Post Op Weekly Progress w/ Pictures - Dr. Fielding

[opus_dei]

I had my surgery last week with Dr. Fielding in Toronto.

Anyway. The following are my before and after pictures. Please note that I removed my foam pads today as per Dr. Fielding's instructions, and it was quite the ordeal!!The adhesive compound on them seems pretty solid and under my armpit, pulling the pads off actually peeled off some skin. Up on top of the chest, the foam did not fully come off and I did not have the courage to pull it off more. You can see it in the pics.

Maybe, waxing the chest before surgery can help with this step, but I was instructed not to shave my chest before the surgery.

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These are the after pictures. I am unable to exceed 198Kb per post.....

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You can definitely see a tremendous change before and after and Dr. Fielding did mention that they removed significant amount of breast tissue. Since its too early right now, I am not going to give the results a thumbs up or down.


Observations thus far:

- I still feel mild pain, especially when I raise my elbows past shoulder hight. I feel pain and pulling right below the nipples. As a result, I am wearing only shirts since getting into and out of T-shirts is hard.

- Numbness: So after removing the foam pads today I was feeling around my chest area and there is significant amount of numbness and pain in several spots.

- Brusing/ Swelling/ Scarring: To be honest, for what the surgery entails I was expecting more bruising and swelling. I may have got lucky! As far as scarring, it is hard to tell. I could feel "hard" spots all over, especially at the horizontal blood marks below my chest - not sure what they are.

Should I start massaging right now, or wait for some more healing to occur. Should the pain and bruising have subsided before massaging? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

[opus_dei]

So while having a shower today, I was able to peel off the pieces of foam that were stuck to my chest. I guess the adhesive compound loosing some bonding ability after getting wet.

The results look spectacular - I am flat compared to earlier. There is concavity in my left nipple when I flex and the right chest looks bigger than the left. However, like everyone on this site mentions, results change dramatically for the next 3 months, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

There is bruising and some swelling as is expected, with shades ranging from red to purple to yellow. What is bothering me is the numbness. Both my chests are extremely numb - like I have been given a local anaesthetic. Is this normal even over a week after surgery?

[opus_dei]

So these are the pictures for my Week 2 post-op update. The pain and itching have disappeared. There is slight pain and tightness at the lower areola region when I stretch my arms. e.g. to wear a T-shirt. Numbness is greatly reduced as so have visible purple shades in the post op pictures. However, there is still significant numbness predominantly around the nipples and it lessens as you move further away from the nipples.

I also do notice that my chests appear not quite symmetrical with the nipple heights being different and the right side still showing slight gynecomastia. Two weeks is no time to judge your results though, and hence I am not losing any sleep over it.

What do others think?

Picture 1:

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Picture 2:

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Picture 3 while flexing the chests to reveal cratering around the nipples and assymetry between the chests:

[shaknbake]

I've been keeping an eye on your thread here.  How has the healing been coming along?  The before and after pics look great.  I can't really notice too much of the concavity you describe, but it is only a photo.  I'm sure seeing it in real life you notice more.  That being said, from what I can see, the results look really good!  I asked about the numbness in another post awhile ago, and Dr. Jacobs mentioned to me that numbness is totally normal, and expected in every single case.  It should subside over time.  Each person heals at a different rate, so it's hard to say how long the numbness will last.  One fellow replied that his lasted over a year (he had surgery 2 years prior).  In the meantime, have things started to even out for you symmetrically?

[opus_dei]

The healing has bee progressing great. I am just about at 6 weeks post op and I am extremely pleased with the results so far. There is still numbness around the nipples and the region around is still tender. I feel pain when I press on it. During the last week to week-and-a-half, a lot of the numbness has dissipated and some sensation is returning to the nipples.

There is still slight concavity while flexing, and slight pain/ discomfort can be felt along the incision. The chests are not exactly symmetrical, with the right chest showing an extremely mild gynecomastia (could be swelling). Having said that, am I pleased - YES!! Will I be able to walk on a beach with a bare chest and a bottle of beer - HELL YES!!

I'll try and post a few pics when I have a chance as I am currently far away on business.

[shaknbake]

That's good to hear that things are coming along.  My wife and I plan on going to the Dominican in late March, which will make it about 7 weeks after my surgery.  I only hope my healing comes along as nice as yours seems to have.  I've often thought about symmetry after surgery.  It must be really difficult for the doctors to do this.  In my case, I'm not perfectly symmetrical right now, so I can't imagine it being a whole lot different after I'm done...maybe even a bit better?  Who knows.  Like you, I'm just looking forward to feeling comfortable enough to take my shirt off at the beach and drink a beer!   

[Maxmataco]

wow! You seem to be healing quite well...I had my op 10 days ago and in two days I can take off the last small band-aid just below the nipples but the swelling is still there.

Job well done for your procedure - the padding does look like it might have been painful to remove - sorry man