Decided to write down my experience and share it for the guys in the pre-surgery research phase, I know I was looking for this kind of write-up when I was researching and there aren't that many of them floating around.
Want to say right off the bat that Dr. Jacobs is awesome and I wouldn't hesitate to do all this again with him and his staff. It's 100% worth the extra money and hassle of traveling to a gynecomastia specialized surgeon like him who has decades of experience successfully removing this unsightly stuff. There are only a handful of such surgeons in the world so chances are you don't live next door to one, I timed it so I was up here in the NY area from Florida visiting family for a few weeks.
Pre-op: Little nervous but also excited to finally get this taken care of. All happened quickly once I moved from researching to taking action. Did the consultation and then booked a surgery within 2 days. His surgery coordinator was very helpful and always answered emails quickly.
Nice warm welcome at the office the morning of the surgery, went back into the same consultation room and was instructed to put on a purple gown and empty the bladder. Met the anesthesiologist who was nice and relaxing and then Dr. Jacobs and we went over what was going to happen (twilight anesthesia, lipo with his custom cannula with possible incision along bottom of areola if needed, etc) and he took the pictures and marked up my chest with a marker, everyone was relaxed, confident and generally awesome which helped put me at ease. Took the anti-nausea pills as instructed then a nurse came and got me & we walked into the operating room with my underarmor compression shirt in hand.
Nurses and anesthesiologist were already in there. I was kind of cold by that point because the gown is very thin and it was a/c'd pretty well but the operating table was heated and a nurse pulled a heavy warm blanket over me immediately which involuntarily relaxed the hell out of me. The anesthesiologist was again relaxing and friendly and engaged me in relaxed conversation while putting the suction cup sensors on and prepping the IV site on my left hand. I hate needles and the IV hurt a little but not too bad, got a little lightheaded but the fact that I was lying down already helped with that. Soon after he gave me a little juice to relax me, I focused on bodily sensations to pick up on it and started to feel the warm fuzziness and I guess immediately after that I went out because all of a sudden I was back awake and thinking I had drifted off for a second after that initial juice, but the operation was done and they were putting the binder on me. They then took me into the recovery room where I relaxed for a good 30-45 minutes. Then I went into Dr. Jacobs office and we went over how it went and what to do going forward, then I was free to go! Little lightheaded, little fuzzy headed but overall was feeling pretty okay.
Post-Op (Day 1): Spent most of that afternoon lying on the couch surfing the internet drinking water & gatorade. It’s very hard to get up from laying/sitting down when you are trying not to activate your chest and I could feel the bandages under the underarmor pulling at chest hair and stuff whenever I would get up. I only took 1000mg Tylenol a couple hours’ post-op when the local numbing agent started wearing off and the pain was negligible. Was drinking tons of water as instructed so I was having to get up very often to pee. Started munching on crackers around 4-5 hours’ post-op and that went well so I ended up eating 3 slices of pizza for dinner since I've always digested it well and kept it all down. Ended up sleeping pretty well actually, got 6-7 uninterrupted hours.
Day 2: Felt better upon waking up, walked 2 east-west manhattan blocks each way to get and wolf down two bacon egg and cheese sandwiches and a bunch of water, took the antibiotic as instructed. Took Tylenol again as a precaution but really wasn’t feeling much pain at all. This was +24hrs post-op. Then caught a train back to the Albany area and then just relaxed at home all day and ate a lot, probably 3500 calories.
Day 3: Slept pretty well again which is surprising since I’m a side sleeper and I was instructed to sleep on my back. I decided to stop taking Tylenol because I'm constipated and haven’t passed anything since the afternoon before the surgery, apparently that's common side effect from anesthesia and also tylenol. Pain is still minimal, removed the bandages and despite being bruised and a little swollen it's amazing how small/flat my chest is.
Day 9 right now and it's pretty surreal, taking the binder and under armor shirt off and seeing this flat small contoured chest staring back at me. My chest is just so damn flat, it's changed the appearance of my whole upper body in a huge way, shirts hang so nicely off my shoulders that now the problem area is my stomach, which isn't even that big. Can't wait to lose all excess fat and build muscle!
I urge anyone who has gyno and is considering surgery to just do it, scrape together the money, find the best gyno specialized plastic surgeon you can (I obviously recommend Dr. Jacobs, he's amazing) and get it done. Life is too short not to, I'm 27 and wish I did this when I was 17-19. The self consciousness/low self esteem/lack of confidence never goes away.
Topic: Positive surgery experience w/ Dr. Elliot Jacobs in NYC (Read 4420 times)
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