Irish Dude's Diary

[irish_dude]

Thursday, 5th July, 2005

Firstly, let me apologise for the verbosity of these diary entries. This is my attempt to record a diary in the hopes of helping others like myself out of this miserable condition.

Well, I finally saw Mr. Levick this week.

The whole thing felt very surreal because I had a 5am start and was standing outside Dublin airport at 7am having that last pre-flight cig, getting my forehead roasted in what I could only describe as being stunning cloudless Brazilian weather. At 6.30am it was already 30c in the shade.

Us Irish people aren’t used to that weather. Like you Brits, any sign of that big yellow round thing in the sky and we’re running around practically naked with Factor-Zero spread all over.

In true-gyne cover-up mode I was wearing a suit, shirt and tie and beginning get dizzy from dehydration.

Thanks to the miracle of cheap flights, I managed to fly over for about 50 quid, however it meant waiting around Birmingham airport for about 6 hours!

I can identify with one of the posters here who said that his voice was shaky when he booked the initial consultation with Mr.Levick and he almost cried after the phone call. I had the same sense of dread as I’ve been in denial about this for 25-plus years, but I felt better for making that call and in a way, almost got a small-sense of liberation out of the fact that I was actually doing something proactive about this.

The Priory is a lovely place. It used to be an exclusive boarding school and is set in its own grounds. I arrived early and asked the taxi driver to leave me outside. Trying to kill some time, I walked around Edgebaston in sweltering heat in a suit and tie. Not a good idea. When I finally made it to the consulting rooms at the back of the Priorty, I was a sweaty, nervous mess, hardly very reassuring for the other people waiting there!

In the waiting room, everyone was being very ‘British’ and avoiding eye contact. They were there to see the variety of consultants that work out of the Priority. I couldn’t help a few sneaky looks at people, wondering what he or she was in for.

While I was waiting, an elderly Afro-Carribean gent was led in by what was probably his younger grandson. I think he was in to see one of the other consultants. The old boy was immaculately dressed in a suit. As his grandson went out to check something, we looked at each other. We both flashed each other that “it’s good ‘ere, innit” wink. It was just one of those touching moments of humanity that’s good for the soul after a red-eye flight and a three hour wait in a UK airport.

After a while I get called up to Mr.Levick’s waiting room. I’m sitting there with three women, who are all desperately trying not to make eye-contact with anyone and avidly reading copies of ‘Hello!’ like it held the meaning of life.

I get called in, and my first session is with Gail, Mr.Levick’s wife and secretary. I fill out out the usual pre-med questionnaire with the usual generic questions,  “Has your head ever dropped off under a surgical procedure involving general anaesthetic, tick the Yes or No, etc, etc”.

Mr.Levick himself is a worryingly ‘normal’ and down-to-earth. Personally I prefare my surgeons to be a “Sir Lancealot” type, straight out of a ‘Doctor in Clover’ type-movie.

He gives me a brief-examination, talks about the procedure, shows me the particular type of Scapula used during the procedure, and also makes several references to his own problems with Gyne. He also shows me photos of a few cases.

I express my worries about going under general anaesthetic and he reassures me. He tells me that his own gyne was fixed under a local anaesthetic (brave feckin’ man!). I recently saw a video of a liposuction op where the patient was under local and so heavily sedated that she was singing in time to the rhythm of the Scapula, so I think I’ll give that a miss!.

There’s no doubt Mr.Levick reads the Gyne boards on a regular basis, well, wouldn’t you if your professional reputation was being discussed on a daily basis?

He made a few references to some of the posts regarding the few negative cases on here, mainly due to the over zealous-application of the post-op pressure vest.

To be honest, I don’t care if my nipple is attached to my muscle, or if I have scars (what do chicks dig?). I just want to look normal in a tee-shirt. It the procedure makes that happen, then 110% result, thanks very much. These kind of problems really don’t bother me as I don’t intend competing for the Mr.Universe title any time soon. I just want a ‘normal’ body and a ‘normal’ image of myself.

So after the consultation with Mr.Levick, I booked a date with Gail. There wasn’t any pressure applied to me, quite the opposite, which I appreciated.

Here goes.

[irish_dude]

Thursday, 4th August 2005

I came home from work today to find that UPS have been and gone and left my compression vests next door. Thankfully they were sent under ‘plain brown wrapping’ and not addressed to ‘titty-boy’ or the ‘gynemeister’.

All my neighbours would have gleaned, they being the nosey type, was that the package came from a company called ‘Eurosurical’. They’ve probably thought that it was a penis extender kit or something, which to be frank, would be less embarrassing to me had they known the real contents.

I ordered a white and black (old habits die hard) pair and specified XL size to be on the slightly safe side. I needn’t have worried as I soon found out that they aren’t called ‘compression’ vests for nothing.

As it began to put the vest on, I was wondering to myself if they’d sent me the ‘Action Man/GI Joe’ size by mistake. However after a bit of huffing and puffing and fumbling with the eyelets, I soon had it on and it wasn’t as uncomfortable as I first thought. I might try wearing it over the weekend to just get used to it, but I’d imagine wearing it for any length of time pre-op would not be advisable.

So my op is set for the 19th August and I’ve had all the paperwork sent to me from the Priory. As I mentioned earlier, I’m only going to post these diaries post-op, more out of respect to Mr.Levick as personally, I find nothing worse than someone peering over your shoulder when working and I wish to preserve my anonymity pre-op.

I’ve been dreading telling close friends and family about this and I have been inventing lots of strange ailments as the reason for me disappearing for a while.

I told them both about the op and their reaction took me completely by surprise. Firstly, I said it was just general lypo (didn’t mention specifically where) and they were very encouraging. I was totally expecting them to say “you vain git, why don’t you do a few pushups and cut back on the pies instead?”. Their reaction was very encouraging and they were curious about the whole procedure to the point of almost fascination.

I did say to them that this was part of a holistic process and  that I’d also have to complement it with diet and exercise. In my personal case I’ve let my tummy grow so that my chest doesn’t look too pronounced in baggy shirts. I’ve never had any problem loosing stomach fat through diet and exercise; it was always the chest fat that I couldn’t shake.

This is my particular situation, but yours may be different, as I’ve seen pics of a few gyne-suffers with washboard stomachs.

To be honest, the op doesn’t scare me, but the general anaesthetic does. I’m sure anaesthesians these days get a little bit of training and aren’t just given a bottle of ether and mallet and told to get on with it.

However, I’ve got bad memories of the early gas type anaesthetic when I was a boy in the 70’s during a tonsillectomy procedure and various dental visits. Thirty years on I can still remember the ‘taste’ and sensation and it wasn’t pleasant.

Mr.Levick was very reassuring about this when I expressed my concerns. These days a general anaesthetic is administered via an IV in your hand and gas is a thing of the past. But even so, this is the part of the whole procedure that I’m dreading the most.

So basically that’s it. I’ve told my nearest and dearest, I’ve cleared the time work wise for the op, including an optional week post-op to recover.

All that remains now is to process the payment and make a red light and alarm go off somewhere in MasterCard headquarters. As I’m in Ireland, it’s cheaper for me to process the payment via Credit Card than do an international money transfer. Regular cheques are useless as they can only be cashed in the country of origin.

One last thing I have to do is take a series of pre-op pics which I will post once I post these diaries in completion.

My next entry will be post-op, so all that remains to be said is see you on the other side lads (not literally I hope!).

[irish_dude]

Saturday, 20th August, 2005, just after teatime

Hello from the 18th floor of the Hyatt, Birmingham.

Well, the deed was well & truly done yesterday, and I can’t believe what a breeze the whole procedure was!

I’m here in the Hyatt because Mr.Levick recommended to me that I didn’t fly home to Dublin for at least 48 hours after the op, but to be honest I could have happily flown home tonight. I feel great.

It was a pretty sunny day in Birmingham today and for the first time ever I walked around in public just wearing a tee-shirt. The sense of liberation was amazing as I walked around the Bull-Ring shopping centre, and I looked pretty good, small beer-gut aside, if I do say so myself!

I’m looking down at my chest as I’m wearing a tee-shirt and I’m flat. There’s a whole unreality to this and everything hasn’t sunk in yet, almost like I’ve been shot out of a cannon.

I know it’s early days yet, and I’ve still got all that healing to do, but could this really be the end to my thirty-year nightmare?

Of course I would have to be under orders to stay off the sauce for a week as I’m spotting loads of wonderful pubs around the city, but maybe this isn’t such a bad thing as there’s a German ‘winefest’ in town. Shudder. They have a long way to go to apologise for ‘Blue Nun’ as far as I’m concerned.

I’ll go through in detail what was involved in my stay in the Priory just to give others some idea of what to expect. Apologies if my diary posts are too wordy, but I’m trying to fill in the blanks for other people so they can relax and not wonder what will be happening next. Of course I can only relate my experience and yours may differ.

After the op Mr.Levick told me that he took out about half-a-litre of fat plus what he described as ‘a handful of gristle’. This gristle, he said, was pretty tough and couldn’t be broken up with his fingers easily after extraction, he also said that a lifetime of diet and exercise wouldn’t remove it. I’m saying this because a) it reinforces my experience in my mid-20’s when I was working out to the point of getting a washboard stomach, but still couldn’t shift the boobs and b) a lot of guys here just seem to be getting lypo with other surgeons, which wouldn’t remove said gristle.

My biggest overall fear about the procedure was the General Anaesthetic and not waking up from it. I’m overweight (16 stone, 5’10) and a heavy smoker (at the moment), so the risk is higher. However, that couldn’t have gone smoother.

People react in different ways to a General Anaesthetic. I remember having my tonsils out aged four, and being as sick as a dog after and not being able to hold down solids and having a raging thirst.

This time around it was a snap. Within 45 minutes of being revived, I was wolfing down a hearty lunch and making phone calls. Within 2 hours I was walking around the room.

I didn’t have any feeling of nausea or dizziness. The General Anaesthetic couldn’t have been administered any smoother. Full credit to Dr.Woods and his team, they are unsung heros.

Again, I stress, this was the case for me, things might be different from you as we all react differently to different things and have different ‘constitutions’.

So there we go, I fly home tomorrow.

Some may have left their hearts in San Francisco, but I left my breasts in Edgebaston

[irish_dude]

Monday 22nd August, 2005, 8am

I had a pretty good sleep last night as I’m starting to get used to sleeping on my back. Although I wasn’t explicitly told to do so, it’s still a little sore to sleep on my front.

Thankfully, I’ve rearranged my workload so that I’ll be working from the house all this week. Although I feel A1, mobility is still a slight issue and I really don’t want to overdo things so soon after the op.

I’m itching quite a lot under my bandages, which generally is a good sign when it comes to healing.

Funnily enough, I’ve got sunburn on my face and arms from the hour I spent waiting outside Birmingham airport yesterday waiting around before I could check in my luggage. Everyone thinks I’ve been away somewhere sunny for the weekend!

[irish_dude]

Wednesday 24th August, 2005, 7.22am

I’m going a little stir-crazy working around the house for three days solid and I can’t wait to cut these bandages off on Friday and have a proper bath.

I can see the ‘redness’ peek out under the bottom of the bandages, especially on the right side. However, it improves a each day and I regularly check it just to be sure that I’m not contracting Haematoma.

I’m doing a bit of very, very, very gentle massage over the bandages.

I’ve been out for several walks along the coast in Dublin where I live and it’s really been liberating to go out in just a tee shirt.

[Blitz]

You sure got a knack for telling a good story.  I've read a lot of posts on the pain of having gyne but this is the first time I read a post and I was actually more interested in your daily life in Ireland and your trip to England for the surgery.  

Anyways, good luck on your recovery.  If you do have a hematoma, get it drained.  I had my surgery on July 13th and the hematoma is now getting smaller and that's after having it drained a week after my surgery.  

Post pics soon.  

[rn076q]

Irish Dude good luck! I agree with the comment above me you also obviously have a sense of humor also the "Blu nun" comment cracked me up. haha

[irish_dude]

I was actually more interested in your daily life in Ireland and your trip to England for the surgery.

Thanks Blitz.

Actually, going from Ireland to the UK isn't such a big deal as it sounds - Birmingham is about 300 miles away and is a 40-minute flight.

I presume you're in the States? In most states of the US you could travel the same distance and still be in the same state!

My pics are up now.

[Blitz]

Irish Dude,

I live in the greatest country in the world; Canada.  Toronto to be more exact.  

When you finally do get the bandages off, your grin is going to light up all of Ireland.  I'm sure of that.

[irish_dude]

I live in the greatest country in the world; Canada.  Toronto to be more exact.

Sir, I do apologise for assuming that you were in the US!

I believe you have once of the best public healthcare systems in the world in Canada, did you have to pay for your surgery?

My bandages are coming off in exactly t-minus 2 hours. I'm not sure about my smile lighting up the country, but my screams of pain as I get a torso 'waxing' job by default will probably wake-up the country.

[irish_dude]

Friday 26th August, 2005, 11pm

Well I took the bandages off today. Painful isn’t the word, but then again I’ll never go through the agony of childbirth, so who am I to complain!?

As I mentioned earlier, I’m quite hirsute and while the majority of my chest had gauze between my skin, my shoulders and my sides didn’t. It was quite painful pulling that sucker off.

My surgeon, Mr.Levick, being the through individual that he is, also seemed to have done some lypo right under my armpits as there were entry wounds three inches under there as well as his usual trademark pair of high-armpit incision points. Prior to the op I was going to indicate this area to him as I could seriously pinch substantially more than an inch, but he’s appeared to be able to find his all by himself. Clever chap.

The sensation is weird and strange just 7 days after the op…most of my chest, including my nipples are completely numb. The sensation will return over the next three weeks as my body gets over the ‘trauma’ of the op and when all will settle down.

I also don’t appear to be as bruised as others who have posted pics in the same time frame. This could be down to the Arnica (I’m still dubious) or me staying off the sauce for a week before and after the op.

I still feel quite lumpy and there’s an amount of fluid still present. With the wearing of the pressure vest and some gentle, and I stress gentle, massage, this should be on the move within 4 weeks.

It’s hard to believe that exactly this time seven days ago I was in the Priory Hospital, Birmingham, flicking through the channels on the TV and sneaking out for a sneaky cigarette.

I think I got about four hours sleep that first night, mainly due to the fact that I sleep on my stomach, and sleeping on my back felt weird and uncomfortable.  I remember being up from about 5am, the Nurse coming in at 6am to check my vitals and to give me a Codeine/Paracetamol combo, and me watching the TV and counting the minutes until 8.30 when breakfast would be served!

I was going to take some pics today, but I’ve got great dirty marks where the bandages came off. I couldn’t clean the area without much pain, so I applied some Savlon (mild-antiseptic cream) to the almost lacerated areas where I pulled the bandages off and hopefully I’ll have some pics taken tomorrow when I manage to clean myself up.

Taking my first proper bath in seven days today was almost a joy too.

But what was even weirder was when I went out to do a little grocery shopping. Basically I was going stir-crazy and needed to get out. It was hard to find any casual shirt in my wardrobe that didn’t resemble a big black sack.

While shopping I caught myself looking at my reflection in a windows, in total pre-op mode thinking ‘are my breasts obvious?’. I couldn’t help it, it’s a force of habit that dogged me for decades and it was only today that I realised how much the gyne was pervasive in my life.

It’s like what they say about the average male thinking about sex every 30 seconds. I realised today that I’ve been the same about my gyne, especially when out and about in public…”do I look obvious?”, etc etc etc

So anyways, there you have it. I’m seven days post-op and hopefully my body is in recovery/fluid absorption mode. The reality of all this hasn’t sunken in yet. It’s been a rollercoster, both physically and mentally.

[ms1972]

Friday 26th August, 2005, 11pm

But what was even weirder was when I went out to do a little grocery shopping. Basically I was going stir-crazy and needed to get out. It was hard to find any casual shirt in my wardrobe that didn’t resemble a big black sack.

While shopping I caught myself looking at my reflection in a windows, in total pre-op mode thinking ‘are my breasts obvious?’. I couldn’t help it, it’s a force of habit that dogged me for decades and it was only today that I realised how much the gyne was pervasive in my life.

It’s like what they say about the average male thinking about sex every 30 seconds. I realised today that I’ve been the same about my gyne, especially when out and about in public…”do I look obvious?”, etc etc etc

You keep an interesting Diary irish, always a pleasure to read.

You've managed to get the experience of a Gyne sufferer going out bang on there mate. Bang on.

[londonman]

Thanks for this

I'm due to have a consultation with Mr Levick this week and I hope to go ahead.  One question; how soon after having your op do you think you could go back to a "desk-based" job at work?