First fat cousin, once removed .....(long post)

[siphon]

Sitting on my bed 5 days post op.  The severity of what i have done to rid myself of the burden of gynecomastia has washed over me a few times these past 5 days, but i always look over it with a sense of pride and confidence.  If youre on this site, you know how something so seemingly miniscule as having excess fat on your chest can often lead to a heavy weight lingering on your emotions, your psychology, your relationships, and your general enjoyment of life. So, I wont bore you with detailed experiences of how this has affected me, or rather, how i've let it affect me over the years. We can all choose to not let it bother us, convincing ourselves that its not important; if people poke fun, they just dont deserve to be in our lives; or no one notices anyways. Still, we notice, we always adjust, we're always aware, even when the entire world is not. I let it affect me for way too long.

I am 26 yrs old, have always lived a relatively active and healthy life, paid attention to my diet, exercise routines, and the education of my mind and spirit. Through my life I've gone through periods of having loads of friends around, to being a hermit or shunning the rest, to having an active sex life (no girls have ever made comments), to not having the confidence to spark new ones.  I've worked on areas of my confidence, speech, mannerisms, voice tone etc, and travelled to many parts of the world to learn about people, cultures, food and to gain experiences to advance myself. But there was always one thing that lingered above all else.

I elected to get surgery just over a year ago, and was put on an 8 month wait list in Calgary, Alberta, with Dr Haugrud. I ended up getting my surgery 1 year and 3 months after my initial consultation due to moving away for work, then family visits. Thankfully, Alberta health care covered the cost!!

I had initially told myself that if were dating a girl, I'd break it off with whom ever so that I could have my surgery and not ever bring it up. I told myself I wouldnt date until I had fully healed, and corrected both the physical and emotional issues related to it. This didnt pan out as planned, and after talking to my girl about it, she accompanied me to the surgery, and stayed by me the entire time, from going in to now. I live with my parents so that makes it easier. My immediate family were all very supportive.

So, surgery time.....sat in the second waiting room, on the bed, with my hospital digs on. I had constipation from the previous night, and stomach pangs, which i attributed to my nerves, but it was alleviated about 20 minutes before surgery . Felt sorry for who ever had to go to the bathroom after me!

IV time, body tingled for about 5 seconds, then out. Woke up in recovery, discomfort in my chest, and nose plugged. The doc puts Drains in, I'll post some pictures, but basically each side of my chest was bandaged, with a drain plugged into a hole underneath my armpit. These tubes are then about 3 feet long, and connected to a rubber bulb, which has to be squeezed before closing to create a vacuum effect of pulling blood out. Started with about 1/2 on my right, and 1/4 oz on my left, then decreasing every 12 hours, but has since stabilized for the past two days around 1/8 oz.

My cold decided to reappear and i was having major difficulty breathing just after surgery. The anesthetic didnt sit in my body well, so I vomited about 7-8 times, mostly after taking in some water. My surgery was scheduled for 10am, and I didnt leave the hospital til 7pm because of my feeling so queasy. My gf eventually wheelchaired me to the car as i was not fit to walk at all.  They ask where my pain was on a scale from 1-10, first 8, then 6, then 3, then 2, then 2, then 2, then 1. They took my blood pressure and pulse every hour as well. Not much swelling, but i could tell that there was defintely some meat removed. I was happy.

In the days that followed, the swelling and discomfort have gone down by the day. Percocets gave me some vivid ass dreams, and thought processes. I was watching Batman Dark Knight, and in the scene when someone breaks his leg, i felt as though my leg were broken, and i got sick to my stomach at the thought of it, and then i imagined what i'd do if my leg were infact broken, and i had no help.  yes, i know, very messed up, but my dreams were not any better, waking up several times in the middle of the night with vivid images. The T3s gave me a bit of a queasy stomach with the codeine, but numbed the pain well. The Third day I decided to stick to 500 mg of acetomenaphen. These do the trick very well.

The bandages are still on, going on my 6th day tomorrow to get the drains taken out. Im glad i had drains, as i wouldnt want to wear a tight compression vest and keep all the blood and liquid just in my body. I have been wearing a tight wife beater shirt every day to keep swelling down. Had a slight peak today of my nipple, what was once puffy and protuded from by body, is now in closer. My original problem was puffy nipples, and fat saggy chest. The fat is removed, but muscle still remains. I didnt want him to take out too much to avoid being concave. It looks like the perfect amount right now.

My concerns: 1) The puffiness wont go away, 2) Scarring (keloid scarring is predominant in my family, but mainly my moms side. The gyno seems to be mainly on my dads side, so I wont know until a few weeks later.

Thoughts on the puffiness...i think its worsened when there is a big amount of fat behind it, pushing the softer nipple skin outwards and im hoping its reversed when my skin realizes theres no fat pushing it out anymore. On scarring?.....Anyone have any insight on this? what have you done?

All in all, I am so extremely glad i got my surgery, and was brave enough to endure it, and to have accepted that its a problem that i can not fix (i like to have control over myself and my problems, something I am working on as well)

I will continue to give updates on whats going on. Once i see without the bandages and drains, and the bruising, and the scarring. I'll keep everyone informed.

If youve read this far, thank you.  Feel free to comment, or throw questions at me for anything I havent covered.  I meant for this to be something short, but it turned out to be a bit of a journal of it all.  Ah well.

Best of luck to anyone who wants to go through with surgery, most importantly be honest with yourself, your close family, and your doctor. Life is too short to go about with anything or anyone holding you back.

Peace

[dondante]

Congrats on the surgery and thanks for sharing your experiences, you seem to be well on the road to recovery.

[Dave_8]

Congrats on the surgery. Do your parents know you had surgery?

[siphon]

my parents know, and thankfully they were very supportive of my decision.  my father had a similar problem when he was growing up, so he was cool with it.  i think its best if minimal people know in my life.

progress: my right side is a bit more swollen than my left, left seems to have healed quite nicely.

now my doc just had drains in, i got them taken out yesterday - burned coming out, as they were about 5 inches deep from just under my armpit to below my nipple.

I've just been wearing a tight wife beater, and an under armour shirt, but not sure if i should keep it a bit tighter with a tensor bandage?....any thoughts?

[iFlow]

Hard to breathe? What was it like? Sounds very creepy man. I'm glad to hear that everything went well for you!

[siphon]

not being able to breath was annoying as hell, my nose was plugged, i was groggy, and weak, so it was tough for me to overcome that for a while. i think it was mostly due to me being sick before the surgery.

update: its been about 4 weeks now, still some swelling, some puffy nipples. nipples are slowly, very slowly becoming more sensitive to touch, but i can still feel a deep hard ridge under the nipple where the incision was made. its surprisingly not visible at all on the outside! my biggest fear was that there would be this huge scar, and potentially the forming of a keloid scar, but nothing at all. it doesnt even look like i had any type of surgery at all. my family and girlfriend all say the same thing.

after the surgery i expected everything to be flat, and the problem to have gone away entirely. i still have some swelling, and there is still some fat there. i have barely done any real form of exercise, and my eating habits have been pretty sh1t, so ive definitely gained some weight, which could be contributing to my chest sticking out more. not something a few weeks of weight training and cardio cant fix.

ive been able to start light training, finally back to running! and light weights. just patience and time, and back to a healthy lifestyle.

my right is still a bit more swollen than my left, and its no where near as flat as it was the few days after i took the bandages off, but im hoping in time will get to that same stage. i think im just in need of serious working out, to make my skin and body tighter again, and kind of pull everything in.

hope this helps anyone recovering from, or thinking about getting the surgery. its a tremendous step, but something worth giving some serious thought towards.

good luck!