Mary, Free from Back Aches

“I decided to have the surgery the day before my 52nd birthday as a present to myself,” answered Mary, a 52-year-old mother of a 32-year-old daughter, who lives in Marietta, Georgia. Like so many other women who seek a makeover, Mary is emphatic about the empowerment she felt to have her procedures. “Dr. Stevens took the fear out of the surgery, and he gave me the power to change my life.”

“You don’t realize how much it’s going to change your life. You dwell so much on fear.” When asked about the deciding factor for having her makeover, Mary said, “You’ve got to get to the point in your life where the scars don’t matter, because the scars will be seen only by loved ones. Knowing that Dr. Stevens is an artist first, an engineer second, and a plastic surgeon third, I knew the scars would be okay.”

Mary had a breast reduction with the Stevens’ laser bra, a full tummy tuck, and liposuction. “I did a lot of research,” Mary explained, “I found Dr. Stevens on BreastHealthOnLine.com. I read his reviews and studied the laser bra. Since there only a few doctors who do the laser bra, I figured if I’m the one making the decision, I’m going to go to the pioneer.”

“Everything changes when you have so much surgery,” Mary said, “Fantastic change. Empowering change. I would have done it ten years ago if I had known how I was going to look! I’m a perky C, which is great after being an E. They took 2 lbs out of each breast, and I’m still a C. Women my age need to understand how far the technology has come. My results are amazing.”

Mary has great feelings about her experience, “I can’t tell you the difference it made in my life. Being in Real Estate Sales, I lead a very active life. I used to wake up and take Tylenol 500 first thing in morning because of the back aches.” Mary suffered from having size DD breasts all her life, “and I got larger as I got older,” she admits. “I was sick to death of having back aches and going to the Chiropractor. Now, every day as I’m getting ready for work, I reach down to lift my ‘pendulous breasts’ to powder under them, and they are already lifted! There’s no perspiration. The perky little things are looking right at me in the mirror!” she laughs, “and I can wear cute little tops.”

Mary was very impressed by her first meeting and consultation with Dr. Stevens. “I asked him why he decided to become a plastic surgeon. He told his staff he would be about 30 minutes and then he closed the door and told my daughter and me his story and why he pioneered the Stevens’ laser bra.” Mary pauses for a moment, and with deep emotion explains to me, “When you put your body in someone else’s hands, you want to know that person and trust that person”

Mary remembers being very nauseated for the first two days of her recovery. “Charlie put me in the aftercare facility for two days, and I would recommend that to anyone from out-of-town. After that, I had my daughter to take care of me. I could not have done what was needed for the first 14 days without her help.” Mary suggests that young mothers or mothers with younger children, who have a mommy makeover, arrange to have child care for the first 2 weeks after their procedures.

When asked about her flight home, Mary described the days before she left. “A few days before I was supposed to travel back to Atlanta, the skin closure on both of my breast incisions opened slightly, at the T area. Dr. Stevens explained to me that my skin was healing from the inside out, and that this was normal, but he said he could see that I was panicked about my flight back, and the fact I did not have a plastic surgeon in Atlanta, and Christmas was just 12 days away! So he cleared his schedule for the next afternoon and did a revision of the closures so I would feel more comfortable and have less care, at home, without anyone to help.” Of the actual trip, Mary took good care of herself, “I asked for a wheelchair on both ends of the flight. Patrice gave me pain and nausea medication for the flight, and I made sure to have a friend drive me home, so I didn’t have to carry any bags. I was wiped for several days after that!”

Mary’s advice to other mothers is: “Schedule the surgery when you can give yourself the time to heal.” Of the overall experience with Marina Plastic Surgery, Mary says, “They function like a well oiled team. They went out of their way to help me, especially Patrice. She was wonderful with everything.”

“Clothing is another issue,” says Mary with seriousness, but there is a smile in her voice, “You spend a lot of money on clothes now that it’s okay to wear something tight. When you have big breasts you spend so much time hiding them, trying not to have people look at them. There is no such thing as the perfect woman, and we put so much pressure on ourselves as women. It’s so wonderful to give yourself permission to look the way you want to look.”