Surgery completed 4th Jan in Bangkok

[bkkross]

I thought i would post my account on the UK board as a lot of posters in the UK may not look on the Asia thread.

I went in for my final consultation on Thursday (the 3rd) it was actually very brief about 15 minutes which suprised me a litttle as i was expecting to be in there a good while going through everything.Dr Poomee confirmed that lipo only was sufficient to rid me of my horrible gyn and that i only had a tiny bit of gland on my left side but not enough to justify excision,he just said he will take a litttle more out of that side.I was happy with that,he was giving the impression that it would just be a breeze, like he knows what he's doing, don't worry etc etc.He then told me a few do's and dont's before surgery and instructed me to arrive the next day at 7.30am.I then had to go for a blood test and then left feeling pretty confident about everything.

I arrived the next day at 7.20am (i have always been a good time-keeper) i was taken to a room where i deposited my valuables and was handed my hospital clothes to change into.I was then wheeled off to another room where a nurse asked me a few health questions,i also had to sign a few documents.
The nurse who was going to give me the anaesthetic then arrived and told me what would happen and that i would be taken to that area in about 30 minutes.My surgeon then arrived,as usual he didn't say too much,just another day at the office for him.He marked my chest area with a marker pen took a photo and disappeard.The guy is so laid back it's untrue, he is also i firmly believe one of the best plastic surgeons in the world,after all to be head of plastic surgery in a hospital like Bumrungrad you would have to be a bit tasty i would say.

I was then taken to a room to receive the anaesthetic,i was sourrounded by 6 nurses including the surgeons wife (although i didn't know this at the time) this was the first and only time i felt nervous and anxious as the reality set in that i was about to undergo surgery.YIKES!! I felt a pleasant rush and i was out for the count.

The next thing i know was i was awake in the recovery room feeling really good physically and mentally with two very pretty nurses next to me,i still felt half asleep and just recall flirting with them (typical of me!) i was then taken to my private room,the time now was around 10am.
My chest was covered with a compression vest and some additional padding and was very tight, so i could not peak at it,i was in no pain whatsoever, i just felt a bit uncomfortable of course.

The rest of the day and night was just spent in my private room relaxing,watching tv,dvd's and chatting to the numerous nurses that were coming in and out,one of them was very nice and i got her phone number and am hoping to go out with her in the next week or so,amazing! (i just hope she doesn't have a pair of bollocks) anyway, i was given a sleeping pill to take and dropped off at around midnight.

The next morning i felt pretty much the same, no pain at all, just the padding and the vest being a discomfort.Amongst others the surgeons wife arrived and took off my padding and vest, this was the first time i could see my chest.

What i saw i was very pleased with.As i say i had lipo only but my gyn was quite severe,the surgeon removed around 250 from both sides (which i did see in a container) which he said was above average.My chest looked really flat,now this suprised me because the surgeon said before it would be around 3 weeks before it was flat, so i was very pleased and i could see by his wifes reaction she was pleased too.There wasn't too much bruising but the marker pen was making things look a bit messy.I put the vest back on and waited for the surgeon.

He arrived at around 10.30am looked at my chest and he said it was looking good and he was pleased.I told him the vest was a pain,he said he knew but just said to try to keep it on for 2 weeks or definitly at least a week and then i could get away with a tight t-shirt to support my chest,as usual he was as cool as ever.He then discharged me with a few anti-biotics and i went home happy,all be it a liitle dazed of course after the experience.Overall the service from the hospial was very good apart from the breakfast which was bloody awful.The cost by the way was around STLG 1500.

I'm now typing this on Sunday the 6th in the evening Thai time,so around two and a half days after surgery,my chest is looking good,i don't really feel anything too unusual just feel a little tense and sensitive, but i don't feel that with the vest on,i have lost some sensation in my nipples but that will come back i would like to think.The two areas that he opened up are only around half an inch long a bit red but nothing to worry about at all, i have also removed the marker pen marks so things are looking pretty good right now.I expect the bruising will be gone by the end of the week at the latest.So, so far so good and i am not expecting any problems later on,although you never know of course.

I have no idea how my chest will look in a week,two weeks or a month and so on but i'm hoping it will look really contured and natural.I'm really looking forward to going out and buying some nice new tops and t-shirts and not having to worry about looking like a woman when i go out!!

I'm due to see the surgeon again on Friday PM for a check up.By the way i'm sorry but i do not have any before and after photos and even if i did i probably wouldn't be able to figure out how to upload them anyway 

Thanks for reading,

Ross

[arnoldswart]

Hi, can you please tell me how much your surgery cost.

[GynO_DuDe]

Its very normal mate to get liquid, scar tissue, lumps, bumps etc you have to realise your chest has been through trauma which isn't a minor thing ... basically the things I went through at the early stages shocked me ... I still can't get over the fact how I didn't faint looking at my results as it was really bad ... now nearly 5 months post op it's so good, I can actually say I look normal im around 90% happy and im hoping in another 7 months that percentage will be higher.

Patience is the key ...

 

[april24th2007]

Hey buddy..please keep us updated about your situation.  Surgery in Bangkok sounds interesting.  How did you get in touch with them?  ANy contact info you have?

How did you decide to go there?  Do you know of any others that have gone to this clinic?

Please give us details about your decision.  What was the exact cost including staying there etc.

Please take some pictures.  Did you have any excision or lipo only or both?

Thanks..

[Johnny Wishbone]

Dr Poomee in Bumrungrad you say? You couldn't make that shizzle up!  Keep us posted - always nice to learn of different locations/surgeons.

Good fortune with the recovery.

[Trevor2522]

Ross, many thanks for posting your experience so promptly.   Sounds like a good result.   What a shame you don't have photos.   If you contact Dr Poomee quickly he may still not have deleted the ones he took of you pre-op.   I can post them for you, without face, if you email me trevor2522@yahoo.com .

How did the date go with the nurse?   Surely not a katoey??

[GynO_DuDe]

Cool mate, keep us updated, everything seems to be shaping up nicely!

[Trevor2522]

Ross, might be worth reminding Dr Poomee, or his wife, to save the pictures for you as he seems to delete them from his camera fairly quickly.

Is sex off the menu for the month too?   I wouldn't worry about taking things easy for a month two after living with gyne for so many years, or decades in my case.   The stinging is, of course, nerve endings letting you know they didn't like being poked around.   Not that I expect doctors to tell the truth where money is involved, but did Dr Poomee claim that his patients don't suffer long-term neuropathic pain after gynecomasty?

If anyone is interested in the meaning of odd-sounding Thai names like Poomee and Bumrungrad check out this thread ...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=164958

The brevity of Dr Poomee's surname indicates his ancestors migrated to Thailand quite early on.   Latecomers had to adopt increasingly longer names like my friend Mr Nukhun-uthiophat.   Thai surnames cannot be shared without the permission of the original family holder.   So they have a lot, and many long ones!

[PaulSW]

I have had a similar experience with the pain.

I felt so good the next day (better than I thought) that I expected the pain to be gone by 4 weeks. Well 8 weeks on the pain is still present as is the stinging and the numbness.

My chest was flat but then went lumpy but Ironically has in fact become better (not perfect) in the last week.

Seems everyone keeps telling me to wait until 6 months post op but hearing it hasn't made me feel any better.

One thing I do know for sure the post op period has it's ups and downs!

[outertrial]

It certainly does. Your chest can change by the day, or appear to, and its easy to become fixated on it.

Truth is the best thing to do is to forget about it. Do your massage and your exercises for as long as you need to but dont worry about it beyond that. Its not uncommon for final results to take up to a year with this surgery so theres really no point sweating about it in the beginning. You posted your pics and they look fine so just let the healing work itself out.

[Time_to_fix_it]

It certainly does. Your chest can change by the day, or appear to, and its easy to become fixated on it.

Truth is the best thing to do is to forget about it. Do your massage and your exercises for as long as you need to but dont worry about it beyond that. Its not uncommon for final results to take up to a year with this surgery so theres really no point sweating about it in the beginning. You posted your pics and they look fine so just let the healing work itself out.

Wise words from Outertrial above.


Guys,

Try to stop worrying, it just makes you more anxious and conscious of your chest as it slowly heals.  Slowly is the operative word here.

Yes, like you I looked at mine several times every day trying to see if it looked any better than the last time I looked (2 hours previously); hoping really that after all the stress of the surgery the healing was going to be the easy bit.  It isn’t.

The surgery is the easy and quick part.  The healing is the slow and anxious part.

I can only speak for myself but I can also reiterate the posts I read after surgery of others who had gone through the same as me.  Patience is the key.  Stop worrying about your chest as you heal.  Keep telling yourself to get on with your life as it slowly sorts itself out ... and it will.

The post op swelling on my chest came and went for several months.  There were all sorts of tingles and weird sensations as the nerves repaired themselves and for a month or so the whole of my upper chest was completely numb.  Like so many others I lost all feeling in my nipples for several weeks (some say that can last a year), but all this is normal.

The changes are slow ... so slow that you won’t seem to notice them, but they are happening.  Give it at least 6 months (preferably a year) to judge how your chest is turning out.  Maybe try taking a photo every month and comparing them at the 6 month stage.  Looking at your chest too much just makes us paranoid that things aren’t happening when really they are.  The healing process is slow and fraught with worries about how things are turning out but that’s natural and you do have to wait.  Good old mother nature takes her time.

Lastly, might I suggest you have a read of a few diaries in the diary section of this site of those of us who had the surgery and recorded the slow process of healing?  I know I found such posts useful as my chest recovered after the surgery.

Good luck, try not to worry too much and start making plans for the rest of your life without gyne, as that can take a little getting used to.