So, to hopefully help others in the future, I want to share my overall experience of the surgery thus far:
ResearchAs I said in a previous post regarding my stats. I am 21, 5'10" and 145 lbs. I live in NYC and my parents live in NJ. I have been very fortunate and thankful that my parents have been in complete support of me doing this surgery from the beginning and have helped both financially and, for lack of a better term, physically (having helped with driving to VA, being there to support me and helping aid in some decisions.
I developed gyne during puberty at around 13 or so and my doctor said it would probably go away withing a few years. It never did. I always thought it would go away because I sort of went through puberty late, but like I said before, it never did. lol I would do some searching on the web every now and then for back like 2 years ago and but not really committing to it and then it just slowly became more and more important to me and started to read the forums here and start researching about surgery and doctors. I had done all the research necessary to begin the process of seeking out doctors and was looking at both Dr. Bermant and some doctors in NY (because of the location and their reputation). I new that solely from his website and all of his praise here, I already was leaning towards using Bermant as my PS, but I really didn't want to make any final decisions before what might be considered "over-analyzing" everything
ConsultationSo my mom and I (only because she mentioned she wanted to meet him as well) drove down to VA in May to meet with Dr. Bermant. At the consultation, I first filled out the normal multi-paged background of my health in the waiting room and then went in to get weighed, height measured, Body Fat percentage... Dr. Bermant came in and we discussed everything from the causes of gyne to the realistic outcomes of the surgery. He also took measurements of each areola and did drawings of my chest for his records. He informed me what having surgery at his office would be like and how I could expect recovery and healing would be.
I would suggest to anyone who is able to do the consultation in person. I found it very helpful to both see with my own eyes how well-organized his process is as well as getting to meet Dr. Bermant in person. I found that my trip down to VA was very helpful in making my decision to both go through with the surgery and to use Dr. Bermant.
After my consultation, I took a little time to think over everything and when I realized with my schedule now (having a month and a half off - which was over-the-top enough time to have a relaxing recovery) and the time limitations of my career in the future I had to do the surgery now. I scheduled the surgery and got all the paperwork about what things to avoid 2 weeks before surgery.
Pre-opThis time I drove down to VA with both my parents, they were able to come down and I was very happy to have both of their support down their. Went to my appt the morning before surgery. Got the circle markings on my chest, signed some paperwork, went over all final details... as Jane, the office manager and the nicest woman in the world
said, they wanted us to have everything completed the day before surgery so that on the day of, we could come in relaxed and have nothing to think about except being relaxed. Finished up and then had the rest of the day off to enjoy in VA. My parents went to the pool/jacuzzi but since I had the markings on my chest and lets face it, like everyone else here, I rarely ever go swimming, just stayed in the room and napped.
SurgeryGot to Bermant's office and almost immediately went in to meet with Jim, the Anesthesiologist. He went over all the info about the medicines (including Propofol and he joked a little about the Michael Jackson case). He was great at putting me at ease that morning. My parents came in to finalize everything with him and then I said my "final goodbyes" haha and went to the recovery room to put the gown on and get the IV. Jim actually did something I have never seen before which was to inject a small, I guess, local anesthesia into the side where the IV was going so I wouldn't feel the IV. It was very helpful, though he first tried to put the IV into a vein that ended up not working (he said something about it curling up, I don't know exactly) and then tried a different vein that work perfectly (I didn't feel the IV at all becuase of the injection). I met Kim, my nurse, he started giving me the meds and we went to the operating room. I laid down and got strapped in and started to dose off. I remember Dr. Bermant coming in and then asking me to think of a place I want to vacation after this was all done and describe it...
Next thing I knew I was in the recovery room getting a bottle of water with a straw from Jim. From everything I have been told from the office staff and what they told my parents the surgery actually took a little longer than expected simply because Dr. Bermant took a lot of time to do each side perfectly. He spent around an hour and a half on each side and after the 3 hours of surgery it took about an hour for me to wake up enough to leave. Apparently I was joking and singing after surgery, went to the bathroom twice (even having a fight with Jim about not wanted to sit down on the toilet because I didn't need to, but he made me sit, haha). I don't remember any of that, but I am sure it happened.
Jim showed me my glands, I put my clothes back on, my parents came in and I was put in a wheel chair and wheeled out. Went back to the hotel planning on taking a nap, but I couldn't sleep (not because of excruciating pain, I was just restless), so my mom and I went to see a movie. We came back, had dinner, saw another movie on TV and went to bed. I took meds throughout the day and definitely had some discomfort. It started as just soreness but once the local anesthesia wore off I had a stinging cut feeling on both sides. But hey, I was cut on both sides, what do you expect?
Post-opWent the next morning, took of the compression vest and took pictures. I was very happy that I didn't have and bruising and only a tiny bit of swelling. I am sure the morning after appt is more "ground-breaking" for those patients who had a more serious case, but since I really only had puffy nipples, with the gauze dressing still on, I couldn't see the end results and knew I had to wait a week to see them. Talked with both Dr. Bermant and Jane and my only worry over the next week was to relax.
Dressing removalOver the week I basically just watched a bunch of movies that I had rented before I left and from On Demand... I will admit that the pain was prevalent for me this first week, but I don't have a high pain tolerance and with meds (primarily Tylenol during the day and the pain killer at night), I was able to get through the week without too much agony.
I originally was going to fly down for the dressing removal, but my Mom once again offered to drive down with me (I gratefully took the offer). At the appt, Dr. Bermant removed the dressings (which was somewhat painful/annoying... he basically took off a huge band-aid across the entire surgery site) and I was able to see my chest for the first time. I remember before even looking at the mirror in front of me, I looked down at my chest and saw a completely flat areola with a normally protruding nipple. I believe the first thing I said was, "Wow." Looked at the mirror and saw that everything was flat, no more puffyness. I will admit that at first glance the scar on both sides was slightly longer than I had hoped (nothing more than others here or on his website, just not one of the "small ones"), but hey, I know Dr. Bermant did a perfect job and I knew I was going to have a scar... it will fade over time.
Dr. Bermant did another round of measuring to compare to the first ones back in May. Not only did both sides get smaller but they are both significantly more equal and size and appear to be more symmetrical on my chest. I forget was unit of measurement he was using (I think cm) but the largest change was the depth of the protrusion outward from my chest which I believe on both sides went from 8 to 3 and from the looks of it in simple terms, I'm flat.
We took more pictures, which I will post when I get them and did a little anonymous interview into his video-camera... where I explained that my chest looked like how it did when my nipples were cold or stimulated, when everyone describes it looking like they didn't have any gynecomastia, that's what I had, no gynecomastia.
**I also mentioned how helpful this forum has been and how I hope I can aspire people to help in the same way and that I can be of some assistance or inspiration to those in the future.**
StatsRight side:
Gland 5 x 4 x 2cm
Fat 50cc
Left side:
Gland 3 x 3 x 2.5cm
Fat 25cc
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Well, if you read this whole novel of a post, I hope I gave a good layout of my experience. I think this post will be good for me to remember 20 years down the line as a way to see all the details of the surgery.
As I have said before, thanks to all who have helped me with their posts and I hope to help others with mine.
Next comes, so more pics for you (of my 6 day post-op appt) and then I'll post maybe once a month or so here to keep posted as well as answer any questions.
Topic: Surgery with Dr. Bermant on 8/11/09. (Pre-op and Post-op pics) (Read 6858 times)
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