Boob Job Journey: Consultation

I’ve been keeping this on the DL for a while, and only some of my close friends and family know… Drum roll, please! You probably already know from the title but I am going on a breast augmentation journey. Woot Woot. I thought about doing this surgery behind closed doors for a while, but I figured, people are going to know – people are going to talk about it, might as well have it come from me (and generate some traffic to my blog lol).

Breast Augmentation

Growing up, I never really cared for boobs. I think it was around 6th grade when one of my classmate, Seth (lol), made fun of me for being flat-chested. I remember going home and telling my mom. Of course, she did that whole parental thing and called my principal. The next day, Seth came up to me and called me a snitch. Oh well. Never really cared but I think that was the first moment in my life where I was like, “uhh, I guess I don’t have boobs?”

It never really bothered me that I did not have boobs. I just did not care. It wasn’t until probably 2 years ago when I started working at a Vietnamese nail salon. If you’ve worked in a similar work environment like me, you would know how catty some Asian women are. I’ve gotten comments such as “honey, you should work more and save up for a boob job” or “you’re so cute and you have such a nice body, but you’d be perfect if you’d have some boobs.”

Over time, these comments got to me and that is when I started considering a boob job.

My ideology was that I wanted my future husband to pay for my boob job. I mean, he’s going to be the one that spends the most time with it, right? Haaa… Bad thinking, Demi! Fast forward, one of my ex-boyfriends told me that he didn’t find me sexually attractive anymore, haha. I felt like this was karma because I had told that to one of my former boyfriends. For some reason, this made me not want to get the procedure. I thought to myself, no way am I ever going to get a breast augmentation because I do not want him to think that I got it for him.

Research

Nonetheless, I thought about it for some time and decided I’m going to go forth with it. I was tired of not being able to wear strapless clothing because it would always fall down. I wanted to wait until after I finish my undergrad, but why wait? I’ve been saving up for the procedure so why should I spend another year with super big pillows as push-up bras? Catchin’ my drift?

Talked to my parents, and figured, why not? If I don’t like them, I can always get it taken out, right? Moving forward, I went ahead and created an excel sheet. I currently reside in Scottsdale, Arizona, so my list of plastic surgeons was only from those in Scottsdale and one in Tucson that was recommended by my mother. Listed all the plastic surgeons that I was interested in seeing along with their website, social media, consultation fee, etc. (PS. Here’s my excel sheet. It’s pretty outdated but you get the idea.)

I only went to the plastic surgeons that had a complimentary consultation fee. The majority of these surgeons I found via RealSelf, which I highly recommend. It’s so interesting reading other people’s journeys. RealSelf is similar to Yelp but for cosmetic procedures instead of food. I also joined a couple of support groups on Facebook as well.

Consultations

I ended up going to four consultations in Scottsdale and one phone consultation in Tucson. Not going to disclose any of the surgeon’s name except for the surgeon I am going to since some of them I’ve had a bad experience with, while the other ones, I do not really care for.

First Plastic Surgeon

Price: ~$6,500

Consultation: The first plastic surgeon I decided to go book a consultation with was a female. I thought that I wanted a female to do the procedure since I feel like I would have been very uncomfortable with a male. While this was my first consultation, I did not really know what to expect. We tried sizers with the implants for a bit and the surgeon took my measurements. Apparently, I have a curved spine, which I didn’t know. I asked my mom about it and I guess it runs in my dad’s side of the family.

Overall, I did not feel like I connected with the doctor. After I got home from the consultation, I looked online and did not see a lot of breast augmentation examples that I had liked. No thank you card or follow up call.

Second Plastic Surgeon

Price: ~$6,000 ($500 off discount because of Hispanic Heritage Month)

Consultation: This was my second consultation and there was a gap of roughly one month between the first consultation I went to and this consultation. I found this plastic surgeon via Instagram when he did a giveaway for $6,000 towards any surgery (ugh jealous, wish I could have entered lol). I love watching his Instagram stories of his surgeries. The office is BEAUTIFUL and it was fairly new. I believe they just moved into that facility earlier that week. His staff was just really nice and overall, super welcoming. We did a 3D scan which I thought was really cool.

Another thing I really liked about this doctor was because when he was taking measurements, I’m pretty sure he knows that patients feel uncomfortable being ‘exposed’, at least I am. When he was done taking measurements, he said, “you can put your robe back on.” Like it was one of the main priorities, you know? Not sure if this made any sense whatsoever, haha. A couple of days later, I got a thank you card in the mail. I also received a follow-up call from the front desk a week later and told them I needed more time to think. A little less than a month later, I got a follow-up email.

Third Plastic Surgeon

Price: ~$8,300

Consultation: This place was nice. There isn’t really much to say. The staff was nice. There were a lot of awkward silences between me and the patient care coordinator, maybe it was me who was so awkward. Who knows! I ate a lot of their chocolates that they had on the lobby table since the doctor was running about 20 minutes late… Ugh.

I got a gift bag after my consultation with a water bottle and a chapstick. Also, got a thank you card in the mail. I did get a follow-up call from them as well and told them I needed more time to think.

Fourth Plastic Surgeon

Price: ~$8,700

Consultation: I was running about 8 minutes late for this consultation. When I came into the office, I told the front desk that I was sorry for being late, and she responded “it’s okay, would have been better if you were on time” or something along those lines with a passive-aggressive smile… I remember thinking to myself, “uhh… okay…”

The patient care coordinator and I were pretty awkward. I seriously do not know if I’m the awkward person here or if they are way too overly nice that I feel uncomfortable. Is it me or does anyone know what I’m talking about? When someone is TOO nice that you just feel extremely uncomfortable?

The plastic surgeon suggested that I do a shape memory gel implant or whatever it’s called. I really wanted the round high profile look though. Not saying that I know everything about implants but if the implant was a teardrop shape, how do we get that high profile? There was probably miscommunication. I got flowers from this consultation. No thank you care or follow-up call. Not that it’s important to get one, but I do feel ‘important’ if I got a follow-up call because it makes me feel like they still remember me.

Fifth Plastic Surgeon

Price: ~$4,500

Consultation: Oh dear. Where do I even begin with this doctor? I think everything from emailing them about a virtual consultation to my phone call was just a “shit show” to phrase it in the nicest way. This plastic surgeon was recommended by my mom who one of her friends got done by. I also personally know 3 people who had their breast augmentation done by this doctor as well. Originally before my consultation, I figured I was going to go with him off the bat for two reasons: price and my mom can take care of me in Tucson.

Boy, was I wrong… I rather pay the extra thousand dollars for a doctor who is nice. He called me from his personal cell phone around 6 pm at night for my consultation. During my phone consultation, I had asked him if he uses the Keller method – out of curiosity. He went on to say that in his many years of doing this practice, he has never heard anyone ask such an irrelevant question. He used the analogy of saying “that’s like going to the car dealership and asking the car salesman how they rotate their tires.” Okay. Maybe it was an irrelevant question, but I thought there was no such thing as dumb questions?

He also asked me why I decided to go down to Tucson if I reside up in Scottsdale. My answer was my mom recommended him to me and he asked me for my mom’s name and my mom’s friend’s name. He went on about how saline was the preferred choice 14 years ago (when my mom’s friend got hers done)… Okay, but I would still prefer silicone, please.

Odd. He was just not very nice at all. Thank you, next.

Final Decision

I kind of wish that someone had gone to these consultations with me, especially my mom, but in the end, I’m glad I went by myself. This really gives me a clearer mind when deciding who I want to go with because I wouldn’t want anyone else’s opinion to influence my first impression of these surgeons.

When I was deciding who to go with, my family and friends suggested a couple of things:

• My best friend told me to go with someone who made me feel the most comfortable.
• My dad said to make sure they have a nice facility and doesn’t look too old/outdated. He told me a story about how one time he went to the dentist, and after they numbed him, he looked over and saw the tools, chairs, etc. It looked so old and outdated, that he just stood up and left without even saying anything. LOL, I’m not surprised, my dad is silly.
• My stepmom told me to go with someone who wasn’t too old (like candidate number five, no offense) or someone who was too young.

After consulting with my mom, dad, stepmom, and my best friend, I decided to go with… *drum roll please* Dr. Carlos Mata! If you haven’t guessed by now, he was *drum roll again* plastic surgeon number two! I think it’s very cool that he goes on medical mission trips too.

Off the bat, after my consultation with him, I knew for sure I wanted to book my surgery with him, but I still wanted to know my options out there because one of my friends who had her breast done (by someone else) said she wished she saw more than just one doctor.

Anyways. I put down my deposit and booked my surgery for January 4th. Yay! Originally it was supposed to be on January 3rd, (Thursday), and I planned everything out. My sister was going to come up from Tucson to look after me for a couple of days and she was going to leave on Saturday morning. Since the surgery is now on a Friday, I’ll figure something out but I’m pretty sure my dad and stepmom can take care of me. I read that a lot of people experience anxiety a couple of days prior to their surgery date. While mine is still a month away, I already feel like I made a bad decision but I guess no turning back now! Haha. Super excited!

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