Surgery On Wednesday 12th September - Now with Photos & story...

[Bigdom]

Evidently

"The leaking is the old blood accumulated that becomes liquid and comes out. The hematoma in the beginning is hard but after 1-2 weeks the coagule disappears and the blood becomes liquid. The Iodine looking colour is because it is old and the iron oxidizes in the blood and get this colour. If it oozes it is because the body can not get rid of all of it"

If there is a lot coming out, the best thing is to aspirate inside with a syringe and needle and a dressing on the wound. I had some stitches added again to stop the leaking, these are useless, so had them taken out and the body drained itself over a couple of days.

[Paddy]

Hey Bigdom,

Looks like the bruises are on their way out. Am guessing that by next week, the brusies will be just about gone.

I have my 1 month check up with Dr Benito next week as well. maybe catch you there!!!

[Bigdom]

Hi Paddy,

Depends on what time your appointment is, I have a 12.30.

[Paddy]

Mine is at 5pm - so prob not then..
Good luck to you matey!!!

[Bigdom]

Just got back from my month check-up (it was three weeks on Wednesday).  Evidently all good and progressing well.  I’ve been told to resume normal duties and only wear the compression vest at night for the next month, then no more vest. 

I can start to exercise and concentrate on activities that allow full movement and extension of the chest muscle area, this is why swimming (especially Freestyle/Front Crawl) is deemed to be a good part of the recovery process.  Having spent more time in a pool than I care to remember from the age of 5 to early 20's can't seem to see this much of an issue.

I had a discussion on what he removed (roughly 500ml per side) and technique.  Firstly he uses lipo to contour the chest area, this then isolates the 'gland', the lipo is done to create a honeycomb matrix reducing the fat size and structure, though also alleviating the chance of skin adhesion to the muscle area during the recovery process. 

Next he uses the same tool they use on Knee ops which they use to slice pieces of cartilage away (advantage of having worked in a general hospital and being exposed to new machines).  Evidently hard gland has nearly the same consistency and it allows him to be very accurate on what is removed and what is left behind, and avoids the possibility of collapse in the nipple area.  It also removes the chance of 'pockets' being formed from large lumps just being removed with nothing behind them. 

This process takes him a lot longer to perform than other ways of doing the 'op', though he believes gives better results, quicker healing and less scarring.  So far, I personally have to agree.