My Experience

[chuggu]

Hey guys,

This is a rather big account of my experiences :-).

Btw, this forum is great. Its reassuring to know that there are so many people out there dealing with this menace. I too had (have, not sure, read on :-)) gynecomastia since I was a teen. I had noticed that for some reason my chest looked a bit different from the others. Back then, I couldn't make out why was it so, and chose to ignore it.

Fast forward a few years, and I'm in engineering school. Living in a hostel 24x7, and things took turn for the worse. I had never been bullied before, but the first time I took my short off in front of others, many took notice of my man-boobs. I got a rather disgusting nick name, although I made good friends while I was there. This was something that was new to me since all these years I felt I was lucky to have a decent personality.

Fast forward 5 more years, and my self confidence had taken a severe beating during this time. Since I started to put on 'some' weight, the boobs became more apparent (not that I'm overweight, I am actually 5'8" and 64 Kgs, near about perfect BMI). I started working out, as I read that if you concentrate more on your upper pecs, your man boobs may go away. Absolute BS if you have gyne. I tried losing weight, started having less dinner, and added more broccoli to my diet, but nothing worked. So I convinced myself to get a surgery done.

Surgery Preparation:

I was planning to get the procedure done in secret. I was not comfortable with talking to my parents/friends and girlfriend about it. This was my personal choice, but I would advice you not to follow it. I know I'm sounding like a hypocrite, but I think you get a lot of weight off your mind if you share this with someone.

I decided to get my surgery done, and spent the whole of last week preparing for it. Courtesy this forum, I knew what to expect. So I prepared my refrigerator with groceries and ready-to-eat stuff. I washed all of my clothes, bed linen, to make sure I last a week without having to strain myself on these tasks. I packed my bags as if I were planning to spend the night on an airport. Took one front-zipping sweatshirt, an extra lower, undergarments, toiletries, laptop, chargers etc. I also booked a cab to the hospital. I also lowered the height of my shower head so that I dont have to stretch to take it off the mount (its a hand shower as well).

The worst thing I did a day before the surgery was to read through all the posts about post op swelling and complications. I wasn't scared of the surgery (I had an ACL done about 5 years back and this one was supposed to be a walk in the park compared to a knee surgery), but I became more apprehensive about the fact that this may not work out. I may go through all the pain, and still end up with gyne, or worse, issues with the look of my chest. I would advice everyone to stay patient during the recovery process. Your man boobs would definitely go away with time, the worst thing that you can do is to get negative about the results during the recovery process. I did that after my ACL, but with time, everything worked out just fine. Stay positive, jovial and social. Keep your mind off your chest for a while and let the body do the magic.

On the surgery day (today :-)) I was definitely very anxious. I'm getting married to my girlfriend in about 4 months time and I started missing her quite a lot. I had not informed my parents, and that doubled up the anxiousness.

I reached the hospital about 2 hours before the surgery actually took place. I tried not to think about what lay ahead. I was taken to the recovery room where I was asked to undress and wear a girly pink gown :-). So I lay in the bed, and tried to sleep the anxiousness off. It did work. Although I hadn't had anything since the last night (not even a sip of water), I was asked to pee and that's when I knew that it was time. I walked to the OT with my anesthetist who was a guy (probably in his mid 30s) with pleasing personality. I confirmed whether I would be put under GA or LA. Thankfully, GA it was. I was given to dose and I remember that I was conscious for about 2 mins before I fell asleep. I remember talking to the anesthetist about feeling being hung over and some random stuff. The next thing that I remember was that I woke up in the OT with some pain in my chest area and the whole area being bandaged to the point of choking. I couldn't speak that time, but I was concerned if I woke up in the middle of the surgery :-). Thankfully the people in the OT asked my to move to a wheeled bed so that they could take me to the recovery room. As I lay in the recovery room, I asked every nurse on duty about my surgery. One of them came with big jar with quite some blood and a lot of fat floating above it. To my surprise, she then asked me if I wanted to take a pic of it. I declined :-).

I slept for about 30 mins after which the pain totally went away. I started feeling to upper area of the chest which was still unbandaged and noticed that it was still numb. So I thought the pain might come back once the anesthesia wares off. To my surprise, it did not. I was asked to walk around a bit and the pain was minimal. I could also lift stuff with my hands.

So here I am, sitting in the hospital ward, writing this article. I am positive that I'll recover completely and quickly, and that's what I'll urge you guys to be as well.

I'll update my progress on this thread till I'm fully healed.

I'm not disclosing my location and my surgeon till the time I've recovered so I'm sure about the review.

Good luck with your surgery!

[s00ntobe]

keep us updated

[chuggu]

Day 2:

Last night, about 10 hours after my surgery, I started feeling dehydrated, to a point where my eyes started running dry. I called the nurse and she told me that it was perfectly okay for me to feel that way. I was under GA and the drug was still in the system. So I took my eye lenses off and slept. I couldn't find a comfortable position to sleep in, since there was a little discomfort that I felt under my right arm pit. So, I called the nurse back again and she said that the drain pipe may have bent slightly and so the pain. She gave a pain killer and I slept like a baby after that. The only thing that kept bothering me was the compression vest I was wearing. It was too tight since the drain pipes were running underneath it as well.

I had a very light breakfast in the morning, but to my surprise, I had minimal pain. This was not something that I had expected. I watched a couple of movies before the nurse came in to examine my drains again. She said that it was fine and she'll pull them out in some time.

The on duty doctor came and took my vest off and that's the first time I could take a look at my chest. Although still under bandage, I could see that it was very flat as compared to what it was the last time I saw it. It was slightly painful when they pulled off the drains, but the pain subsided in some time.

For now I dont have any pain, and am sitting comfortably in my hospital bed, with F&F-6 playing in the background. I'm planning to get back home in another couple of hours and am planning to take the week off as well.

This doesn't feel as bad as I thought it would have been :-)).

[chuggu]

Day 4:

Today I had my first post-op consultation with my surgeon. The last two days were okay. I had minimal pain, but the compression vest is surely a pain in the butt. I generally loosen it up a bit after food and when I sleep.

So my doc removed my dressings and for the first time I could see my chest after 4 days. It was FLAT. Absolutely flat. My nipples were flat too. A lot of fat that was sucked out, and so it kind of looked disproportionate. I then realized that a large part of my chest was numb. Doc said that it was okay, and the sensation would come back in some months. I was given a green signal to take bath as well (yeah! cant wait to get under the shower!).

So far, the progress looks good, and I'm very positive about my recovery. I've started working from home (I'm a software professional) but would take the week off.

Next update: 1st of August!