Aug 17th Haugrud Surgery and experiences (Calgary)

[seesaw]

Hey all, thought I'd start a new post (link to old thread below) to detail my experiences as there really hasn't been much recently on these boards for Haugrud.

First off, I'm 29 yrs old, 5' 10", 155lbs.. not fat but not ripped either.  Suffered with this since I was 15.  Have even been down as low as 135lbs when in incredible shape but the gyne was always still there.  So....

Called the office early 2009 to book a consult... I was quite surprised when they said the earliest available would be October 2009.. but I booked it and went along with my life.  Consult came up and I went and sat in the waiting room with some ladies who looked like they were having or just had the exact opposite procedure haha.  Haugrud is a super nice guy.. very approachable, reasonable, I had a good feeling about him and had no real hesitations about him doing the work.  He was realistic in what he said to expect.  He typically does gland excision only and uses drains.  After my 20 minute talk with him I decided to go ahead and at least say yes to the surgery at that point knowing there was another 8-10 month waitlist for a surgery date after that.  My name went on the main list,and also a short call list in the event anything came up sooner.

I got a call in March for the shortlist, but the timing didn't work for me so I was unable to take it.  Then late June I got the call that my surgery date would be August 17, 2010.  I had about a month to figure out if I could swing getting some time off work etc.  Some how it all magically fell into place and I managed to get myself 3 weeks off of work (Haugrud suggested 2 weeks at a minimum).

Surgery day arrived, and I showed up at Rockyview Hospital at 6am for my 740am surgery.  Great friendly people there, I can't stress that enough.. they really made my stay at the hospital feel like less of a hospital stay.. I hate hospitals.  Got checked in... then into a gown.. waited around to have some questions asked.. including a very very nervous med student who came to say hello and that she'd be in the operating room as well.. poor girl.. she appeared far more anxious than me.  7am rolled around and I got wheeled into the next room waiting for the operating room to be prepped.  I had some more questions asked and Haugrud then came to chat with me a little and make some markings on my chest.  Explained what was going to happen.  Then I got an IV for the general anesthetic and was taken into the operating room.  Super cold in there.. moved onto the tiny operating table.. they doped me up with some relaxing drugs as things got ready to go and then it was go time and boom, I was out.

Woke up in the recovery room 1hr 15mins later with some nurses talking to me nonstop.. they asked my pain level then blasted me with some morphine.. that was good stuff.  I had a bit of extra bleeding out of my drain tube under my right armpit, they just applied some pressure and some new bandages then I got wheeled back to the main day surgery area to recovery fully.  However, it wasn't long before I felt something weird in my left chest and then a lot of pressure.. I called a nurse and she came up and immediately asked for someone to page Haugrud.. I was pretty loopy still at this point and really didn't have much cares in the world.  Haugrud showed up right away and yup, my left side was filling with blood, I needed to go back under to have it removed and stop the bleeder, but they couldn't do it just yet so they wrapped me tight in a tensor bandage and I just hung out.  Was still pretty out of it when I got wheeled back into the operating room for round #2.  I think I was only operated on for a quick 8 minutes to remove 250cc of blood out of my left chest and back into recovery I went.

Well I was right screwed up by all the drugs and so they said they wanted to keep me overnight.. I had no objections to that as I wasn't sure what I was feeling but it certainly wasn't great.  A fairly uneventful night, just about passed out when I got up to go to the washroom, I was very weak.  The nursing staff was simply amazing.. nothing but respect for these people, they really made the stay that much easier.  Next morning I saw Haugrud again.. he said I was going to bruise and swell quite a bit more as a result of that extra bleed and I had already swollen quite a bit.  I got the all clear to go home and so here I am.

It's now 4 days post op.  Never had to take any of the prescribed T3's or Percocet's.. pain has been nearly nothing.

I took off the tensor and main bandages on day 2 post op and had a look.. Holy swollen batman, and bruised pretty good too.  Hard to tell main results, but I'm missing some gyne so I'm happy about that.. I know it will be a long process and am hopeful the results will stick, can't wait for the swelling to go down as my upper chest ballooned out quite a lot on top of the tensor bandage and is taking some time to reduce in size so hard to get a good feel for how things will look.

The drains are annoying and need to be emptied a couple times a day.. they have decreased a lot in what's being put out.. I get to have them out on Monday (day 6) when I go back to see Haugrud in his office.  I have a compression vest as well that I will start wearing after that, but am a little concerned that there will be some discomfort as the vest might rest quite close to where the drain points were (under the armpits).

So far I'm very happy I went through with this.  I'll be happy with just a slight reduction in the moob appearance and to be able to wear a tshirt freely will be all worth it.  Fingers crossed things work out well over the next few months.  Best of all, everything was covered under Alberta healthcare so I never paid a dime out of pocket... just had to wait nearly 2 years to get it all done.. but as others have said.. we've typically had this condition for a while so a little bit of a wait wasn't too much of a hardship for me.  I only ever told one of my closest friends about this and pretty much kept it secret from everyone else.  Be interesting to see if I can keep it going.. was quite hard to avoid my roomate all this week.. thankfully he works lots and just thinks I've been ill lately.

I know I just wrote a novel there, and will continue to update... I have taken some pictures and will likely post them up in the near future as I get a couple weeks at least worth of shots.  Feel free to ask questions or comment.

Feels great to be on the "other side".

SeeSaw

link to previous thread:
http://www.gynecomastia.org/smf/index.php?topic=20595.0

[seesaw]

1 week post op.

Went to Haugrud's office yesterday to have the drain's removed.  A mostly painfree procedure.. a slight discomfort but nothing too bad.  Feels a lot better to have those things out that's for sure.

I'm to keep the tensor on for another week (or the compression vest I went and got) and if any fluid builds now that the drains are gone, I can go back this week to have it removed with a needle.  I have a booking in a couple weeks to just check on things as I did have a lot of bruising and swelling in my case.

Continuing to take it easy this week.  Some swelling has left, and others have appeared, but so far things are looking not too bad.  Will be very happy to see what things look like when I'm less puffed up.  No noticeable scar tissue developing yet, but it's still pretty early in the game.

[seesaw]

Two weeks post op.

Feeling good.  Finally getting a lot more movement and not feeling as constricted.  Especially without the drains or any discomfort from the healing areas either.

All in all.  LOVING IT.  I'm still swollen in areas, but it's mainly right above where the tensor bandage had been wrapped.. so like bottom of collar bone to top of armpit.  It's not a completely flat chest, but looks more like an actual chest with definition (and not in the previously bad way). There are a couple little areas I can tell might have been able to get lipo'd out perhaps, but I'm pretty confident now that the bulk of the gland is gone, and once I can start exercising again, I'll be able to even it all out.  The t-shirt test is a no brainer pass.  I look like a new me.  Very happy about that.  Lots of clothes now fit a little more proper and I don't have to worry about layering up to try and hide the gyne.

I'm still alternating between tensor bandage and compression vest and will continue to do so until I've had my next appointment with Haugrud coming up next week.

Still very bruised up along the sides of my torso and even around my armpit and down to my biceps a little.  But that's slowly starting to fade away.  Everything seems to be healing nicely.  If things stay similar to what they're at now I'll be very happy with the whole thing.  And knowing how swollen I am still now, hopefully it can only get better.  Still early on I know.. but I'm excited to see how the next month progresses.

Will likely get to posting some pictures around week 3 if I can find any good ones that show how things came out.

SeeSaw

[na2]

Hey glad you hear you are happy.

When I saw Haugrud he didn't really mention how much time off to take.  I wasn't planning on taking 2 weeks off.  Maybe a couple of days and thats about it, but I mean, I just do an office job.  Does this seem reasonable or should I be planning to take off a lot more time?

[dwl]

I used a different doc, but I had surgery on a Monday and was back at work the following Monday.  I too have a desk job.  No problems at all.

[seesaw]

Hey glad you hear you are happy.

When I saw Haugrud he didn't really mention how much time off to take.  I wasn't planning on taking 2 weeks off.  Maybe a couple of days and thats about it, but I mean, I just do an office job.  Does this seem reasonable or should I be planning to take off a lot more time?

The only thing that really limits your movement is the drains.. I had a hard time reaching upper shelves in the kitchen without causing some discomfort or tugging etc.. as soon as they were out though, I was able to move around a lot more.  I had to use up some vacation so it just worked out real well for me to take it off at this exact time too.. plus in my job I'm moving around a lot and doing some lifting here and there that I didn't want to strain things at all.  It took 6 days to get the drains out, but that was also because there was a weekend in there.. he may be able to take the drains out sooner, but I wouldn't want to be working with those drains still in.  And I also had that extra bleed (uncommon) right after my surgery so I was pretty messed up for a couple solid days after the 2 general anesthetics, was quite week and lightheaded for a few days.

I'd want pretty close to week of rest before really getting back out there.. that first week I wasn't too mobile.  The drive to Haugrud's office with those drains took some extra effort.. especially driving stick haha.  The drive home was much better.

Hope that helps

[na2]

I see.  How big are the drains?  I was under the assumption they were not that large and could be hidden under a sweater....is that true?

[dwl]

The drains aren't big at all - at least mine weren't.   They're smaller than a straw.  

The problem is that they're annoying and you don't want to aggravate them in regard to kinking the tube, etc.   I worked from my home office after my surgery, and I was definitely limited in regard to mobility.   Once I had my hands on the keyboard, I  was ok, but still felt aggravating.    More importantly, you're so cautious with the tubes in, people would  know something was up.

I wouldn't go into the office with the drains in, just too risky.  

....just my two cents.

[seesaw]

I see.  How big are the drains?  I was under the assumption they were not that large and could be hidden under a sweater....is that true?

With the drains in I only wore loose button up shirts.. I didn't want to try and wear a normal shirt or anything I had to put on over the head.. the mobility is not quite there.  The drains can be hidden yes, they arent too big, and are compressed as well to provide suction to draw the fluid into them.  Here is a link to the type of drains Haugrud uses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson-Pratt_drain

I would avoid the office until you can get them out, just like dwl said, you are so cautious with them in, people would know something was up.

[na2]

Thanks for the advice.  There are a couple of things I figured might be unavoidable but I'll try to work around them and stay at home. 

[AREM]

Can't wait for the update... Hope the healing is going well... I'm looking at getting surgery done from the same doctor as well but was just wondering if you had to get a referral to be able to get a consultation?

[seesaw]

Can't wait for the update... Hope the healing is going well... I'm looking at getting surgery done from the same doctor as well but was just wondering if you had to get a referral to be able to get a consultation?

No referral required.. I just called and booked the appointment... be prepared for a hefty wait.. even for the consult.  Mine was a 9 month wait for the consult alone.

[seesaw]

1 month post op.

Been busy with work but glad I could make it back here for the 1 month milestone.

I'm pretty happy with the results.  Still a few things that should hopefully smooth out in the weeks to come.  I do have some creases under my nipples from the incisions and the scar tissue building up behind, I think mine are more pronounced due to the fact that I had to be cut open again for the extra bleeding I had.  I'm massaging them daily as per Haugrud's recommendation and do expect them to disappear when the scar tissue dissolves behind.  The drain scars are healing, but pink for now as they continue to heal.  The swelling is still evident in areas, I feel around my chest and it's not gyne but more swelling/fattyness (need to get back exercising soon now that I've been cleared for it).  There are a couple small indents in the chest when I flex which are only really pronounced due to the swelling around, once things settle down I hope this to be less obvious.

But the big picture is that I'm happy.  Ive been out and about wearing tshirts without a care in the world, I've been looking into the dark corners of my closest for clothes that I never thought I would wear due to my life with gyne.  I knew not to expect 100% results, and I knew that if I even got close to 80%, that would be like 100% for me anyways.  I'd say right now I'm at 70% and can't wait to see how things look as the weeks go along.

I'm also glad to see more of a discussion for Haugrud now on these forums, it has been lacking for the past couple years, so I'm happy to see that others are sharing their experiences and that there are more waiting for their turn at a new life without gyne.

I've finally uploaded some pictures.  Fair warning there is some big time bruising down my sides in a couple of the pics.

Pre op:
http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8529/pre1.jpg
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/2108/pre2f.jpg

2 days post op:
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/1090/2dayspost.jpg

1 week post op:
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/8881/1weekpost.jpg
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/7615/1weekpost2.jpg
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/592/1weekpost3.jpg

2 weeks post op:
http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/3231/2weekspost.jpg
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/2781/2weekspost2.jpg
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/8097/2weekspost3.jpg

1 month post op:
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/4548/1monthpost.jpg
http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7241/1monthpost3.jpg
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/5403/1monthpost2.jpg

[lamp]

you have very nice results. i can see the scar tissue on the bottom of your nips like you say. otherwise it was a job well done by your PS.

[AREM]

Great results! Must be nice...

I'm ready for the wait, after seeing your pictures I think I'm going to go ahead and book my appointment sometime this week, keep us updated with your results! Is it cool to pm you if i have any issues?