I wasn't told anything about sleeping upright. I did on the first night but not last night, just feel the straighter you are, the better chance of a tighter finish. Don't know if that's the right thing to do, but it's very hard sleeping upright and you tend to slip down anyway.
I took the padding off after 24 hours. Again, thought it gave an uneveness to the compression. The difference in my chest for the rest of the day was considerable after.
One question, do the incisions under the arms have internal stitches? I have what appears to be one sticking out from one of them.
Some times the stitches do poke through the skin; I don't know if the body spits them out or something, but I have had quite a few surgeries and I get the odd stitch coming out every time.
I don't know about sleeping upright, your surgeon is the best person to ask. All I can say is that I was never adviced to sleep upright after any surgery; just sleep however I found comfortable.
I can't see your before pictures now, but I think I remember seeing them a few days ago........ were you the guy who had quite a bit of loose / droopy skin along with the moobs before surgery? If so I hope Karadis discussed expected results; total male model perfection is unlikely when starting off with moobs at the more severe end of the scale.
If so I would say the creasing is down to loose skin and will probably improve over time. Cratering also can improve a bit, especially with some pec work at the gym. I had extreme gyne with massive skin excision after weight loss. I found I had a bit of cratering, a fair bit of creasting and still left over loose skin post op....... all three areas have improved a
lot over the last 2 years or so, it isn't perfect but I never expected perfection. I feel Pec work at the gym has helped me fill out a bit of saggy skin / creases......... that may be something you want to consider once you are all healed up and fit to exercise.
The hard lump could be a little blood clot or some irritated tissue... things start to swell up and get inflammed immediately in my experience, probably happens during surgery to be honest.......... any time the body is injured it starts trying to repair things straight away. My guess is it is nothing worry about, but any concerns and you should get straight on the phone to Karidis for proper medical advice.