Well welcome first of all and congratulations on deciding to make yourself happy, after all, that's the only real reason it should be done for aesthetic purposes.
My new breasts are only newborns aged at nearly a month old, but already there is no more swelling and besides an incredibly tiny amount of "former constriction" bruising, they are starting to settle into their final positions.
I've decided to make this post after a huge number of enquiries from women of all walks of life wondering how the whole process works and how I did it.
So here I am, ready to tell from start to finish how it all happened including the hospital and surgeon I used, the costs, booking the hotels and appointments and I'm also including the links where I can (which will open up in new windows), to help make it easier for you.
Ok, so here are my implant and breast stats: Mentor, textured round, moderate plus profile, 375cc in each breast, with the placement being subglandular (above the muscle)
Before: A cup, mild ptosis and tuberous breasts more affected in the left breast.
After: DD/ small E cup, reduced areola circumference, no more ptosis/tuberous and new breast folds.
I thought about starting with a chapter addressing the issue of "why do you want them?"
But I'm not going to do that, I am going to assume that if you are here, reading this now, that you are pretty damn sure that you do and you are just looking into hearing about a personal experience, from a real person who has very recently just been through it.
Here is a list of all the companies I used and cannot recommend highly enough:
Flights: Thai Airways International
Hospital and Surgeon: Bumrungrad International Hospital and Dr Somboon Waiprib
Hotel 1: Right next door to the hospital, cheap and very chic and lovely is the Oasis Inn.
Hotel 2: In the district of Silom is the fantastic, elegant and also cheap Baan K.
Booking the hotels I used: Booking.com
Booking our tours: Don't book online if you want a cheaper deal, go to a Tourist Information Centre instead. But one of the tours we did book online was through Thailand Tour Center and we did the Hangover 2 tour.
Also Trip Advisor was my best friend throughout the whole process, not just for the hotels, but also for shopping, attractions and most importantly... FOOD!!!
So the first port of call: Do I go through a company that organises all of it for me or should I do it myself?
Well I had looked into going through a company that liaisons with the hospitals and hotels etc and all you organise and pay for separate to the package is the flights. I had several issues with this. They are communicating on your behalf to the necessary places and therefore you need to wait to not only hear from them, but they need to wait to hear from the hospitals/clinics. This can be rather annoying and from friends who have used these companies the whole process from first enquiry to actually having the BA performed took anywhere between 3-6 months, which for me was not soon enough.
I chose to go through a company and do it myself at the same time. Why? Because I was looking for particular dates or as close as I could get to the dates I wanted. (25th November 2012 flight, 26th November surgery consultation, 27th November actual surgery and then fly back home 9th December)
The company I had gone through was based in Phuket and took far too long in replies, answering questions (sometimes forgetting to reply to some of the questions asked) and didn't have the dates available.
Doing it myself based on hospital recommendations in Bangkok, I started there, contacting the hospitals I was interested in directly. Mind you I had been knocked back by a couple of the hospitals in Bangkok due to various silly reasons (well silly to myself and GP who I had been consulting at the same time back here at home), but I persisted and received a quick positive response from Bumrungrad International Hospital.
So all in all I really recommend you do it yourself, it's really not hard at all, as long as you have a list of what comes first and a list of who to go through to make the process easier.
So you emailed the hospital?
Yep, it was as easy as that. I filled out the inquiry form on the contact us page and all I had to was wait for the reply to get the ball rolling.
From there I let them know my intended travel dates, preferred appointment dates and other particulars asked and worked with them to secure my appointments.
I also sent them photographs for an initial online consultation, this does not guarantee you will have surgery but rather give them a picture of what they are working with and a price. Your first face-to-face consultation is the one that determines the finer details.
Then what?
As soon as my hospital appointments were confirmed and printed off, I jumped onto Thai Airways and secured our flights, then jumped onto Booking.com to book our hotels. Seeing as we had all of this booked by mid September all we had to do in the meantime was wait and prepare.
You will want to buy yourself very supportive, wire free bras with a wide band and preferably adjustable straps.
I highly recommend the Triumph Triaction bra, it has hooks at the back but is still relatively easy to put on, sits under most incisions (for those worrying about inframammary incisions) and is incredibly supportive and compressing.
The other bra I highly recommend is the Jockey zip front bra. It's harder to find here and online, but you can get them while you're over there in department stores such as MBK, Central World, Amarin Plaza etc. Easy to put on because you can do it yourself, supportive but not so great if you have the inframammary incision, it also doesn't have adjustable straps.
Fast forwarding a bit: So you arrive into Bangkok and after a nights rest what happened?
After I was in the system I made my way to the plastic surgery centre (which on the hospitals website you can find a map layout of the hospital) and introduced myself to the front desk. I sat down with the forms I was given, handed them back when I was done and a lovely nurse whisked me away to quickly take my blood pressure, temperature, weight and height.
I sat back down and waited for a short while until a nurse escorted me to the surgeons office.
Dr. Somboon Waiprib was easy to understand with a lovely and friendly personality.
I removed the top half of my clothes and we proceeded to discuss what I wanted and how we were going to go about it.
He took some photo's from various angles (front, sides and 45deg side)
He made some markings on my breasts confirming I did indeed have ptosis (sagging) slight tuberous (google has a ton of info on this) and big areolars, writing down his opinions and measurements as he was taking them.
The nurse brought in "sizers" which are sample implants of various sizes and profiles for you try out in your own bra (so wear your post-op bra to your consultation). He then discussed what his proposed surgery plan was and I was able to ask as many questions as I could think of.
Don't just go in there thinking that you will get exactly what you thought. Listen to the surgeon and his recommendations and he will listen to your desires and he will work with you to come to a pan everyone is happy with.
Just to elaborate, I originally wanted 400-450cc in each breast, smooth round, above the muscle and at the time wasn't sure on the profile I wanted.
After consulting with Dr Somboon and trying the "sizers" I decided that 375cc was perfect. He would have liked to have done a partial-submuscular (so under the muscle at the top of breast and above the muscle at the bottom) but as I was pretty adamant on having it entirely above the muscle he insisted that instead of a smooth implant, that I have a textured implant instead.
He let me know what type of incision he would be doing as I was having a breast lift performed at the same time and marked out what would roughly be taken off.
I had all my questions answered and we had come to a solid agreement in writing as well, I shook his hand, paid for my surgery at the front desk (payments are to be made in full prior to surgery) and made my way to the next step of my journey which was "pre-operative medical checks"
I was led by a nurse through a series of medical checks, including a chest xray, having my bloods drawn and another check of my blood pressure and temperature.
After they were done, I made my way out to enjoy the last day of "old boobies"
Surgery Time:
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| My hospital room. |
So there I was 27th November the day after my consultation, fasting for my surgery. I had my hospital bag packed and ready to go, my surgery was scheduled for 4pm and I was ready to go to hospital. I booked myself in and we were taken to my room for the night (which I cannot express in words how much of a hotel suite it is rather than a hospital room)
We waited in there, which wasn't horrible really considering it had a wall length comfy couch, LCD tv with new release movies and tv shows, phone, fully equipped kitchen, lovely big view, bigggggggg room, and a rather sexy bathroom (if you can call a bathroom that).
A nurse popped in to take my final stats before surgery, give me a catheter in my arm and wished me well before a few more nurses arrived to wheel me in my bed off to surgery leaving my husband in the comfy room to wait for me.
I was wheeled into a room with other people also awaiting surgery and met my anaesthetist, an absolutely lovely lady who let me know what was going to happen, how I was going to be put under and even let me know that they were not going to intabate me and were instead going to see how I went with breathing on my own whilst being under GA (general anaesthetic). Last thing I remember was having an oxygen mask put over my face and I was out like a light.
Post-operative waking:
Oh my god I was sooo out of it. I woke up with husband by my side and once I was a lil more myself, he helped me up so I could go to the bathroom and have something to eat.
I managed the bathroom just fine, but as for my appetite, nope... there wasn't any. I still forced myself though to eat some fresh watermelon and have a nice cup of tea. Then it was straight back to bed until morning to await my release from hospital. (For a complication free BA it's only a one night stay)
When I awoke later on that morning, a nurse came in to check on me (they had throughout the night I was just asleep and didn't notice) and to give me my antibiotics and pain medications.
By then I had regained more of my appetite so I sat down and had some breakfast.
My surgeon came to visit me to see how I was doing, gave me a compression band (a tight velcro strap) and placed it above my boobs which were bandaged and not long after that I was given my take-home medications and discharged from the hospital.
The early days:
I had hubby to help me get up and down into bed, help me get dressed, essentially do all the things I couldn't do. I wasn't allowed to shower, but as I felt icky and was desperate, we bought some cling wrap, wrapped the top half of me in it and I had a shower from the waist down.
We took taxi's every chance we got and I looked in the mirror about as much as well lol
On Day 3 I went back to the hospital for a follow up appt with Dr Somboon, where he carefully unwrapped the bandages, checked out the swelling, the bruising and placement of the implants and then put some skin tape around the incisions before putting my post-op bra I had brought with me on.
My final appt with Dr Somboon was the following week where he removed the skin tape, took out the external stitches, examined and showed me how to massage my breasts and took photographs.
He wished me well, both hubby and the Dr were very impressed with my new and improved breasts and that was it.
So how much did it cost?
Now please bear in mind that pricing was current for me at the time, and this may or may not have changed. This is also only based on Bumrungrad on what I actually paid. And each hospital has their own pricing structure. Same applies to the flights. Here's my breakdown.
Flights: $444 AUD per person each way.
Breast lift + Augmentation: $5100 AUD which at the time was 166,000thb (thai baht)
Take home medication + followup: $48 AUD which at the time was 1,500thb (thai baht)
Hotel number 1 the Oasis Inn was a 4 day stay for less than $200 AUD
Hotel number 2 the Baan K for a 10 day stay was just over $800 AUD bringing the total of our hotels to $1,010
The rest of the trip was all ours to do as we pleased and here are the before and after's. If you're offended by breasts, then it's best to exit now.
BEFORE
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| Notice the gap between my nipple and tattoo which is gone below. A fair amount of skin was taken during the lift. |
AFTER
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| The incision as you can see above is solely around the nipple which I'll also explain about below. 2 weeks post-op. |
Now considering how very new my boobs still are, I think they did an amazing job. The scars will fade over time and as they settle into final place over the coming weeks and months they will look even better!!
Ok so the above was my story and now I'd like to address some of the more technical aspects of both the BA and the Lift.
Remember there are heaps of factors that go into determining what is best for you. Height, weight, build, how wide your chest is, what look you're trying to achieve, if you have any current breast issues that will need to be addressed (like for me with the sagging requiring a breast lift), size, placement and quite a few more.
I feel the need to add as well, that I am incredibly glad I chose to go with the breast lift as well as the implants. If your surgeon advises that a breast lift is necessary, then please listen. I've seen women that have had their breasts augmented when clearly they needed a lift in conjunction with it and didn't. The results for majority of these ladies have left them with bigger, but still sagging breasts, the implants are clearly defined as the upper pole of the breast is quite flatter with the implant edge showing down through to the lower pole.
Having the breast lift in conjunction with the implants avoids disappointment later down the track with a breast revision more than likely needed.
Right... moving on.
Implants:
So there are two materials used for implants which are saline and silicone and pro's and con's for both and while I personally prefer silicone, here is some information via the links on the both of them.
- Saline breast implants: Filled with sterile salt water. Saline implants may be pre-filled to a predetermined size. Saline may also be filled at the time of surgery to allow for minor modifications in implant size.
- Silicone filled breast implants: Filled with soft, elastic gel. All silicone breast implants are pre-filled and may require a longer incision for implant placement.
This link has tons of questions from ladies with various questions about implants and replies from Surgeons: Real Self
Information on both silicone and saline
Saline vs Silicone
Implant shapes and Profile:
There are two shapes available, which is the round shape and anatomical also known as teardrop.
Besides the shape there is also the profile to consider. Low, Moderate and High Profile. There is also the Moderate Plus Profile which is in between Moderate and High and sometimes there is an Extra High Profile. The higher the profile, the more projection you will have, but the narrower it will be versus lower profiled implants. So for example if you have a wide chest, the more narrow high profile implants might not suit you as much as the moderate but wider same size filled implants will.
Another one of the various aspects you will discuss with the surgeon.
Incisions and Placement:
Periareolar - with this method, the surgeon makes the incision around the bottom half of the areola.
Transaxillary or "transax" - this incision is placed in the armpit.
Inframmary - also known as a "crease incision". A small incision is made in the crease of the breast.
TUBA
- also known as transumbilical breast augmentation. A small incision
is made in the belly button through which the implants are inserted.
If you are undergoing a breast lift in conjunction with your implants then the incisions are different as listed below:
The "Anchor"
<<< This is the incision I had.
The "Crescent"
Although not as commonly used as the aforementioned techniques, there is
a fourth incision type wherein the incision line lies just along the
upper half of the areola. A crescent-shaped piece of skin is removed
above that line, and the surrounding skin is reattached to the areola.
This type of lift is usually done in conjunction with breast
augmentation, and is suitable only for women with a very small degree of
sagging. It cannot accomplish the same amount of lifting as the
previously mentioned incision techniques.
Placement of the implants is also a vital aspect as to the final results to be achieved.
Listed below is more information.
Placement information
a&b. Anatomy of the Breast
c. Implant placed “Submuscular” (under the muscle)
d. Implant placed “Subglandular” (under the glandular tissue)
e. Implant placed “Dual Plane” (partly under the muscle and partly under the glandular tissue)
f. Implant placed “Subfascial” (placed under the fascial layer over the muscle)
*note* My choice was D. Subglandular aka Overs or Above the muscle.
Implant size:
Choosing the right size implant is more complex then just the grams or the cc’s of implant. The final size of your breasts depends on your existing breast volume, the thickness of the soft tissue covering of the breast, the bulk of the muscle and the tightness of the skin envelope.
Don't choose your own CC volume. Breast implant volumes are poorly understood by patients, who don't know all of the variables (ribcage size, chest shape, existing breast volume) that will dictate what a given implant size will do for them. The plastic surgeon has years of training and experience to rely upon in deciding on the right size breast implant and fill after you tell and SHOW him or her what you want.
What most people don't realise is that a woman who may go in and say I want 350cc implants will look different than that of another woman who receives the same amount of 350cc's.
Also even though we all tend to say it anyway, telling a surgeon you want to be a particular cup size is also not very helpful. As we all have different opinions on what a particular cup size looks like and that includes the surgeon. You could ask for a "C" cup and come out with a "B" or a "D" cup.
Photo's of the size/look you'd like to achieve are considered very helpful as well as the sizers you can try out. Combining what you tell and show the surgeon as well as the measurements they take, you should be able to get very close to what you're wanting.
Areola reduction:
The areola is just as important as the breast to some. They might be too big or misshapen, but whatever the reason women can be as self-concious about them as the breasts themselves, myself included.
I had a 2cm circle of areola/tissue removed from each breast, which is commonly performed during a breast lift.
I love my smaller areolas, they don't feel mammoth in comparison to my breasts. Even with implants I would not have been happy with their size if they had been left alone.
During a breast lift the surgeon will determine where to place the nipples so they don't point downwards or in another extreme direction upwards. Nipple placement is very important and you should check the surgeons previous work to make sure the outcomes on former patients are satisfactory.
Well that's all I can think of for now. I hope my blog post helped you out and if there's anything you'd like to see me add to this let me know or if you have any questions feel free to ask. :)
