My doctor was not a PS. He was a general surgeon who claimed to have performed this operation many times.
I don't doubt him, but I think the cut he used was unnecessary
I did ask him if he had before and after pics during our consultations, but he told me because he was not a plastic surgeon, he did not take photographs.
To be honest, I might have over-reacted. I've been upset at the way the doctor has addressed my concerns.
He gave me many vague answers, that usually came down to something like "It doesn't matter either way, it's always the same in the end."
It's not an answer that suggests any confidence. I heard this reply from him when I asked questions such as "should I wear a compression vest?" or "should I use something to help prevent scarring?'
We did get a bit further with the scarring question. He said it would probably not be a problem during our consultation.
However, shortly before the operation, he explained exactly how he would be cutting me and that I would definitely have some sort of visible scar (although likely to be slight.)
I didn't like that contradiction.
Also I was disappointed to hear of the extra cutting that he would be doing. I should have asked about this long before. But I was not mentally prepared, and had other thoughts of the surgery on my mind. Of course, the cut is a very important issue, but I had really assumed that it would be just outlining the underside of the areola. That is the kind of cut I was very familiar with and prepared for (after reading these forums, I wonder if the underarm incision is an even better method.)
What he did is outline the upper half, and then extend the cut outwards horizontally on both sides (you can see that in my pictures from the diary.) :-/
Having said all that, today I had my first look at my chest without any bandages, and it wasn't what I expected. There is still quite a bit of healing in process, but I realize that I've probably jumped the gun in calling it "bothched". I was upset when I wrote the first post, and even though I am still not happy with the way he chose to cut me, I need to give the healing process more time before passing judgment.
I took another good look this afternoon, and the redness from bandage removal had already faded which gave it a cleaner look.
I can still see some blood between my areola and the surrounding skin, where it looks like the skin has not fully reattached. That scared me. It gives the impression that I could just open that nipple flap right back up. But as I said, there was some shock factor involved here. Also, I've been in pain for quite some time, and it's just now starting to go away (although I'm not completely sure because I started wrapping a compression bandage again due to pain from a fluid build-up.)
In summary The healing process in just these two short weeks has proven to be more enduring than I thought at a psychological level.
I want to look better. I worry about the scarring, I worry about the recovery to a natural shape. I worry about the pain. I worry about the fluid build-up, which the doctor passed to me another, "It doesn't matter if you drain it or not"- type answer.
I will post some two-week post op pictures soon in my diary (see the signature of this post.)
Hopefully, you too, might agree with my conclusion after seeing those pics: Although the doctor may not have spoken to me at a level that a patient needs and appreciates, the healing process is slowly taking place, and I need only to relax and give it time to recover.
Topic: My botched surgery - General Surgeon (Read 7051 times)
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