My BRCA Surgeries: Part Three

My plastic surgeon, Jennifer Scwartz with O’Neill Plastic Surgery, explained that the the first surgery was to remove all of my breast tissue and put in implants.  The second would be months later, after seeing how the breasts settled.  Since all of my breast tissue was removed, that wouldn’t give much skin to cover my implants.  And if you’ve seen clear implants before, you’ll know what I mean here.  The rippling or bumps from the implant appear if you don’t have your normal breast tissue to cover it.

For the second surgery she takes fat from another part of your body.  Trust me, don’t get too excited on this.  Like fun! I need lipo!  She doesn’t take much.  And then she takes a needle and adds the fat to the ripples on my breasts to help smooth out the areas.  In my case, she took fat from my inner thighs.

I also replaced my implants with a different kind that was a little firmer and a little larger, to help with the rippling.  This time there were no drains thank goodness and the recovery was much much easier.  Downtime was still about six weeks, but nothing like the recovery from the first surgery.

I had this second breast surgery done three days before Christmas.  Again, I didn’t have much flexibility on dates, so I went with it.  Plus, I wanted to get it in before the end of the year for insurance purposes.  She initially had wanted me to wait until February 2023, but I’m still so glad I made the decision to do this surgery sooner.  So happy with the results!  They’re not perfect by any means, there’s still rippling, scars, etc.  But everything exceeded my expectations and I’m just so pleased.  And also so thankful that there weren’t any complications.

You’ll notice my amazing hair in this post!  I decided to get extensions a few weeks before this surgery.  I know it sounds crazy that I got this done while I was going through all of this, especially since I’ve never had them before, but honestly it was the best thing!  It was so much easier to take care of and I could go so much longer without having to wash it.  I ended up loving them so much, I kept them in until June – only moving them up every 8 weeks when I got my hair colored.  Super manageable.

All of these surgeries took a toll on me, for sure.  Add that to the fact that I was used to playing tennis 3-4 times a week to playing none at all.  And I had to stop running.  So many of y’all asked why I’d stopped.  Finally explaining why.  Sorry it took so long!  Thankfully, it was an eventful Fall/Winter in 2022, so I was able to take my mind off of it.  A huge thank you to my family for all of their help, my friends for their support and for my amazing doctors!!

Am I happy with the results?  Absolutely!  Now have fun going back on old posts and comparing my boob sizes.  Haha.  Like I said, I’ve never had boobs before, and many of y’all probably already know this, but it’s weird how sometimes they can look big and other times they can look small, depending on what I’m wearing.

For More: My BRCA Story // My BRCA Surgeries: Part One // My BRCA Surgeries: Part Two