Karidis journey - from start to 12 months with lots of photos

[chopper]

Gents, I went and saw Karidis and I'm booked in to see him 1st week in May....thanks to everyone on here for posting your experiences, photos, after thoughts ...etc, as it all helped put my mind at ease about surgery and the results.

Karidis is a confident assured professional, we talked about when i first noticed gyne (11/12 for me),  he then looked at my chest, asked me to tense the muscle and he feels the gland and fat and shows you whats where, he then showed me some photos, asked me if i had any questions, we chatted a bit more and then it was off to get my date arranged for surgery and my blood taken and then I was away and heading back home.

I'll keep you all posted with before and after pics and post how my recovery is going and my after thoughts for anyone else in the future that is reading....this place is a gold mine and all your questions are answered or can be answered by someone

Lets go summer 2011!!

[thetodd]

Did you pay their blood test fees?

Glad it went well and youve got a surgery date so quickly. Did you ask him about doing it locally?

[emanresu]

I had my surgery with Karidis yesterday and couldn't be happier. He truly is a professional and is the best in the country for this particular operation.

The surgery is a breeze because you're asleep throughout the whole thing and the nurses are extremely helpful + you get nice accommodation with a TV. There's a tiny amount of pain afterwards but nothing the painkillers can't take away.

All the best chap and be assured you chose the right man for the job!

[chopper]

Did you pay their blood test fees?

Glad it went well and youve got a surgery date so quickly. Did you ask him about doing it locally?

I did mate, I followed your advice and checked yell.com and other places around using "blood services" and "phlebotomist" and talked to all the receptionists trying to find a place locally or semi locally but i couldnt. I just had my GP do some other bloods recently checking testosterone, thyroid, (checking free and total) and also total blood count so i felt kinda guilty sticking it on the NHS when I had just had some taken and i was about to part with a load of money, so i thought feck it....£137 paid up.

Not sure what you mean about doing it locally?

I had my surgery with Karidis yesterday and couldn't be happier. He truly is a professional and is the best in the country for this particular operation.

The surgery is a breeze because you're asleep throughout the whole thing and the nurses are extremely helpful + you get nice accommodation with a TV. There's a tiny amount of pain afterwards but nothing the painkillers can't take away.

All the best chap and be assured you chose the right man for the job!

I saw some sandwiches and slices of cake being taken down to someones room and it looked tasty...the place is nice. I was saying to the missus, I've only ever known NHS quality and thats pretty fair, but the whole place and all the staff make you realise you are in a private hospital lol

Looking fwd to being on the otherside where you are buddy, I know there its still a long journey of healing to go, but in the grand scheme of things, it's no time at all

[emanresu]

I saw some sandwiches and slices of cake being taken down to someones room and it looked tasty

I had prawn sandwiches, mushroom soup with baguette and fruit cocktail. It was the nicest grub I've had for ages; probably coz I hadn't eaten all day + the Ozzie nurse, Allison, is a right laugh!

The whole thing's got me wondering whether I should take out private health insurance. lol

I know there its still a long journey of healing to go, but in the grand scheme of things, it's no time at all

Mate, it's well worth the short wait. I can honestly say that today has been the best day of my life. Finally...

... The nightmare is over!

[thetodd]

Sorry i had it in my head you were keen on getting the op done under local anesthetic but thats mattuk

At least youve got piece of mind with the bloods and you dont have to mess about making sure the results are ok. Yeah the day of the op is a piece of piss. I look back now and the day after the op was just amazing when you take off the vest for the first time the feeling is just immense!

[chopper]

Yes there was that too TheTodd, I would have been worrying about the blood test results getting back into their hands and as the phlebotomy lab is 20 steps away from Karidis office I'm kinda hoping there should be no problems 

What is your scar tissue like TheTodd? I've read it really kicks in about 4 - 8 weeks afterwards and can take 6 months - a year for it to break down, was that the case for you? When wearing a tight ish top just it effect the contour?
I'll be honest it doesnt really concern me as i've had my moobs out most years in public, bust just curious as i've seen a few posts by people that sounded shocked that their chest looked as big as it used to with gyne once the scar tissue kicks in....so just trying to understand a bit more about the healing / scar tissue side of things so my expectations are set...

[thetodd]

scar tissues is a total lottery, affects some people more than others hopefully youl be lucky! Youve got quite an athletic figure on your pics and defined pecs so your chest will always be visible in really tight tops i dont like wearing proper right tshirts cause ive got love handles lol but yea its a HUGE improvement i wear a lot of Lyle Scott/J.Lindenbeg/All saints polo's now but before i was kinda restricted to big ralph lauren non slim fit polo's

You dont seem to have puffy nipples on your pics but people used to say to me "you dont have gyne, your nipples dont puff out its fat" but yet Karidis said i definatley had and ended up removing 52g's of gland in total. I think when you get back into peak shape your going to look proper ripped. Im looking forward to seeing your result this should be a good year for ya!

[chopper]

Just wanted to ask you guys that have already had the OP, what does Karidis give you to take home? 1 vest you are wearing and 1 to carry, plus some meds. What else should i expect to be carrying around?

[emanresu]

That's pretty much it apart from a small bag containing Body Shop shower gel, an abrasive flannel (which is nice to shower with by the way) and a bottle of massage oil. You will love the hospital and friendliness of the nurses.

[chopper]

Well, Im now on the otherside  

Woke up at 4.30, got a taxi to the station at 4.45 to get the 5am train - arrived in Waterloo at 7.15 and then hoped on the tube and arrived at St Johns about 7.45am (and pretty tired to boot as I couldnt get to sleep last night for fear of sleeping past my alarm clock, I think i managed about 3hrs sleep last night)

I checked in - Found my room - Given inpatient forms to fill out - My height and weight was taken and then Alex Karidis came in to see me, in good spirits (was worried he could be feeling rough after a monster bank holiday weekend lol) - He got his magical pen out and got busy marking me up - Then a man with a menu arrived and left me to order my lunch - I was getting my blood pressure, pulse and temperature taken about every 15 mins (all normal, nothing high or low) - Then I was brought in the classy tights and pants you have to wear as well as the surgical gown, so I donned my new atire and chilled out on the bed watching some boxing I had on my phone and surfed the web.

About 10 am I was greeted by a gentleman saying "shall we go to the theatre"..I hopped off the bed and walked down the corridor with him to the room. The operating room was a pokey little room, but loaded to the teeth with equipment, I was amazingly calm, I surprised myself, I thought I would be shitting bricks about now...The anethatist put a drip feed into my wrist and then injected the magical potion into it a few moments later...I recalled folks saying how 20 seconds later they were asleep...I didnt last 6 seconds!!!!!!!!! LOL I vividly remember saying "yep it's working, see you guys later I'm outa here"...the things you say when you are under the influence of a strong drug ha!

That was it folks.....what seemend like 1 or 2 seconds later and I was being woken up and then taken back to my room where lunch followed shortly afterwards. I was quite spaced out for 10 - 15 minutes and dozing into and out of sleep..Lunch arrived, I had a good graze and just napped from about 11.30 - 2.30pm, sleeping and waking randomly...by 4pm I was on my way to the train station.

Got the tube from St Johns on my own...This was my biggest worry, travelling 3 hours back door to door solo after surgery. I had phone numbers of the hotels locally on my phone in case I was a mess and couldnt do it...by 4pm I felt 99% like any normal day other than stiff and restrited movement..I just walked slowly to St Johns, got to Waterloo, bought a 1st class ticket so I could sit in a nice commfy seat and nto be fighting the rush hour madness....and here I am, back home genuinely feeling 99%...not perfect as to be expected, but certainly no worries about the journey on my own.

They took out 29G gland (14.5G of gland each side) and 400ml fat. I really need to shed another stone as Im about 18-20% body fat and thats not a good place to be now I have ridded the moobs. Need to get down to realistically 15% to see the full effects of surgery, but thats all good, I plan to keep the cardio flowing whilst im healing and keep chewing calories off. I'm not going to rush back into weights, that can come in good time, I want to heal now and with a new baby due in the next month Im planning on getting as much healing done as possible in the next 4 weeks before it all kicks off once again  


Anyway, enough rambling, here are some snaps











LUNCH MENU!!





And it arrives!


The Room




Redy for a night on the town, looking slick!!



My Karidis goody bag (1 vest, some massgae oil, some shower gel and a scrubber...also got a bag of meds, but not much to see there)


I'l take some post op photos tomorrow when I have a shower and stick on the waterprooof plasters.

I'm fully expecting a rough time of healing with scar tissue, I think im prepared for the journey and I know that in the end the result will be worth it...I've done the easy part, 1 hour operation is a walk in the park, now it's 12 months of healing...but I get to enjoy the next 30+ years afterwards (hopefully), so 12 months is feck all!!

I'll report back on how sleeping on my back went tomorrow .... not looking forward to that part as I'm a mover in bed lol

Big thanks to TheTodd & Ads21, if I hadnt seen your results and then NiGuys (sp?) I would have probably muddled on, but seeing those 3 made me go from thinking about my gyne to now looking forward to life without it  

[thetodd]

No worries man glad you got sorted

for anyone having the surgery, dont go to a hotel do the above and catch trains/coach/get a lift its so much better being in your own bed! Keen on seeing your post ops i rekon youl have a great result


But also for reference, you dont have to wear those pants lmao its for people having lipo on their abs+below you can wear your boxers. The nurses just dish that gear out in bulk to everyone

[chopper]

I'll deffo keep posting progress pics for the next 12 months and cant wait to finish dieting and get back into lifting heavy and eating heavily too, im hoping the results will be good too mate!

I read you saying about those pants in NiGuys thread so when the nurse said it I hit him with the "Isnt that for when getting your stomach done and do i really need to wear them as it my chest being worked on today"...The answer was Yes, I had to wear them as everything was clean in the operating room and also so if they needed to remove them in emegecy (wtf kind of emergecy!!!! lol) then they wouldnt have to worry about cuttings someones expensive pants....

I tried mate, believe me....if I was a hung like a black man with a 6 foot todger I would have opted to go in naked, but alas im just your average guy, so would have prefered my boxershorts...but in all honesty, whilst i was awake there wasnt a window for them to be looking anyway if they were that way inclined as there were sheets covering my lower half during the operation including legs etc (if anyone is worried or put off by the pants, dont be).....I just wanted the op done and would have agreed to pretty much anything i think within reason 

[Choda]

Fantastic post Chopper, fingers crossed everything goes well for you in the next 12months. It will be mentally tough at times trying to convince yourself your moobs won't come back, but given time and excerise you'll be fine.

Your gonna lose that extra stone with ease mate, exercising knowing your moobs are gone will make things so much more enjoyable. You can swim, run through the streets with confidence and just be a more positive person.

Once again fantastic forum with great members.

[chopper]

Thats it mate, it really is a fantastic forum, so much info and people happy to help answer questions.

I went at weight loss for 6 months with the sole aim of losing my moobs and when they didnt go i ate more and lifted heavy hoping with muscle on top it would be golden, but it didnt work that way and I kind of lost hope and sacked off the gym for the last year, but knowing the glands were getting pulled exercising hasnt been a bitter sweet pill....I cant wait to really focus on building muscle on my chest and to finally have a chest that isnt spoiled by 2 hard boiled eggs pointing through every tshirt or jumper