
This is part two of Kelly McCarren’s ‘Want to know why I got a boob job?’ series. If you haven’t read Part One yet, read that first.
The consultation
Part of the initial paperwork I filled out online (prior to the consultation) required imagery of my ‘chest area’. The pictures were used to predetermine if I was a suitable candidate; rather than waste mine and the surgeon’s time (and I suppose the $200 fee). Since I was at work, I did what every sane person at their place of employment would do. I grabbed a work pal to come and take the pics. There were no questions, no reluctance – what a pal. We all need a work wife like that. She took me into the bathroom and snapped some INCREDIBLY unflattering pics of my naked body that I would be mortified of, should they ever see the light of day.
Turns out, I was a ‘suitable candidate’ so I took myself off to the initial appointment a few weeks later.
What happens in the consultation?
It’s actually incredibly anti-climatic. The waiting room was a shiny and sparkly place in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, with a bunch of over-inflated receptionists behind the front desk. They weren’t exactly selling the ‘natural’ look if that’s what you wanted.
My surgeon was a short man, who barely came up to my nipples. It made it super awkward when I had to take my clothes off and show him what he was dealing with. He asked what I wanted, if I understood the risks, took me through how it worked and how many he generally did. I was shocked to find out that on a ‘surgery’ day, it was normal to perform 14 breast augmentation procedures. They were a quick 40-minute job per person for him at most.
Side note… listen to Kelly McCarren on our beauty podcast with Amy Clark. On this episode, we discuss: what is banana powder? Post continues after audio.
He then got out his little tape measure just like in the movies and made marks on my chest to show me where he would cut and how they would sit. I also had to put fake boobs on so I could choose what size I wanted. I thought I knew what I wanted but he quickly talked me out of it.
A bit of advice…
One of the biggest tips I could give someone is to take your surgeon’s advice on size. Most people will go in and say ‘I want to be a full C-cup’ (as an example) but that’s actually not how implants work. You choose the shape (round, teardrop etc), the profile (where it sits on your chest) and amount of CCs (which is the amount of silicone in each implant). I already knew this from all the research I’d done but he actually laughed when I told him I wanted 330 CC sized implants. He explained that girls he had seen who had that size implant had a much smaller frame than I did. On me, those implants would sit apart with a bony area in between, rather than the ‘full’ cleavage I desired. My boobs were also lopsided (I didn’t even realise), so we agreed on 520 in my right boob and 560 in my left. 520 and 560 sound HUGE compared to the 330 I initially asked for, but it suited my curvier frame and the breast pockets I already had.