Getting Started

Finding a surgeon was a challenge. Most people that I have talked to have had to go out of state. I personally had hoped that I could find something in Wisconsin. I knew the surgery was expensive and I didn't want to add to the cost by having to travel, find a place to stay, and then have to constantly travel back and forth for check-ups. After a tremendous amount of research I found a doctor in Middleton WI. Dr. Clifford King I would recommend to anyone. He is super professional, very caring, and an EXCELLENT surgeon. Throughout my process I've had several appointments both before and after the surgery. The entire staff is very accomadating and understanding. I had to travel just over two hours to get there and they always said if I was late it was ok and always asked how my drive went. It was just a very comfortable atmosphere which I never thought you could find in a hospital.

Dr. King examined me and discussed the options that I had. It came down to two options: a lipo procedure with minimal scaring or the bilateral breast reduction. I decided to go with the bilateral surgery because I would have had a lot of extra skin, given the size of my chest. So I had to then schedule a pre-op appointment. At this appointment I had pictures taken, a brief physical, and the procedure was went over again. I got all of the "pre-surgery" rules, where to go and I got scheduled as the first surgery of the day. My surgery was on Wednesday September 12th. Christi and I were up at three a.m. to get ready and head to St. Marys Hospital in Madison. We gave ourselves enough time to find the hotel that we had reserved before going to the hospital so that when I got discharged we had an idea of where we were going.

We got to St. Mary's by six thirty where I got prepped for surgery! Everything went smoothly! My IV went in the first try and my pregnancy test came back negative! The anestesiologist came in and just went over what he was going to do. I informed them that I have issues with getting sick so I got a special nausea patch put behind my ear, plus some meds directly into my IV. Dr. King came in and marked me all up, made sure I was comfortable and ready to go. They gave me something to relax me before actually getting to the OR and I don't remember anything or evening getting there! The surgery lasted three hours and I spent a good two hours in recovery. He removed three hundred grams of tissue from each side. Christi was a trooper through all of this. I am so grateful for her. It was a long day for her. I apparently asked her the same questions over and over after my surgery and she was gettting annoyed :)

Everything went well. I woke up in moderate pain, two drains, and a really big bandage. I felt pretty good overall and really just slept a lot. The nurses got another bed in the room for Christi and she finally passed out. She never woke up once through the night through the commotion of the nurses taking my vitals, my countless popscisles, and getting up to go to the bathroom. Dr. King came in and took my bandage off and checked out my chest. This was the first time I saw myself with a flat chest and it was AMAZING! I got out of the hospital by seven thirty in the morning on Thursday. Christi got us to the hotel where I just sat propped up in the bed. She emptied my nasty drains numerous times and made sure I had all my pills on time and consistently. My cousin Theresa stopped by to visit and brought us some muffins and cookies from Perkins. When I woke up Friday I had to go see Dr. King so he could check on everything and remove the drains. When I got up I had bled through my bandage and I didn't know why. When we got to the office he removed the drains and ended up stitching my right arm pit from where the drain tube was. This is where the bleeding was coming from. Everything else went fine and looked good. They gave us a bunch of trauma bandages so I could change them out before coming back in two weeks.

We started on our way home and stopped in Sun Prairie to meet some of my cousins and my Aunt and Uncle at the Country Cafe for some breakfast. Christi drove us home while I slept. When we got home Christi propped me up on the couch and basically did everything for me. I'm so thankful for her and all that she did because I couldn't have done it without her.