Man on a mission !

[Angel_of_Death]

My surgery is booked on April 23rd 2008.

I live in Montreal, and will have surgery done by doctor Craig Fielding in Toronto.

The cost of the surgery will be 2750$.

As the title of my diary goes, I really am a man on a mission. I carefully had to plan this surgery, as I had many challenges. An important decision I made was to keep this a total secret. I live with my parents and they have no clue.

For the consultation, I took a day off from work, flew to Toronto by plane and came back to Montreal. I payed 300$ for plane tickets. I payed 100$ for the cab. I payed 100$ for consultation fee.

So now the surgery has been booked. I was approved for financing by Medicard. Medicard will pay Dr.Fielding the total cost of the surgery. They will then starting May of 2008 debit my checking account for the amount of 270$ per month for 1 year. Which will come up to 3300$ as opposed to the original amount of 2750$. I have no problem with that. So the financial aspect has been taken care of, what a relief.

I have already booked my flight tickets with Westjet, leaving on the 22nd of April and coming back on the 24th.

I have not told my parents yet that I will be leaving town for a couple of days. The excuse I will use is say that I have to go out of town to receive a training related to work.

   
 

[onesummer]

Congrats man, you're probably psyched as hell.  I am in the EXACT same situation as you, just not quite as far along.  I'm trying to have my surgery without anyone noticing, otherwise it kind of defeats the purpose.  I've opened up a PO box for mail from whatever surgeon I choose, and my next big worry is whether I'll be approved for financing or not. 

Good luck with everything.

[Angel_of_Death]

Congrats man, you're probably psyched as hell.  I am in the EXACT same situation as you, just not quite as far along.  I'm trying to have my surgery without anyone noticing, otherwise it kind of defeats the purpose.  I've opened up a PO box for mail from whatever surgeon I choose, and my next big worry is whether I'll be approved for financing or not. 

Good luck with everything.

Thank you for the kind words.

I am not exactly sure if getting a PO box for mail is necessary, but it is a great idea. In my case I told Leslie (the assistant @ Fielding's office) that I do not want to receive anything by mail. She told me not to worry about anything and she wouldn't send anything trough mail.

As for Medicard, the financing company, I did tell them I don't wanna receive anything trough mail, even tough I gave them my address. I was told they would mark it down on my file not to send any mail.

I actually told my mom today that I would be leaving town for a couple of day in the end of April. I explained that at work I will be working in the same department, but we would be offering a new service to our clients which we need training on. I told her I would also get a raise. The raise part is actually true, just not for the reasons I gave her lol. She was quite happy for me that things are going well at work.

Surgery is in less than a month, I think I am finally getting excited about it.

[domsnips]

Congrats.
So what is going to happen when you get home from the surgery and they notice the difference how are you going to explain it do you have a plan for that or are you just going to take it as it comes.

[Angel_of_Death]

They will not notice any difference. Everybody, including my family think I already got rid of my gyne. I have lost alot of weight in the past 2 years, doing sports on a regular basis and going to the gym aswell. I joined the gym last year, and since then not only have I lost weight but also gained some muscle. I have a very good shape. Around the same moment last year I started training and losing my weight, I also discovered the under armor compression t-shirts and have been wearing them ever since on a day to day basis. While I am wearing it, my chest looks flat and nobody notices my gyne.

If ever they are to notice anything, they will assume it is due to my training and losing more weight. So I am not worried with that. What I am worried with however, is the state I will be in coming out of surgery. I just hope my bandages go unnoticed. But with all that I have read on this forum concerning what usually guys go trough post-op, I think I should be fine and hopefully there will be no complications.

[Angel_of_Death]

A little bit of reflexion 26 days before my surgery.

This whole experience I think can be compared to a long journey.

1- Suffer on a daily basis from early teen years to early adulthood

2- Discover about gynecomastia and find out you are not alone. Either by discovering this site or trough a documentary

3- Accept that surgery is the only option. At first, specially for me, this was hard to accept and it took some time.

4- Once you accept that surgery is the only option, you gotta make the decision of getting the surgery done. At this point there is a psychological adaptation.

5- Build the courage to make the first step, which is making the first call for consultation.

6- Choosing your surgeon. Probably the most important decision that you have to take. Some of us go trough many consultations before finding one. In my case, I met with 2.

7- Getting the money for surgery. I got it trough financing company called medicard

8- Going to consultation

9- Getting surgery booked. April 23rd !!!

10- Getting surgery done.


I am currently @ step 9. Waiting for the final step. Oh yes, it was a long journey and it is soon coming to an end. I cannot wait!

[domsnips]

Well done!
You knew what had to be done and you did you are on your way and almost at the end I think that it is important for there to be goals in life and from the time that you found out that you had gyn you planed the goals out and you have hit them all except the Number 10 but that one is just around the corner.

[donnieosmond]

HOw bad is your gyne? Post some pics. I really think you should tell your parents about this, they will be supportive and you may need someone to help you with the bandages the first few days. Look at my topic in photos or the general channel, my mom was invaluable in helping me out. Of course I understand your reasoning for hiding this but your mom popped you out of her body man, she's interested with whats going on with you. Never know she might help with the costs one day.

[Angel_of_Death]

HOw bad is your gyne? Post some pics. I really think you should tell your parents about this, they will be supportive and you may need someone to help you with the bandages the first few days. Look at my topic in photos or the general channel, my mom was invaluable in helping me out. Of course I understand your reasoning for hiding this but your mom popped you out of her body man, she's interested with whats going on with you. Never know she might help with the costs one day.

It might be a question of ego and pride in my case. Not sure if it's a good thing or bad. But I did give this alot of thought and telling my parents was an option I strongly considered. And as far as my parents are concerned, had I told them, I am convinced I would've gotten their support and understanding. They are great parents. But I never connected with them on a personal level, I usually never talk about things that are too personal. And to tell you the truth, gynecomastia has been something that has impacted my life on so many levels. Specially psychologically, leading me to problems such as depression and anxiety. I have suffered of this, like most of you on a daily basis and always in silence . My reasoning to it is that if I have suffered in silence, then might aswell honor my pride and overcome this in silence too.

As for the bandages, I am sure getting help from someone else would be great. But I'm confident I'll be able to take care of myself, as I know many before me have done the same.

And to answer how bad my gyne is, it's kinda hard to tell and I'm usually not good with ratings but I would go with a 6/10. 

[The_G0rn]

A little bit of reflexion 26 days before my surgery.

This whole experience I think can be compared to a long journey.

1- Suffer on a daily basis from early teen years to early adulthood

2- Discover about gynecomastia and find out you are not alone. Either by discovering this site or trough a documentary

3- Accept that surgery is the only option. At first, specially for me, this was hard to accept and it took some time.

4- Once you accept that surgery is the only option, you gotta make the decision of getting the surgery done. At this point there is a psychological adaptation.

5- Build the courage to make the first step, which is making the first call for consultation.

6- Choosing your surgeon. Probably the most important decision that you have to take. Some of us go trough many consultations before finding one. In my case, I met with 2.

7- Getting the money for surgery. I got it trough financing company called medicard

8- Going to consultation

9- Getting surgery booked. April 23rd !!!

10- Getting surgery done.


I am currently @ step 9. Waiting for the final step. Oh yes, it was a long journey and it is soon coming to an end. I cannot wait!

There is one more step you have left out, that I didn't realise existed until after surgery.  Its called "Recovery", and its a long roller coaster ride of ups and downs. I'm only at week 2, but from reading the posts on here it goes a little something like:

11. Relief that surgery is over
12. Initial excitement that you no longer have gyne
13. Pain & Swelling
14. Scar tissue
15. Panic & depression that your results arent as good as you hoped
16. Lots of healing
17. Final result...its over! (a year later) 

[donnieosmond]

There is one more step you have left out, that I didn't realise existed until after surgery.  Its called "Recovery", and its a long roller coaster ride of ups and downs. I'm only at week 2, but from reading the posts on here it goes a little something like:

11. Relief that surgery is over
12. Initial excitement that you no longer have gyne
13. Pain & Swelling
14. Scar tissue
15. Panic & depression that your results arent as good as you hoped
16. Lots of healing
17. Final result...its over! (a year later) 

LOL.... I'm at #14

[Angel_of_Death]

17. Final result...its over! (a year later) 

I would be very disappointed if I see the final results one year later. I have seen some results on this site, of guys who have a similar shape and gyne to mine who got amazing results only a couple of weeks after surgery was done. That's what I am hoping for. Are my expectations unrealistic ?

[domsnips]

You will not know what to expect until you get your op I do not think that you are unrealistic. I think you have to stay positive and hope for the best and I think that you are doing this otherwise you would not be getting the surgery in the first place.

[Angel_of_Death]

You will not know what to expect until you get your op I do not think that you are unrealistic. I think you have to stay positive and hope for the best and I think that you are doing this otherwise you would not be getting the surgery in the first place.

Exactly!

I had made a thread a couple of weeks ago, just after my consultation where I was saying that I didn't understand how I felt. At that point I knew my surgery would be very soon, but for some reason I didn't get excited like I initially thought I would. But in the past couple of days it seems that the excitement is building up, I constantly think about it and I can't wait to get it done. It's on mind everyday. I'm fantasizing about going swimming this summer, and trying to remember and re-creating that feeling in my head of swimming on a hot summer day, something I haven't done in 11 years.

I have been reading this board since maybe 2004, I remember reading trough all the posts about guys getting surgery done and post their experience and satisfaction and at that time I couldn't even think about the possibility of finding myself in the same situation. And here I am today ready to make the jump on the "other" side.

So yeah, I will try and keep thinking positively, and hope for quick recovery. To me, there is no life with gynecomastia. This is going to be the best investment of my life. It's still going to be the best investment even if I end up investing some money and becoming a millionaire. LOL.



 

[The_G0rn]

Of course you will have amazing results even the day after surgery.  But the FINAL result takes at least 6 months.  Have you noticed how on most of surgeons websites they have a small caption under the photo that says something like "Gynecomastia surgery result X months"

They never show pics of people all bruised up and swollen with fresh scars, bandages etc. For obvious reasons.