Temporary swelling or crater deformity? Help!

[Davidt83]

Hi,

I have been a Gynecomastia sufferer for almost 7 years and, on Thursday 29th Jan, went into to hospital for my surgery.

I completely understand that it has only been 3 days since I had the surgery, and that these things can take many weeks or months to heal. However, I was hoping to have your thoughts on the work thats been done.

The reason that I ask this so soon is that the two sides look completely different. My left side is pretty natural looking already (despite it only being 3 days) but my right is not. My right side, at first glance, looks to have a crater deformity. I am not sure wheter this is an actual 'crater' due to the surgery being ill performed or whether it just looks like a crater because of the muscle/tissue, at the top of my chest, being swollen. If this is the case then when the swelling at he top of my chest goes down then the rest of the chest will maybe (hopefully) curve out, then back in more naturally (like the left side already does). However, if it is not simply swollen tissue, then the chest will always curve out, then in, then out, then back in again. If this is the case, is there any chance of this filling out over time?

This may seem like such a small problem to a few people out there (especially to those who are still living with the problem, or to those who have have very back surgery), but after living with Gynecomastia for 7 years, and going through all the hopital visits, doctors appointments, and the surgery, it is a very big deal to me. It is noticble through a tshirt and jumper.

I have attached pictures. There are one or two pre-op however, as the size of my chest changed day to day (depending on how puffy my nipples were) they don't look too bad in the photo. I can assure you they did get worse.

Again, I know it's extremely early days in terms of recovery but one side looks good and the other not so good. Please please please have a look and give me your personal opinion.

Thank you.


Pre-op: http://s617.photobucket.com/albums/tt257/davidt83/?action=view&current=1-1.jpg

Pre-op: http://s617.photobucket.com/albums/tt257/davidt83/?action=view&current=2.jpg

Post-op: http://s617.photobucket.com/albums/tt257/davidt83/?action=view&current=3.jpg

Post-op: http://s617.photobucket.com/albums/tt257/davidt83/?action=view&current=4.jpg

Post-op: http://s617.photobucket.com/albums/tt257/davidt83/?action=view&current=5.jpg

[Pacifico]

You need to relax, period!  Swelling will cover-up your final results for some time.  Why would you make a judgment on your swelling?  Chill out and wait 3 months until the swelling backs off, then you may have a chance to make a judgment based on resutls not swelling.  Unless you like to torture yourself, in that case, keep on judging your swelling.

[dondante]

Totally natural to freak so soon after surgery - I'm almost a month post-op and I freak out about my results at least once a day. I'm sure you have followups with your surgeon, by all means express your concerns but at this point please take my advice and the advice above - relax - this is just the beginning of your recovery and even if there is something wrong with the way your surgeon performed, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it until your body fully recovers, anyway. But again, not to belabor the point, it is WAY too early to worry.

[Grandpa Bambu]

100% agree with Pacifico and dondante...

Be patient dude! 

GB

[Grandpa Bambu]

This may seem like such a small problem to a few people out there (especially to those who are still living with the problem, or to those who have have very back surgery), but after living with Gynecomastia for 7 years, and going through all the hopital visits, doctors appointments, and the surgery, it is a very big deal to me. It is noticble through a tshirt and jumper.

Not to worry dude.... everyone here understands what you have gone through for the past 7 years. No one here will trivialize your situation... 

GB

[RyanMace]

Don't worry man. Alot of things going on under there right as I'm posting this. Fluids and whatnot. Give it some time to heal.

[Davidt83]

I know that i'm stressing and its still early days. Sorry. I will try and relax and wait a few months before judging it again. I think I was just panicing because one side looks good already and I was hoping/expecting the other to as well. I need to chill out.

Thanks for all your support guys.

[Davidt83]

I know the photographs don't look too bad - this was what I called a 'good day'. My nipples would change size and become very puffy from day to day and, when this happened, the whole breast would become enlarged and the glandular tissue behind the nipple would become more visible. Although, admittedly, there are far worse cases out there, I did have Gynecomastia and was unable to wear a t-shirt/jumper (I wore hooded zippers for 7 years) without it being incredibly protrusive. So much so that even with a compression garment things would not look right.

You may be right in saying that the doctor took out something that wasn't there. The reason I say this is that my left side was always ever so slightly larger than the right The surgeon said that they had to take out more (I think he said 75 cc) on the right side than he did on the left. This would mean despite the look of it, there was more Gynecomastia under the right nipple. It is possible thought that if this is true then they had to work harder to remove it and that is the reason for the difference between them now. there is maybe more swelling due to harder surgery. However, it could just be the surgeon covering up his mistake. Would they do this though? If I knew this was a risk before - would they feel the need to lie/cover up?

Maybe this is just me panicing and creating a conspiracy against my surgeon. I can not really fault a man who performed surgery to make things better for me, all be it if it's not 100% what I had expected. After all, it has only been 4 days.

[dondante]

Before having my surgery I read the "bad experience" posts extensively because I wanted to fully inform myself of the possible risks. I found that the majority of complaints were that the surgeons didn't take out enough gland - which leads me to believe that most surgeons will err on the side of caution when performing gyne surgery, because it's much easier to go back in and take some more out if necessary than to re-construct if too much was taken out the first time.

Believe me, I know what you're feeling. I became totally obsessive compulsive over my results the first week after surgery. I think it's natural - just remember your own advice - "it has only been 4 days". 

cheers,
dondante