Post surgery - 6 months

[STARROVERS]

Dear All,

had my gyno surgery 6 months ago and I really enjoy the result and glad to undergo. My only concern is the left pec as there seems to be some excess skin (yellow circle) hence the shape is still not perfect. I've attached a pic taken a month after the surgery and it appears to me that there's been no progress at all since then. I know that my left one used to be way worse before the surgery but my questions are:

1. will this loose skin disappear one day or do I need skin removal?
2. Can I somehow speed up the recovery process? Some say vacuum massage helps but I've been doing that 2 months and no improvement to be honest.

thanks,
Janos

[Miguel Delgado MD]

Looking at your left side, it appears that maybe you are flexing your muscle. If so it is hard to evaluate.  At six months, the skin contraction has done all that is possible.  You can not really speed up the process. I have never heard of vacuum massage but the vacuum technique is used in breast surgery to stretch the skin. Good Luck.

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

It would be helpful if you would label the photos as to whether you are flexing your pec muscles.  Also, it would be helpful to have a photo of your chest with arms raised over your head.  I suspect you may have a crater deformity on the left with possible residual tissue below the nipple towards the abdomen.

Dr Jacobs

[STARROVERS]

thank you for your reply, Dr Jacobs.

Attaching additional photos, I hope it helps. 

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

Thanks for the photos.  There is considerable asymmetry of your chest/pec muscles which you may not have appreciated prior to surgery because you were more concerned with the excess tissues of both sides.  Sometimes, when the excess tissues have been removed, it may reveal previously unknown and unsuspected chest asymmetries.  These could be asymmetries of the rib cage itself, asymmetry of the pec muscle size and attachments, asymmetry of nipples positions, etc.  You may have all three of those -- and it would be extremely difficult to try to achieve absolute mirror image symmetry.  Perfection in your case would probably not be possible.

I think it is important for you and all the readers on this forum to understand that doctors can only work with the tissues with which they are presented.  Sometimes the underlying anatomy is not perfectly symmetric (which is actually more often than one would think) and therefore it is not possible to achieve absolute mirror image symmetry after surgery.  This is called realistic expectations and I spend lots of time with my patients talking about this.

Hope this has been of help.

Dr Jacobs

[STARROVERS]

Thank you for the honest words, Dr Jacobs. I do agree on that we have to be realistic. 

[Dr. Schuster]

I'm glad that you are happy with the results. That's all that matters. I agree that it looks like there is a contour depression which might be related to your muscle flexing. I'm still not exactly sure of the "loose skin" you are describing since the whole central area looks irregular. This is an example of when an exam and individual consultation is needed. Good luck.