Surgery Today

[fox_in_ma]

Well, first off, hello—I've been lurking around the forum for a little bit, and decided to post and share my story.

I live in Boston (28 yo) and have been suffering from gyne ever since I was overweight in high school.  I lost about 100 pounds since then, and while the rest of my body has gotten into phenomenal shape, I've still been dealing with these...awkward, flesh sacs on my chest, filled with some remainered fat and some tissue.  Pretty disgusting looking.

I tried all the usual stuff...essentially, I turned into a gym fiend to try and get rid of my chest problems.  Which only made things worse in my head, because I started getting a pretty decent body elsewhere that my chest totally ruined.

Anyway, I recently got one of those 0% APR credit card for a year offers in the mail, and after thinking about it for a while, decided to take out the card and drop the ~$6k to finally get this disgusting embarassment taken care of.  I went with Dr. Rick Silverman in Newton, since he came so highly recommended here (and because his office is on my way to work).

The surgery went today, and everything went smoothly.  The worst part of the whole thing was getting the IV taken out...and I was walking around amazed at how great I felt about an hour after coming out of anestesia.

My friend picked me up and we went out to dinner in the North End to celebrate.  I didn't even need to take a percocet.

I don't know how the whole thing looks yet...the binder is kinda thick with the bandages under...but the doctor said it went really well.  There wasn't a whole heck of a lot of fat there (more extra skin than anything else) so the doctor decided to forego the drains.  That might mean a little bit more swelling, but after dealing with drains with a previous surgery....I'm glad to be without.

I'll try to post some before/after pictures as soon as the bandages come off.  I'm so totally psyched about things (and psyched about being able to ditch the kid-sized underarmours.)

I can't wait to see what it's going to look like.  It feels like the night before Christmas. 

[fox_in_ma]

Okay, so I guess I never posted any of my pictures.  Call it nervousness—I didn't want to see myself side-by-side and compare...and for a while, I was unhappy with the amount of swelling that was still there.

I'll post some before pictures later tonight, and some more recent pictures.  This is a couple weeks following surgery (little over a month ago).  You can still see significant swelling and red scars...



The good news is that the swelling is rather managable now.  Apparently, it's a little bit worse in my case because the doctor felt it necessary to leave in some tissue so that my chest didn't have the appearance of having "too much" taken out.  And that tissue seems to soak in fluid like a sponge.

At least it's managable with the vest.  I do look terrific with the vest and a shirt on, which has at least boosted confidence in that arena.

[MSJ108]

Awesome man! Congrats. Keep us posted on how the swelling goes.

[fox_in_ma]

As promised.  The before picture.  (Ugh.)



And a picture from last night.  The swelling is definitely still evident.  (And easy to feel with a bare hand.)



The area as a whole is starting to regain a lot of feeling.  The nipple itself is still pretty much numb (and seems worryingly indented a bit), but the outer chest area is starting to come back online.

[MSJ108]

ya numb is normal

don't worry about how nip looks right now. things are going to change as you heal

[ellington7]

Dude, you should be extremely pleased with the results you have.  One of the biggest compliments you could ever receive is from someone saying that you look like a man now, and that if you took off your shirt in a crowd of shirtless men at the beach that no one could even remotely think that you look wierd...I know you have swelling right now, but trust me, you are finally normal, so buy as many tight t shirts as you can because your finally a normy...


go have fun...and please pray that my surgery goes well too....