the process.... pre-surgery

Ok, this has been long awaited, but I am going to start posting the day by day from surgery through to recovery.

First off, before deciding on my surgeon I had 6 different consultations. I started this process in September, however, I had been thinking about this for months, actually years. Before I even started looking into surgeons and completing consults I did countless hours of research and reading online. I wanted to be educated and know what I wanted before starting to talk to surgeons. What I wanted remained the same through the process and was what was recommended to me. Things such as saline vs silicone, mini tummy tuck vs full tummy tuck, liposuction or no liposuction, under the muscle vs over the muscle, are all very common topics and things associated with my mommy makeover.

I made sure to meet with multiple doctors to 1. get different opinions and 2. to find the doctor I felt the most comfortable with. Only 3 of my 6 consults were in person, the rest were via zoom. 2 of the 6 I had to pay for, then if I booked with them it came off the price.

The surgeon I went with was a free consultation and was over zoom. I’m not going to focus on all the consultations and prices/breakdowns, but I am happy to share if you reach out (trust me I have A LOT of info).

I will share the list of clinics I did speak to, but I’ll keep the details private for now:

Toronto Cosmetic Surgery Institute

Toronto Cosmetic Clinic (paid)

Harmony Cosmetics

Toronto Plastic Cosmetic Surgeon (paid)

SpaMedica Clinic360

All my consults were great, and every doctor gave about the same recommendations. After meeting with all the doctors and making my pros and cons list, I decided to go with Dr. Plant at Clinic360.

My consult with Dr. Plant was virtual but felt very personal. I could tell his knowledge and I felt confident and comfortable with him right away. His team was great right from booking my initial consultation, all the way through the process. They responded quick and always provided me with all the details.

I went back and forth with the clinic with questions prior to making my decisions and they were a great help. I decided in November that I was going to proceed. I could have booked my surgery earlier but decided to wait until after Christmas and booked for the middle of January.

The booking process was also easy, with a e-transfer to hold my date and consent forms sent electronically.

I went into the clinic the first week of January for my pre op consolation. This appointment was my first face to face with Dr. Plant, I was excited but nervous. At this appointment I addressed all my questions and got sized for my implants. Pretty much they take a bunch of measurements to know what size they can use and then you proceed to try on sizer to see what you like. This process is slightly overwhelming and stressed me out. It’s hard to pick just based off a sizer. What we did was started small, I knew instantly it was too small. Then we went really big like 500 CC and I knew that was wayyyyy to big. Then we tried on things in the middle. I ended up going to silicone 350 CC high profile. I had lost the projection in the upper poll of my breasts, so I really wanted to fill that out that’s why I went with the high profile.

After choosing the size and addressing all my questions, I had to take a COVID test as this is required for surgery. They did the test at the clinic that day, which was great and easy, and until my surgery I just isolated.

Now is where my crazy obsessive brain takes over. I go home and start worrying that I chose the wrong size implant. Is it to big? Is it to small? Is this right? I spent countless hours reading things on the internet and looking at photos, it was a bad obsession and was causing me major anxiety. The issue was, it was very hard to find images of someone who was larger busted and adding implants with a lift. I am very visual and just wanted to see a photo. Anyways I never found one that was the same, but I saw many that were “similar” and I made myself stop. It was a vicious cycle and I was psyching myself out. I knew I had gone through this with the doctor and that we chose what worked for what I wanted. I closed google and told myself no more image searches.

At my pre op appointment they gave me all the prescriptions for after surgery, I filled this the week before surgery to ensure the pharmacy had everything. There were 6 different prescriptions plus Tylenol extra strength. I recommend getting a pill box and sorting out your daily pills, it makes it way easier, especially when you are in pain and out of it.

The night before surgery I hardly slept as I was excited and nervous. Stay tuned to the next post to hear about the day of surgery!