minutes. After 10 minutes of vacuuming I would have to sit down from back pain. It’s really crazy how it affected every area of my life. Especially my self confidence.

Here’s a few before shots.

This was me sitting at a G/H.

-The Process –

I started the process 14 months ago, getting on the wait list to see a plastic surgeon. You first need to make an appointment with your regular family doctor and then they will refer you to see a plastic surgeon. It was 100% covered since I’m under a BMI of 30 and over a DD. Once I saw the surgeon in the beginning of may, she got me a surgery date two weeks later and here I am – 8 days post surgery!

I live in British Columbia in Canada so it was all covered by MSP. I’m unsure how it will be for different provinces or countries. But since this surgery was for better quality of life over aesthetics, it was fully covered.

If there is even a small glimmer of you wanting to get this surgery done, I highly urge you to. I’ve wanted it done since I was 18, but was always terrified of the actual surgery. Now at almost 31, it’s done and I couldn’t be happier.

-The Surgery –

The actual surgery is extremely straight forward. You arrive at the hospital 2 hours before your surgery and they get you comfortable on a bed. Check your vitals, undress you and right before you go in for surgery, the surgeon comes in to drawn on your breasts of the exact cut lines.

If your heart rate is elevated like mine was out of anxiety ( because it was my first surgery ever ) you can ask for an Ativan. This helps completely calm you down. After I took that, it was mostly smooth sailings.. I was still quite nervous, but it somehow just smooths over your fears. Also, about an hour before you go in, they put an IV in your hand. This is how they give you the general anesthesia and also how they give you pain medication and fluids. If you’re scared of needles, this will be the worst part of the entire process.. but I’ve had four kids, so this didn’t bother me one bit.

I arrived at the hospital at 8:15 AM and for reference, they took me into the OR at about 11:30. The last things I remember is the anesthesiologist holding my hand and asking me questions and then I slowly went to sleep.

I woke up at around 5:30 PM pretty exhausted and VERY out of it. I remember them asking me how I felt and I said “in pain” but I’m unsure if I was actually in pain because I don’t remember it at all. They kept pumping my IV will different drugs. The last one I remember was Morphine. Again, I don’t know if I was actually in pain. Shortly after that, I was taken home. From there it was very smooth sailings, not a ton of pain, just discomfort.

I guess it helps that I’ve nursed four kids for a total of five years, but I haven’t really had painful days. It’s just really uncomfortable. More like an ache. I do get sharp pains here and there.. and you can feel your nerves reconnecting. For me, the hardest part of this surgery process is not doing anything and being useless. Expect to be very slow moving. Expect to not be able to even lift a jug of milk for a few weeks.

I actually had to head into the hospital at 7 days post op to get re-stiched in one spot as they had separated. My surgeon was amazing and gave me 12 quick stitches.

Here is a few shots of my chest ‘after’. I will most likely do another blog in a month or so as I still have a ton of swelling and I’m wearing a lot of gauze in my bras. But so happy with the results so far.

If you guys have any questions for me so far, I would love to answer them. Just drop them below in the comments.

It’s now day 8 for me and I’m feeling back to normal minus the pain. I say back to normal because the first week after surgery you will be constipated, out of it, very emotional with a ton of other symptoms due to the pain killers your doctor has you on and the general anesthesia. I still cannot lift anything at all and most day to day things are still a struggle for me. Up until today I’ve had my husband at home doing everything for me. Tomorrow he goes back to work and my Sister-In-Law has gracefully decided to come live with us for a week until I can start lifting Rhett and doing a bit more. ( SO THANKFUL )

I opted out of my pain killers on day four as they were making me so constipated and nauseous and I’d rather feel pain than those things. I was only taking T3’s, but your doctor can prescribe more affective drugs if you need it.

I’m only taking ibuprofin occasionally. But other than that, the pain is pretty manageble.

Thanks for sharing in my journey with me!