DEBRA: I actually was recommended to Dr. Holzman by my gynecologist. I had a pretty traumatic experience with an appendectomy gone wrong when I was a kid. And so it left me without a navel. It left me with a lot of scar tissue around that area. And so I just sort of—that was when I was five, six years old—and I just sort of went through life with it. But I finally came in because as I was getting older it was beginning to interfere with my ability to buy clothes. And I couldn’t wear a two piece bathing suit. And it was just a pain. I had also lost quite a bit of weight and I was noticing that it wasn’t improving at all. So I came to see him, initially, for that. And while we were discussing the abdominalplasty that would basically reconstruct my stomach he—my breasts were very large at the time actually. And so he was actually like what do you want to do about your boob? So at first I was a little reluctant to do anything with that because, you know, everybody pays to have breasts. And so I was like why would you want to take mine away.
The experience at the office has actually been really great. The first time I came in to fill out the paperwork, of course, they didn’t know me. But any time I came in after that either prior to the surgery or afterwards, as soon as I would walk inside the door they knew who I was. They knew what time my appointment was. I didn’t have to check in, just sat down. They always called to verify the appointments. And they’ve always been really friendly and they; they were really good about answering all of my questions. ‘Cause I was kind of a pain after my surgery. Just I had a lot of questions. I hadn’t had surgery since I was a kid. And so any little thing that happened that I wasn’t sure of—that and my mother was with me. So anything that happened where she was like call the doctor I called him. And they were, they were great.
I would like to say that I am probably the breast reduction poster child. I come across people all the time who have large breasts and we just get to talking. Like I go get my hair done and my hairstylist is like oh you should talk to her; she had a breast reduction. As far as breast reduction is concerned I would say to anybody, if you have a hard time trying on dresses because no matter how big the size goes it stops at the middle of your back and you can’t get past it because your boobs are so big, or you have to wear three sports bras, like I did when I went for a run, it, it is an incredible experience the first time you go to try on dresses. Or like the first time I got on the treadmill and I ran with just one sports bra it was—I felt like I could run for days. It was such an amazing feeling. And then, I mean I’m not going to lie, trying on clothes is so much fun I end up going to the stores just to try stuff on. Okay, I spend a lot of money. But that’s not the point of going. It’s just it’s nice to feel normal; I guess is the best way of putting it. And not feeling, you know, like I’m going to fall over or my body’s, you know, ill shaped. So I say go for it.
