NHS surgery this monday!!!

[Woodi]

Hi Linkin,

Yea so far so good. 4 weeks post up now. Getting a bit of swelling now and then. But great results. Although my case was unusual, when I was referred, it was not for any reasons of side effects, but the gyno itself. So it is defo worth talking it over with your GP I wish i did it much sooner. The area is relatively good on dealing with gyno, but refferal will still be based on your level of gyno, weight and your indivdual GP. But if you get a choice between Addembrokes or where ever else for referal take addembrokes. I am not sure if u can ask for a particular surgeon on the nhs yet. But from what I read half the best guys in the NHS for gyno work at addembrokes! I read on the boards elsewhere of loads of great experiences with a dr Iriwn or someone who is actually the head of department or something. But defo worth seeing the GP. I do not have before pics. But will post some afters, i know I have been a bit slow on this, but am just waiting for skin to "deflame", the sides of my chest are highly irritated from the sweat issue, but am currently undergoing treatment for it, and should be healed soon (had nothing to do with the surgery) but might make people think it was!   

[Woodi]

Just thought I would give an update at 6 weeks now. Sorry for leaving it for a while, the last fortnight has been a struggle, things have taken a bit of a turn for the worse.

Basically the nipples puffed out, about half as bad as before. There is hard tissue here there everywhere, profiling out from the chest, and soft tissue hanging at the bottom. i know it is an early stage and from what i can feel, it does not feel like the glandular tissue of before, but is most likely to be a lovely cocktail of scar tissue, swelling and maybe a weird muscle profile? Cause there does not seem to be much fat to play around with. It may eventually resolve itself all out, but the prospective waits a major bummer. I had pictured that by week 7  I would be post gyno, getting clothes that fit etc, but thats not gonna happen now. + i realize i got no pics yet and that there needed, gonna get some taken 2moro.

secondly, i have been on electric treatment to try and control sweating or the sympatetic nervous system, again that does not seemed to have worked, i also developed serve skin irritation, broken skin and the resulting cream I got to relive it, well it turned out I was allergic to some of the active ingredients, the skin became more inflamed and got an infection, but now seems to be calming down a bit. the only realistic thing left to control it now (sweating) is 30+ botox injections in the armpits every 4 months. Am going to get it, but as stated before am not a massive fan of needles!

Thirdly, had a bit of a scare the last to weeks with some legions or uclers i don't know what you meant to call them. But had this dark painfull patch of scalling skin all over the ankle, I just thought it was a bruise that never healed (had it for at least over a year). It had got slightly larger and darker recently and someone said I should look into it, then i started to worry a bit. GP agreed, but after seeing some consultants luckly they were pretty sure it was not skin cancer, but was hard to diagnose possible varcose vein devlipment or exma or something.   

to be honest it might be that chest is now within the "realms of normality" its still definitely an improvement, and i am extremely gratefull to the nhs for all their work. But i guess over the years (post 13/14) i forgot what a male chest is supposed to look like so am still very concerned about it. I'm hoping things might change.   

[markfj]

sorry to hassle you, do you have pics at all?

I live in cambridge...so would be interested to see, as thats where you had your OP, thought I havent had the courage to see my doc about it yet, I dont think my would be "servere" enough to get it done on NHS

[woooody]

GO AND GET IT DONE!!!! DO NOT PUT IT OFF ANOTHER WEEK, GET THE BALL ROLLING 2MORO!!! 

Forgot my login, been 3 years since surgery, not given my chest a moments thought since 6 months after surgery, not been on this site for 2 and a bit years, but its still the same guy who wrote the first post in this conversation.

The only reason I have come back to type this and I should have done it long ago, is tell anyone having doubts about surgery, insecurities about their chest, living in a shadow of what they were or could become... get yourself down to your gp/private doctor tomorrow! get the ball rolling, stop putting it off, cross that line and start living the rest of your life!

I am not going to underestimate the difficulties that some cases have had, but with all things people put far to much weight on the bad 5% of cases than myself and the other 95%. Yes there were 6-8 weeks of hassle, but pain? not really. The most stressful and hardest part of the whole process was the 24hours worrying before surgery and that should tell its own story.

I can thing of nothing I have done or undertaken that have changed my life more than this surgery. I wear tight fitting clothes, swim professionally, run at national level again etc etc. It has changed my whole outlook on life and my only regret is having left it so long until my 20's.

Worst bits= needless fear before surgery, expectation of pain during the 24hs+ afterwards that never comes, expectation that sleeping on your back is impossible...it's not. 

GO AND GET IT DONE!!!! DO NOT PUT IT OFF ANOTHER WEEK, GET THE BALL ROLLING 2MORO!!! 

[improving]

Sounds great! Before and after pictures would be excellent as not many people post NHS threads up.

[saggyboobs]

Do you know how much Dr Malata charges for private cases?

How was your anesthesia experience? Was Dr Malata efficient in providing post operative care?

He seems to be quite an experience surgeon. This forum only focuses on Dr Levick and Karidis and I strongly believe there would be lot more good surgeons in UK