And working out as much as I do and being as concerned as I am about my physical appearance, you know there was just nothing I could do to make my boobs any better, so breast augmentation was pretty much the only alternative if I wanted to fix them, and that was the route that I was gonna have to go.

I chose Dr. Ditesheim after sitting and having consultations with four other doctors here in Charlotte, four prominent doctors. When I met Dr. Ditesheim I immediately felt a connection to him. I immediately felt comfortable. He seemed more like an artist than a surgeon. He had so much input, so much advice to give me. It wasn’t like walking into a doctor’s office and him saying or her saying, okay you want a C or a B? He had some real input. And there were many options as far as what procedure he was gonna use exactly, from the implants to the incisions to the kind of medication. There were several options, it wasn’t just one route, he offers a lot. And he’s just he’s very comfortable, and he’s just a very comfortable man to be around. And that’s important when you’re thinking about having something like breast augmentation, you need to feel that comfort level and that confidence that the doctor’s gonna do what you want.

I opted to take pain medication, so I did alright. Now I will go ahead and tell you that I had the surgery on a Thursday morning and I was back at work Tuesday morning. So the recovery itself is just days, and I think that the procedure I had is a little more complicated than some of the other, you know a simpler procedure, because not only did I have the breast augmentation, I also had a breast lift. So that’s two surgeries in one, and the incision, there’s more of an incision and so forth. So I mean that being as complicated as it was, I mean I was back at work in four days.

I feel great. As a matter of fact I am happier than I thought I would be. My husband is ecstatic. My five year old’s noticed and of course because my husband’s so excited about it my son gets excited about it too. My daughter, I have a 13 year-old daughter who just couldn’t be more pleased. She’s always making comments about my overall figure. I don’t have a little boy body anymore, I actually look like I’m a woman.

As far as the recovery is concerned you know I know that Deborah calls, she’ll call you every day for a week. Dr. Ditesheim calls you for the first couple days as well. So they really do a lot to touch base with you for the week after your surgery to make sure everything’s going okay.

I know my husband loves the fact that I’m secure, I’m more confident. And this is just a funny story, you know walking around the house naked is not something that I’m accustomed to doing, but he came home, this was probably a couple months after the surgery, and I was walking about the bedroom with no shirt on. And to him, he loved that. He said he’d never seen me walk around like that before, and it was neat to see me have the confidence to do something like that, whereas before you know I never would have. And that wasn’t ever even a conscious thought that I wouldn’t have even realized it had he not pointed it out. So yeah I’m definitely happier about my surgery than I ever imagined that I’d be.

His new facility here in Blakeney is incredible. It’s a beautiful area, it’s a beautiful office, it’s very comfortable, and it doesn’t feel sterile. And I talked to, one doctor in particular, you know you go in and you feel like you’re at a hospital, and it’s a very sterile, cold environment, whereas it’s very warm and inviting here.

My expectations were you know just to have my boobs where they’re supposed to be. But they were far exceeded. One thing that didn’t really come into play until after the fact were the way all clothes fit me. I mean there were so many ways that I just couldn’t wear before because I just didn’t have the chest to make it look nice. Now I do, so my wardrobe has expanded. Because I can wear anything and look good in it now.

Visit our Charlotte Breast Augmentation page for more information.

Everything about Dr. Ditesheim and working with him has always exceeded my expectations. He’s always been very thorough, very conscientious of his decision making. You can always tell he thinks through every process before he gets involved into it. Always looks at my best interest. Even when it came time to do the latissimus flap, one of the staff members here in his office had said, “You know a lot of women are very concerned about different side effects and everything, of losing strength in that.” And those questions never occurred to me because I knew Dr. Ditesheim would never do anything that debilitating to me, to recommend a procedure that would debilitate my life, that I’m so active and I just need to keep going and I basically don’t have time for any of this so let’s just do it and get going. So I knew that that wasn’t going to be an issue.

Jan, Jan’s the best. She coordinates the surgery schedules, always accommodating my schedule, what works for me, along with what can be worked into Dr. Ditesheim’s schedule. She has taken care of all the insurance situations. Basically I’ve had no issues with my insurance company. I had found out through this procedure that Dr. Ditesheim is only one in a handful of plastic surgeons who are willing to do reconstruction after breast cancer because of the insurance issues. And the fact that he has done that and he is so knowledgeable and so compassionate and so understanding and so willing to take anything that it takes to make sure that the results are what I want as well as what he would want is amazing.

When I first started my whole experience here at Dr. Ditesheim’s office Deborah was not a member of the staff, she came on board in the past year. And what an awesome addition to the staff. She just fits in well and she’s very friendly and very understanding and you know came up to speed very quickly and was just a wonderful, gave of herself and gave of her information and helped me, you know any questions at all she had the information for me or got me what I needed to know.

I’m feeling absolutely great. You know we finally finished off this last surgery and I’m to a point where it’s like, yes it’s done. That was the last step to take to put cancer behind me. And it’s just been a really good experience.

Visit our Charlotte Breast Reconstruction page for more information.

Having plastic surgery was something that I’ve wanted to do for quite some time since I had had my children. There were major changes from having three babies and I had been thinking about it for a really long time before I made that decision.

My research started at the OB’s office. I mentioned to him that I had some dissatisfaction with my body and he recommended Dr. Ditesheim. Then I decided to do a little asking around and found a friend who knew somebody who’d had the same surgery, and when I contacted her she had used Dr. Ditesheim and was thrilled with her results, so that was enough for me to have had the recommendation from my OB whose opinion I valued and trusted, and then have a friend of a friend to back that up.

When I came into the office the first time everybody was really friendly and welcoming. I felt very comfortable. Everybody answered all my questions and was always saying I could contact them at any time if I had any questions so I felt very comfortable when I came into the office the first time.

When I came in to see Dr. Ditesheim he made me feel that the procedure that I wanted was something that was doable, that would have a great result. I felt very comfortable with his qualifications. Having the breast reduction and lift surgery there’s several different techniques for doing that surgery and Dr. Ditesheim does the vertical scar technique which leaves a lot less scarring and that was definitely appealing to me as a patient.

I opted to have the surgery here after speaking with Jan and Deborah, they highly recommended doing that as opposed to the hospital. It seemed much more specialized and individually suited to me, much more personal. And so I opted to have it here at the office. From the standpoint of the anesthesia and the anesthesiologist taking into my personal considerations a tolerance for medications, how much I weighed, my metabolism, those kind of things, I felt like it would be a much more personal experience and safer from that standpoint as opposed to being at a hospital where it was more of a general one size fits all.

When I got home I had very few complications or difficulties. I felt really good. That was better than I anticipated. Deborah checked up on me and I always felt like she was there if I needed her for anything. Each step of the way I felt that the staff and Dr. Ditesheim helped me to feel a lot more prepared. They answered all my questions, they were able to take away a lot of my nerves. Having surgery and going under anesthesia is a very nerve wracking process, and yet each time I came in all my questions were answered and I was able to go into surgery feeling very comfortable and very confident in what was going to happen and what my role was and what was gonna take place each step of the way.

One of the great things about Dr. Ditesheim was that he took my concerns into consideration, he took my husband’s concerns into consideration, and then he brought his expertise to the table and said, this is what I think would be the best result. And in the end he was able to bring it all around so that everybody was very happy with the result.

The surgery has made me feel younger, like I’ve really done something special for myself to kind of put my body back the way I wanted it to look after having kids and I feel like I’m a young and vibrant mother and I wanted my body to look the same way as I was feeling. My husband is absolutely thrilled with the results, he’s probably if possible happier than I am. He thinks everything looks great, he was really happy with everything, he felt so comfortable with Dr. Ditesheim and his credentials and he always felt I was in really good hands.

Visit our Charlotte Mommy Makeover page for more information.

Dr. Ditesheim and his staff far exceeded my expectations, especially pre op when I was nervous, and they really helped answer all my questions and made the experience much better than I thought it was going to be. And actually on the day of surgery I felt very confident and I wasn’t nervous that day at all. I had puffiness under my eyes, which was fat, and Dr. Ditesheim did a fat transposition and moved the fat from under my eyes to where the hollows of my eyes were. My eyes were a very complicated case because the way my eyes are positioned on my face is unusual.

My husband was all for it and he knew my eyes bothered me, and he was very comfortable with having me have surgery especially with Dr. Ditesheim, so he was very supportive and my friends were supportive. And they had mentioned to me they thought I needed to have the surgery. And since the surgery people have commented that I look more awake, and people I haven’t told have said to me, “You look different,” and “Did you get your hair cut?” something like that. And everyone thinks I look much better.

Visit our Charlotte Blepharoplasty page for more information.

I did not like what I saw when I looked in the mirror. It was about what I wanted to look like, not what anybody else wanted to look like. It was never about weight, it was just about fat in the front of my body that I couldn’t get rid of.

I trusted him immediately. He seemed to care about me immediately. He was interested in me. I called if I had any problem and they would always answer any questions. They would take the time, they didn’t just hang up on me. Well I’ll have somebody call you back later. No it wasn’t that, it was always, well what’s the problem, maybe I can help you, if you really feel uncomfortable please come in and we’ll look at it and make sure everything’s okay.

Oh everybody thinks it looks wonderful. It gives me more confidence and especially with my clothing I don’t have to worry about things being too tight around here. It’s the same clothes but they just fit better and they look better.

Visit our Charlotte Liposuction page for more information.

When I came for a consultation with Dr. Ditesheim I had a lot of questions about what exactly was the difference between a tummy tuck or just liposuction of the tummy. I had loose skin, I had some parts that bothered me, and I wanted to know just how little or how much I needed to do to accomplish what I thought would make me feel good again about my body. And Dr. Ditesheim and his staff really helped me answer those questions so that I felt good about my decisions and I felt that I had time to investigate and answer those questions, or get my questions answered. Dr. Ditesheim was very honest, told me just how he could help me and what I would need to have done. He felt that liposuction would be a good solution for my tummy but to get the best result I needed to have a tummy tuck which was a bigger investment of time and financially but it definitely got me the result that I wanted and I feel really good about myself. Dr. Ditesheim helped me decide what combination areas would get the result that I wanted and get rid of what bothered me.

I was very concerned about recovery. Having a busy lifestyle and having children, having three children to drive and want to be available for, I was concerned about recovery and I was told exactly how much time it would take. Everybody’s a little bit different, but what to allow myself and what kind of help I would need for my recovery. And probably my biggest fear was just the recovery, not results, not Dr. Ditesheim’s expertise. I felt really comfortable with Dr. Ditesheim. it was the recovery and that was far better than I ever anticipated. And I felt really really good very quickly after surgery.

What was so great about having surgery in Dr. Ditesheim’s office was that he had an incredible staff, from the anesthesiologist to the OR nurse, the recovery nurse, everybody I met. Before my surgery I was completely awake and I felt very comfortable and safe. His surgical center was beautiful and there was a lot of care in making me feel comfortable. I never felt scared if you will, before surgery I felt very good about the direction I was headed. And then I went to sleep and I woke up and I felt great, little tired but I felt good, I didn’t have any pain, little discomfort. I had very good care during my recovery. I was in Dr. Ditesheim’s office, surgical area for recovery for a few hours, and I went home, and it was a really really positive experience.

I actually feel probably better about my body than I did maybe even before I had children. There were things about my body that bothered me when I was younger before I had children and I didn’t think about having plastic surgery then. I have always exercised so this was a great solution for me. I feel really good, I feel like I look good. Having plastic surgery for me has given me more self confidence, and I just feel really good.

Visit our Charlotte Mommy Makeover page for more information.

It was a series of several surgeries to get me to where I am today, so my last surgery was I guess July of last year. So now pretty much I can wear anything I’d like to wear and cancer free which is a wonderful thing and so moving on with life as you’d hoped it to be.Actually I had interviewed with a couple of other doctors prior to and I had known Dr. Ditesheim before in a professional role, and I didn’t know if it would be awkward since I worked with him professionally to have him as a doctor, especially when you’re doing breast reconstruction, would that be too odd. And so then I went to a couple other doctors prior to fessing up to Dr. Ditesheim that I was facing this, and looked at their pictures and dealt with their bedside manner and stuff like that. I mean I knew that Dr. Ditesheim was gonna be the better call after I’d met with all these other folks, and so I chatted with my husband about it and we came out and met with him and we both walked out saying yup that’s the right choice. It’s been great, I mean the staff is good, of course Dr. Ditesheim is great. Of course he spends the time with you to explain what the options are. I mean I was originally just gonna do no latissimus flap thing and so they talked about the difference in the results of how it would look in the long run versus the short run, because of course there’s longer recovery using your latissimus flap because you’re taking a muscle off your back. It does take a while to adjust to that. But in the long run they do have a better shape and look about what I have, and in my clothes. And even my husband, later on, of course he’s the one that sees me, and he was saying, ah this was about two months, everything seems to be in the right shape and even the scar on my back where they took my latissimus muscle, I don’t think it would bother anybody if you wore something that actually showed the scar because it’s such a huge scar and it’s blended into my skin and all that. I mean before I was thinking, oh nothing backless. I don’t think I would think that anymore because it’s not an obnoxious scar, it was very smooth. And he’s very good at holding your hand through a decision that you’re trying to make that will change how you look and how you feel about yourself.

Well the actual surgery, all four surgeries were in the hospital, so it’s a little bit different. But on the day of I mean I showed up and you know you’re nervous, as you can imagine, and Dr. Ditesheim comes in, draws all over you so you can watch the artist at work at that particular point because you’ve got the markers all over you and the different things of what he’s doing and kind of watching his mind work, just a different form of canvas I think. And then of course I’m out during all of that but he was very communicative after the surgery with my husband, and my mother was there. And then the folks in the recovery were great, and of course Deborah here in the office is wonderful. So if you have questions on what’s going on and why then you can easily do that. Although actually she called me before I had the guts to pick up the phone and call her and ask the questions which was great.

Jan and Deborah, you couldn’t ask for better folks I don’t think. Deborah was not here at the first couple of my surgeries, and the other folks were good, but I can tell Deborah she just really loves dealing with the patients and making sure that everybody’s comfortable and that the healing’s going like it’s supposed to do and alleviating your fears and all, and of course Jan is just very good at the coordination. They’re just, they’re caring folks and it comes through in the way that they deal with you.

I know one of the decisions that was facing me when I had to decide which doctor to use was what did my insurance do. And I will say that there are those that if your insurance company doesn’t cover what you’re trying to get done that you can go out of network. And just like if you needed the right cardiologist and it was out of network, I mean if you needed to have reconstruction from breast cancer or whatever going to get the right results is as important as whether it’s in network or out of network. So I would stress going to where you’re gonna get what you want, what body you want to live with the rest of your life, as opposed to whether or not it’s in network or out of network.

Visit our Charlotte Breast Reconstruction page for more information.

Actually I was on the internet looking at how the results would be for a reduction and then I’d made a couple of appointments to some doctors that were local.

And then I ran across his website, Dr. Ditesheim’s website, and decided to dig into that a little more, made an appointment, and then I felt more comfortable coming here.

When I got in here my appointment was at 3:30 I think and I didn’t leave until about 5:30. He took his time, I felt real at ease. Actually my fiancé came with me. He had concerns, I had concerns. So we both together asked several questions and had everything answered to our satisfaction and we both liked what we heard.

The staff is great, they are, I can’t say enough about them. From Carol the nurse to she was right there with me through everything, Jan, everybody was great. They called me at home. Yeah it’s not convenient for me to come here. But two hours away, I felt that he was the best choice for me.

Well since I had had surgery in the past I kind of had an idea of going under and recovery and the pain or whatnot but it really wasn’t that bad at all. I mean I didn’t have any problems with the surgery.

Carol, one of the nurses, she stayed with me the entire time. She was great. I was nervous of course you know, but she was great. Everybody kept checking in on me and making sure everything went smooth. The first procedure I had was in a hospital setting and it was a cold hospital atmosphere, and then when I came here everything was local and just a very comfortable feeling, warm.

I’ve got probably more confidence having a reduction. It’s amazing some women want the larger breasts, but some of us don’t care to have it, so it’s just given me more confidence. For my height and my size it just felt best for me.

Visit our Charlotte Breast Reduction page for more information.

It’s about understanding who you are as a woman and trying to help you achieve a goal that you already know you want to achieve. It was about what I wanted to look like, not what anybody else wanted to look like. One of the great things about Dr. Ditesheim is that he took my concerns into consideration, he took my husband’s concerns into consideration. My goal for you is that when you come to see me you feel like there is no place else that has the same degree of sensitivity about me and concern for helping me achieve my goal. It’s not convenient for me to come here, but you know two hours away I felt that he was the best choice for me. Dr. Ditesheim was very honest, told me just how he could help me and what I would need to have done. If you’re ready to join these women who decided to make a change, call for a consultation with Dr. Jeffry Ditesheim at Ditesheim Cosmetic Surgery, just off Ray Road at Blakeney. Call )704) 542-8686, or visit our website at www.empowermd.com.