It was very weird going back to the Priory last Monday (June 5th).
I was essentially worried that after 10 months that I wasn’t ‘as flat as a pancake’ as Mr. Levick promised.
After an initial examination, he expressed a lot of concern that I have a lot of scar-tissue still there. As I am a heavy smoker, this doesn’t come as a surprise.
About 2 years ago I had dental implants installed (basically two ‘false’ teeth, supported by Titanium roots drilled and fused into the jaw bone) and my oral surgeon refused to operate on me unless I gave up the cigs, which I did temporarily at the time, and I healed just fine.
Being a smoker does not help the healing process in any way, shape or form, for any medical procedure. Your blood is basically ‘thicker’ or ‘stickier’ and your own body can’t deliver the antibodies and antigens as much as should be needed.
He called my results ‘disappointing’. Even I wouldn’t have gone that far. I’m happily going around the office in just a shirt now, whereas before I’d be complete jacket wearing gyne-coverup mode.
But to be honest, I haven’t looked after myself as much as I should in the last year. I’ve smoked to excess, drank to excess, eaten to excess.
He asked me to come back in three months after losing weight, at least two stone. Fair enough. I’m 5’11 and about 16 ½ stone now, far from ideal. At least that will expose whether it’s scar or fat tissue. Now I have the kick in the derrière to do what I should have been doing all along.
He also tossed my pre-op pics at me. Shocking. For all my fears now, I can believe my moobs were ever that big. After my initial op, he visited me and told me the numbers, but I think I was too sedated to take them in. 500ml of fat from each side with an additional 45mg of glandular ‘gristle’ extracted also.
I quickly shoved them into my briefcase, having nightmare thoughts about the overhead luggage cabin on the Ryanair flight back home bursting open, my briefcase falling out and the post-op pics landing face-up in the isle for all in Rows 29 to 33 to see.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is what I’ve always been saying about this hateful condition. We expect miracle results under ‘the knife’, some achieve it first time around, some don’t, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel for us all.
I couldn’t help teasing out Mr.Levick’s opinion of gynecomastia.org at the end of today’s consultation. Part of my work is that of freelance journalist, and I’m always looking for a story, or a quote, or an angle.
I told him that we’re all singing his praise and humorously, we should all start looking for referral fees from him. He grinned and shrugged and said that it was ‘our thing’ and that it would be wrong of him to get involved.
From my perspective, Irish people, like yanks, are horribly litigious, and I asked him was he afraid of being ‘defamed’ on this by people. His attitude was a refreshingly frank ‘if I am, I am!’.
The statement of a confident and capable professional I think!