Follow Jessica’s journey as she gets a breast augmentation with S. Larry Schlesinger, MD, FACS, a board certified plastic surgeon at the Breast Implant Center of Hawaii, serving Honolulu and Kona.
Jessica is a fitness competitor and over the years as she has leaned out, she has lost most of her breasts. She wishes for a more feminine look and feels it’s time for a breast augmentation.
Jessica is not one to let challenges get in her way. At the age of 13, she noticed her vision was failing. After several tests and doctors, she was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease, a form of macular degeneration. With her husband’s help, she makes due and hopes that in the next 10 years, there will be a cure.
Video transcript:
Jessica: So, I feel that with this whole procedure just feeling more confident and feeling like who I truly am. Feeling feminine. Feeling like a woman. I just feel that overall it’s just going to change my outlook completely.
In the fitness industry, I compete as a professional bikini competitor. A lot of muscle and in the gym so it’s a really man dominated world so I was feeling less feminine. And as I trained and leaned out, my chest just kept getting smaller and smaller.
We started dating actually when I was in 8th grade. So before we met, you know it was pretty normal. Didn’t notice there was anything serious with my vision. Just may be needed a stronger prescription. In probably 9th grade, we noticed that it started decreasing quickly and we went from specialist to specialist and finally somebody said “I think you have this”. And we got some blood work done and finally got diagnosed with Stargardt disease which is a form of macular degeneration.
You know my eyes sometimes make me feel like I’m more shy than I am. I’m not really a shy person but if I can’t tell who somebody is or you know, I’ll be a little bit quiet or reserved because I don’t want to go do something or say something that’s not there.
Steve: I could see she was struggling. She had a good presence when she was out in public but I could kind of see that it was a little bit of a struggle. She already has an amazing body. After surgery, she’ll have the full picture. She’ll have everything.
Jessica: We’re going to do all sorts of shopping!
Steve: I already joked with her that we were going to have to go shopping and buy a whole new wardrobe of bras and stuff. So I’m already expecting that we’re going to have to
Jessica: It’s a bummer (laughter)
Steve: I’m pretty bummed (laughter) that she’s getting this done.
Jessica:He’s just been so supportive and um, really my rock through everything.