I booked my consult for this morning, and my flight for last night, so that I could do it all in one shot and be home 24 hours after leaving. I took the bus to the Vancouver airport, got there about 10:00 pm, and was in the air by 11pm. With time changes and flight time (4 hours), I arrived in Toronto at about 6 am. I only got a short nap on the plane, I don't fit well in the seats, but I managed to find a place to sleep at the airport, using my laptop and jacket as a pillow, for about 2 hours.
I woke up, went to Tim Horton's, which had quite the line going, I was surprised, ate and then pulled out the directions had typed out that Leslie had given me.
I went out past the baggage carousels and out to the front of the terminal. She had instructed me to go to the pole that takes you to the subway, which it turned out was right across from the exit I went out of. The pole number is 10 by the way, and the bus to the subway is ....., I forget the number but I believe it says Kipling station on it. You will then go eastbound on the subway, passing 1 station whose name I forget, then Royal York, then Old Mill, then arriving at Jane, which is the station you get off at to get to Dr. Fielding's office.
Depending on which end you go out of you either turn left or right, and look for Bloor Street west, which runs parallel to where the busses pull in at Jane station. The address is 2425, and he is in suite 401.
I think I got to the office about 10 o'clock, Leslie had told me to just get there, and she would fit me in whenever I got there.I waited as 2 patients ahead of me saw Dr. Fielding, in the meantime filling out some paperwork.
Leslie showed me in to the consultation room, where Dr. Fielding came in a few minutes later. He is a very nice man, with a very good sense of the importance of bedside manner. For reference, this is my 5th consultation in my quest to find a surgeon I felt comfortable with/could afford, and it seems a little bit unfair that the only one who came close to fulfilling both criteria was so far away, but I am happy I went. Anyway, he talked to me for five or ten minutes about me, what I had going on and so fourth, and shared some stories with me himself. Having had so many consultations, I knew I didn't really have any questions for him, I have been on this forum for maybe four years, and have done as much research as possible, so I felt like this was sort of just a formality all be it an expensive one. On top of that my brain was running on coffee alone so I wasn't exactly functioning at a high level, and the way some of these sentences are coming out, I am still not quite awake yet.
He then asked me to take off my shirt for an examination.He examined me far more thoroughly than other doctors have as well, as previously had gotten a glance, a confirming nod and a steep price. He took some measurements, felt around, wrote some notes and then told me I could put my shirt back on. He confirmed I had the typical soft gynecomastia, though I have never heard of a hard version, and said that he thought I would be a good candidate for the surgery. He outlined his procedure, and mentioned how even after doing so many thousands of this surgery, he still never knows how much gland someone has until he goes in there. He said he thought I had a lot of fat but some gland would probably come out too.
He outlined some of the risk factors, including the risk of hematoma, which is apparently greater in people who lift weights, which is a category I fall into. He said that he has never seen one develop after more than 2 days, so being from out of the province wouldn't be a problem, and anything that happened within that time would be dealt with at the hospital anyway. He also mentioned the possibility of the nipple underneath dying, due to lack of blood supply caused by scar tissue, but then said he had never had that happen once, in all his surgeries, and more just had to mention it as a potential problem.
I then voiced the one concern I could think of, which was whether he thought excess skin would be a problem for me.I had seen a show where a patient had to have his whole frontal skin lifted up and reset, new nipple holes made etc, and then reattached low on the stomach, and was worried that I would need something similar. He said he didn't think I had so much excess skin that skin work would be required, and said he had only had to do any kind of skin movement with 1 patient in the past. He said it causes a large scar across the chest which is pretty noticeable. Oh, speaking of that, he just mentioned the areola scarring, and a small scar for lip on the chest both of which he said would become unnoticeable, and also the risk of insensitive nipples, which I don't for see being a big problem for me.
Anyway, he told me the cost would be 2000.00 dollar,s which is pretty much what I was expecting. He told me I would be in the hospital one night, and then would need a hotel the 2nd night I shook his hand and thanked him for his time, and went out to see Leslie. Before coming, I had basically decided I was going through with the surgery, what with having to pay so much just to get to the consult, and nothing changed after the consult.I told Leslie I would take the first available date and it turns out it is May 6th. I paid Leslie 2100.00, which was the cost of surgery plus tax, and then went to book my plane ticket online. I will be flying in overnight on the 5th, same as for the consult, and going straight to the hospital. I will then be flying back home on Friday afternoon, after staying in a hotel for a night. My flight for this consult was 533 because I couldn't get a seat sale on the way back, and my flight for the surgery came out to 480.
This brings my grand total for surgery to 3210.00, not including what I will spend on the hotel for the one night. Speaking of which Leslie gave me a couple idea,s but they were around 100 dollar,s I will be looking for my own dirt cheap terrible hotel online when I get home. So that total, comes out to cheaper than anyone in BC I could find, and it includes 2 airfares, which is crazy to me. On top of that, i am getting surgery with the Dr I have felt by far the most comfortable with, and who obviously comes highly recommended. I am still nervous about the actual operations, and despite all the success stories, the people who are unhappy with their results creep into my thoughts at times as well. I hope for the best but I don't hope for miracles. I never had a vain thought about this, I don't want perfection, I just want me, minus gynecomastia. Dr. Fielding said somethig which I thought would make a great quote for somewhere on this forum. "Gynecomastia surgery isn't like other cosmetic procedures. Other surgeries you get to look better, and then admire yourself when they are finished. Gynecomastia surgery you have, and then forget about."I never thought about it that way and I really liked it.
Well, that was long and my plane is about to start pre boarding I think. I welcome any questions, and apologize to those who found this too wordy. I will be writing in a similar fashion about my experiences with the surgery, and the post op period as well. If even one person finds a little bit of value in this then I am happy. I want to thank everyone else who wrote similar reports on their experiences, I don't think I would have gotten to this point without reading about everyone else for the past several years.
Topic: Today's Consult With Fielding - Review (Read 3393 times)
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