Hi
I'm 21 years old and I first noticed something wasn't right in the chest area when I was around 13.
I went to the doctor at 15 and he just said that it would go with time.
When I was 19 I saw a NHS consultant, he wasn't really happy about doing the procedure because of my age and said that my nipples would not look that good after surgery. His method was to cut around the whole nipple and then take the tissue out, really didn't want that!
He was obviously a little inexperienced as I soon found out other/better methods of correcting gynecomastia.
After that I decided to hit the weights, my intention was to build the chest muscle so the gyne would not be so pronounced.
Start 2013 -
I was still hitting the weights and cardio 5 times a week.
I looked pretty good in a t-shirt (except from the sides).
July 2013 -
I started looking for Surgeon's
This forum was a massive help, and I chose Dr. Levick because of his reputation as one of the best gyne surgeons in the UK.
Consultation 2013 -
I sent the first e-mail to Dr. Levick on the 25/7/13 asking when I could come in for a chat.
I was booked in for the free consultation on 19/08/13.
On arrival I was made to feel at ease straight away, he was cool as a cucumber, easily understood and generally happy/funny man.(Possibly because he was raking it in!)
He went through the whole procedure showed me pics explaining everything. I had no worries and was completely confident and very eager to have the operation.
I then went through to his Secretary(Wife)- Mrs Gail Levick, discussed the cost and surgery date options.
I was given the option of a few dates and advised to contact via e mail to confirm.
Date chosen:- - 2/10/13, which gave me enough time to finish off some deadlines at work and also to ensure that a family member was available for support and to drive me home from hospital!
Day before Surgery -
I lived approx 3.5hrs away from the Hospital and the surgery was at 8am, so I had to book a hotel near the hospital (I chose the IBIS Budget, Birmingham City Centre, it was the closest and cheapest I could find)travelled up on the 1/10/13, did a little shopping and chilled out.
Day of Surgery -
Arrived at 8am sharp, within 5 minutes a member of staff showed me to my personal room with bathroom, giving me tutorials on how the bed + tv works. Couple of minutes later a couple of nurses turn up with my gown and paper Y-fronts,also had to fill some other forms, the most important one being the menu for lunch and dinner after surgery, good choice of food, went with the soup and chicken sandwich (Sandwich bad choice because your mouth is so dry after anaesthesia, I didn't eat mine)
So I'm now sitting in the theatre room while the anaesthesia gets prepared and Dr. Levick takes some Pre-op pics of me.
Then I feel the anaesthesia going into my blood stream, and the anaesthetist says to me, "It's Gin & Tonic time".
I wakeup after its all over, feel really tired, then I'm wheeled back to my room.
From the moment I stepped in theatre to being back in my room was about 90mins.
I slept on/off through the day until around 6pm, when I start to feel a little better, I had some pumps around my calfs called "flowtron" that just help with the circulation of the blood in my legs and had tubes hanging out of my armpits following small incision that was made, collecting any excess fluid.
I think I got about 1 hours sleep that night because of how distracting those "flowtron" pumps around my calf's were.
I listened to music all night and put the tv on around 5am (rubbish programmes that time!)
Next morning-
Nurses came in to check the tubes, I got had a good breakfast and some painkillers.
Dr, Levick walks in around 8:30am and gives me photos of the pre op and a photo showing the size of the tissue he had removed. The nurses and Levick confirmed that they were happy with everything, I asked him a couple more questions, then the nurse took the tubes out,(not as painful as I thought it would be, jus ta slight burning sensation.
I'm out of there by 11am and was on my way back home.
I would like to thank all the staff at Priory Hospital, Birmingham and of course Dr. Levick
Just hoping now that all goes well in recovery
**(I will be uploading photos every week on my recovery)**