Surgery booked with Karidis - 6th Dec

[Gyne81]

Hi,

It has taken me a long time but I have finally decided that there is no way I'm getting rid of my puffed up cheat without surgery.
I've known of this site for many years but recently paying more attention to the forum.
I am so overwhelmed how supportive everyone is on this forum. I wouldn't have had the guts to go with the surgery if it wasn't for the people on this forum.

I'm 28 years old weighing around 13st. Carrying a bit of a stomach but wouldn't say I'm overweight. lol   

I have decided to go with Karidis just because it's convenient for me. I had my consultation back in August and have my surgery booked for the 6th of Dec. All this time I've been avoiding the op date mentally thinking it's ages away. Knowing its only 3 weeks away now, im bricking it! But I know this will be the best thing I will have ever done!

I got one or two questions on my mind that are concerning me.   
At the moment I will have 6 days to recover before I go back to work. I have a desk job so no manual labour involved. Do you think that's enough time before going back? 
Will I be able to take a shower the next day after my op? Any precautions I need to take?

Apologies if these are repeated questions, but just need to get these cleared in my mind.

I'll be posting pre op pics soon as well.

Thanks in advance!

[Ricardo7]

Congratulations on committing to surgery gyne81.

For a non manual job, the general opinion seems to be leave it a week before returning to work, so six days should be fine. I don't see a day making that much of a difference although I'm no expert.

[improving]

Yeah congrats from me too, booking it is a big step so well done. You won't regret it.

I'm 5 days post op, if someone was to tell me to go to work and sit at a desk all day tomorrow i wouldn't be worried. Just take it easy.

[enom]

Well done on booking, it will be one of the best decisions you make. You're in safe hands. 6 days is more than enough in my opinion. I showered the day after too.

[Donut]

Congrats! - not long to go... Wish I could say the same!! - never mind, another one to follow whilst I try and raise funds myself.

[sjwsjw]

Good luck tomorrow mate. I'm 6 days post with karidis today. I think I could have sat at a desk if I had to, just take it easy. If you need an excuse for moving a bit gingerly just say you think you bruised your ribs 

[Gyne81]

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys, very much appreciated!! The last few days I've been trying to keep my cool and avoid the thought of going to "surgery". It's the word "surgery" that scares the crap out of me.
So from taking everyone's experience from here I have picked up a few things that I will need post op. The standard stuff like water proof plaster, laxative, pineapple juice(lots of it!), spare dressings and tape.
 
Anything else I'm missing?

Take a look at the (well overdue) photos. As you can see..I have recently had a close encounter with the razor.lol

[Donut]

Can't see any photos?

[Gyne81]

opps, was having a few issues with files sizes.

[sjwsjw]

It's a bonus if you get chance to get some plaster remover, the tape they use is very good, took me a while to get it off, no big deal if you don't have time tho. I know what you mean about surgery sounding scary, it was my first surgery and I expected worse I'm sure you'll come out thinking the same mate. Don't forget a button/zip up top for after. Then rest as much as you can and update here when you feel up to it

[Gyne81]

Thanks for the heads up sjwsjw! I'll get my girlfriend to pick some up after the op. I've got plenty of zipups and shirts to get me through this

[Gyne81]

So the surgery seems to have gone well. Was in a little discomfort when I woke up but expected I guess. I've been able to get up and walk around with no assistance.
I'll post a more descriptive experience soon! Can't believe it's all over now!! Now the recovery stage...
Thanks again for the support everyone.
Any questions, I'm more than happy to answer.

[sjwsjw]

Congrats

[Gyne81]

So I'm just over two weeks post op and I'm well overdue to update my experience.

Op day:

My op was scheduled in for 8am and got to the hospital by 7am. Once I checked in I as shown to my room for the day and met with Ian (I think) who gave me a few forms to sign. The room was quite nice with a decent telly which will come in handy after the op. A few mins later the nurse that will be looking after me came over and told me to get into my surgery gear.
Note: wear 100% cotton boxers to avoid wearing the hospital's see through ones.
Luckily for me, mine were...I knew this day was goinf to be great!lol

Karidis came a little while later to mark me up and take a few snaps of my chest. He was pretty much in and out quickly however very reassuring.

At around about 8.30am the nurse came to take me to the theatre and to meet the anaesthetist. Again a very friendly chap and very comforting.
Within a few mins I was knocked out...

Soooo, surgery all done..wish it was all that simple.
I came around at about 11.20am throat feeling very dry. I gathered that's the general feeling after the op from everyone that's gone through this.
Nurse came straight away and asked my pain levels between 1-10 and for me I felt around 6-7 painfulness. I was given two tablets to help with the pain. I wish I could tell you what it was but I was out of it!

Once I woke up, I was up. I could have easily fallen back to sleep but felt that I needed to know what was going on so  I made sure I was up.

I was wheeled back to my room, now the first challenge was to move from the surgery bed to my bed in the room. This surprisingly wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
By now the nurses have left and I was facing my 2nd challenge...reaching out for the tv remote! Not wanting to disturb nurses using the 'attention' button for something soo small I reached out only to find out that this was not going to happen and a nurse was needed.

By now my lunch had come, tuna sandwich. I was starving however it was struggle eating. my mouth was soo dry. It didn't matter how much water drank it was always dry.

Coming back to the tv, they had very limited channels however did have sky sports. I found a lot of the channels didn't work and there was only so much rerun sports events you can watch. Just by chance I had a USB hard drive with tons of movies on them...and what do you know, the tv has a usb port.

I found getting out of bed wasn't as bad as I expected. I remembered from previous posts that not to rush out of the bed to prevent dizziness.

I was also able to go for a number 1 pretty quick after the surgery...however I did have a lot of water.lol

Come 5pm I was ready to leave. I had a lift so didn't have to worry about getting on the train or anything.
By the way some of the posts I've read where you had to get the train back...you guys are soldiers!

That evening my appetite was the greatest so just had some chips, but again the dry mouth still persists. Plus knowing from a lot of other posts that constipation is highly likely I ate light.
Again I've been drinking a lot of water so I getting up at 4am the next day was understandable. This time round, going for a piss was a bit of a struggle. This pretty much is the same story for around 4-5 for me, going for a piss was a bit of an effort.

[Gyne81]

My room and I