Nicole's Recovery Journal - 18 Months
It has now been a year and a half since my surgery and I remain very
happy with my results. Although my breasts are slightly firmer than natural breasts,
they look very natural. I can wear anything I like and feel completely comfortable in it.
I have learned much over the past 18 months that I would like to
share. I feel strongly about these issues as many of them are issues that I did not
consider before my surgery despite the great amount of research that I had done. I have
met thousands of women from this website, most of whom have had wonderful experiences and
some that did not. You can read some of their stories here in at About Nicole's Breast
Augmentation. I have learned a lot from their experiences.
I have learned that most women, including myself, do not consider
that complications down the road can cost more money. Even if a doctor agrees to waive his
fee (some do and some do not, depending on the complication), you will still be
responsible in most cases for surgical facility fees and anesthesia. I have seen many
women post about how they need financing and have bad credit. In my opinion, this would
not be a good time to spend five or ten thousand dollars. My recommendation to those women
is to wait until they are better able to afford this. If additional costs arise due to
complications, you must be financially prepared for those costs.
I have also seen many young women under 21 asking for information on
the website. I welcome their inquiries as much as those from anyone else but my
recommendation to them in most cases would be to wait. Many women and doctors will
disagree with my opinion. However, implants do not last forever and there are no clear-cut
studies showing how long they can or will last. I have heard from women who have had
implants for more than 25 years and others as little as 5 years before a rupture. At some
point, women with implants will need additional surgery. It stands to reason that the
younger you are when you get implants, the more likely it is that you will need additional
surgeries. I also feel that since breast augmentation is such a life-changing procedure,
one should definitely be mature enough to make such a large decision.
Many women in their 30's and 40's say that they wish they had had
the surgery 10 or 20 years ago. I don't feel that way and am glad that I waited until I
married and had children. I am sure that I would have enjoyed having larger breasts at the
age of 19 or 20 because I have always wanted to be bustier and wanted normalcy after my
breast tumor removal left me lopsided. Personally, though, I don't believe that I would
have been truly ready emotionally for such a change. As with everything else you have read
here, this is just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt.
Much of what I have learned since I started this website has also been gained from the wonderful
plastic surgeons with whom I built the ImplantInfo site three years ago. I have personally
gotten to know some of the best surgeons in the country and it is amazing to hear how
different their views are on how breast augmentation can (or should) be done. I think the
best summary of the viewpoints I have heard is that they all agree to disagree, some more
strongly than others.
