So, Nelly, you've had
this procedure, too.
I had my breast reduction
about seven years ago,
and I was a HH cup.
Right, so you're quite a petite
frame as well. Yeah.
So I felt like I was
very out of proportion.
We actually have a picture of you.
Oh, yeah.
It was before. Get ready for these.
They are very big.
They are very big.
So when I found out what breast
reduction surgery was, I booked
to see a surgeon that week and I had
the surgery the week after.
So I really went in hard and fast.
That's very quickly, to go from
consultation to surgery. Yeah.
What happened after your surgery?
So it was about four or five
days after surgery,
I felt what I can describe
as a ping under my left boob.
I wasn't supposed to, but I took
off all the dressings
to have a look at what had happened,
and it looked like a stitch
had popped and my breast was bulging
through this hole in the bottom
of my boob.
We have a picture of that, too.
You have that? We do.
That's flesh coming through.
Yeah, that is breast tissue
under there.
And it was pushing and it was
hurting, because you can see my skin
is trying to hold itself together
but not quite winning the battle.
Yeah. That was terrifying.
What did you do then?
I shouted for my mum.
We called the surgeon straight
away and he saw me, I think,
either that day or the day after.
And he said, "It's actually nothing
to worry about."
It was quite a common thing
to happen.
But then, I think it was only
a day or two after that,
I started to feel these pings
everywhere, at every corner and
every crease around my nipples,
under my boobs, the sides
and the centres -
just ping, ping, ping! -
almost all day, every day.
And that opening had happened
everywhere.
Every single line and crease
and where the skin
had been sewn back together. And so
what did your surgeon do then?
He suspected that my body was
rejecting the internal stitches.
So I was left with just open
wounds over both breasts
and they were getting bigger
every day.
We thought the best thing
to do would be to remove
all these stitches and just start
again, basically.
But he didn't want to operate again,
and he said the only thing
he would really do for us was to let
them heal and it would take a while,
but that's when you can
then look at scar revision,
because I was going to be left
with really significant scars.
So I then spent the next eight
months healing these open wounds.
I had to go to hospital three
or four times a week to get
redressed, which was painful
enough as it was.
So I spent a long time just trying
to recover from what my body
had kind of done. So that was eight
months. It's a long time.
And then came the scars. So the
scars were much bigger than what
we'd seen there. Much bigger.
Much, much, much bigger. Yeah.
That's the scars,
that's healed. Wow!
They really did get a lot bigger.
Yeah.
So, two or three years ago, I found
a surgeon who would do scar revision
surgery, so that was two operations
to cut out those scars.
And today, I'm still healing.
Still healing?
Yeah, I mean, my scars are
still pretty significant.
But I've done what I can do now.
You just can't know how your body
will heal.
It can react the way mine did,
or you could heal perfectly
in a matter of weeks.
I just got really unlucky.
Have you got questions for Nelly?
Regardless of all that happening,
are you more comfortable
with how your boobs are now
or how they were before?
I'm happier now.
For me, the size they were
before was really taking away
all quality of life.
I was just so cripplingly
self-conscious.
Yeah. So, even though
that's happened,
that's been my life for the past
seven years... You don't regret it.
..I'm still happier now, yeah.
We've got a stat, actually, from the
survey that's relevant to that.
So it was 62% of people surveyed
felt that cosmetic surgery is fine
in principle but were worried
that it could go wrong.
I mean, are the risks
really that big?
I think you're very unlucky.
Yeah, that's very unusual for that
to happen, actually.
I think, you know, another
interesting statistic
for this particular operation is it
has a very high satisfaction rate.
The important thing is to be well
prepared for it.
And that's really where the
consultations come in, when you go
to see the surgeon.
There's lots of really good
guidance on websites such
as the British Association of
Plastic, Reconstructive and
Aesthetic Surgeons, or the British
Association of Aesthetic Surgeons.
They've all got guides on there
about what the potential risks are,
what the aftercare is like,
what your recovery
will be like. It's all
there on the website.
