Hey guys, thanks so much for your words of encouragement, so happy I found this site!
surgery is done now, wasn't as nerve racking as i thought it would be which is great. I got a taxi to the train station at 6 this morning, got the train to paddington and the tube to St. Johns. Checked in about 8 30 and was taken to my room, it was very pleasant and a tv and all that stuff. A nurse (so bad with names haha) went through some stuff with me and I got changed. Felt like such a tw*t walking to the theater in those socks and dressing gown and stuff
. I was surprised how calm I was about everything, I just didn't really think about and just 'manned up' i guess
The only time I felt a bit sketchy was when I was lying on the hospital bed looking up waiting for the anesthesia, it ran through my head breifly what if i dont wake up again! (particularly after reading the bit in the declaration about chance of death, no matter how slight!) Lying there felt like I was in ER or something (used to watch that show a lot lol)
The nurse in there was bloody brilliant, so friendly put me completely at ease, the anesthetist was cool also (everyone was for that matter!) I don't even remember drifting off, it was like falling asleep i guess when you dont realise its happening. Woke up feeling very tired and found it hard to speak, I couldn't really breathe in the mask thing and kept asking me to put it back on. When I got back to the room i think i might have dozed off again for a moment or something, felt seriously tired, just wanted to sleep. Then about 30 mins later started to feel pretty good, then about an hour really good.
I'm not gonna lie, i was worried about the whole thing but after about 90 mins i actually felt the best i have in a long time, even now i still feel pretty awesome (though i heard it might get worse in a few days or something) still got a bit of pain though in the armpit areas
there was some pain, at first verging on the wrong side of discomfort, but that started to fade and i felt good, got a little pain now though in the armpit areas, will take some pain killers soon, and some arnica. when I was getting on the train a women asked me to help her lift her buggy up and i went to automatically and didnt feel a thing, then as i got out the toilet another guy asked me to help him too! haha
It's really muggy today so not looking forward to sleeping in this thing, will take it off tomorrow and take some pics, have a quick shower and change the dressings etc. It doesn't seem like it will be too hard to hide from the family (my brother has gyne too so i told him and he will help me take off t shirts and move things if necessary which is good)
I glanced in the reflection of the train window on my way home and saw my chest looking flatter, looked awesome but hard to tell because there is so much padding. cant wait to see it tomorrow, weird thing is i didnt feel vulnerable like some people said, though at one point i did almost knock into someone in paddington. glad i got the tube and not a taxi, saved a lot of money
when i woke up i drank loads of water (had a dry mouth, not too bad though) and the only side effect i got from the anesthesia i think is that i found it quite hard to urinate, kind of weird haha
(chopper, thanks for the tip about the gum, saved my life today!
ok ill post some pics tomorrow of the room and my chest and everything, just chilling now
it's a bit premature but i just want to say karidis is a bloody legend, so assured and confident, makes you feel good about the whole thing
and just want to say a big thanks to everyone on this forum for giving me the courage to go through with it
hopefully it will prove to be one of the best decisions of my life
laters x