My diary...

[IT100]

I meant to get myself really fit again before the op, but never quite got round to it! I think it would be foolish to start doing weights again now! (I'm not unfit as I lead a pretty active lifestyle and go swimming etc) Now I think with the several weeks of sedentary lifestyle I am gonna put on about a stone! I think I will go out for long walks every day to make sure that doesn't happen!

How about telling your housemates that the vit c tablets you are taking are actually anti-biotics so you can't drink for that reason? Or.... just tell them you are going for an operation on your chest? I have told all of my mates and they were all 100% behind me, its great! Besides there was no way that they would not realise because I do a lot of phisicaly very hard sports with them and I think 2 months of excuses why I can't do them would get suspicious!

I'm actually moving out of my mums home into rented accomodation this weekend with a couple of friends, 4 days before the op! Not sure its the best preperation but its how its worked out! lol Might move back after the op for a few days though for some TLC from my mummy!

[IT100]

Tomorrows the big day! Touch wood I seem to have avoided any illnesses so go in in good shape! Not feeling too bad, a little apprehensive but otherwise ok. I will post to tell you all how I got on as soon as I can after the op, might be a little while though as I don't have a PC where I am living now but should be able to get to one somewhere! Wish me luck everyone!!

IT

p.s I'm sure I have not taken nearly as much arnica as I was supposed to have done. The tablets I got were supposed to be taken 2 tablets 4 or 5 times a day and I have only been taking 2, 2 or 3 times a day. Might have some great bruises to show for it! lol

[Scotland_the_Brave]

I totally forgot about the arnica until I was going over the booklet the day before surgery. I've never taken any and my bruising was pretty much all away after a week and a half.

[Guy_J]

Good luck IT!

Get Levick practised and warmed up for me  

Only 3 days here and I can't wait! Its a glorious day outside, and Im picturing a lot more like it, when Ill be able to wear a t-shirt (or not even that much) and not care  

Oh, dont worry about the arnica too much, I did some research into it and all the medical papers I turned up said it was no better than placebo in almost all tests. I'm still taking it tho, heheh. Perhaps the more I take, the greater the placebo.......

Hope to hear good news in a few days.....

Jon

[IT100]

I'll try and let you know how it all went when I get back Thursday evening. Think I am going to my mums for a couple of days and we have a pc there. I'll be having it done about 24hrs from now!!! Eeek!!!!!

[IT100]

Ok! Its done!

All went well, Its actually not too bad at all, the worse bit is trying to clear your head when coming round again.. that was weird! All the nurses are really nice and the med student who took me down to theatre is my angel!! I think the last thing I said was to her, and was.. thankyou! Mr Levick and my anethtist came round and saw me a couple of times before the op and a couple of times afterwards too. The food was great and now I am trussed up like a turkey and feeling quite sore if I move around too much! If I stay still, its fine! In a bit of a weird mood though, untollerant is the best way to describe it! Must be all those drugs! Ok so for that reason, I really can't be bothered to write any more! But when I'm feeling more with it will tell you more... Guy... its a breeze mate! No worries!! Have fun!

[IT100]

Hi again, head has cleared a bit now so will desctibe everything a bit more.

Got to the hospital at 12.00 and they take you into a little office to fill out some forms and to take the all important money!

Then a porter comes and takes you up to your room and shows you how everything works. Then a nurse comes in and takes down some details and takes your pulse and blood pressure etc (they do this about 6 times in all over the 2 days!) Also a lady comes in and takes your order for the next couple of days food. Different nurses keep coming in and introducing themselves and making sure you are ok. The athethatist and Mr Levick also come and say hello, they are both great and really put you at ease. Then its time to get your surgical gown on and slippers! I kept my underwear on and this was no problem and also got to wear my dressing gown down to theater so no walking about in flapping gowns! So about 2-2.30 a med student comes along (I have forgotten her name) and takes you down to theater and keeps you chatting etc, she was lovely and really made me feel at ease. She also lived not too far from me so we had a good chat about local nightspots! (If you are reading this, drop me a PM! ) lol... anyway... So I'm down there just outside theater and Levick comes in and takes some photos, don't worry he says, only you and me see these (yeah apart from the med student standing there watching who I'm trying to pull!) So then they put me into bed and the anethatist comes in and he starts talking you through what hes doing to you whilst hes doing it. You feel the painkillers going up your arm and into your head... weird!! Then he's still talking... I turned to the med student, said thankyou.. then went out like a light!! Its a great feeling as you are aware its gonna happen about 2 secs before it actually does!

Next thing I know I have a nurse calling my name as I am waking up in recovery or something.. its all very groggy and I'm not really aware of whats going on... I must of then been wheeled back into my room where my ex girlfriend is there to hold my hand, That was a great feeling as you are so disorientated and groggy.. over the next couple of hours you get clearer and clearer but it comes and goes. But I felt well enough to tuck into my dinner a couple of hours later. I have to say I wasn't really aware of any pain at all all the way through this.

I drunk about 3 liters of water through that evening before finally managing to dribble some urine out late that night! Must do something weird to your bladder!

Next morning they wake you at 6.30 to give you painkillers and antibiotics and take blood pressure etc and basically you just rest in bed till you are ready to go. Levick and the anethatist come back in just ot check everythings ok and explain what you have to do in recovery. I left at about 10 in the morning. You are aware by this time of a serious lack of movement, but I think most of that is to do with the plasters being stuck to the hair in my armpit! lol The trip home wasn't too bad,only a couple of winces of pain as we went over curbs etc... bloody women drivers!

So couple of days later and I have taken off the two plasters over the incisions, these look bigger than expected but not so bad, hey it was only 2 days ago that a scapel was stuck through them! lack of movement is my only main problem, and some bruising, but I'm not on painkillers or anything and its all pretty much ok... just got to start the long road to recovery now... already can't wait to soak these bandages off!!

Hope all went well with you guy... let me know.. and I will keep posting to tell everyone how its going with me!

till the next time

IT

[Guy_J]

Hi mate, just posted my stuff over on my thread but Ive gotta say hello on yours....

Glad it went so well for you...... me too!  

Man of the year: Mr Levick. A great guy surrounded by a faultless team.

I was in Aston suite in room A09, close to theatre so I didnt really see much of the rest of the hospital...... that walk to the anaethatist room is a bit 'Dead Man Walking' tho aint it? I had a sly grin to myself.

Mr. Levick came in fresh from doing a breast enlargement on some woman: good thing he hadnt mixed us up, I said, and he drew on me and took those photos. Dya think I'll be able to ask to see them later? I'd like to so I can compare.... maybe when I go back for the followup in a month or two. I should have taken some pictures before but didnt have the bottle.

Going under was much the same for me.... I was chatting to this younger guy (student anaethatist?) on my right as Jonathan was pumping a huge bunch of syringes into my newly-jabbed drip. I think there was about 3or4 small ones, then a very large one, and I made some quip about him deliberately trying to inflate my hand. Then like you said, I felt it all come up my arm, thru my neck to my head, and the younger guy said "youre feeling it now, right?". "Hmmmm" I agreed and promptly passed out, God that's so weird.

I can vaguely remember being concious somewhere that wasnt my room after the op, then being in my room, then a succession of nurses, the anaethatist and Mr Levick coming in and telling me it went superbly. Just tiny flashbacks of groggyness and plain ignoring of the world outside until about 7pm when a feast arrived. I ate so much and still had room! I might try a day of nil-by-mouth again, just so dinner tastes so good

And that anaethetic messes your bladder about doesnt it! Nothing could slake my thirst and I was desperate to redress the balance -get some out of the other end, but I just stood over the toilet for ages and nothing. Not a bean. Not even a b of a bean. You dont ever expect to be constipated at that end!

I had a fairly comfortable night, a great breakfast and some good drowsing time before my Dad came to pick me up around 10.30. The occasional muscle twitch leaves me cursing, and I wish Id thought about my selection of clothes before I came back here to my parents': pullover jumpers are impossible!

Happy healing IT, I'm waiting for Saturday when I can (in extreme pain) get this sticky bandage off and have a look  

[IT100]

Hi just reporting in!

Just wrote some stuff on Guys thread but now 4 days post op I have more movement and some back ache.. due to sleeping on back and bandages pulling shoulders round I think. Only hurts if I knock myself and then it hurts an awful lot! Nasty bruises too!

My Levick told me not to worry about going back if I had no probs.. just to call him... but I think I will anyway, even if everythings great... its so hard to express your thanks to him when you are there but he just gives you such extreme confidence in him and his team just from the way he is that he makes the whole thing... dare I say it enjoyable?! Thanks Mr Levick... Even before seeing any results I'm already very happy!

More stuff soon!!

[IT100]

Back again!

I have posted some stuff over on Guy_J's thread but here I am updating my diary.

Its now almost 2 weeks since the op. The first week there wasn't much to report as I had bandages stuck over the area but basically it seemed to get a bit worse over the 3 or 4 days straight after the op then steadily better again as the bruising subsided. I took the bandages off in the bath 9 days after the op. Those things are stuck down fast! Its a long and quite painful process to get them off and I had an area the size of a peice of A5 paper below each armpit that was red raw!

I have to say I was mortified with how my chest looked when I first took the bandages off. I think some of it was that I was only ever worried about 1 side of my chest and the other side just looked like I had a healthy pec there. But it seems that it was just well shaped fat! Because its all been sucked out now and I have a very very flat chest... I feel very weedy up top now. The right hand side which was much worse is much the same... but if anything it looked like too much has been taken out. I was very down that day.
However next day when I had another look at it all seemed 100% better... Whether that was my opinion of the whole situation or just that it had all sorted itself out somewhat I'm not sure. looking at it now I still worry that too much has been taken out on the right but can also see that I am more swollen around that side so it might just be where my skin is rising up over the swelling and sinking back down around  the nipple area which is not swollen... And also of course I am not even 2 weeks post op and I have been told 3 - 6 months for final results so its a bit of wait and see.. maybe everything will sort itself out. I hope so anyway... Even if not I can see that any work I do to my chest down the gym is gonna be immediately apparent! There is 0% fat there now! So I should quite easily be able to build up what is curently there.

Phisicaly my movement has tightened up a fair bit over the last few days and the swelling doesn't seem to have gone down much. I will start massaging soon... Also I still have very little feeling over quite a large area and thats a nasty sensation to touch your own body and now be able to feel it! No real bruising left anymore though but still large red marks from where the bandages were stuck to me. Sleeping is getting better.. but still can't sleep on my side so its not great.

I'm now really looking forward to getting back to the gym (Not really been in over a year) and getting some weight off my stomach and putting it back onto my chest! lol

Hows you Guy? You must have taken off bandages by now? How do you feel?

[IT100]

Not much has changed but thought I would say this...

If you decide to stick with bandages rather than the compression garment I can now recommend it useing the following technique!

Put on a tightish t shirt/ vest... not a baggy one. Get someone to wrap the bandages round your chest as tight as they can, now get them to safety pin through the bandages and t shirt under your arms on both sides 2 or 3 times. Job done!
Mines been on since last night (yeah I wearing the same t shirt today that I slept in but so what!) And its still giving me loads of compression.... in fact more than the bandages that were stuck to me. In contrast to not wearing the t shirt where I kept finding the bandages wrapped around my stomach!

Saved you £50!

IT

[IT100]

Daily mundane update....

Started proper massaging yesterday... only for 2 or 3 mins each side, but its still quite sore at the moment. I'm getting used to feeling my chest again with all the hard lumps at the sides and a distinct lack of fat (and sensation, although this seems to be returning) in the middle! I'm using baby lotion, and people keep commenting on me smelling nice! lol
Anyway, hopefully this will speed my recovery. Happier with the way my new chest looks every day. Tempted to show people soon! lol
New bandage technique still working a treat!

More mundane news soon!

[Guy_J]

Mundane is good mate, heaven forbid unprompted drama like fluid buildup or finding a curious lump in the shape of Mr Levick's watch..........

I look forward to regaining sensation on the areas, nothing except some tingling around the edges at the mo. The seams of my compression vest itch in the heat too, so Im keeping my office and bedroom pretty cold.

I've got a lot more general movement, but am still not reaching too high with my arms -doubt it'd do any damage, but I can't help but be careful  :-/. Also the initial swelling below my right ex-breast has come back: not too large but there nonetheless, and quite hard. The gland was bigger on my right side tho, so I guess the area needed more excission and tissue-interferance.

Still, all's good, and my body-profile is a reoccuring source of happiness.

[IT100]

With my body profile I have stopped worrying about how my chest looks in T-shirts.. I now worry about how my stomach does...! Will I be one of these people in years to come who goes on talk shows to tell everyone how they have had every single part of there body operated on by the surgeons knife!
Hmmm, think I'll stick to the gym!

[IT100]

Another daily update!.... Yawn!

Not an aweful lot has happened phisicaly.. although I seem to be moving about and doing the more phisical things a bit more confidently.. so things must be improving!

However big step last night!

My female housemate who has been a good friend of mine for 2 or 3 years and has been helping me bandage up over my t shirt over the last few nights... well last night I actually said to her... do you want to look at my chest? So I showed her my chest... Plus.. she is quite fit as well.. which makes a difference doesn't it?! Much easier to show some fat ugly girl! When was the last time that I was actually unselfconsious enough to say to someone... look at my chest?... ummm, never?!  lol and its been years since I have been able to even contemplate getting the old shit off without gyno being a pretty big considering factor! And all this with all the lumps and bumps and scars associated with surgery still clearly present!
I feel good in the head!!

Ian...(IT) nice to meet you!