Surgery with Levick 6th Nov 2013

[tisamon]

Just arrived home, the day after my surgery with Paul Levick.

Thought I'd share my experience with you guys, there seems to be quite a lot of operations going on these last few weeks; must be anti-gyno season! I know my thinking was it would be good for wearing coats over the garment in the winter, and hopefully be healed in time for summer!

I'm 20 years old, have been suffering with it since I was 13, and have felt like my life has been on hold ever since that day. I can't get my wasted teenage years back but can hopefully make up for it in my 20's!

I wasn't nervous about the operation at all, just excited. That's thanks to all of you who have shared your experiences on here, so thank you for that

The staff were all amazing, so nice which made me feel bad. My gynecomastia sabotaged my social skills massively over the years I had it (feels good saying that in past-tense). And of course, as everyone says, you couldn't ask for a nicer surgeon than Paul.

It was my first experience in a hospital really. First ever operation, first GA which was fun. I remember feeling it sort of work its way up my spine and into my head. I said 'ooh wow I can feel it', when woke up with the face-mask on an hour later feeling so tired. I had about 3 hours sleep the night before; I'm not sure I'd have even needed the GA!

The rest of the afternoon wasn't as comfy as I thought it would be to be honest. I was probably quite naive, having never experienced surgery, but the pain/restricted movement was bad. The worst thing was how tired I felt, but couldn't really go to sleep, as staff were in every half an hour of so testing blood pressure etc. It was embarrassing, I felt drunk and kept coming out with lame jokes.

Anyway, after a lovely tea (I recommend the lemon sorbet), I got about 2 hours sleep and woke up in time to watch Step Brothers at 10. I soon fell asleep again and woke up feeling refreshed and expected the sun to be out. It turned out it was only 12am... However I felt much better from here on, less pain and less drowsiness, despite the rest of the night consisting of several 1 hour stints of sleep.

At 6am I was offered a coffee and gratefully accepted, soon to be followed by a nice breakfast. Eventually Levick came in and showed me the pictures...crazy. Even I didn't think so much would come out... I'm fairly slim build but a fair bit of fat came with it. To be fair I'd sacked off the gym for a few weeks because I thought it would be pointless.

Anyway, now I'm home, tiredness catching up with me, apprehensive about trying to keep everything from my flatmates still (not even my family knows), when I'm walking like I have a pencil somewhere it shouldn't be.
I'm looking forward to the whole recovery process now, especially when I can switch to my own garment, which will give me better range of movement. I feel a lot more prepared for it than I did for the surgery.


Feel free to ask any questions! I owe you guys a lot.

[wickedwelsh2013]

Hi mate

I had my surgery with Levick on the 6th Nov as well :-) feels amazing to finally get it fixed doesn't it?

Fair play to you for doing it on your own,that takes some balls and I'm amazed you have hidden it from everyone.

How is your recovery going?  I found the most painful part the tape they use to hold the dressings on the incisions.  As soon as they stopped weeping I took them off!

The compression garment was also causing issues until I tucked some toilet paper around top edge at armpits to stop it cutting into skin. Other than that its all going well. 

Have you got any swelling around the incision points? Mine is dying down now and I'm being religious about taking my arnica, vitamin c, zinc and pineapple to help speedup healing

Really hope everything is going ok with you and you're coping on your own :-)

Cheers

wickedwelsh

[tisamon]

Yeah feels good. I feel a lot better today than I have for the past couple of days. The worst part for me is trying to keep it from my flatmates, I've spent most my time in my room and just said I have loads of work to do this next week...but I remain convinced that it's in my long-term interest to keep it to myself!

The garment was really uncomfortable for me, and I got some bad localised bruising around one of my incisions because it kept slipping down!

I still wore it last night but today I've swapped to my compression vest for more even pressure, then I'll wear the other one over it at nights. I feel a lot more comfortable now and don't walk like such a robot! I'm taking the bandages off at night, but keeping them on during the day for comfort more than anything.

Glad to hear your recovery is going well! Have you looked at the results since going home? I have and I swear my nipples are lower down than they should be haha. I keep worrying about lots of little things...but hopefully everything will be going good by Christmas!

When did Levick say you could shower? He told me to wait a week but seems to have told others 2 days :S I think I'll have a careful one on Monday morning; I have to meet a client and would rather not stink for it!

[wickedwelsh2013]

Hi buddy

I took the binder compression vest off for 10 minutes to adjust it and I have a line of quite bad bruising under my right pec.  Nipples a bit creased but seemed to regain normalish shape after few minutes of not having vest on

I had my surgery on Wed and Levick said I could take it off to shower on monday and then either wear the binder compression vest until thursday or switch to my own vest

cheers

wickedwelsh