Visitors' Stories -- Erica's Story

My story begins in the summer of '98 when I was 31 years old. I had been considering a breast augmentation for a year. I've never had children, but a 30 lb. weight loss made my B-cups shrink and sag just the same. Years ago, I was a topless dancer and met literally hundreds of girls who had implants, in fact all my friends had implants, too. I inspected results, asked questions, and read up on the facts, finally I chose an experienced plastic surgeon in my area. We scheduled the surgery for July 22, '98, and I counted down the days eagerly. I was to have 350cc McGhan saline textured anatomicals placed under the muscle through an insicion in the areola.

The big day finally arrived and I was so nervous. I had never been under a general anesthesia before and trembled as I put on the gown. The Dr. came in and began to make marks on my chest with a felt tip pen. I watched him draw a dotted line around the bottom of each breast, I almost expected him to write 'cut here' underneath. Last thing I remember, the nurse was trying put happy thoughts into my head about being on the beach as they pumped the anesthesia into my IV. I awoke to the nurse telling me to breathe, it seemed like too much to ask at the time.

I don't remember too much of that afternoon, I was so zonked. I was very sore and puttered around the house those next few days. Five or six days later, I was feeling better and then something happened. I woke one morning with a stabbing pain on the upper left side of my breast. It felt like a knife in my muscle above my implant, also the implant was about 2 inches higher on that side. I immediately called the Dr. who had me come to the office, but he was not concerned and told me to wait it out. I spent the next week in excruciating pain. Slowly, the pain subsided leaving my left breast considerably higher than the right, it was obvious even through clothes.

The Dr. never really gave me an explanation as to what exactly had happened other than the implant on my left had slipped upwards. He suggested a revision on the one side to reopen the lower part of the pocket and we set a date in Nov. The second surgery was cake compared to the first but after it was over and healed the implant was about an inch too low. Over time my left breast became fuller and harder and within a year I was a C-cup on my right side and a full D-cup on my left.

At this point I was exasperated. I finally decided to go to a different Dr. and have them completely redone. I chose another doctor who was highly recommended by a friend and I explained my dilemma to him. Right off the bat he told me that he was confident that he could revise the pocket with internal stitches to even them out and would charge me a onetime fee, no extra cost for any future revisions. I liked him better already! In December of 1999, I went in for a crease revision and new implants (McGhan 490cc saline round textureds). After the surgery, my new doctor told me that my left implant had been surround by jelly-like stuff that was probably old blood that had been trapped in the pocket.

A lab culture on the stuff came up positive for bacteria. The next day, I noticed that my left breast was bigger and it hurt alot. I called the Dr. and he ended up having to reopen that side and suction off the blood that had accumulated. (ouch!) All was fine for a week and then it puffed up again. Back to the doctor.- another reopening and suction (double OUCH!) and then finally some peace, comfort and alot of antibiotics. Over the next 5 mos. there was redness on the left side that concerned the doctor and he tried several different antibiotics on me ending up with Keflex.

The nagging soreness never subsided and finally in April 2000, he told me that it would be a good idea to take the implant out and let it heal because I was getting resistant to the Keflex. I told the Dr. to take out just the one. He did it under a local with a nice big dose of intravenous valium, they could have chopped my legs off for all I cared! They sent me home with a drain in my armpit and my implant in a bag. Another lab test revealed bacteria present, but the Dr. was hesitant to call it an infection (I was'nt!). So here I sit, A-cup on one side D-cup on the other- waiting to find out whether I can get it put back in. 10 days have passed since the removal and I am not sore but there are two hard, red spots on my shrunken side. I've been taking 500 mg. of Keflex 4x per day for the last month. I've seen a definite improvement and although at first I had my doubts- I've decided to try once more for beautiful cleavage. If my replacement doesn't work out I will gladly give them up.

I've been making no effort to conceal the lopsidedness and I get some wierd stares , but I'm learning a valuable lesson here about self-image and being comfortable with my body despite its imperfection. I'm going to get an insert to even out the two sides soon. My doctor has been a saint. He has explained all my options and left it up to me, never once asking for any additional fees. He is a perfectionist and my scars are minimal, I'm really thankful that I chose him. I will have to wait until August before the Dr. will even consider opening me up again and I will update this story when I find out!

Breast Augmentation Home | Resources | Find a Plastic Surgeon
Discussions | Experiences | Photos | FAQs | Online Poll
Chat | Site Map | Search Site