My diary. 8 months post op. Surgery with Karidis.

[Blue2]

Well the time is nearly here to go and have my consultation with Alex Karidis. On the Friday 14th March I will be on my way down to London to hopefully get the go ahead for my op. To say I am excited (if that doesn't sound weird!) is an understatement. I have been living with this condition for roughtly 20 years now and I can't wait to get it sorted once and for all. To date I have lost 16 lbs (1 stone 2 lbs!) in a period of approx 7 weeks in anticipation of the surgery. I really want to get the best possible results from this surgery due to the fact that I have waited so long for it, and I am sure that the less body fat i have the more chance I have of a successful operation and quickest recovery time. I will be posting the run of events as they unfold for me so that (hopefully!) others can follow suit and rid themselves of this embarrasing burden. I'll get some before and after pics up on here once I get them and also post progress reports and pics during my recovery. All I need now is the green light for the op, to shed a few more pounds and to get the job done! Can't wait.

[Blue2]

Well I am all packed and ready for my trip to London to see Karidis. As it happens it is my wifes birthday on Monday so I am treating her to a couple of nights at the Marriott in Kensington, so it all ties in quite nicely! Hopefully all will go well and I will get a date for the surgery. Sooner rather than later I hope!

[Blue2]

I am currently sitting in the Marriott Hotel in Kensington London typing this message. Had my consultaion with Karidis yesterday and it all went very well. What a nice guy! He made me feel very comfortable and explained things about the surgery in great detail which gave me bags of confidence. Then came the heavy bit, the price!!! All in all it is going to cost me £4250 which includes bloods, compression garments and aftercare etc. Not cheap but it was what I was expecting so no great shock. He did tell me that I have a moderate amount of gyne mostly consisting of gland, but as is normally the case with this condition, I do have some fat which will have to be removed with lipo at the same time as the gland extraction.

Anyway I agreed to go ahead with the surgery and so he left me with his business manager (secretary!) LOL. I mentioned that I was looking to have the op done ASAP and to my surprise she found me a slot next week! They had a cancellation for Tuesday as one of their other clients had fallen ill and was unable to attend. Bad news for them but great news for me. So I am booked in for Tuesday 18th March. Happy days!!!! Shaved my chest yesterday which was a bit of a trauma as I had never done it before. OMG!!!! The gyne looks 10 times worse now and just remined me how much I hate this condition. But it will not be there for much longer. He did explain that post op the chest would look very flat but over the course of the following couple of weeks, some swelling is inevitible but not to panic as it will reduce once the swelling goes down. He also pointed out that he has conducted between 500 - 600 of these ops now so is well drilled! Out of all of these patients, he has only ever had to do 2 follow up surgeries which is a very small percentage indeed. He was pleased that I had lost weight and commented that it makes the surgery more successful in the long run, but unless I was at least another 1 to 2 stone heavier, it would not really have made much of a difference.

An interesting point that Karidis did make was that after the op, it was really down to how I felt as to how quickly I get myself back into the gym and resume my normal daily routine. He said that there was no way that I could 'undo' his work and so lifting weights was merely a matter of whether I could stand the pain! LOL. Obviously you have to take it easy with anything like this but it did sound encouraging all the same. His technique means that there are no stitches after surgery to burst open and so exercising should be OK as soon as I feel capable of doing it.

So there you have it. I will be returning home tomorrow (family commitments!) and then making the treck back to London on Monday for an early start Tuesday moring and then back home Tuesday night.

I will hopefully get some pics up as soon as I have some available.

[Blue2]

OK here are some pre op pics of my gyne. I shaved my chest to give Karidis a good overall view of the problem! Surgery tomorrow and so I will follow up with post op pics later in the week.

[irish lad]

hope all went well for you and you got result you were hoping for.. be sure to post them pictures im really interested to see what the result is! its either karidis or benito for me going too have consultations with both.. cheers

[Blue2]

Arrived back home last night and so far so good! I have had minimal pain and discomfort so far but I am taking pain killers so the proof of the pudding will be after I stop taking them. I was given 2 days worth of Tramadol 50mg caps and 5 days worth of Co-dyramol tablets which hopefully should do the trick. I was also given Arnica tablets which are very useful for reducing swelling and bruising. It is also a good idea to get some Arnica cream to massage into the chest area about 2 weeks after surgery. The massaging helps to improve blood flow to the wounds to assist healing and the Arnica cream helps with the bruising and swelling.

I am a little bit tender today but the initial swelling that appeared yesterday just by my armpits post op seems to have subsided. I was told to expect swelling to come and go during the recovery period as well as lumpy scar tissue which is likely to form over the coming months. Generally speaking though, and providing that my recovery goes according to plan, I was told that I should be seeing my final results in about 3 months. From what I can feel behind the compression garment my chest does feel very flat, but I don't want to jump the gun as it is very early days!

I have yet to remove my compression garment but will be doing so today to change it, to wash it and to enable me to get a shower. I have had next to no oozing from the wounds as yet apart from immediately post op which has soiled my compression garment but this will wash out. I have been instructed to wear this garment for 7-10 days continuously (apart from when showering obviously!) and then I am only required to wear it either during the day OR night for a further 2 weeks. I have decided to wear it during the night and will get one of those tight fitting sports vests such as the Nike ones for during the daytime as these look more like a normal vest and are a bit more discrete!

As for the experience with Karidis, I can't really fault it! So far I feel OK and pain and discomfort is minimal. Karidis and his staff were all very helpful and friendly and I have no complaints at all.

The total cost of the procedure was £4100. This included the procedure and the hospital fees which I didn't think was too bad. With all my travel costs and overnight stay pre op it cost me a total of £4521. OK this may be a touch more than what you can get it done for abroad, but at least Karidis is based in the UK and for me was just a 2 1/2 hour train ride away. I felt much more comfortable having it done in the UK but I know that other have opted for other surgeons abroad and have been very happy with the results. I suppose it's each to their own and I can only comment on my own experiences.

I will post some pics later today when I remove my compression garment to show how I look one day in, and then will post further pics every so often to show my recovery progress.

[kingboob]

Glad to hear things are working out well for you, I hope you get the results you are expecting.

keep us updated!

[Blue2]

OK 2 days post op and here are some pics of what I look like today. The initial swelling has gone down and my chest looks REALLY flat! I know this can swell up and go down again during the recovery period but first impressions are good. The only thing is that the compression garment has squashed my pecs in so I don't have much muscle volume in the pics! I suppose you can't have it all!! LOL  Also you can see the fluid which has leaked out on the garment but this was from just post op and I have not had any further oozing since.

Looking forward to getting a shower today and getting a fresh comp garment on! I have been provided with some waterproof dressings which must replace the old ones before showering to avoid saturating the wounds.

[Blue2]

Removed first set of dressings today and OMG! Trauma!! 

Quite painful and nearly caused me to be sick! Anyway, got them off in the end and managed a shower with the help of my wife. I now have fresh dressings on and a clean compression garment on and to be honest feel much better. I definitely have more mobility in my arms now and the pain is subsiding gradually. Still taking it easy though!

I have to say I was surprised how much my nipples have shrunk, even at this early stage. The incisions under my armpits where the lipo was performed are barely noticeable and the nipple incisions are very small too. So small that I could harly see where they were, so that's a good sign.

[Trevor2522]

Good result, though expensive.   My NHS surgeon wants to lipo from the front, plus glandular excision via the areola.   He said lipo via the armpit is more difficult and causes more trauma to the nerves and blood vessels.   Obviously Karadis thinks differently and wanted to save you from frontal scars.

If you had gone to Dr Poomee in Thailand it would have cost £2000 for the surgery plus about £1000 for the flight and a bit of a holiday.   So 50% more in the U.K.   And Dr Benito in Spain somewhere in between.   But FREE on the NHS for what may have been a very similar result to what you have now.   I think I'd go the free route, let it settle, and consider the paid options afterwards.

[Blue2]

I hear what you are saying mate, but the money was not an object in my case so I decided to take the safest route I could think of. Karidis has a very good name in this field so I was confident in his ability which is to me is worth double what I paid! Personally I would not have been happy to take to 'no cost option' via NHS, and 'just waited to see how it turned out'. I have been plucking up the courage for the best part of 20 years for this surgery so I wanted to get it right the first time. I am not saying that similar results could not be obtained through the NHS but from what I have read on here, they do seem to lack consistancy. As I say, it's each to their own, but I was prepared to pay the extra and go with Karidis for my own piece of mind. I just hope it was worth it!

[TommyA]

Thanks alot for posting all this and the photos, looks a great result and totally natural looking and not much bruising compared to other surgeons. I will definately use him, I agree with you that it is worth the extra £ if you can afford it
How long after the operation do you need to plan to not be able to drive/everyday activities? How much time off work do you think is about right for an office type job

[Blue2]

Thanks alot for posting all this and the photos, looks a great result and totally natural looking and not much bruising compared to other surgeons. I will definately use him, I agree with you that it is worth the extra £ if you can afford it
How long after the operation do you need to plan to not be able to drive/everyday activities? How much time off work do you think is about right for an office type job

I too have an office job and reckon I will be fine to return to work on Tuesday no problem at all, which will basically have given me a week off. However, as the pain and discomfort has really eased today, I would say that I would have been OK to go back to work tomorrow if it had been necessary. It just fell nicely for me that the Easter bank holiday coincided with my op!

I haven't driven yet but at a push probably could have done so today, but as it was not necessary I didn't bother. If I can get away with it I will leave it for another day or two.

I have yet to see any serious bruising, but I believe that this can be at it's worse 3-4 days post op. No real signs of it yet though so maybe it won't happen for me. Fingers crossed.

A quick update. Dr. Karidis called me last night to see how I was doing, which was a nice touch. He was more than happy to answer any questions that I had and to give any reassurances that I needed. A genuinely nice guy! 

I asked how much fat and gland was removed and I am sure he said 300cc of fat and 8g of gland from each side although it could have been 8g of gland in total? Not sure.

[Blue2]

I am now 5 days post op and thee have been very few changes to note of. I do have a touch more bruising in the center of my chest but this was to be expected. I have managed to loose another couple of lbs since the op which I am pleased about as one of the main things I was worried about was putting weight back on whilst being immobilised. To be honest though I have felt OK and have been able to keep fairly active and walking and general housework duties have not been a problem. I have been really careful what I have been eating though as sadly I am one of those people who puts weight on just by looking at food! 

Anyway, here are a few more pics of me today although there is not much change since the last ones. I have also bought some Nike Pro Compression vests and thought it may be of interest to some people if I modeled one!!!  After all, I am proud of my new chest, at least so far.  I will be wearing the Nike vest during the daytime once I have completed 10 days non stop of wearing the hospital compression garment. I will still be wearing it during the night though for another 2 weeks after this but at least I will be free of it during the day. The biggest problem I have had with it so far is that as my chest hair is growing back the damn stuff keeps getting caught in it like Velcro!! I think I will be shaving it off again today just to save to irritation. The other thing is that friends and family keep commenting on how much weight I have lost! The flaming thing is like a corset and does help to hold in the excess flab! Gives me an excuse to stay focused and shed a few more lbs before I can loose it completely. 

[rockstar6181]

look great mate, u defintily did the right thing going to Karidis, he has done a fantastic job.