Shayna Shares

  I am sure it goes without saying that the first week after my surgery, Oct. 5th - 12th, was the most trying and painful. Even with pain medications, I still experienced stinging where the incisions were made and a pulling/bruised feeling when I moved in certain ways. My fiance James and I decided on the day of my surgery that I would station myself in the pull-out bed in the living room until I felt capable of moving around reliably on my own. Lots of Things That Were Easy Before Were Difficult After Surgery There were things I was prepared to struggle with after surgery. I knew there would be some pain, but the pain was a price I knew I would be willing to pay for a smaller chest, so I did not consider the reality that it would hurt as much as it did. Rest assured, the pain has never been bad enough that I regretted getting the surgery.  That being said, before I received my surgery, my surgeon (Dr. Pamela Antoniuk) informed me that I would have the following limitations as...

After making the decision to get a chest reduction, I had met with a general practitioner to get a referral for a consult with a plastic surgeon, I got the consult with the plastic surgeon that week, and about two months after my consult I was meeting again with my surgeon, Dr. Pamela Antoniuk, for the surgery itself. To reiterate, I got the consult at the beginning of August, insurance came back and gave me the green light for surgery at the end of August, and I scheduled my surgery for October 5th, 2020. Pre-Op To-Do: There were a few things I needed to do after setting up the appointment in order to get the surgery. I needed to see a general practitioner (mine ended up being a different one than I saw for the referral) for a pre-op to okay me health-wise for the surgery. I did this a few weeks before the surgery was scheduled. I also had to take a Covid test to confirm that I did not have the Coronavirus. I took my test 5 days before surgery to ensure the results came back in time f...

After years of thinking about receiving a breast reduction surgery, it was hard to know where to start. But after gaining an even larger chest thanks to quarantine and learning that it IS possible to get a top surgery during Covid times when a friend of mine received one in the summer of 2020, I was more resolved than ever to bite the bullet and get the ball rolling for a breast reduction surgery in 2020. So what did it take? Living in the United States of America, it is often wise to start decisions about where to go for health services by verifying what places and/or practitioners are covered under your specific insurance plan. So I started by calling my insurance company and asking which plastic surgeons in the Fargo/Moorhead (FM) area would be covered under my family's insurance plan. The insurance company gave me a list of 8-10 different plastic surgeons in the FM area, as well as the address and number where they work. I called one of the surgeons on the list and the receptio...

 Ever since I was 13 years old, I remember having a chest big enough that I felt uncomfortable. Imagine being in middle school and never once owning a bra that fits you. Imagine wearing shirts that are too big for you to hide how ill-fitting your bra is. Imagine needing to find a new shirt or dress for an event you are attending and not being able to find anything to fit you because the buttons blow out at the chest or the dress won't zip on the top. Of course, I had other struggles and strengths in my middle school years, but the size of my chest did not help anything. In high school,  my chest got large enough that it caused chronic back pain. I had conversations with a close friend who advised I get a breast reduction; I could not have been older than 17 at the time. She told me that she know a woman who had a breast reduction when she was in her 40s and sustained permanent knots and pain in her back from when she had a large chest. At this point, I really was thinking abou...