Friday, June 22, 2007

You're taking HOW much off?!

On May 24th, my 10th anniversary, I had my pre-op appointment. The surgical assistant went over everything that would be happen the next day, what I needed to do to recover properly, and gave me my prescriptions that I would need after surgery.



Then the surgeon came in to do his markings.




It was warm out that day, so some of the markings sweated away, but they were still fairly clear. As he marked he explained to me what he'd be doing, but I couldn't see very well as he was marking. It wasn't until I got home and was able to look into a mirror that I really understood.

He would start by cutting around my areolas, separating them from the tissue he'd be removing. He didn't think that he'd have to completely remove the areolas, which would improve my chances at keeping sensation. He would essentially be removing all the tissue from the top point of the triangle, down. Once that was removed he'd move the areolas up to the point of the triangle, then bring the tissue together around it like a keyhole. Then he'd close the bottom in a straight line going down, and across the bottom, like an anchor.

From the top point of the triangle down to the bottom of my breast, he'd be removing 7 1/2 inches in length of breast. He estimated that in order to get me down to my desired size, a full C cup, he would have to remove 500 grams from each breast, or approximately 1.1 lb each breast.


Just a note to anybody that may be having the surgery; if you go tanning at all, DON'T go in the few days before surgery, or at least be careful about it. I had been going tanning to help deal with depression, and decided I would get one good last tan in before surgery. I had never used the booth that you stand up in, but decided to use it the day before surgery. Not my brightest idea. Or maybe it was my BRIGHTEST, as you can tell by my burn. The sunburn made recovery after surgery much more painful than it had to be.