Sometimes, too much of a good thing... well...

[cjsmith]

Anybody here ever undergone breast reduction?

I do not mean "have heard about it" or "a friend's sister once" or "I read some horror stories on the web" -- I would like to hear from someone who's been through it. If that's you, I'd love it if you were willing to answer some (any or all of the) questions I have. Comments are screened for your privacy. I will be careful to re-screen comments immediately after replying to them, unless you tell me explicitly that it's okay to unscreen. Sadly, I've been hit by anonymous comment spam too often to enable anonymous comments.

Feel free to link to this post.

I'm considering a mild reduction via liposuction, the least invasive procedure I can find out there. Given what I've read on the web so far, I think I'd even qualify for insurance coverage for reduction. I'd like to know as much as I can before I make any decision. Medical facts and statistics I can read on the web; personal experiences, joys and regrets, and the details of daily life during recovery are harder to come by.

- Did you do the surgical (knife) method or the liposuction method? Why? Are you content with your choice?

- How long was recovery: a) until you went back to work, b) until you were basically comfortable, c) until you could do anything you could do before, d) until there weren't gory visible reminders of the procedure?

- Anything you didn't expect during the prep, procedure, recovery?

- Are you happy, overall, that you did it?

- What benefits were you hoping to achieve by having this done? Did you get those benefits? Any unexpected bonus positives?

- What negatives did you foresee? Did they come to pass? Any unexpected regrets?

- How much did it cost? Did insurance cover any part of it?

- Did this affect your self-image, how much you like your physical appearance, in any way positive or negative? If you have a partner who was with you before/during/after, to your knowledge did it affect how he or she enjoys your physical appearance, in any way positive or negative?

- What other question(s) should I be asking you? Anything else you want to add?

edit: Screening isn't working! Someone other than me, please put a test comment?
edit edit: Yep, it's working.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It probably wouldn't help my feet, although I've heard secondhand that I would suddenly notice the weight of my hair and thus might wind up shrinking that a bit too. :-)

I've been growing steadily since I was a young teen. I think it's due at least in part to the hormones, which I can't discontinue without much worse surgery. This boobage has gotten out of hand. Um, pun not intended!

Thanks for the web link!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

http://www.bfar.org, breast feeding after reduction.

Title Nine doesn't appear to go small enough in the band size for me. I admit I've considered trying their Last Resort bra anyway. Fifty-six smackers for something I can't try on and is billed as too large... well, that's why I haven't tried it yet, but it could make me postpone surgery, so it might still be worth a shot.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, their return policy does seem good. And I would be unsurprised to find clueful phone people at Title Nine.

I'm not sure I know my real bra size because nothing has ever fit properly. I wear a 32D which is very obviously too big in the band and very obviously too small in the cup. I would guess I'm a 30 or 28, with whatever letters the manufacturer thinks are one or two sizes past D. For any major masher bra, I suspect the exact rib/cup combo might not matter as much as the total diameter and crush strength. Heh, I just said "crush strength" when talking about boobage! :-)

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Here's a test comment for you!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to reply without unscreening! GRR! Best I can do is to re-screen quickly afterwards. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. BAD DESIGN.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

If you were feeling especially obsessive, you could change your whole post's privacy to "private", then unscreen the comment, reply, rescreen, then make the whole post public again. Ick!

BTW, I've always mused about getting breast reductions myself, but finally made my peace with the damned things.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I might make my peace with the damned things if it turns out that I can never run again.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I almost wrote "because I don't do any sports that involve running, I've finally made my peace with the damned things". All that horrible painful bouncing would have critically pissed me off many years ago otherwise.

P.S. Feel free to unscreen all my posts on this entry, if you like.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Even going down stairs hurts, or used to when my feet were better. As it is I have the tightest jogbra I can find and it moves enough to scrape up the skin on my ribs. Unfun.

There have got to be people for whom bouncing doesn't hurt. Alas, I am not among them!

P.S. done :)

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Yeah, for me there are still lots of things that annoy them -- even too much walking gets annoying. But just mostly not enough (any more) that I want to go as far as surgery. Ugh. Damned things.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

There are days when I'm sure I was a misogynist ass in my last life. That plus karma would explain some things.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

OMG, a misogynist ass with a fixation on large breasts! That totally explains it!

Even though mine aren't really that horribly big, they can still be so annoying and painful all too often. *sigh*

Of course whenever I've mused out loud about how nice breast reduction would be, if I was in male company, I'd get such a look of horror! And very little sympathy usually. Oh well, not too surprising, I guess.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Tried that. Any response automatically un-screens. Then I can re-screen again if I like. [Insert user interface functionality rant here]

[rampling.livejournal.com]

UGH!!!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's an element of that :-)

I've been thinking about this for a long time, actually. I suspect that if I do choose to do it, which isn't at all certain (I'm just exploring right now), it will probably wind up being one of those things I wish I had done ten or twenty years earlier.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Muchomucho awesome -- thank you!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Here's a safe unscreened one to reply to, if you like :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Re time: I love this quote.

"Whenever I read newpaper stories about people who have, say, nine children, I never ask: `How do they manage to take care of them all?' I wonder: `When did they find time to conceive them all?'" --Dave Barry

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! My husband just pointed me to that community, claiming that I had been the one to tell him it existed, a year or so ago. Either my memory is going or I want to meet his other wife. Anyway, thanks!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Innocuous unscreened comment in case you feel like replying. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :) I suspect I'll take a long time deciding, and then if I go for it I'll probably regret not doing it earlier.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

A safe unscreened comment to reply to if you like. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh interesting. I hadn't seen that style before. More to research!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I realize that at age 37 I'm not going to heal quite as rapidly or as well as someone in college. *sigh* Why couldn't I have had, and SOLVED, this problem when I was twenty? Or better yet, never had it? Ah well. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

(innocuous unscreened comment in case you feel like replying)

Re: Breast Reduction

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

(Innocuous unscreened comment so's you can reply if you like.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Innocuous unscreened comment for you to reply to if you like. (LJ doesn't let folk reply to screened ones.)

Re: boob job

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Here's an innocuous unscreened comment you can reply to if you like. LJ doesn't let folks reply to screened comments.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

AWESOME! Thank you! (catching up on replies to this page.)