W/ re: to chest. A couple of friends that I have don't really do chest since they had their surgeries. An occasional "pump" in the gym seems to work fine, i.e. maybe 1x/mo.

cost me $3,600 (in Sacramento CA)

I've heard that healing time and pain for over the muscle is a hell of alot less than under the muscle (you don't have cut muscle tissue to heal)

Just read back over this and it's loooong (sorry) but then again, there's lots to tell.

I just had mine done the day before Thanksgiving this past year (Nov 21, 2000) which is a little less than 3 months ago.

Once upon a time, I used to be a 34 C. After having 2 children who are both now in school, (I'm a Mom, too, BikiniMom!) and then adding the past three-plus years of heavy training and losing lots of fat, I dropped from a nice firm and full 34 C, down to a funky and deflated looking 32 B, and sometimes, on carb rotation days, a 32 A! I was NOT a happy girl. It wouldn't have been so bad, if they weren't so... um... sad looking? So, I got re-inflated. (grin) Here are the things I think had the most impact in my experience:

I got them above the muscle. Below the muscle is not good for people who work out. For one thing, it will rip your muscles away from the chest, so you won't be able to work out for a WHILE because of pain. And you don't know what that scar tissue will do to your range of motion. For another, it (not always, but often) can make a flat spot across the sternum that actually separates the breasts with an unnatural looking flat area. I was also told that if you have them below the muscle, when you are having "intimate relations" (especially woman-on-top) they may contort and look very unnatural. I guess that contortion of the breasts is backed up by Fit in an earlier message, "However, keep in mind that when they are under the muscle, when you flex that chest muscle it pushes on the implant and looks completly deformed! That's the only thing I hate. (can't show them off while I'm working out)"

If you want to check out the differences in "above the muscle" and "below the muscle" for yourself, try www.bodynew.com to compare "above the muscle" and "below the muscle" pics.

Let's talk about the pain...!!!!!

It is much heavier than your original breast tissue. Until you get used to it, you feel as though you are hauling around HEAVY water balloons (or lead balloons). The fact that we work on our back muscles means we don't feel it as badly as the women who haven't ever done any work on their back strength.

I went to one of the few doctors who can do the incision through the belly button. (He does it through the "armpit" (axiliary) also.) I elected to go through the belly button, thinking, "no scars". If I had it to do over, I would go through the armpit. What failed to occur to me when I was deciding what I wanted, was this: If you get the incision in your belly button, they have to shove a tube up your entire stomach (separating muscle from flesh) through which to insert the implants up in to your breasts. My ribs were SO BRUISED AND PAINFUL!!!! I was okay the first few days while I had the pain meds, but the first two or three days that I had to go back to work, sit at a desk for 8 hours, and let gravity pull on them, I was in EXTREME pain. I took an ice-pack to work with me, to put on my ribs. I couldn't get away from the pain. It hurt SO bad!!! And it was constant. Just writing about it is getting me tears in my eyes. It hurt that bad.

Oh yeah, and there is also the "bandera"... You are supposed to wear this ace bandage with velcro on the ends (the "bandera") across the top of your chest for the first week to help them "drop". (Dropping is good.) That was especially excruciating because of the belly-button incision; metal tube scraping across the ribs, etc. It pushed the newly heavy breasts down on my extremely sore ribs. My ribs were so f---ing sore any pressure at all was unbearable.

NOW... This is not so bad for some people. However, for me, my abs were one of my best features prior to the surgery. AND I belly dance, not profesionally, but I am working on performing in public, which means I don't want scary, ugly abs.... Having the incision in the belly button meant that my skin over my abs was entirely separated from the muscle. It is only in the past month and a half that I have gotten back definition in my abs, and I don't think it looks as good to as it used to. Also, it has been approx. 3 months now since my surgery, and it still hurts sometimes when I first wake up in the morning and stand up to let gravity take it's toll.

Also, some gristle or something got torn up, and I now have a little divot of shadow mid-way up my ribs on one side. Moral of the story is, go for the armpit incision. My husband and I took lots of pictures of progress, post-surgery, etc, and I will try to post them when we finally get around to getting them developed.

You wanted to know how long 'till I could work out: I was able to start cardio in about 8 days. I had some really tough scar tissue form just underneath my breasts (once again, because of my incision site) and it took me at least 3-4 weeks before I could actually hang from a bar by my hands to work on pull-ups. However, my trainer has worked with lots of women with implants, and he said this was much faster than those who go under the muscle.

The other thing I would say (and I've talked to a couple of other women who have had implants, and they say the same thing) is that one side seems to come out "perfect" - looking and feeling pretty much the way you hope for and expect. The other side, for everyone I have talked to, is just a tiny bit "off" for whatever reason. For me, it's that the right side got the implant all on one side instead of surrounding it with tissue so you can feel the wrinkles in the implant, if you run your finger down the outer edge on that side. You can't see this "rippling" visually on me. This is one of the things that you will have to "sign-off" on prior to your surgery, as a possible "side effect". (The possibility of seeing "wrinkles or ripples".) Luckily, with mine, you can't see, only feel, and only if you touch in a certain place. But if you are considering implants, you should be aware.

Oh yeah, cost: Mine were $4750.00, which was discounted because I paid $1500 cash and did not finance the whole shebang. Without the down-payment would have been $5000.00+.

You will find yourself buying tighter clothes. Not to show off the new boobs (though your guy will think that's your motive) but because with the bigger breasts, especially if you have full hips, you look heavier! (UNFAIR!) It actually looks like you have gained weight, when you are wearing street clothes. Of course, you look great in work-out gear! (But I can't wear that to my job.) I find myself buying tighter shirts to try to minimize the thicker look, by showing off my small midsection, arms, etc.

The thing I really wanted to know most, when I was trying to decide whether to get mine done was "What do they feel like when they are in you - do they feel like your own body?" The answer is, yes, especially once you get used to the weight. The texture and weight is similar to the texture and weight of your butt cheek. It's heavier, but firm and nice. The feel if someone strokes your breast is that you feel the sensations just as you did before.

There is some numbness and tingling for the first week or two. The second week or so, you want to avoid any breezes (or grocery store cold aisles) because you get painful THO's from extreme sensitivity like you wouldn't belive. It's not... painful, exactly... but very distracting and uncomfortable. Put it this way: it isn't "fun" - and much as he would like to image, doesn't inspire you towards personal relations with your husband or significant other at all.

Finally: It does not feel natural when you are lying on your stomach. Even when the pain fades, it feels as though you are lying on two water balloons. They don't quite flatten out the same way that your natural breast tissue does when you lie on your stomach.

Would I get them again? (long pause) ...Yes. I guess I'm willing to endure a lot to look the way I want to look. The worst part is over within 2 weeks. They look great, feel like yourself when someone touches you, and by the time they don't hurt anymore you are pretty much used to them. I would have gotten them through the armpits though. That's the only thing I would change, if I had to decide again.

Hope this helps!
Fennec

[This message has been edited by Fennec (edited February 10, 2001).]

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"If you believe in yourself & have dedication & pride, and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards."
-Paul "Bear" Bryant, Alabama Crimson Tide

Hardcore - good luck with your girlfriends surgery, I'm sure she'll be happy with her results. You take good care of her while she's recovering! (Hint, if she has to go back to work within three weeks, taking an ice pack to keep in the fridge for breaks may help.)

Fennec