What were my goals for my breast augmentation procedure?  I did NOT want to look fake.  I wanted a natural looking and proportional result, just as I create for my beloved Plastic Surgery patients.  I didn’t necessarily WANT anyone to know I’d had surgery, unless I chose to tell them.  I didn’t want to have to buy all new clothes or for my body image to be drastically altered.

Dr. Karen Horton with Shannon Piro, Owner of Pure Barre San Rafael

I normally wear fitted dresses and heels at work (exception – COVID 🙁 ) and at Plastic Surgery conferences, and a bikini all weekend at “Club Horton” (our Marin backyard paradise).  My chest is bony, I have very little upper body fat, and I stay in good physical shape.  I had bought several 36A bras over the years, but I didn’t really fill them out so I just went with bralettes or minimally supportive workout tops from Pure Barre San Rafael.  But it sure would be nice to actually fit into a bra someday!

Our Pediatrician insisted we set up a photo shoot of the Horton Twins at 5 weeks of age – I’m so glad we did!

So what exactly were my surgery goals?  To comfortably fill out a bikini top and be able to wear a bra (if I wanted to).  To feel feminine and sexy.  For my chest to better match the rest of my body.  For my breasts to better fill out the busts of my dresses (and be less baggy up top), to wear wide scoop neck tops like I had done for the year I breast fed the #HortonTwins (I loved my breasts back that year!).  But not to be THAT full – just a little more subtle.

Before any type of breast surgery including a breast reduction or lift, reconstruction or revision surgery, but particularly a breast augmentation, I encourage my patients to find “wish pictures” of nude breasts so I can best understand the look, proportion and change they are going for.  These pictures help me to understand what’s in my patients’ “mind’s eye” and to best plan the details of their procedure.

Luckily, the year I nursed my twins, I had a member of my office team take pictures of me so that I could refer to them in the future, whenever I was ready for my breast augmentation procedure.  I knew I wanted to have surgery someday, when I was ready, so I was prepared.

For my “wish pictures”, I had thought ahead and had my office staff take pictures of ME during the time I was breastfeeding my twins!

Since I am a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon who specializes in breast augmentation and complicated breast revision surgeries, I knew the exact details of what I would do for myself, if I was the patient.

#savinglivesonebreastatatime

I created the cute hashtag #savinglivesonebreastatatime for social media posts.  I’m not REALLY “saving lives” I realize by performing breast implant surgery, but I am helping women to achieve the results they want for THEIR body.  Breast augmentation is a personal and individual procedure for woman.

“Your goals are my goals” is what I tell patients at their first breast augmentation consultation.  Women I see don’t usually want to look fake or ridiculous.  Most women just want to have the look naturally that they are creating with padding in their bra, or to get rid of the need for a bra altogether.

I knew I wanted smooth, round silicone gel breast implants.  I knew I wanted my breast implants on top of the muscle, in the subglandular position.  I am not a fan of implants under the muscle, for many reasons including the animation deformity, the wide positioning that develops with chronic muscle contraction, and the strong belief that your chest muscle anatomy should not be distorted in cosmetic breast surgery.

I knew the approximate size that would be best for my body (around 300 cc, or a little more “than a cup of milk”, which is 250 cc), and that I would need two different implant sizes, as my breasts were mildly asymmetric before surgery.  Breasts are “sisters, not twins” and in fact, at least 2/3 of my patients have two different implant sizes in order to create the very best symmetry.

So with this in mind, I set out to find MY Plastic Surgeon…

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