After surgery, I spent 10 days recovering at home like a total hikikomori,,,,, reading every single post in the breast surgery section of this community and other communities as a childless married woman on day 10.
I thought there might be sisters and younger sisters out there worrying about sagging breasts, pigeon chest, and pointed breasts (usually also called constricted breasts or dense breasts), so I’m going to ramble in a long post in hopes it’s comfortable to read. It’s too long, so if you’re planning surgery, it’d probably be best for people with those kinds of breasts to read this first...
I went from 65 kg down to 50, then the yo-yo effect hit and I dropped from 65 again to 48, and I’ve been maintaining around 50 kg for years now- As you can probably guess from the repeated yo-yoing, my breasts dropped. They sagged. If you saw the photos, you’d know how serious it was, right? I also had severe accessory breast tissue, or underarm fat, whatever you call it, so when I took everything off, I honestly wanted to hide. It was to the point where I thought it would be better if I just didn’t have them The only one who loved them was my husband... (really?)
Anyway, after agonizing for about a year, I figured if I didn’t do it this time, I’d miss my window, so from December I did a ton of online research on this community and other cafes, and I also went out to consultations in person. I don’t want big breasts. They got big and then shrank away like the wind.... I just hoped my chest wouldn’t end up looking like a tribal chief’s wife from Africa. So from the start, I wasn’t greedy about size either. Honestly, I thought 250 cc would be appropriate.
I’ll write the online/offline consultation reviews later if I have time,,, For now, after visiting clinics, there’s always one that sticks in your mind. And this is important!!!!!!! Rather than asking, "How many places should I go to?" I think it’s better to keep looking until you’re satisfied. I only went to 5 places though (which I think is on the small side), but one clinic stayed in my head, so I finished my consultations and made a booking there.
I had surgery on January 20. Before that, just in case, I also completed a detailed national health checkup. Nothing unusual was found. The place I had surgery at is run by a director who majored in breast surgery and also earned a master’s and doctorate in plastic surgery, so she can finish all breast evaluations in one shot. That’s why I also got my breast ultrasound done there a week before surgery.
But before s.u.r.g.e.r.y. I was initially turned down by this director lolololol "Even if you do it, it won’t look pretty." she said. And that was at my first consultation there. But the director doesn’t talk a lot. The manager (written as manager, read as breast expert) explained a lot.
What kind of breasts do I have, roughly?
1. Slight pigeon chest (the cleavage area protrudes, causing breast separation. A body type you can see fairly often)
2. Sagging breasts (definitely sagging. Even I can tell, and anyone can see it, right? But because the UDOO is facing forward, they said it’s also awkwardly sagging. There are probably a lot of unmarried women who haven’t breastfed yet and ended up like this after a very bad crash diet.)
3. Constricted breasts (aka pointed breasts, also called dense breasts. There’s almost no information on this. I’ll explain later.)
It was a truly, truly awful set of breasts that had all three. So at one of the later clinics I visited, someone actually suggested a lift. Of course, there was also someone who very confidently said that just putting in an implant would solve everything (thinking back now, it was lucky I didn’t go there-).
Even while I was going around visiting clinics, the one that rejected me first kept sticking in my mind. It stayed as an afterimage. So in the end I went back for a second consultation there, and before that I also read easy-to-understand papers about breasts and studied hard.
After looking into it, I learned that my breasts are:
1. Because of pigeon chest, if you just put an implant in, the breasts may end up pointing outward. But in the case of pigeon chest, if the breast pocket is opened properly inward, closer to the cleavage line (though not so much that it causes adhesion), and then managed with a support bra for several months so the implant can settle well there, it should be fine. This is an exception if the pigeon chest is severe. I don’t know about that level either.
2. Sagging breasts can present in many different ways. The premise of sagging breasts is that there has to be something that can sag in the first place. If you had large breasts when you were young and they sagged a little? For those planning to have children, during breastfeeding it can become sagging breasts bad enough to require a lift, with a one-in-a-million-or-disaster kind of chance. With breastfeeding, the position and direction of the UDOO also change, so with stretched breast tissue and stretched nipples on top of that,,,, it’s not easy to fix with just an implant. If it’s not that case, then you’re using up a lucky break~
For unmarried women like me who dieted in a rapid and very wrong way,,, there may be breasts like mine. In my case, the skin clearly sagged a lot, but fortunately the UDOO wasn’t pointing downward and was facing straight ahead. So an implant alone would have been enough, but the most important thing was that I had constricted breasts.
3. Constricted breasts, pointed breasts, also called dense breasts. In this case, the breast tissue or glandular tissue? Simply put, the tissue is too stiff, so when an implant is inserted, the area from the nipple down to the lower fold where the ribs are, meaning the lower part, doesn’t stretch (the lower fold is short to begin with because the tissue is firm). If a normal woman’s breast is like one layer of a balloon, constricted breasts are like a balloon with about four layers on it. So even if you put an implant in, the implant can’t beat that tissue and just floats on top. That’s why for this kind of breast, a submammary incision usually has to be used to have any real chance. By going in through the lower fold and loosening the tissue under the nipple like untying a net (of course, it’s essential to carefully avoid the glandular tissue while dissecting it), the implant can settle properly under the nipple instead of floating up top. If it doesn’t go well, you end up with gorilla pecs instead of a female chestㅡㅡ.
The director was very cynical and said exactly three things at the second consultation. (This place is a clinic where, in terms of the director’s ability, if they had a golden carriage, the manager would be grabbing it by the collar and dragging it along.) "Pigeon chest isn’t a problem for the patient’s body type at all. What is the problem? Because it’s sagging and also constricted, the lower fold doesn’t stretch well, so if we put in an implant, it can become pecs or the nipples can end up pointing downward. It may not look pretty even if we do it, so I’d like to suggest a lift as well. Do you have any plans to have children?"
Since she knew I was someone who had requested a second consultation on my own, I still felt a sigh of relief because she softened slightly from "Even if you do it, it won’t look pretty" to "It may not look pretty even if we do it" lololololol, and I said I’d follow the direction she suggested except for the lift. I can’t give up the lift. A lift would require cutting the nipple tissue and reattaching it higher up, but I might have a baby (in the case of breastfeeding,,), so I said I’d consider a lift only after childbirth is completely over.
And for some reason, I came to believe this director would improve my totally hopeless breasts with implants alone. She was definitely harsh and always had a cynical expression, but I could feel the mindset underneath it. The director herself also seemed like the kind of person who doesn’t want to create troublesome situations.
1. Inferior incision (because of the constricted breasts, this had to be the method. The only advantage of an axillary incision for me was that the scar wouldn’t be visible, so why bother? I was someone who had already decided on an inferior incision from the start. And my skin is actually the kind that heals scars well if I take care of it properly. Plus, through years of experience with dermatology, I know well how to manage scars for the long run. Of course, I’ve only managed facial scars before, so now I have to see how it goes on the chest.)
2. Motiva (I started this project with the idea that I’d spend about 10 million won, so while going for consultations I was thinking either Motiva or Mentor Extra, since those are commonly recommended by clinics these days. Honestly, my preference was Mentor Extra because the feel was better when I touched it myself, but according to the director, what I needed first was a strong implant, so Motiva was suggested. And after watching a YouTube video where they tested Mentor Extra, Motiva, and Sebbin by touching them while covering them with a towel, I already agreed. I thought I already had plenty of tissue to wrap around the implant, so whichever one I chose, the feel would probably be similar.
And the feel is,,,, honestly, the key seems to be how well the capsule forms around the outside of the implant later and how well the aftercare matches my breasts. If any implant fits my breasts well, I’m extremely thankful, but you can’t know that before putting it in, right? That’s why I also chose this clinic because they said they would guarantee one revision surgery if capsular contracture or other problems caused by the implant they placed later occur.)
3. 250 cc (I already said it, but since they had swollen and then shrunk, 250 alone seemed likely to give me a full C cup. And I don’t want big breasts Everyone, if you pick up a small 350 mL water bottle sold at convenience stores, you’ll know it weighs quite a bit,,,, You’re going to live for 10+ years with two 350 mL bottles sitting on my chest They say your ribcage can get compressed. I hope everyone gets a size that fits their own body type.... Big is not better. The more oversized the size for my breasts, the more side effects there are, and especially the slower the nerves and sensation come back. Unless you’re over 165 cm tall with a really huge ribcage, I hope everyone goes under 350 cc.... If it were up to me, 300,,,,)
And then the long-awaited surgery day-
It’s a clinic where men aren’t allowed to enter, but as a guardian he could stay in the recovery room, so my husband took the day off and came to watch over me as I lived or died.
The surgery was at 14:00, and I went at 12:30, listened to one more consultation, changed clothes, finished the payment, and went in around 13:50? The surgery took about 1 hour and 20 minutes. As everyone knows, it was general anesthesia. What I remember is the nurses screaming at 15:20 to wake up!!!!!!, being dragged from the operating room to the recovery room,,,,, and my husband’s expression that was on the verge of tears.
(But this guy recorded me while I was still half under anesthesia,,,,when I watched it, I asked four times what time it was. It’s a cringe memory,,,,,,,,). I had to keep breathing, so even though I was sleepy to death, I tried to do Pilates breathing. They said I could sleep after about 20 minutes of breathing, so I immediately slept for about 90 minutes.... And by around that evening I came home like a corpse, and as of today it’s day 10. Or maybe day 9? Anyway
I’ll write about the pain and recovery progress in the next post. There seem to be quite a few people with breasts in a condition like mine, but there aren’t clear reviews, so I plan to take the lead and post a recovery review too. Now I’m going to eat~