I owe a lot to this website. I read it a lot over the past few weeks to help me address something I've wanted to address for a while. So I figured I'd pay it forward with a bit of a detailed post.
Around middle school, I started packing on the pounds and also developed a chest. One of my worst memories was at the end of camp, when they did the "last will and testament" for all the campers, and I was left a bra. (By the way, the head counselor who did that would have been fired had he done that today.) Over time, I lost weight and got in better shape. Never really a body builder, but over time I was able to bench press around 150 for at least 8-9 reps. Still, didn't get rid of the gynecomastia. (Unfortunately, a bad back has made exercising a lot harder these days...suffice to say my best shape is behind me.)
So it was something I lived with for 20 years. Pinching nipples to get them hard before taking my shirt off. Wearing clothes that hid the chest. Convincing myself it looked more like muscle than anything. I never thought there was anything I could do about it.
About 5 years ago, I saw the website for
Dr. Lo. It was the first time I realized that gynecomastia was a "thing" and there was something I could do about it. I thought about it for a bit, but was not ready to do anything about it. I actually forgot about the website and the procedure. Then I stumbled on it about a month ago, don't even remember how. This time I was ready.
I made an appointment at
Dr. Lo's office about 3 weeks ago. I scheduled surgery that day. A week later, I took my husband in to meet
Dr. Lo just to make sure he agreed with me. We actually had to take our daughter with us because we couldn't grab a babysitter.
Dr. Lo's staff was amazing...beyond amazing. They were very nice to our daughter while
Dr. Lo was answering all the questions we had. We were convinced.
To give you an example of how responsive
Dr. Lo's office was, during the 2 weeks before surgery you can't take aspirin products. But, I have a terrible back and my back went out. I usually take Naproxen and Valium when that happens (15-year history of bad back). I had a sense I couldn't take the Naproxen but just wasn't sure about the Valium. While the entire office was at a conference in Montreal, I texted the office manager and heard back within the hour. Valium was okay.
One of the reasons I knew I wanted to do this is that I am generally a very anxious person. For this surgery, I had no anxiety. We drove to the Tuttleman Center at Penn for a 9:00 check in. The one weird thing is that the registration for outpatient surgery is the same area as registration for outpatient radiation. But, once I was registered I went right up to the 5th floor for pre-op check in. They took my vitals and then the anesthesiologist put in the IV. That was probably the worst part of the whole thing.
After my IV was in, they let my husband come up to wait with me.
Dr. Lo came in and did his markings and asked if we had any questions. Then my husband went downstairs and I was brought into the OR. I remember the OR being FREEZING. They asked me to lay on the pink pillow. I said, "oh great, they are starting with the gay jokes already with this pink pillow." Folks laughed. I remember them saying they were going to give me stuff to make me relax. I remember saying, "oh, just give me rye. Give the doctor some too." I remember them saying "the dr. is canadian, he prefers molson." That is the last thing I remember prior to coming to in the recovery room.
I started coming to in a bed, and I remember being cold and they had some machine blowing hot air under the blanket. Eventually they moved me to a chair and gave me cranberry juice and graham crackers and my husband came up. I really wasn't in much pain...just sore. One annoying thing...apparently it takes a while for different body parts to come back "on" after anesthesia. I had to pee, but just stood there in front of the bathroom and couldn't go. (That finally resolved itself about an hour later.)
They wheeled me out to the car, which my husband had brought around to the front. Came home and have been resting since. Pain really hasn't been bad at all. Just sore. Back spasms are 100 times worse. Haven't needed the percoset's at all (although the anesthesia seemed to have messed with my sleeping schedule a bit, and I've taken a Valium each night to help me sleep). The drains are a bit annoying, but not painful.
I've got an 8:00 am appointment Monday to get drains out and that is when I'll get a first look at the results. I'm super excited and have all the faith in the world in
Dr. Lo.
Okay, so that's my stream of conscious post. I hope it helps people the way other posts helped me. I'll keep you all posted on results.
Topic: Surgery today! (Read 3766 times)
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