Symmastia Correction Friday

[ironjunkie]

Hello,

I came across this site and was hoping to find some ladies who experienced pocket revision, and/or symmastia repair.

I am a 30 yo mother of 2, figure bodybuilding competitor, and writer. I currently have Mentor 450cc unders placed in 2001. I have never loved my BA, but lived with it. After my last competition, I received my professional photos back and really hated the way they looked because of my breast.

I set up a consult with a surgeon for whom a dear friend works. He told me I had symmastia, and this was the first I had ever heard the term. Thus, I am now going in this Friday for an implant exchange and pocket revision.

I am a bit nervous because I am actually going up 100cc's. After researching on the web, yes a double-edged sword, I came across many forums that state symmastia correction works best when decreasing the implant size.

I am struggling with one other aspect: time off from the gym. My sport thrives on training 6 days a week. I know I need the time off, but I live and breath weight lifting. I fear not training will send me into a state of sadness. I know it is worth it. I just have to cope.

Rather than worrying myself to death, I decided to trust my correction in the hands of a my new surgeon. He is double board certified and my friend has worked for the best of the best in LA. She 100% believes in his work and I have had other friends get work through him.

Wish me luck, ladies! I have enjoyed exploring this site.

IronJunkie

[Vivian]

Originally Posted by ironjunkie

Hello,

I came across this site and was hoping to find some ladies who experienced pocket revision, and/or symmastia repair.

I am a 30 yo mother of 2, figure bodybuilding competitor, and writer. I currently have Mentor 450cc unders placed in 2001. I have never loved my BA, but lived with it. After my last competition, I received my professional photos back and really hated the way they looked because of my breast.

I set up a consult with a surgeon for whom a dear friend works. He told me I had symmastia, and this was the first I had ever heard the term. Thus, I am now going in this Friday for an implant exchange and pocket revision.

I am a bit nervous because I am actually going up 100cc's. After researching on the web, yes a double-edged sword, I came across many forums that state symmastia correction works best when decreasing the implant size.

I am struggling with one other aspect: time off from the gym. My sport thrives on training 6 days a week. I know I need the time off, but I live and breath weight lifting. I fear not training will send me into a state of sadness. I know it is worth it. I just have to cope.

Rather than worrying myself to death, I decided to trust my correction in the hands of a my new surgeon. He is double board certified and my friend has worked for the best of the best in LA. She 100% believes in his work and I have had other friends get work through him.

Wish me luck, ladies! I have enjoyed exploring this site.

IronJunkie

I know how you feel in the gym. I started with figure 2 yrs ago at the ripe age of 51. I did have 2 surgeries last yr, in oct and nov and felt that depression of things getting away. I tried not to pack on the lbs and I didn't pack, just put on which made it harder this time for competition. I figured it as just time off and do what I could, but know that starting up again with come back real fast. I could see the loss of muscle (or maybe it was coated with a winter coat)but I feel like I have sprung back. i've seen a few shots of ladies with their boobs really hanging low, but not any with symatia. I think if you are happy with the ps, just get it behind you. You'll be out 5-6 wks, but come summer, you can spring right back. Good Luck!

[iluvlips]

Welcome to the forum, good luck with your upcoming repair. I hope that you stick around you will find tons of great information and support here on the forum.

Here is some information the site contains regarding symmastia:

Risks4

[Raven]

Just wanted to say hello and welcome to our forum. Im truly sorry to hear about your problem but this is something that can be fixed...we have had a couple of ladies here that had repairs and look fantastic. I understand you loving your workouts but you must have the mindset that you will need time to heal properly, because you dont want to go thru this again. Wishing you all the luck in the world - please keep in touch and let us know how it goes, feel free to ask any questions you might have.

[Plonk]

Hey hun to the forum. We have a lady that has not long gone through a Symmastia repair. Bennykatemum. Send her a pm and Im sure she would be more than happy to help you out on this. Ill send her an email letting her know that we have a new boobie sister needing advice on this.

[bennykatemum]

I had a symmastia repair on 25 January (so I'm 6.3 weeks out).

These are the things you want to hear your surgeon say he's going to do with symmastia repair -

*Use permanent sutures (NOT dissolvable);
*Open your pockets up laterally (ie. out to the sides) to take the pressure off your cleavage area;
*Downsize your implants (preferably to a narrower base as well).

I went from 500s (High profile) to 430s (ultra high profile). So not only is there less implant volume, but because they're ultra high profile, the base of the implant is smaller, which is absolutely imperative. The less pressure you have on the new pocket - specifically the cleavage, the better, and as depressing as it is, upsizing is a very, very bad idea, in my opinion at least. I know the rationale, since I've got to do this, I may as well upsize as well, but really, now is not the time. The good news is - even though I downsized this much I am still a D cup (was a big D, DD in some bras) - so it's not the end of the world to lose a few CCs That your surgeon is advising you to upsize, is a red flag to me.

Because this is a relatively uncommon complication, it is hard to find doctors who truly know what they are doing. This is complex, difficult RECONSTRUCTIVE surgery, and although your doctor might be the ants pants in breast augmentation etc, unless he has performed a number of symmastia repairs, I would steer very clear. Symmastia has a high failure rate and a high recurrence rate so you really need someone who is well experienced. I don't doubt your surgeon is good at what he does - but that will not make up for a lack of experience in symmastia repair.

As far as post op activity is concerned, to be honest, at nearly seven weeks I am still terrified to reach up to get a glass out of the cupboard. Some surgeons recommend arms at sides from the elbow up (yep, literally) for TWO MONTHS, let alone weight lifting, which is all about pectoral muscles (the ones involved in overdissection in symmastia). I really think, if you're going to go through with this repair, that you need to come to terms with the fact that you will have to have a considerable amount of time off from the gym to heal. At the very least three months. Most doctors will tell you (the ones that are worth their salt at least) that realistically, after you've had this repair, you can never, 100% go back to what you did before - ie. if you surf, hoisting yourself up on a surfboard is not a good idea, or anything that requires you to use your chest muscles a lot.

Remember also that you will need to sleep on your back for six weeks, and wear a thong bra for three months (I plan to wear mine for at least six). Has your surgeon mentioned this to you? If your kids are young, you cannot pick them up for at least three months - this is hard but it is the reality of this repair. It's not til your pectoralis is compromised that you realise how much you use the stupid things!!

Sorry to preach here, and be the voice of doom (you're probably hating me right about now), but I would HATE anyone to go through this repair and not have it work. And it bugs me when I hear about girls who go to excellent surgeons who neglect to mention that they have only done one or two of these repairs - not saying this is the case with your guy but PLEASE - ask how many he's done, ask to see before and afters, ask EXACTLY what he is going to do to you, ask how long this repair will take, because these are the things that will tell you he knows what he's doing and is not just quoting text books.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask me anything else. I have photos of my before boobs and after boobs in my albums - send me a FR if you'd like to see them

Originally Posted by ironjunkie

Hello,

I came across this site and was hoping to find some ladies who experienced pocket revision, and/or symmastia repair.

I am a 30 yo mother of 2, figure bodybuilding competitor, and writer. I currently have Mentor 450cc unders placed in 2001. I have never loved my BA, but lived with it. After my last competition, I received my professional photos back and really hated the way they looked because of my breast.

I set up a consult with a surgeon for whom a dear friend works. He told me I had symmastia, and this was the first I had ever heard the term. Thus, I am now going in this Friday for an implant exchange and pocket revision.

I am a bit nervous because I am actually going up 100cc's. After researching on the web, yes a double-edged sword, I came across many forums that state symmastia correction works best when decreasing the implant size.

I am struggling with one other aspect: time off from the gym. My sport thrives on training 6 days a week. I know I need the time off, but I live and breath weight lifting. I fear not training will send me into a state of sadness. I know it is worth it. I just have to cope.

Rather than worrying myself to death, I decided to trust my correction in the hands of a my new surgeon. He is double board certified and my friend has worked for the best of the best in LA. She 100% believes in his work and I have had other friends get work through him.

Wish me luck, ladies! I have enjoyed exploring this site.

IronJunkie

[Plonk]

Originally Posted by bennykatemum

I had a symmastia repair on 25 January (so I'm 6.3 weeks out).

These are the things you want to hear your surgeon say he's going to do with symmastia repair -

*Use permanent sutures (NOT dissolvable);
*Open your pockets up laterally (ie. out to the sides) to take the pressure off your cleavage area;
*Downsize your implants (preferably to a narrower base as well).

I went from 500s (High profile) to 430s (ultra high profile). So not only is there less implant volume, but because they're ultra high profile, the base of the implant is smaller, which is absolutely imperative. The less pressure you have on the new pocket - specifically the cleavage, the better, and as depressing as it is, upsizing is a very, very bad idea, in my opinion at least. I know the rationale, since I've got to do this, I may as well upsize as well, but really, now is not the time. The good news is - even though I downsized this much I am still a D cup (was a big D, DD in some bras) - so it's not the end of the world to lose a few CCs That your surgeon is advising you to upsize, is a red flag to me.

Because this is a relatively uncommon complication, it is hard to find doctors who truly know what they are doing. This is complex, difficult RECONSTRUCTIVE surgery, and although your doctor might be the ants pants in breast augmentation etc, unless he has performed a number of symmastia repairs, I would steer very clear. Symmastia has a high failure rate and a high recurrence rate so you really need someone who is well experienced. I don't doubt your surgeon is good at what he does - but that will not make up for a lack of experience in symmastia repair.

As far as post op activity is concerned, to be honest, at nearly seven weeks I am still terrified to reach up to get a glass out of the cupboard. Some surgeons recommend arms at sides from the elbow up (yep, literally) for TWO MONTHS, let alone weight lifting, which is all about pectoral muscles (the ones involved in overdissection in symmastia). I really think, if you're going to go through with this repair, that you need to come to terms with the fact that you will have to have a considerable amount of time off from the gym to heal. At the very least three months. Most doctors will tell you (the ones that are worth their salt at least) that realistically, after you've had this repair, you can never, 100% go back to what you did before - ie. if you surf, hoisting yourself up on a surfboard is not a good idea, or anything that requires you to use your chest muscles a lot.

Remember also that you will need to sleep on your back for six weeks, and wear a thong bra for three months (I plan to wear mine for at least six). Has your surgeon mentioned this to you? If your kids are young, you cannot pick them up for at least three months - this is hard but it is the reality of this repair. It's not til your pectoralis is compromised that you realise how much you use the stupid things!!

Sorry to preach here, and be the voice of doom (you're probably hating me right about now), but I would HATE anyone to go through this repair and not have it work. And it bugs me when I hear about girls who go to excellent surgeons who neglect to mention that they have only done one or two of these repairs - not saying this is the case with your guy but PLEASE - ask how many he's done, ask to see before and afters, ask EXACTLY what he is going to do to you, ask how long this repair will take, because these are the things that will tell you he knows what he's doing and is not just quoting text books.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask me anything else. I have photos of my before boobs and after boobs in my albums - send me a FR if you'd like to see them

hun for taking the time to help out.

[MissScarlette]

Originally Posted by ironjunkie

Hello,

I came across this site and was hoping to find some ladies who experienced pocket revision, and/or symmastia repair.

I am a 30 yo mother of 2, figure bodybuilding competitor, and writer. I currently have Mentor 450cc unders placed in 2001. I have never loved my BA, but lived with it. After my last competition, I received my professional photos back and really hated the way they looked because of my breast.

I set up a consult with a surgeon for whom a dear friend works. He told me I had symmastia, and this was the first I had ever heard the term. Thus, I am now going in this Friday for an implant exchange and pocket revision.

I am a bit nervous because I am actually going up 100cc's. After researching on the web, yes a double-edged sword, I came across many forums that state symmastia correction works best when decreasing the implant size.

I am struggling with one other aspect: time off from the gym. My sport thrives on training 6 days a week. I know I need the time off, but I live and breath weight lifting. I fear not training will send me into a state of sadness. I know it is worth it. I just have to cope.

Rather than worrying myself to death, I decided to trust my correction in the hands of a my new surgeon. He is double board certified and my friend has worked for the best of the best in LA. She 100% believes in his work and I have had other friends get work through him.

Wish me luck, ladies! I have enjoyed exploring this site.

IronJunkie

Welcome to the forum!
Glad U have come on board w/US
Sure U will get some great guidance here from some of our members who have experienced what UR goin' thru at this time.
Again welcome

[Mel292]

and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry for what you're going through and I understand about the depression from not working out and feeling like you're getting so behind. But try to keep your eye on the big picture. It'll just be for a little while and when you're all healed you can get back to it. Your body will need the down time to heal properly.

[Vikki~]

Originally Posted by ironjunkie

Hello,

I came across this site and was hoping to find some ladies who experienced pocket revision, and/or symmastia repair.

I am a 30 yo mother of 2, figure bodybuilding competitor, and writer. I currently have Mentor 450cc unders placed in 2001. I have never loved my BA, but lived with it. After my last competition, I received my professional photos back and really hated the way they looked because of my breast.

I set up a consult with a surgeon for whom a dear friend works. He told me I had symmastia, and this was the first I had ever heard the term. Thus, I am now going in this Friday for an implant exchange and pocket revision.

I am a bit nervous because I am actually going up 100cc's. After researching on the web, yes a double-edged sword, I came across many forums that state symmastia correction works best when decreasing the implant size.

I am struggling with one other aspect: time off from the gym. My sport thrives on training 6 days a week. I know I need the time off, but I live and breath weight lifting. I fear not training will send me into a state of sadness. I know it is worth it. I just have to cope.

Rather than worrying myself to death, I decided to trust my correction in the hands of a my new surgeon. He is double board certified and my friend has worked for the best of the best in LA. She 100% believes in his work and I have had other friends get work through him.

Wish me luck, ladies! I have enjoyed exploring this site.

IronJunkie

Welcome to the forum.. it's nice to have you here.. we have a few ladies who compete in body/ weight and a few that have had to have redos due to Symmastia.. there is also information on the front of the forums about this... Please make sure you research this dr as as to how many he has done as it is a harder surgery to correct and you want it done the right way to begin with.. also you are going to have to take time off the lifting to let this heal... Good luck and hope you stick around... the ladies are great here and you will get alot of info from them.. If you need anything feel free to ask Bailey or one of the mods...

[Bailey]

Originally Posted by ironjunkie

Hello,

I came across this site and was hoping to find some ladies who experienced pocket revision, and/or symmastia repair.

I am a 30 yo mother of 2, figure bodybuilding competitor, and writer. I currently have Mentor 450cc unders placed in 2001. I have never loved my BA, but lived with it. After my last competition, I received my professional photos back and really hated the way they looked because of my breast.

I set up a consult with a surgeon for whom a dear friend works. He told me I had symmastia, and this was the first I had ever heard the term. Thus, I am now going in this Friday for an implant exchange and pocket revision.

I am a bit nervous because I am actually going up 100cc's. After researching on the web, yes a double-edged sword, I came across many forums that state symmastia correction works best when decreasing the implant size.

I am struggling with one other aspect: time off from the gym. My sport thrives on training 6 days a week. I know I need the time off, but I live and breath weight lifting. I fear not training will send me into a state of sadness. I know it is worth it. I just have to cope.

Rather than worrying myself to death, I decided to trust my correction in the hands of a my new surgeon. He is double board certified and my friend has worked for the best of the best in LA. She 100% believes in his work and I have had other friends get work through him.

Wish me luck, ladies! I have enjoyed exploring this site.

IronJunkie

Hi IronJunkie - Welcome to the forum. I see you are in LA, can you tell the name of your PS?
There are a lot of great PS in LA - and one imparticular has had incredible results with symmastia repair. He is located in Orange County - actually Newport Beach. His name is Dr. John Shamoun.

I would to heed to what Kerri has told you regarding the symmastia repair......everything she says is 100% true. It is a rarity that a PS would agree to go larger with an implant with trying to fix this complication.

Can I ask you what size implants do you have now?
Are they moderate or moderate plus?

If you are going larger with HP implant - I suppose that could be done as the width is substancially smaller in HP implants.

Did your PS tell you what you were getting this time around?

Wishing you all the best......and FWIW, I am sure you don't want to hear this, but you are going to have to watch what you do with your upper body and working out after this repair. It is not uncommon to be several weeks to months while this complication is fixed.

Welcome to the forum!

[Rhiannon]

Originally Posted by ironjunkie

Hello,

I came across this site and was hoping to find some ladies who experienced pocket revision, and/or symmastia repair.

I am a 30 yo mother of 2, figure bodybuilding competitor, and writer. I currently have Mentor 450cc unders placed in 2001. I have never loved my BA, but lived with it. After my last competition, I received my professional photos back and really hated the way they looked because of my breast.

I set up a consult with a surgeon for whom a dear friend works. He told me I had symmastia, and this was the first I had ever heard the term. Thus, I am now going in this Friday for an implant exchange and pocket revision.

I am a bit nervous because I am actually going up 100cc's. After researching on the web, yes a double-edged sword, I came across many forums that state symmastia correction works best when decreasing the implant size.

I am struggling with one other aspect: time off from the gym. My sport thrives on training 6 days a week. I know I need the time off, but I live and breath weight lifting. I fear not training will send me into a state of sadness. I know it is worth it. I just have to cope.

Rather than worrying myself to death, I decided to trust my correction in the hands of a my new surgeon. He is double board certified and my friend has worked for the best of the best in LA. She 100% believes in his work and I have had other friends get work through him.

Wish me luck, ladies! I have enjoyed exploring this site.

IronJunkie

This site is the best!! I am having a pocket revision and changing to silis AND going up in size by 150 ccs tomorrow!! Good luck!

[Vikki~]

Originally Posted by ironjunkie

Hello,

I came across this site and was hoping to find some ladies who experienced pocket revision, and/or symmastia repair.

I am a 30 yo mother of 2, figure bodybuilding competitor, and writer. I currently have Mentor 450cc unders placed in 2001. I have never loved my BA, but lived with it. After my last competition, I received my professional photos back and really hated the way they looked because of my breast.

I set up a consult with a surgeon for whom a dear friend works. He told me I had symmastia, and this was the first I had ever heard the term. Thus, I am now going in this Friday for an implant exchange and pocket revision.

I am a bit nervous because I am actually going up 100cc's. After researching on the web, yes a double-edged sword, I came across many forums that state symmastia correction works best when decreasing the implant size.

I am struggling with one other aspect: time off from the gym. My sport thrives on training 6 days a week. I know I need the time off, but I live and breath weight lifting. I fear not training will send me into a state of sadness. I know it is worth it. I just have to cope.

Rather than worrying myself to death, I decided to trust my correction in the hands of a my new surgeon. He is double board certified and my friend has worked for the best of the best in LA. She 100% believes in his work and I have had other friends get work through him.

Wish me luck, ladies! I have enjoyed exploring this site.

IronJunkie

Good luck today!!!!! Let us know how it all turned out for you

[rivers41]

[Flash]

How are you feeling??

[Vikki~]

Originally Posted by bennykatemum

I had a symmastia repair on 25 January (so I'm 6.3 weeks out).

These are the things you want to hear your surgeon say he's going to do with symmastia repair -

*Use permanent sutures (NOT dissolvable);
*Open your pockets up laterally (ie. out to the sides) to take the pressure off your cleavage area;
*Downsize your implants (preferably to a narrower base as well).

I went from 500s (High profile) to 430s (ultra high profile). So not only is there less implant volume, but because they're ultra high profile, the base of the implant is smaller, which is absolutely imperative. The less pressure you have on the new pocket - specifically the cleavage, the better, and as depressing as it is, upsizing is a very, very bad idea, in my opinion at least. I know the rationale, since I've got to do this, I may as well upsize as well, but really, now is not the time. The good news is - even though I downsized this much I am still a D cup (was a big D, DD in some bras) - so it's not the end of the world to lose a few CCs That your surgeon is advising you to upsize, is a red flag to me.

Because this is a relatively uncommon complication, it is hard to find doctors who truly know what they are doing. This is complex, difficult RECONSTRUCTIVE surgery, and although your doctor might be the ants pants in breast augmentation etc, unless he has performed a number of symmastia repairs, I would steer very clear. Symmastia has a high failure rate and a high recurrence rate so you really need someone who is well experienced. I don't doubt your surgeon is good at what he does - but that will not make up for a lack of experience in symmastia repair.

As far as post op activity is concerned, to be honest, at nearly seven weeks I am still terrified to reach up to get a glass out of the cupboard. Some surgeons recommend arms at sides from the elbow up (yep, literally) for TWO MONTHS, let alone weight lifting, which is all about pectoral muscles (the ones involved in overdissection in symmastia). I really think, if you're going to go through with this repair, that you need to come to terms with the fact that you will have to have a considerable amount of time off from the gym to heal. At the very least three months. Most doctors will tell you (the ones that are worth their salt at least) that realistically, after you've had this repair, you can never, 100% go back to what you did before - ie. if you surf, hoisting yourself up on a surfboard is not a good idea, or anything that requires you to use your chest muscles a lot.

Remember also that you will need to sleep on your back for six weeks, and wear a thong bra for three months (I plan to wear mine for at least six). Has your surgeon mentioned this to you? If your kids are young, you cannot pick them up for at least three months - this is hard but it is the reality of this repair. It's not til your pectoralis is compromised that you realise how much you use the stupid things!!

Sorry to preach here, and be the voice of doom (you're probably hating me right about now), but I would HATE anyone to go through this repair and not have it work. And it bugs me when I hear about girls who go to excellent surgeons who neglect to mention that they have only done one or two of these repairs - not saying this is the case with your guy but PLEASE - ask how many he's done, ask to see before and afters, ask EXACTLY what he is going to do to you, ask how long this repair will take, because these are the things that will tell you he knows what he's doing and is not just quoting text books.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask me anything else. I have photos of my before boobs and after boobs in my albums - send me a FR if you'd like to see them

Kerri you really do look great!!!

[bennykatemum]

Thanks Vikki I'm just so happy that damn problem is gone!!!!

Originally Posted by Vikki~

Kerri you really do look great!!!

[Vikki~]

Originally Posted by bennykatemum

Thanks Vikki I'm just so happy that damn problem is gone!!!!

Ya that was pretty stressful for you .. glad its all good now