First I'd like to apologize for any bad spelling or grammar in this post. As you can see my native language is not english.
I don't really know what the purpose of this post will be but hopefully it will encourage some of you to get surgery. Since no one but me and the doctors know about my surgery I also feel this is a way for me to express my feelings to the people who will understand them the most.
I am 20 years old and as my name suggest I am from sweden. I had my surgery 4 days ago and I am so incredibly happy over this. To give you some background info my gynecomastia developed in my late teens, around the age of 16-17. I hadn't really noticed at first what was wrong, only that something made me look bad while wearing thin tshirts. When I realized, after buying some tight tshirts, I thought it was just a weight problem. I had gained about 10 pounds of weight during summer but I was at this point not overweight at all, everything about my body was normal except my nipples. This started bugging me and after extensive internet search I found that the medical term is gynecomastia. I went to different forums to research about it. Every piece of fact I found was negative. I realized this wouldn't go away, it was a result of hormone imbalance (doesn't make you feel very masculine does it?) etc etc.
At this point I did what most people seem to do, I covered up. Double shirts, dark clothes with logos over chest. Undergarments, wifebeaters, even tape. I lived with this shit for over 3 years until finally, spring 2004 I made an appointment with a doctor. There was a long waiting list to get these kinds of appointments and it wasn't until about 3-4 months later I got one. Another summer of hardly any swimming had passed. The doctor who examined me wasn't very eager to give me an operation. My gyne was very mild, I am aware of that. But I know you people understand even though it was mild it almost ruined my life. I had to practically beg for a surgery and at last he gave in. What bothered me here was the fact that when I had my shirt off in his cold room my nipples shrunk. He went and got another doctor (who turned out to be my future surgeon) to get a second opinion and at this point my chest looked normal so of course he advised against surgery. Finally he gave in aswell saying that liposuction would probably be a good idea.
I should explain that in Sweden, these kinds of surgeries are free. Well basically free, the first doctors appointment was about 15$ and the surgery itself 25$. The downside with this wonderful privilige is the waiting. It took another 6 months before I got a letter saying I had a time for surgery booked. This letter freaked me out big time. No one knew about my problem, not even my parents. None of my friends, who I am very open to with other things, no one. The day before the surgery I phoned the hospital but the line was busy. I was so nervous at this point that I didn't even make another call. The primary reason I was concerned was that the doctor had suggested lipo. At this point I had realized this was not what I needed. Finally I called again at the very day of my surgery and got to talk to my surgeon. He explained that they were removing the glands and I had nothing to worry about, which of course made me feel very calm.
The hospital is located in a town near mine so I took the train there and walked to the hospital. I got to talk to my surgeon and once again he said "You don't have gynecomastia, if you came to me just like that I would never do your surgery". I replied by putting on my white tshirt and showed him what it looked like. Against that he couldn't argue. The surgery itself was delayed for about 1 hour so they let me take a nap first. Then a nurse came and talked to me about the anaesthetic. They made me change clothes and gave me intravenous drip. Finally they put me to sleep and when I woke up 2 hours later I didn't know how to feel. I was of course disoriented (and even rude to a nurse, haha) but after a while things cleared up. Actually I think I woke up earlier than I was supposed to because in the bed next to me there was a little kid who had just gone through some kind of penis surgery. He was screaming constantly for about one hour. Not that I don't understand his pain but damn that was annoying.
I laid in the bed for a while until a nurse informed me that the hosptial would pay for my taxi back home, but it would take another 1,5 hours. So I got dressed, painful as it was, and went to the waiting room. In the taxi the painkillers started to loose their effect. The pain was horrible at this time but still it made me happy, funny as that may sound. My only concern was that the stiches would break, but naturally that never happened.
The next day I woke up in pain but incredibly happy. I couldn't really do anything but watch tv all day though. Second day was about the same but on the third I started feeling alot better. And my chest looks great now. Nipples all flat and small just like a normal persons. In fact, alot better thant they looked when I was freezing earlier.
Today I went through my closet and it almost brought me to tears. For over a year I've had a shelf only with shirts/tshirts wearable without any type of undergarment. But today I could put all my shirts on the same shelf. I still have 1,5 weeks left of waring the bandages and vest but then I'll be a new person. I'm looking forward to summer 2005.
Good luck to all who're waiting for or considering surgery.
Topic: My story - had surgery 4 days ago (Read 6537 times)
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