In my pre-surgical consultation for gastric bypass weight loss surgery I remember asking my surgeon will I lose my breasts? He assured me, yes indeed, I would lose my breasts. Nine months and 100 pounds later they were gone. I was embarrassed by my after WLS breasts, now deflated skin balloons hanging low on my chest. My breasts my sexual pride and joy for so many years - were now ugly sloppy flaps of skin. I loathed my trimmed down naked boy-body. Something had to be done.

First effort: I increased my exercise: bench presses and butterflies. That didnt help. Any exercise that works the pectoral muscles will help tone the chest, but not the breasts. Breasts are not muscle tissue, they are fatty tissue, and therefore do not respond to weightlifting or resistance exercise of any type.

Second effort: I tried some rub-in creams ordered from the back of a fashion magazine. They promised to grow my breasts by two cup sizes. The promise was a lie; dont waste your money.

Last step: Consult with the plastic surgeon. He congratulated my weight loss, complimented my muscle tone (I really did do a lot of resistance exercise) and then he suggested mammoplasty & augmentation. He would take my deflated skin balloons, put them back front and center where they belonged and inflate them with implants. I was about 18 months out of surgery and had maintained my weight loss for two or three months. I felt confident the time was right to get on with the finishing touches.

The surgery was done under general anesthesia in surgical suite at the plastic surgeons office. He removed excess skin, lifted my nipples and repositioned them and inserted implants beneath the pectoral muscles. He closed the area with surgical tape and bound me in a surgical support bra. After I was awake from the anesthesia my husband took me home to rest and recover.

There was a great deal of pain from the muscles being lifted and moved in surgery. Also, the weight of the implants seemed great on my chest. Sitting was the most comfortable position. Lying down or standing caused discomfort. I took prescription pain medication for six days and then over-the-counter pain medicine for another two weeks. At first the breasts didnt look normal (whats normal about implants?) and I had the equivalent of breast postpartum sadness asking repeatedly What have I done to my body?

However, as the pain subsided so did my sadness or regret. My new breasts settled nicely onto my new small body and to this day I do not regret the procedure. I feel like a sexy, curvaceous woman the woman I never thought Id become.

For a detailed explanation of breast augmentation I recommend this article by Kimberly A. Henry, MD and Penny S. Heckaman WebMD Medical Reference from The Plastic Surgery Sourcebook found at www.webmd.com

Breast augmentation, or augmentation mammoplasty, has become one of the most frequently requested plastic surgery procedures by women of all ages. It is most commonly performed to increase the size of small breasts, correct a difference in size between the breasts, and for breast reconstruction following mastectomy for breast cancer. A breast implant is inserted either behind the breast tissue of each breast or behind the pectoralis major muscle, the major muscle of the chest wall, thereby increasing the size of the breast.

Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of http://www.livingafterwls.com and http://www.livingafterwls.blogspot.com

LivingAfterWLS is a no-nonsense resource for people Living After Weight Loss Surgery. Our community is growing in numbers even as we are shrinking in pounds. Together we support one another in this lifestyle, that it turns out, is NOT the easy way out.

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Salt Lake City is, by current standards, a relatively small metropolitan area. The city itself has about 180,000 residents and the metro area just over one million. There is a larger geographic statistical area running from Ogden town through Salt Lake City called the Wasatch Front. All of that territory holds just over two million residents.

It remains a small city surrounded by hundreds of square miles of beautiful and rugged territory. That does not mean, however, that the city lacks cosmopolitan features. The University of Utah is headquartered there along with their medical school.

The plastic surgery division of Utah U's medical school has a long and venerable history. It was founded in 1967 by a physician recruited from Florida named Clifford Snyder. According to the school's web site, the plastic surgery department in its early years "developed an international reputation in mandibular distraction, microsurgery, hand reconstruction, treatment of venomous snake bites..."

You won't see that snake bite specialty at just any plastic surgery department in just any med school. You're still in the high desert regardless of the banks, office buildings and churches anchoring Salt Lake City. There's a lot of civic pride in Salt Lake City and while the state is thought of as conservative it is changing with the times; there is a well established group of plastic surgeons in the area.

• If you opt for a plastic surgery clinic, avoid those that have part-time physicians or management. In the days when there was not much call for breast augmentations or liposuction in Utah, some physicians opened up facilities in other cities as well. Some are still splitting time between Salt Lake City and, for instance, Las Vegas. If the facility is owned or managed by a doctor who is in and out of town it is less likely to be as organized and tightly run than one whose staff is on hand all day, every day.

• The University of Utah not only has a long-standing plastic surgery department, the school is dedicated to teaching the full range of cosmetic procedures and intends to open up a clinic for just that purpose.

According to their web site, "The Division of Plastic Surgery plans a central facility for cosmetic surgery and body contouring. The resources of the University will be centralized at this facility to provide both preoperative and postoperative care as well as state-of-the-art plastic surgery." Don't think that locally educated plastic surgeons may not have quality training. In fact, the medical school might be a worthy source of referrals, even on an informal basis.

Mary Hart is a freelance writer specializing in Cosmetic & Beauty topics. Find information about all types of plastic surgery procedures including breast implants, breast augmentation, face lifts, and liposuction. A Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Resource.com is the place to locate a Salt Lake City Plastic Surgeon