9-Weeks Post-Op...results TERRIBLE. Advice needed.

[TheOregonKid]

I had my gynecomastia surgery on October 28th 2010 with Dr. Kathleen Waldorf in Portland, OR.  My procedure included traditional gland excision through the areola and lipo.  Immediately post-op my chest appeared very flat and my glandular tissue (which was very easy to feel) seemed to be totally gone.

The doctor had me wear the compression garment for 3 weeks and then begin a regimen of twice daily massage which I have followed religiously and am still doing.

I noticed early scar tissue forming a few days after the procedure on the right side.  These scars followed the path of the lipo canulla and my surgeon assured me they would dissolve.  I would say that this tissue has now reduced in size by approximately 90%, which is satisfactory.

Starting in early December, my right breast began to become very swollen.  Beneath the nipple there felt like a 3” gel-like mass almost like a sack of fluid.  When compressed the mass would move elsewhere like a water balloon when displaced with pressure.  There were hard lumps dispersed throughout this mass.  I called my surgeon and was assured that this was just the tissue evolving.  Recently, the fluid seems to be dissipating but the contour of the breast is still unsatisfactory and hard discontinuous tissue persists beneath the areola.  The situation with this side seems to have improved, which leaves me hopeful, but the breast would have to undergo significant evolution and deflation for me to be satisfied.

The left breast progressed quite well until about week seven when I began to feel a small hard lump approximately the size of a copper BB near the outer rim of the areola.  Come week nine and hard tissue has rapidly formed beneath this areola in the form of two very hard and palpable marble-sized anomalies that are conjoined in an hourglass fashion.  The spontaneous and rapid emergence of this tissue has me very concerned.

At week nine, my chest looks worse than before surgery.  I have attached pictures (sorry, taken on a cell phone).  I have contacted my surgeon but she wants me to wait three weeks until the 3-month mark to come in.

I’m freaking out.  While I understand that tissue evolves over the course of 6 months, my case appears to be nothing like every one I’ve seen on this board.  The rapid emergence of large, hard scar masses this far along in the recovery process has me worried.  I don’t know if revision surgery will be free and I’m concerned about my obvious propensity to form scar tissue.  Excision of existing scars could very well result in the formation of new ones.

Have you as surgeons ever seen a chest emerge from surgery completely flat, then form severe puffy nipple complication and then return to normal?  She assures me that adequate glandular tissue was removed and that she only left enough for nipple support (which is definitely how it has felt).  Your honest opinions are appreciated.