Landman, I know exactly where you're coming from. I thought that I was doomed to exist with this for the rest of my life, thanks to a few clueless doctors who I reached out to when I was younger. I then suffered 32 years before finding this board and figuring out that there was something that could be done. Then God opened some doors and I finally got my surgery on May 20. But man, my self esteem and confidence took an awful beating, and I could never ever let anybody get very close to me. I havent been swimming since I was about 14, and that was the last time because I got made fun of. High school was a complete disaster. In spite of this, I did have girlfiriends, but I cant say the relationships were very fulfilling, even the sex, because this damn thing was always on my mind, I was always trying to hide it. I remember once having sex with this really beautifuyl girl with a great body, and not even enjoying it, because I was so shamed of how I looked with my shirt off and I was trying to hide my chest, and man it just sucked.
I try to tell everybody on this board, go get the surgery done, it will improve your life immeasurably. I'm about 6 weeks post surgery, still got some swelling, not yet comfortable goign shirtless, but I no longer wear multiple layers of clothing or walk all hunched over or do any of the other hundred and one avoidance behaviours that I had cooked up over the years. The good thing about this board is that it shows you that the condition is curable, and once you have that as your goal, you can begin working towards it in terms of finding a surgeon and getting the money together. It took me about 7 months from the time I became aware of this board to when I had the surgery. But like I say, once you have an actual goal in mind, once you know that thing is actually possible, you can focus and concentrate all of your energy on that rather than on how miserable you are, and believe me I do understand. My problem was that for 25 years I believed what those damn doctors told me, and didnt know that the porblem actually had a solution. You are way ahead on that score.
God Bless you
If there is anything I can do to help you out, contact me via this board.
nasa