Back at the hotel now and feeling pleased with myself. Later I might try and coalesce all these individual posts into a longer narrative, but for the moment I'll just write what I can remember.
Jeremy took us to have our ultrasounds, and we were scanned in turn. I looked at the screen and couldn't make any sense of what I was seeing, but the operator made some marks on my chest. We then went to the clinic, and I was amazed by how small the place was, as it seems to be in a residential block of flats, and I think they converted an apartment into a surgery. I met Kataryzna and we went to discuss the operation. She's nothing like I had expected, and is incredible forward about the nature and risks of the operation. We discussed the range of complications, the history of the clinic and how she planned to perform the surgery. We looked at the blood tests which were fine; my testosterone is about 520, which is good, although my glucose was a little high. I signed the papers, was given a gown, changed and was taken into the operation theater. The anaesthetist had a bit of trouble finding a vein, but eventually got the needle in. It's bit of a blur after that, but I clearly remember her telling me as I was going to sleep that she was giving me the same stuff that Michael Jackson was taking. I pointed out that he was dead, and she said that was because it was administered by a cardiologist. The next thing I remember is waking up to people bandaging and binding my chest. People say that it feels instantaneous, but I clearly remember being aware that time had passed, but looking back on the sleep, I can't remember anything about it; I think that it may only be instantaneous in retrospect. I was wheeled through to the recovery room, and the other guy went it. I asked to see the glands, but Kataryzna said that I wouldn't remember. I immediately made a post from my phone, then read for the next 45 minutes.
I had my operation at about 5:30, and it went on until until about 7:15. The other guy went in for his revision and was done by 8:00. I was lucid from the moment I woke up, but it felt like I had woken up still drunk after a big night. We had ham and cheese open-sandwiches for dinner, spent a few hours talking and watched a couple of movies. I had full mobility, and was able to get out of bed and set up the laptop without any trouble. I think the nurse was concerned that we were getting reckless, and made us lie flat on our backs. I went to sleep at about 11:00, although the nurse came by every couple of hours to fiddle with my drains and give us painkillers. When I woke up after a few hours sleep, everything was pretty sore and I had to move much more gingerly. My chest had filled with fluid and air. If I tap it, it makes a hollow, guttural sound and I can hear the fluid sloshing about. The closest sound I can think of is a hot water bottle being shaken. It's gone down a lot, but is still there, and the skin is stretched thin across it.
The nurse woke us at 9:00 with breakfast - a yoghurt drink, three more of the sandwiches and a cup of tea. We ate breakfast and watched Alan Partridge until 11:30 when Kataryzna arrived. I was first to be rebandaged, and lay down on the operating table. The most painful thing was having the bandages peeled off, so there really isn't anything to worry about, but I'm glad that I shaved myself beforehand. As there was no bruising and the drains had nothing coming out of them, Kataryzna decided to remove them, and I was relieved that I didn't have to spend the next day with them hanging about. The drain of the left hand side smarted slightly as it came out, but I didn't even feel the one on the right come out. Kataryzna massaged out a little blood and that was it.
When I finally got to see my chest it was completely flat, if a little mushy. The left nipple is fine, just slightly dusky. I was a little hunched forward because of the soreness, but I could still see the new contours of my chest and was extremely pleased. It hasn't sunk in yet, but none of this has properly. Kataryzna was also extremely pleased and completely immodest (I'm more than happy to give her that, she did a phenomenal job). She took photos and then showed me the glands. They were massive, especially the one on the left which had been tethered to a lot of the skin and had grown all around my chest. She showed me my photos; it was 10cm by 8cm, and very thick. I packed my things and we were given prescriptions to fill at the chemist next door. I received a massive amount of gauze and a number of other things which came to 170. There were two cabs waiting for us outside the pharmacy, so I headed back to the Ibis, received a 24 hour pass to the wifi, and fell into bed.
At this point, I've got full mobility and just feel quite sore. I've got my first check up tomorrow, and am supposed to spend the day in bed. It's been less than 24 hours, so we'll see how the healing goes. I'm just grateful that there was someone there who'd been through it all before; it was very helpful to have someone to talk to who knew exactly was was happening, and could give me some idea of exactly what to expect.
Topic: Planning on Surgery (Read 16199 times)
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