Feb 5, 2004

I'm one month post-op and I am very excited. My breasts are starting to fall nicely and I'm feeling much better. I'm trying on all the things in my closet that I wouldn't wear before and it's really GREAT!!!! I still have some difficulty getting comfortable when I sleep but they are getting much softer and they are starting to look really pretty. I feel so much more proportioned. It's also great to get back to the gym because I was starting to feel like I was getting way too soft without being able to train.

I had my follow-up yesterday with Dr. Pozner and he said everything looks great. I still have tape on my incisions that I was advised to wear for a couple of months ( I can change it myself).

My nipples are still very sensitive and the sensitivity to the outside of my breasts has subsided because I put lotion on them everyday. I think the stretching of the skin is what made them feel so tender. Now that I put cream on them everyday, they feel much better. I'm almost back to feeling normal. Oh, I forgot to mention that I have a ton of cleavage now! LOL!

My nose is still a little swollen but it has gone down dramatically and my features seem to change daily.

January 24, 2004

From Michele
I'm just a little over two weeks post-op and I have been getting better a little every day. I still wake up very sore but now that I have been massaging my breasts they feel SOOOO much better. For two weeks I had a squeezing pressure between my breasts, as if some one were squeezing my heart. As soon as I started moving and massaging them, THAT pain went away. I did go out last night and dance a little. It was a Friday night and I was getting cabin fever.

Today, I felt much better I think due to the fact that I took off my bra and the under arm support strap and just wore a fitted camisole. It was the first time I felt my shoulders relax in two weeks and I actually saw a marked improvement in the swelling on the top of my breasts; however, I also felt some pain under my left armpit. The pain almost feels like a swollen lymph node or something.

My breasts are still very large and swollen but I will be getting back to my workouts (cautiously) this week and I know that once I lose a few pounds I will be very pleased with the size. I saw the on table results and I would be very happy with what I saw.

I also went shopping and bought a few cute tops and I was excited. It's all so surreal that I even had the courage to have this surgery. Sometimes I think I'm insane to have gone to such drastic measures to look the way I want but most of the time I think "why did I wait so long to do this?"

I will post new pictures soon.

As for my nose, each day I look a little different. It is very strange. I wish I knew what the final result was going to look like but I have to be patient.

January 14, 2004

From Michele
Well, last night was the first night that I slept in a bed and not in my recliner. It was very painful to try to sit up during the night to take my pain meds. I feel much better once I am up and around. I went back to work yesterday so I think last night I was a little more worn out.
I also went back to the doctor for a post-op visit today. The doctors were very pleased with my results. My nose looks great and breasts look perfect. Dr. Pozner really takes his time to make everything just right. I am so excited that most of the difficult recovery is behind me and now I can just keep getting better and better. Dr. Pozner and his staff are really super. What a great bunch of people. They made this surgery so much more relaxing for me. I'll update soon.

January 11, 2004

From Michele! Today is the third full day post-op. I am feeling slightly better and able to raise my arms. The right side feels really good. On the left side, I have a terrible amount of pain in the same spot that Dr. Pozner mentioned he had some extra work in (left breast about 7 o'clock). It is a burning pain but I am able to lift my self more today with my right side. For the first two days post-op, I did not get up much except to go to the bathroom with a lot of help from my husband. It just hurt to much and gave me too much pain. By the time I sat back down again, I was shot. I made sure that I waited to get up until my Vicoden had kicked in for about a 1/2 hour.

Since the first day home, I have taken Vicoden every three hours although the prescription says 3-4 hours. I did this because I wanted to stay ahead of the pain and the pain would start to kick in lightly at about 2 and 1/2 hours. For the most part, I could lie comfortably in an elevated reclining chair with pillows under my arms. The medication keeps me stable unless I move too much. I have not slept in my bed yet. My husband has been sleeping on the couch next to me in our living room and giving me my meds on schedule. He is a doll!

Today, my husband gave me a bath but I kept my breasts and nose covered and washed my hair. That felt fantastic! As for my nose, not much bleeding, no packing. Just hollow internal splints that allowed me to breathe. Really just very annoying that it is so dry inside. Uncomfortable, not very painful. Today was the most swelling and discoloration I have had but ice alleviated it a lot. Breathing was difficult b/c of the clogged nose and pressure on your chest at the same time. A weird effect of doing the nose and chest at the same time.

I had a look at the "girls" today. I am very excited! I think Dr. Pozner did an awesome job. They are very swollen. I can feel though that they are soft to the touch in the non-swollen areas (cleavage mostly). I am very happy that even though they are so swollen, they are not like torpedoes but round (good). I saw myself in my underwear with my soft surgical bra and I am very excited that my body is balanced so well. I also would like to mention that one of my biggest fears of the surgery was waking up in recovery. I thought I would be cold and confused but Dr. Pozner's staff somehow woke me in a way that I was never uncomfortable temperature-wise. I knew my whereabouts and although tense b/c of the apprehension of pain, it was much easier waking up than I thought.

Today, I tried to do a little more activity. I left the house today. I am having dinner at my Mom's house. Got some fresh air and moved around a bit. Felt good to be out but when I get home, I know I will need my valium and to get back in my recliner. I will probably try my bed over the next few days. I tried the sofa yesterday but trying to get back up from almost flat was too much work and too much pain. If you are going to have this surgery, buy or borrow a recliner.

I was never nauseated through the whole process thanks, I think, to the nausea patch I was given before surgery and b/c I did eat something before all of my Vicoden.

Thank you Jason, Dr. Kushner, Dr. Wagner, Emily, Candace and everyone else who helped at Dr. Pozner's office!

January 8, 2004 - at night!

From Nicole: Michele is doing great. Her nose looks really cute and the pictures from surgery show an excellent result for her breasts. We will be posting those later today. Michele should be able to give us her personal thoughts in a little while.

From Dr. Pozner:

A few quick thoughts . . .

Michele's breast asymmetry is trickier than you would have noticed at first glance. There is a tight left inframmary fold, especially noted at 7 o'clock (left lower middle). As expected, when there is breast asymmetry, there is also muscle asymmetry with extra connections on the left. After the bony deformity was corrected (creating eligibility for the silicone study), I placed saline sizers at about 400 cc, then silicone sizers from 375 to 450 cc. I decided on the 400's because I liked the look of the 375's but Michele expressed she wanted to lose about 10-15 lbs which would make the 375's look too small. I also performed a real dual plane internal lift to raise the nipple/areolar complex a few mm. This elevates the breast mound on the muscle. The on table result was really nice. Photos to follow.

The nose was pretty straightforward. Get rid of the hump. Take some cartilage off the tip to narrow, then "infracture" the bones. It went smoothly. This also had a great on table result. The result should be a very natural (non-nose job) nose!!!!

I also spoke to Michele tonight - she is doing very well with minimal to moderate, but well-controlled pain as expected. The key was that she ate before taking the Vicoden - otherwise she would be really nauseated. My anesthesiologist is really talented - also the newer gases and IV drugs are really short acting so you don't get that feeling from the old drugs. Very few patients are nauseated - and when they are, its due to the Vicoden. Jason Pozner, M.D.

January 8, 2004

From Nicole: Michele is in surgery as I write this! Watch for photos later on today!

Dr. Pozner's observations (breast): Michele is in need of a slight crescent lift unilaterally or bilaterally due to a very minor sternal abnormality and some ptotis (sag). More observations to come after surgery.

Dr. Wagner's observations (nose): Lady who has the deformity of just a millimeter or two. What a difference a little bit can make. We are going to turn an attractive woman into a real beauty!

January 7, 2004

It's the night before surgery and I'm feeling a little less anxious. I just spoke to the anesthesiologist and went over everything. I took a hot bath and feel much more relaxed than I was earlier. I will be taking the Valium shortly so I can sleep. I printed out some photos that I like to show the doctor what I want to look like.
I cannot believe that I am doing this! It's the scariest and most exciting thing that I have ever done in my life. I took a bunch of before and after photos today and I will continue to take recovery shots. Oh well, I need to get some rest. I will write tomorrow. If I can't, I'll have my husband type for me. Goodnight!!

January 6th

Feeling anxious. Just got off the discussions boards and the girls are getting me excited. I'm nervous about the two procedures at the same time. I'm afraid that I just don't know what to expect to look like or feel like afterwards. The unexpected has been the hardest thing to deal with. My husband has been great. At first when I told him about the surgery he wasn't very supportive but for the past month he has been wonderful. Today, he came home with a bunch of things that I will need for my recovery like frozen packs, magazines, crackers for nausea all that kind of stuff. He is getting himself all ready to take care of me. That is a huge relief to me. Anyway, I have to go to bed but make no mistake I am SO EXCITED that I'm positively giddy right now. Good night…

- Michele