The Road to Surgery EDIT: 3 months post-op

[waves]

Congrats on the surgery Arem and yes, lots of lurkers on the site but not a lot of posts.  I think most people who get successful surgery move on with their lives and try to put the "past" behind them.  I'll probably fall into that camp but currently 6 weeks post op with good success to date.  I'll stick it out until 6 months or so to make sure the surgery works out.

So are you not wearing a compression vest then?  Most surgeons on this site or stories of surgeons seem to highly recommend a compression vest.

[AREM]

Congrats on the surgery Arem and yes, lots of lurkers on the site but not a lot of posts.  I think most people who get successful surgery move on with their lives and try to put the "past" behind them.  I'll probably fall into that camp but currently 6 weeks post op with good success to date.  I'll stick it out until 6 months or so to make sure the surgery works out.

So are you not wearing a compression vest then?  Most surgeons on this site or stories of surgeons seem to highly recommend a compression vest.

My doctor told me to wear a tight underarmour shirt for about the first 4 weeks and that should suffice... My surgery was super minor according to him, as there was no liposuction and soley just excision behind puffy nipples... Is this not enough compression perhaps?

[waves]

Oh okay, not sure then.  I had the "full meal deal"!     Lipo and excision.

Maybe check other threads where only puffy nipple was addressed but I'm somewhat sure I read most were in a compression vest.  You can always order one or even the stage 2 version online and get it in a couple days.

[AREM]

So it's been 3 months and I realized I kind of ditched this forum enjoying the new found freedom...

My chest isn't perfect, I'd give 'er a solid 8.5/10 though in terms of the ideal chest that I wanted to come out with. I find that as time is going on it's slowly looking better and better.

For the first time in my life I'm not doubling up shirts, wearing clothes that fit proper and not sweating my face off because of all the layers. Incredible feeling to just 'forget' about your chest for an entire day... In terms of the scars, they are completely not visible, I can't even see them if I try and look for them so nobody will ever know that I had this procedure done. If you're on the fence about getting the surgery, I'd do it again every day of the week because it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Also, I would definitely recommend Dr. Toy to anyone living in the Edmonton area.

Feel free to message if you have any questions at all and best of luck if you're currently on the road to surgery!

[Neil123]

congrats Toy I am happy for you. any chance to see a pic before or/and after

[Storm]

Unfortunately, based on this thread and a couple of other positive reviews on Dr. Toy, I decided to ask my GP for a referral to him. It took two months before my referral was accepted, only to find out at that time that Dr. Toy no longer does the surgery covered under AHC. Personally I was dissapointed but still intended to go ahead with it if the cost was reasonable (between 2 and 4 thousand dollars) but when I asked about what the cost would be, I was told it could be as much as ten thousand.

Apparently Dr. Toy has decided it's not a surgery he wants to do anymore and has made the surgery prohibitively expensive to turn away clients. So, anyone who's wanting a plastic surgeon in Edmonton to do this proceedure may as well start looking elsewhere :/ It would be nice if AHC paid a little bit more to surgeons to do this, that would certainly help. Perhaps the government isn't aware of the psychological effect of having this condition and how that can affect someones productivity.

[Storm]

Okay, so, it turns out that what i was told about Dr. Toy was a load of crap that was passed on by my GP's receptionist. Today I called Dr Toy's office to check and see if the information I'd been given was accurrate and his receptionist told me that she has never seen a surgery for gynecomastia cost as much as $10,000. She said the cost would be based on how much tissue needed to be removed, whether liposuction needed to be done and if so how much. I re-booked a consultation myself with her and I'm going to see him in mid-december. They did want a referral still, so I re-contacted my gp's office to ask them to fax it.

Long story short, not sure how much Dr Toy will cost but his receptionist says that $10,000 is way high, so he's probably more in the range of other surgeons. I will post here how much he's charging these days (honestly I don't blame him for not going through AHC anymore btw given the tiny amount AHC gives to surgeons for correcting what should be fully classified as a deformity) after I've had my appointment. 

Sorry for the misinformation in my original post, that was all from the office of my GP (she was probably trying to do me a favor by letting me know it could cost a fair bit).