So I started looking into gynecomastia surgery in the summer of this year. I was in Las Vegas and found that there were quite a few doctors performing the surgery but it was a bit our of my price range. I live in Mexico so I decided to just wait till I got home to start searching for Mexican clinics that offered the surgery as I knew the price would be drastically less.
I live in San Jose Del Cabo Mexico but for some reason had the idea that there would only be surgeons in Tijuana and Guadalajara. I contacted a few in those locations but found the price to be actually just slightly less than it was in the US. Plus I would have to travel and would want to spend time in whatever city I traveled to for recovery.
I decided to do a local search and found there to be quite a few surgeons locally that perform gynecomastia correction. This was really awesome! The first doctor I called took my call right away and sounded very knowledgeable. I obviously consider myself quite the expert on the subject thanks to this forum
. He mentioned all the right things and also was quick to point out risks as well instead of trying to sell me.
I met with him and examined my moobs. He said that my case was fairly common and that there was in fact gynecomastia present but that the tissue was extremely soft and more than likely could be removed with lipo alone. I was worried about this because I was willing to go through whatever it took to have these removed and fully expected excision through an areola incision. He was confident he would not need to do this but made me understand if he deemed it necessary during procedure he would do it. Again these forums came in very handy as I asked the doctor's in the "ask a doctor" section and they mentioned that in some cases it is possible to remove the tissue and do full correction with lipo alone, but that I should have a heart to heart with doctor about my needs and wants etc. I did have that heart to heart and he assured me that with his 30+ years experience, he has dealt with every concern and that he felt confident he knew exactly how to proceed. I was onboard and scheduled for the following Tuesday (yesterday).
I asked the doctor about pain medication and he insisted that I can take whatever over the counter medication I preferred and that pain would be very, very minimal. He said I may not need any medication at all. I also asked about drains and he said that he preferred to bandage and let wounds be open and draining into bandages. I actually preferred this method as I knew I would not be able to sleep with drains and didn't want to have the protruding from my chest. For compressions, he said that I would be bandaged up for the first 48 hours with a tight bandage around my upper torso but then I would move to a compression vest for the following SIX weeks. This was much longer than anticipated and I do not look forward to that. But he said the longer and tightest fit (within reason) the better the results. I decided I can live with that.
I paid 25,000 pesos ($1900 USD) and prepared the night before by not eating anything 12 hours prior to surgery and taking anti-biotics he prescribed. I woke up at 7 am and showered and shaved my chest. I got my ipad ready as the doctor said I would be in the recovery room for about 8 hours post op. I arrived at the clinic and it was a little less aesthetically appealing than I had hoped. A nurse took my lab results and gave me a robe to change into. She then had me lie on the bed and gave me "the shot" to relax me. I had heard great things about this shot but it hurt my butt more than it relaxed me. In fact, I think it may just have been a saline solution or something because I felt absolutely no different 20 minutes later. I asked my wife to leave at this point and the nurses came in and rolled me onto a different bed. They wheeled me into the OR and I was pleased to see that while building and recovery rooms were slightly outdated, the OR looked very modern and up to standards. I never saw anesthesiologist administer the juice into my IV but she told me she just did. I remember looking up at lighting in OR and then waking up in recovery room.
I was in surprising good spirits. There was no pain, just slight discomfort from being in the same position for a few hours. It was around 12:00 pm and I went in for operation at 10 am so not a lot of time had passed. I could tell that my left side was wet and I assumed it was blood. The doctor came in told me everything went perfect and that my wife was on the way. I of course immediately asked if areola incisions were needed and he slightly smiled and said of course not. I felt very relaxed and just went back to sleep. My wife arrived and came in with a nurse who handed me some apple juice and made sure I drank it. She then waited about 10 minutes and came back in and asked if I vomited at all and I said no. The doctor then came in and said I was free to go. It was about 3:30 pm.
Getting out of bed was fairly easy and I could see that there was blood seeping through bandages. I arrived home and sat on my couch. There was no pain but I was still very numb in the chest. When I got up from couch and could see that blood was seeping through shirt and staining my couch. Good thing my couch is red. I took off my shirt (doctor told me to only wear button up shirts for the next few weeks) and saw that there was actually quite a bit of blood. The doctor assured me that this was normal and I would be draining a mixture of blood and liquid for the next 48 hours or so. He offered to come by the house and change the dressing. He arrived within 10 minutes and applied new fresh bandages. He did show me that the liquid I was draining was in fact not pure blood but a mixture and that it is totally normal. For the sake of staining all my button up shirts and couch and bed though, I now wish I had drains.
I took my antibiotic and one ibuprofen and went to bed at around 10 pm. I was surprised that I was able to sleep comfortable on my back for around 8 hours. When I woke and tried to get out of bed my chest felt very sore as if I had done a very intense chest workout the day before. It was very manageable and a pain I am used to from all the hours in the gym trying to weight lift away my gynecomastia. I checked the mirror and the towels I was laying on and found no extra blood. My chest is still a bit numb to the touch but internally sore but very manageable.
So far it has been a breeze. I will say that when we took off the dressing initially and I could see my new chest for the first time, it did not look very good. It looked very thin and skin was still hanging I think this is to be expected though for the first few months as I recover and the skin re-attaches and tightens itself. Hopefully compression garment will do its job. Here are my pre op pics:
And post op:
Any thing protruding here is simply bandages . There is quite a bit of blood/fluid as you can see but it is not increasing in amount and is no longer wet.
Want to re-iterate how little pain there is/was. Can't wait for 6 months to fly by and see final results. Will try to remember to post weekly pics here.
Topic: Mexico Surgery Completed! Piece of Cake So Far! (pics) (Read 4063 times)
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