Few days post op comments

[Hope_this_helps]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post and will probably be my 1 and only. I'm actually a few days post op with karidis and am sitting here typing with the famously uncomfortable compression vest on. I decided to write this post in the hope that it will help someone just as all the posts i read while lurking on here on and off for 5 years helped me. Its also my way of saying thanks to you guys.

There are great posts on here which have already covered the major bits so i'll try not to repeat that stuff.

I first noticed my gyn at 25 when i started weight training 5 times per week. Being tall and slim and wide shouldered to the uninitiated my chest looked well developed but in reality the muscle i was developing was pushing the gyn forward. At that point to me it only felt like a slight problem. still wore t shirts etc and was rarely self concious about it.

When i hit 34 my metabolism changed. My whole life it had been harder to put on weight than to lose it. Now i could put on weight but it was going to my chest and flanks. I also got "puffy nipples" for the first time.

I got myself in the gym and slimmed down but couldn't shift the weight on my chest, now know it was gland. Being slim with boobs actually looked worse so i bulked up which overall maybe looked better but the chest area was now quite large and i started wearing the nike compression vests, adopted bad posture and was now always conscious of my chest. Not wanting to go on holiday etc etc etc became an issue.

Like alot of you guys at one point the cost of the op was a huge issue. In my world £4k-£5k was a car not a chest. I am also terrified of doctors and dentists and have spent my adult life avoiding them. Nothing i could do in the gym or with my diet would change this. I knew my only input could be paying the money and letting the surgeon do his thing.

The consultation was surreal to me as i had never experienced the whole glamour secretaries in a hospital environment thing before. You are also fully aware that you are a customer as well as a patient which feels strange. I went with karidis after reading all the good reports on here and also the fact he said i will do my best for you. When selling things its easy to make all sorts of promises but he didn't do that and that resonated with me. I also figured that if had been doing great work in 2008 etc that he must be really on top of his game by now.

My 5 week wait for the op flew by as i denied to myself that i was having it done. I took it like an exam that you study at the last minute for. 2 days before the surgery the worry started to kick in as i felt under prepared.

Day of the surgery i was strangely calm. The nurse took my pulse and said  "you are not worried at all are you?"

I know its different for everyone but in my case as in some others i've read on here i didnt feel myself go under and i was told the surgery was done. I was shivering but not in any pain.  I could feel my chest but in everyday life i wouldnt have taken medicine for that low level of pain.

There are great counts of the whole procedure by other people on here if you are interested.

When taking off the dresing for the first time at home i did start sweating and felt light headed etc but probably due to anxiety more than anything physical.

There is a guy who posts on here called "thetodd". Reading his posts and comments through the years has been so helpful an the fact that he continues to give advice is amazing and brilliant. Your efforts have meant alot to me thetodd, thank you.

Its easy to say i should have done this years ago etc but without going through what we go through we dont really understand all the implications. The surgery may feel minor after you've done it but you have to get to that point if you know what i mean?

Anyway thats it from me, I just have to wear the vest for a few weeks etc. I know i will become over critical like everyone else sort of like having a new car with a small scratch on it. The smallest things can drive you nuts

I will try to focus though on what i wanted out of this in the first place. I think all of us with this condition would take being able to go on holiday without worrying about it... or wearing shirts and t shirts without hunching your back or looking at your reflection in shop windows etc. The rest is a bonus.

Good luck everyone.

[rasputin]

Great post, thanks for the read. Good luck with your recovery!

[thetodd]

Glad i helped you out mate. Even if you dont post them on here take some pics for your own benefit it can help when your feeling a bit down while your recovering

Recovery can be a bit of a weird journey and its not really something that pops into your subconscious until you are a week or so post op. Ive wrote about it before but that initial feeling of taking off the vest is a huge lift and then once the swelling kicks in it can be pretty depressing. All you can do is massage (gently) the area after two weeks or so and just wait for things to even out and eventually it will.

You just mentioning the gyne hunch brings it all back, the amount of times people asked me why i walked like a monkey lol.

[darkstar]

Best of luck with your recovery man, hope it all goes by effortlessly.

[Hope_this_helps]

"RASPUTIN", thanks, i recognise a lot of your karidis journey. Hope your recovery is going well.

"Thetodd", the legend himself lol Its thanks to posts like yours that i'm going into the recovery stage with the mindset i now have. Its one thing for a doctor to tell you it will take up to a year to be fully recovered as in the back of your mind you feel he is saying that to cover himself if/ when things are not quite as they should be. Reading what someone like yourself has experienced going through the recovery ups and downs is so much more valuable as it gives a truer picture of what its all about. Cheers mate.

"DARKSTAR" Not sure if you've had the surgery yet but from your posts i get the impression it is soon. Good luck with the whole process mate. You'll soon be back to your climbing and the gym.

[Hope_this_helps]

Hi Guys,

I'm a couple of days short of 4 weeks post op now and i thought i'd post an up date.
Just as "thetodd" and a few other guys have mentioned in their threads the "psychological side" of recovery started to kick in after about 10 days post op. Luckily having read about other peoples experience i was ready for it.

For me at about 10 days i started noticing changes daily specially on the left hand side. These are not dramatic changes like call an ambulance changes but small imperfections which i put down to swelling and scar tissue. It makes sense that ther is more on the LHS as i had more removed on the LHS. However, i found my mind becoming more sensitive to these changes. You go from thinking it would be great to wear what you want and not hunch to hide the gyne pre op, to thinking this the left is a few millimeters different to the right that cant be correct!

I drilled into myself that the whole reason for doing this op was to solve a problem and not to start obsessing about my chest again but in a different way. Thinking like this and understanding that it really does take alot of time to fully heal has really helped me to relax and to just let time do its thing.

The first couple of weeks were not painful but uncomfortable there are quite a few threads where guys have expained really well how the felt. Personally once in a while i'd get a stinging sensation or the vest would start feeling really tight, i put it down to swelling. I did also find the vest very uncomforable despite doing the trick with socks etc but by week 3 it had eased a bit.

last weekend i only wore the vest at night. There was definate swelling after a couple of hours and slight tenderness but after wearing the vest again it all went back to normal. I guess the body is getting used to the support the vest gives etc.

On another note i've had quite a few people ask if i've lost weight. My routine has been disrupted of course and because i've been doing less in general i suppose my apitite is slightly reduced but how much are you going to really lose in 4 weeks?

So to summarise, just short of 4 weeks everything is a lot less uncomfortable, i've managed to deal menatlly with the small niggles and tricks your mind starts playing on you and in a few days i'll be losing the vest.

Thanks again to everyone who has bothered to post on this forum. Its always easier to deal with things when you see them coming.

[Nipper]

Brilliant posts mate, thanks.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of times on my hands during the convalescing to keep folks updated on my progress as I know first hand, it is threads like these that give guys like us the confidence to go ahead with this surgery. 

If it wasn't for the likes of Thetodd, Chopper, Darkstar, Rasputin, those are just the ones I can think of off the top (there are tons more) but without the likes of them, we'd be fu'cked basically.  Living in a world of anguish, too scared to do owt about it or going round on a merry-go round of disappointing consultations.  My journey is far from over but I thank my lucky stars, I can hit them up on here if need be. 

[adamj]

'or looking at your reflection in shop windows' - ha relate to that one.

[Hope_this_helps]

Before i begin this update i'd just like to say to anyone who may come across this post and is pre-op; that when you read this; or any other post op stuff really that levels of sensitivity to imperfections change post op; so some things may seem trivial as you read them or some things may put you off but they shouldnt. Myself and others on the forum are just being honest about how we feel and trying to give the full picture.

Ok with that out of the way haha... i'm 6 weeks post op now. I wore the vest "full-time" for 4 weeks and then decided to wear the vest at night only for 2 weeks.

standard routine, in the morning before getting in the shower i look at my chest in the mirror and then "examine" it in the shower. For the past week or 10 days every morning my chest looks different to me and there is some imperfection that annoys me. Funnily enough, today when i looked i felt more satisfied than i have previously.

The imperfections i'm talking about are things like creased nipple, swelling that looks like some fat may have been left in, questioning myelf if my nipples are too large etc.

Pre op the left side was bigger than the right. Post op the right side i "perfect" all the imperfections are on the LHS. Dont get me wrong it is a vast improvement to pre op and if i had looked like this pre op i wouldnt have gotten anything done, which is key... buuuuuuut haha having had an op your mind wants things to be right and notices the things that arent. Having said that though even if things remain as they are, which i'm sure they wont i wouldnt get another procedure done as i feel it would be being petty.

On another note with the cold weather that has set in.... when i'm cold my nipples get stiff and hard like stone and sting. Imagine that you dont feel any of your body except for your nipples and they are stinging. Solution...keep warm and crank up the central heating. I'm sure it will settle down soon enough, i hope haha.

So to summarise things are going well although there are "down" mornings when i not satisfied. I'm taking advice "thetodd" gave in a post where he said not to do the follow up consultation at 6 weeks but wait until 10 weeks when things have settled down more.

I know quite a few guys had the op done recently. I hope you are all doing well and that something i've written might be of help to you in the coming days. Take care guys!

[Nipper]

All the best mate, I'm sure it's just playing on your mind a bit too much.  From all the info on here, that sounds typical and you're only 6 weeks post, which in the grand scheme, is nothing, chin up dude

[Hope_this_helps]

You are absolutely right "Nipper" it is typical, and we are prepared for it, but we still have to take that ride

[Nipper]

Indeed we do mate.  I guess it's just natural to want it to look even etc and we have lived with gyne for so long we are used to scrutinizing our chests at the worst of times, now we get to check it closely in an altogether different way