My Body: The Chest

Oh the chest. My chest is special in many ways. I have large breasts on a very short torso and arthritic ribs. I can't bra shop in El Paso because they just don't carry my size in any of the stores. Even Dillard's, which carries my size online, doesn't stock them in either of the local stores. Which is a shame since I'm sure many of the women in this city could use options like that, but that's another matter.

Being large chested, I wear mostly underwire bras, which give more support and defined shape. But some days my ribs just can't handle the wires and I wear my soft-cup bra. It's hard for me to find nice soft-cup bras because they tend to be full coverage, which doesn't work so well on my short torso. I avoid full coverage.

As for the ribs, I've had arthritis there since I was about 15. At first, mom and I thought I might have asthma. I was having trouble breathing on rainy days. My ribs would ache, making breathing painful. Mom ran into our old doctor who had since retired and asked his opinion. He said it's arthritis. We tried capsaicin cream but it burned too much for me. Aleve seemed to help. I don't remember it bothering me too much in high school.

When I went to college, and especially when I started living in KS year round, it pretty much went away. I think having a constant level of humidity made the difference. We moved to El Paso and my arthritis came back. I didn't know what was going on at first. My ribs were tender and painful and it hurt to breath too deep. I put some icyhot on it and it got better. Then I remembered my arthritis. Oh yay. It bothers me most in the transition from dry to wet, which is noticeable in climates like this. Humid days here are like normal days in KS. I'm able to take care of it with aleve and icyhot.

I suppose upper back would fall into this category, so let me tell you about my college-mark. It's like a birthmark, but I got it in college. My friend and I went tanning. It was my first time in a tanning bed. We only went the once, I think. Sometime after that, not too long after, I noticed a large patch on my back that was slightly darker than the rest of my skin. Tan instead of white. It's barely noticeable, but it's there. Doesn't bother me. I have a birthmark on my foot with similar but darker coloration, in a smaller patch.

Hm, back to the chest now. I do have a large chest, and I used to hate it. Most of you that read this know this story already. I didn't like my chest, thought about reduction surgery, and bras hurt me. I did a lot of searching on the internet and decided I was wearing the wrong bra size. I went to a Dillards and tried on a few bras on my own, then let one of the clerks help me. She agreed with the size I had picked, 36G. Before that I had been wearing a 38DD.

I lost some weight and dropped to a 34G in UK sizing. In US sizing, that's a 34I, and I haven't found any US brands that make an I cup. So I wear imported bras. If I stick with my favorite brands, Fantasie and Freya, I can usually guarantee a fit in my size. I'm not down to a 32G. I don't think my band size will drop any more than this. Cup might go down a bit more. I could handle that. It opens up more bra options for me.

Ok, ok. Enough blabbing about me boobs. And I don't think you need a picture of this one. 

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