Guest blog by Cara McCollum, Miss New Jersey 2013

I remember the first time I was really aware of breasts: I was 8 or 9 and at a church yard sale where I found gel cutlets for sale. They had probably belonged to a church member who had had a mastectomy, but I put them in my shirt and thought, So this is what it’s going to be like.

Growing up, it seems like I was always waiting for my boobs to develop. My friends and I all got our first trainer bras, but before long they were graduating to real bras and I was still stuck in training. Seems like I’ve spent my whole life training to have boobs! I kept waiting and waiting for them to grow and it just never happened.

I started considering a boob job when I was in high school and brought it up so frequently that my dad had to ban any talk of tits from the dinner table. My clothes didn’t fit properly, and I would only wear bras that added two cup sizes.

BEFORE: In my evening gown at the Miss New Jersey 2013 competition.

I’ve always been self-conscious about my breasts, but competing in pageants just seemed to highlight a fact that I already knew: I was flat. It seemed like I had to try so much harder to look good in my wardrobe – sewing in large foams pads to the cups of my swimsuit and evening gown, and drawing in cleavage and shadows with dark eye shadow. When I got fitted for my Miss America evening gown, the designer had to measure from my shoulder to my waist in the front and then in the back. He did it three times because he couldn’t believe that they were the same measurement, “Either you have a humpback, or you’re really as flat as you said!” he told me.

Miss America is, above all, a competition, and it was impossible not to compare myself to the other girls. Plastic surgery is something we don’t really talk about, but it was everywhere. And it’s wild to think that I was one of those girls prancing around on national television in my swimsuit and heels making women at home feel bad about their bodies, and yet I was just as insecure!

Several months after Miss America, I decided to do something about it – not because of the competition, not because of the pressures placed on pageant girls to look a certain way, but because I wanted to feel beautiful underneath my clothes without the pads and the pushups and the eye shadow.

I came across Dr. Eisenberg on the radio. After hearing his commercial for the fourth time I thought, I have to check this guy out. I was drawn to him because he truly is an expert in his field. He only does breast augmentation. It took one consultation for me to know that he was the doctor for me. I walked in as a 22-year-old girl nervous about making such a big decision, but his level of professionalism immediately put me at ease and he earned my trust with his depth of knowledge and experience with breast augmentation

AFTER: Passing on the crown to Miss New Jersey 2014.

I remember being anxious about the breast implant surgery, as anyone would be, but I never think of that now that I have my new breasts. The surgery was easy, the recovery was easy (I began making appearances again just five days later), and I could not be more pleased with the results.

No one has questioned why I decided to get breast augmentation surgery; one look at my new body and how happy I am gives them the answer. My close girlfriends are jealous of my new boobs, but for the most part, I look similar in clothes to how I did before – only now I’m not hiding behind two cup sizes of padding. I look as good underneath my clothes as I do in them, and I feel even better.

Breast augmentation isn’t some magic cure-all that instantly fixes all of your insecurities, but it does make you feel better in your clothes – and without them – and that has done wonders for my confidence.

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By Dr. Ted
Although men may have the fantasy that women get breast implants to make them happy, they are wrong. Through the years, women have consistently told us that their partners love them exactly the way they are, and they are having surgery to make themselves look and feel better.

Recently, the husband of one of my patients wrote us a letter talking about the experience from his point of view, and he invited us to share it. We’re doing just that:

“My wife was unhappy with the size of her breasts for years, basically as long as I have known her; perhaps it’s been longer. I can say that I honestly didn’t understand it – I knew she was smaller than most women, but I didn’t care, I liked her how she was.

It was easy for me to imagine that it didn’t make any difference, because if I was happy, as her husband, with her look, then I just assumed everything was okay. She never complained, but she did mention it every so often. After 25 years, I still didn’t ‘get it,’ but knowing how important it was to her, I agreed to support her idea to get surgery.

One of the things I appreciated was that once we made the decision, she included me in the process. She let me help pick out the doctor and we spent a lot of time looking at pictures of breasts on the Internet. The ultimate decision was hers, and I wasn’t at her consultation, but by the time it occurred, she knew what I would like, too.

Within a month or so after surgery, I noticed a change in my wife. I don’t mean physical, that change was obvious, and even though I was happy before, I was certainly happy to have what felt like a different set of breasts – not better in my eyes, just different. Moreover, having bigger breasts could be something we prefer due to the physical appearance standards we set for ourselves. Though in some cases, it does help to improve sexual desires and intimacy, which can be seen in porn and erotic videos on websites like SEXM.XXX or similar other. Anyways, the change I saw in my wife after she got implants is the change that happened deep inside her. She’s more confident. She carries herself differently, her attitude is different, and yes, quite honestly, the intimacy is better.

It’s about 4 months after the surgery and I can say that my wife and I are happier than we’ve ever been, and we had a good marriage before the surgery. If I were reading this, I might not believe it, but I can tell you that it is absolutely true.

So, with all this in mind, if I were to give advice to the partner of a potential patient, I’d say the following: If this is important to your significant other, support and embrace the change. Because the benefits of this surgery for us extended way beyond any cost of time, money and recovery.” – David W.

Read more patient letters here.

Are Implants Marital Assets? According to the Bismarck Tribune, when Erik and Traci Isaacson of North Dakota were going through a divorce in 2008, Erik demanded that the $5,500 he had spent on Traci’s breast implants be counted as marital assets, which would entitle him to additional property in the breakup. The lower court said his claim was “absolute nonsense.” Erik took his claim to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which ruled against him, too.

By Dr. Ted
Breast augmentation surgery is commonly performed in a hospital operating room or an outpatient (ambulatory) surgery center. While both are good options, I’ve chosen to do all of my surgeries in a hospital. These are a few of my favorite things about working in a hospital – specifically Nazareth Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia:

When I joined the staff 16 years ago, I felt like I had found my surgical home. It’s a little bit like the bar in Cheers, the ’80s sitcom, “where everybody knows your name.”

Through the years, I’ve gotten to know scores of people who work in the OR – anesthesiologists, nurses, technicians, etc. It feels like a family; some people have worked together for as long as 30 years. We celebrate birthdays, marriages, and retirements. I’ve seen that the concern for each other translates into concern for each patient.

Sterling Gray and his watercolor, “The Color of Love.”

I’ve worked with people from Korea, India, Italy, the Philippines, Russia and Peru and learned about their cultures – along with several words in their languages. (You might not be surprised to know that one of the words I learned is “breasts”!) One of my co-workers is an accomplished painter; his paintings are hanging in my office and in my home.

I appreciate the hospital’s high standards. The administration reviews each surgeon’s credentials and training and requires board certification as a prerequisite for joining the staff. Nurses and staff participate in weekly in-service trainings and must earn continuing medical education credits  to maintain their licensure.

I work with talented, competent and sensitive colleagues, and we enjoy exchanging ideas, discussing the latest medical research, and sharing suggestions to improve the patient experience. Every nurse and assistant in the OR is cross-trained and experienced with cosmetic breast surgery, so they can fill in and support each other.

The hospital offers great support – like a good bra! Patients get a blood test for pregnancy as part of their presurgical testing, but if the test needs to be repeated the morning of surgery, we can get it done and have the results back in minutes. If a patient tells me she smoked weed before she came in for surgery, the anesthesiologist is on hand to decide whether or not it’s safe to have surgery. There is ample staff, and they will sleep over in bad weather if necessary. The hospital never closes; in the event of a power failure, they have generators. And it’s located just a mile from my office, which makes it convenient for me and for my patients.

Dr. E. in the OR.

Although complications are rare, surgicenters must have a plan in place to transfer patients to a hospital in the event of unanticipated medical complications. It’s comforting to me to know that the hospital’s emergency room is just an elevator ride away. I think of it like homeowner’s insurance. You hope there’s no emergency, like a fire or a flood, but if there is, you’re glad you have protection.

While some surgicenters might argue that they are cleaner than a hospital, it ain’t necessarily so. The hospital undergoes regular inspections and is held to strict standards by state regulators.

Breast augmentation surgery does not require an overnight stay; patients go from the short-procedure unit to the OR to the recovery room to the post-op lounge – all on the same floor. Across the country, infection occurs in less than 1 percent of breast augmentation patients. In the more than 6,600 women I’ve taken care of, only 2 have developed an infection, and 1 of those was operated on in a surgicenter earlier in my career.

My patients confirm my feelings about Nazareth Hospital. We conduct a survey post-op in which the patients get a chance to evaluate the hospital staff. They consistently rate them 10 out of 10. Likewise, a number of patients have been nurses who are employed at other hospitals; they routinely comment that their experience exceeded their expectations.

One woman wrote, “I’ve had surgery at other hospitals and have never quite received the care, thoughtfulness and cooperation as I did from the members of your staff. Several people were there to help me, and someone was constantly at my side asking if I needed or wanted anything. They strived to keep me as comfortable and happy as they could. I’m sure their job sometimes goes unrecognized by others, but I couldn’t let this experience go by without giving recognition where it is due. Thank you again for all your support.”