Thoughts on pre-op photos? Should I do it? [Updated]

[Life's too short]

Looks great! Congrats, I've seen here countless times guys panicking about the way it looks after, especially "it looks too flat" - this is definitely normal straight after op. I've also been advised by my surgeon to expect this (op in 2 weeks) and in time it will fix itself. 
All you need to do is let it heal and do what you need to do to aid that. I know the Drs will agree. 
Congrats again, I'm sure you're dead excited about being gyno-free now?!

[Stevew87]

You woke up during the operation... jesus christ. Were the nurses not checking something properly (hence why the surgeon was annoyed)... I've never heard of that happening.

Surely they did something wrong? Aren't they meant to check the levels of consciousness or something?

[Stevew87]

Can someone put me at ease on this or is this a thing?

[gregory34]

If you legitimately woke up during the operation you have grounds to sue them for a lot of money. That's pain and distress and I'm sure a lawyer would be interested. I would consult a lawyer if I was you. Nobody should be waking up during a general anesthetic. I'd say you have a moral obligation to follow this up so that it doesn't happen with other patients.

[newuser8]

I was under local anesthesia as I mentioned in my previous post. I'm sorry, I should have been more explicit. I was asleep for nearly all of it however which is why I said "woke up" which must have caused the confusion of me being general anesthesia.

I "woke" up to feel pain only when the cauterizing tool was used. I don't remember much from the procedure now, but once I kicked my legs a few times the nurse must have given me more anesthesia since I went back to sleep.

I just had my 1 week follow-up. I couldn't talk to my surgeon on my next-day followup since he was out of town. He apparently had to repair the fascia covering the muscle tissue since the gland was stuck so tightly against the muscle. It too much longer than expected, but he did say he got all of the gland. The sutures were taken out and it looks much cleaner. Glue was reapplied and I still have some bruising. I was hoping to have a quick recovery, but I don't think that is realistic. I'll have to wear the compression vest for at least 2+ more weeks and refrain from upper-body workout for 3-4 more weeks. I do feel MUCH better in terms of mobility and pain compared to the first 48 hours tho!

I don't see any sign of puffy nipples, which is nothing short of a miracle! The areolas are also much darker which is good. I do have scaring, or whatever going on because I can feel hard tissue around the breasts. I was told that constant compression and time should alleviate this. The other posts on this forum seem to confirm this. 

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

From what you are describing, you had sedation anesthesia plus local anesthesia.  This is actually my preferred method of performing this surgery.

Sedation anesthesia involves administration of certain short acting medications which induce gentle sleep -- but as the medication wears off, you may partially re-awaken.  This is absolutely normal and expected during this particular type of anesthesia.  In fact, despite all our technology, there is no sure way to measure "wakefulness" during anesthesia.  This is NOT  due to ineptitude on the part of the anesthesiologist.

Some patients have actually awakened during general anesthesia but due to the administration of paralytic agents and the use of a respirator, they could not communicate with the OR staff. This is a very rare occurrence.

If you had actual pain during the operation, then the surgeon should have stopped for a moment and injected additional local anesthestic.

Dr Jacobs

[newuser8]

> From what you are describing, you had sedation anesthesia plus local anesthesia

Yes, exactly!

It is now 10 days post-op. I feel fine and am still using the compression vest. I still have some bruising, but the nipples lay flat. There also appears to be fluid or something to the right of my right areola. I'm not sure what it could be, but I'm not going to worry too much about it since it is too early to panic about.  

I've uploaded close-ups of my incision scars. They look too large and I'm worried about the appearance of them come 2 weeks from now. The surgeon said to not worry and that they'll be virtually invisible, but I'm not convinced. Should I put any scar treatments creams on, or wait? I haven't seen any other incisions that scabbed over like mine and after some research, I'm not sure if I should pick at the scab or leave it be. I would hate for this scar to be visible as it clearly is now. This publication states to keep it moist. Maybe I should put Vaseline on it? Hmm

http://imgur.com/a/5Dusl

[newuser8]

5 month update:
Here are the pics: https://imgur.com/a/Q9wVI

Long story short:
Good news: I have no internal scar tissue.
Bad news: I will need a scar revision and (if I feel like it) crater deformity filled.

These 5 months took a toll on me mentally much more so than physically. As suspected, my scars did not heal well at all! The one on the right turned slightly hypertrophic and is still red, but the one on the left became raised and thickened. I had to get injections into the raised scar to flatten it. It took around 4 visits with 2 injections upon each visit. Now the scar is mostly flat to the touch. The redness is still present.

Unfortunately, I will be needing a revision for the scar on the left and the crater on the right. You can't see the crater on the right that well without flexing, but you can still kinda get the idea from the pictures posted. I will be getting vbeam 2-3 times on the scar on my left side starting next Monday. I'll see how this goes before I get it excised.

I did some more digging after the first few weeks and discovered that my "Dr" wasn't board certified. In fact, he wasn't even certified as a surgeon. I think my results should attest to that. I do know that scarring is patient dependent, but the post-op dressing, sutures placement, and doctor certification did not give myself much of an advantage to heal well. I think I was in a rush of joy to finally get it booked and over with. I took the numerous certifications on the wall, reviews and other factors which caused me to neglect reading between the lines, i.e, cosmetic surgeon!=plastic surgeon,  "American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery" has no merit, numerous before/after pictures of previous clients don't guarantee everything will be OK, a 3 month-backlog of patients could also give false meaning of quality. I do believe the Dr plus associates did have good intentions, but the talent just wasn't there.

I have spoken to another actual board certified plastic surgeon last week and I feel much better. I'm going to try the vbeam on the left-hand scar and then do a revision + radiation therapy on it if the vbeam doesn't improve it. I haven't decided if I want to correct the crater since you can't see it unless if I'm flexed which is going to be rare in public anyways . If I did, the plastic surgeon would place fat grafts into the crater and take his cannula and even the distribution out. I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on that right now.

My original doctor really wanted me to go ahead with the revision with him. All I could think of was "Fool me once....fool me twice" while he went over things. He trivialized the whole thing and said it would only take 25 mins to do it all. He wanted to place non-dissolvable sutures on the left-hand scar after the revision and then take fat from the lower stomach coming in from the belly button and then place a slight hole to the right of the nipple to insert the fat. I obviously declined the offer.

It would be foolish of me to say that this procedure is quick and painless - I'm talking mentally, not physically. I went through a lot and have since arrived at acceptance and moving on for now and looking forward to hopefully improving the scar.

[sparkey]

Any update on this?