Surgery with Alex Karidis 5/4/11 + pics! (Updated regularly)

[thetodd]

Yeah its normal, go on youtube and search for gynecomastia liposuction ... youl know why your chest hurts lol its pretty brutal

Glad for you mate your confidence will only increase. I always say to people work on your posture gyne gives you really bad posture i used to imagine a string pulling my head up, now i do it naturally. Personally id just wear the vest at night after one week but do whatever feels best!

Your nipples will be numb for ages btw, mine took months to get sensation back in them

[PecDec]

Excellent recovery mate, hopefully mine will be the same.

1st day and it's hard to imagine the final result.

Been good to see your progress, keep us updated

[vintage]

Your nipples will be numb for ages btw, mine took months to get sensation back in them

Oh, crap! 

[chopper]

Everything is starting to look a lot better, the swelling looks to have come down, the bruising has come down etc...All looking good from where I'm sat.

[emanresu]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm really happy with the result, other than the fact that my left nipple is slightly indented, which I'm going to discuss with Karidis during the checkup. Incidentally, he phoned yesterday to ask how things are going and I basically said I'm pleased with the result so far. People on this forum have said not to expect a 100% perfect result, so it helps to know that in advance. The bottom line is that it looks f*ck loads better than it did with the moobs. Hopefully building up the pecs might push the nipple outwards, or maybe Karidis will perform a revision. We shall see.

Yeah its normal, go on youtube and search for gynecomastia liposuction ... youl know why your chest hurts lol its pretty brutal

Ouch! I'm glad I didn't see that before the surgery lol. It's 10 days post-op and it's still quite tender and painful + bruised. I still can't lift my arms fully above my head either. Supposed to be going back to work on Monday but I'm gonna pull a sickie next week. Don't know what excuse to use though lol.

Oh yeah, today I went to my local doctor's surgery and he said it all looked fine, but it's still early days re' the healing process. Didn't get a twinge of self-consciousness in the waiting room. Doctor's waiting rooms + supermarket checkout queues used to be a friggin' nightmare.

BTW will be uploading some more pics before the end of the month so you guys can see the progression.

[thetodd]

i wouldnt be worrying about indentations and stuff itl even out

i mean it really is very early days, id expect it to get worse before it gets better in a way because you will get scar tissue forming soon. The best think you could do is go on a clean diet with no alchohol+ healthy eating and youl shed a few pounds. If you massage when your supposed to itl even out in a few months!

Id push back any meeting you have set for karidis i remember them booking me in 4 weeks after the op ... its way to soon. Id ask for maybe another few weeks before you go back for the checkup

[chopper]

keep us posted on the healing as i'm checking in regularly to see whats happening with you. I'm expecting the indented nipples and the result to blow out due to scar tissue about 3 weeks after the surgery is done from reading posts on here....we've just booked a holiday for next year, so that has given me something to take my immediate short-term healing focus away from, i can look forward to that now in 14 months time and hope as much healing is done by then

I purposley have avoided looking at the surgery videos on youtube, i know they are there and i've been really curious to know whats about to happen, but im burying my head firmly in the sand at the moment....I'm in in 2 weeks and i'll probably spend time watching those videos after surgery when im stuck in bed recovering but nothing good will come of me watching those videos before i see Karidis or i'll be in cold sweats when i walk into see them for the op lol

[emanresu]

Checked under the garment this morning before showering and the bruising has subsided considerably. The pain has also gone completely, which is a relief because it peaked a few days ago and I thought there was something seriously wrong. Now the only problem is hard, lumpy scar tissue (which should go with massage) and the slightly inverted nipples.

Id push back any meeting you have set for karidis i remember them booking me in 4 weeks after the op ... its way to soon. Id ask for maybe another few weeks before you go back for the checkup

I'm booked to see him 5 and a half weeks after the op'. You think I should push it back a couple of weeks?

I'm in in 2 weeks and i'll probably spend time watching those videos after surgery when im stuck in bed recovering but nothing good will come of me watching those videos before i see Karidis or i'll be in cold sweats when i walk into see them for the op lol

You won't be stuck in bed mate; more likely you'll be sitting-up, watching TV or playing video games. My op' was at 8 in the morning and by 2pm I was pacing around my recovery room like a caged animal. Ironically it's staying in bed that's the problem coz you can only lay on your back; propped up by loads of pillows. Oh well, a little discomfort is worth it for a moob free life. 

The op' itself is a breeze and you honestly have piss-all to worry about.

[thetodd]

Id ask them to delay it to maybe 8-10 weeks if its possible (id just say your going out of the country or something)

When i went in 4 weeks post i was still buzzing despite having concerns about swelling, i sat down with him and said about being on here and what not. And he had a look and he said yeah its just a bit of swelling dont worry. Which was ok but 3 months later i started getting a bit of a complex really expecting to have unveiled a pair of pecs

I got a fixation with massaging and started doing it way to often making it worse. Once i hit about a year post op i started getting pretty pissed off about what i thought was scarring and got bitter about it really. I mailed karidis's secetary about keloid scar treatment and didnt get a reply and this just made it worse. I ended up contacting Paul Levick and asking about scar treatment and got a price and sent a mail to karidis himself asking his opinion on keloid.

He emailed me back pretty much straight away, and said come down to the clinic and i had it in my head i needed this scar treatment which was £100 and a 5 min drive away, compared to a train trip and a day off work. I decided to go and see him anyway he just sat me down and basically put my mind at rest. After having a frank chat with him and the fact that id been obsessing over it i went out a feeling a bit better. By the next week once it had all sunk in i was at ease with the whole thing and started hitting the gym.

Despite being a multi millionaire, hes a good bloke and if you can sway my mindset youve got to have the patience of a saint lol.. So in short (whoops) if you have any concerns go and see him dont worry about costs like i did ten minutes with him is worth its weight in gold.

I think by 8 weeks you should have a decent amount of scar tissue and he'l be able to tell you have to deal with it.

[emanresu]

OK the first post has been updated with some new pics; just a little over 2 weeks post-op.

Other than the subsidence of the bruising, the result doesn't look as good as it did in the days immediately following the operation. Back then everything looked flat and the skin was smooth. Now it's started to look blotchy and saggy, as well as the nipples being slightly inverted. All this despite wearing the compression garment 24hrs a day. There's a slight amount of swelling but that's to be expected and should pass with time.

It's still infinitely preferable to how it was pre-op though. I feel much more confident and less self-conscious. It feels good to be able to walk around town, in supermarkets etc, with a nice posture: Head up, shoulders back, chest out. I'm just worried that the final result is going to be less than satisfactory and I'll still be unable to take my shirt off in front of other people. The inversion of the nipples is the most concerning aspect.

Is that degree of nipple inversion normal? Does it heal with time?

[thetodd]

Dont worry that looks like scar tissue/swelling to me mate

Post op it will look perfect, because your body hasnt really reacted to the surgery yet. What you have to remember is that youve had a large amount of lipo suction and your body will react to it. I was in the same position as you and i say it to everyone this period is horrible you have the take some brilliant post op pics and think "well thats over"

truth is, it isnt for a while lol. And everyone's body reacts differentley to the surgery some people scar/swell some people dont your bodys acted quite badly bad brusing+swelling but dont worry it will eventually settle.

And if you look through my original thread i go a bit up and down regarding swelling scar tissue, i think on my second set of pics i had quite significant swelling but it just isnt visible due to the lighting. But i remember just thinking fucking hell have i just wasted 4 grand here?

But i didnt and it was worth it, If you look at my last set of pictures and my first the difference is huge so dont worry its a waiting game from here

[thetodd]

And your nips only inverted because of the scar tissue dont worry that will go with time, and if it doesnt you can get injections that arent to expensive (but it should!)

so dont panic

[emanresu]

And your nips only inverted because of the scar tissue dont worry that will go with time, and if it doesnt you can get injections that arent to expensive (but it should!)

so dont panic

Thanks for the reply

How does the scar tissue make the nips inverted? I'm just curious because TBH the inversion at the point of the incision seems as though it's caused by a lack of material directly behind there to support the skin. It's as though since about day 5, post op, the incisions have been sinking further inwards, as though being pulled towards the ribcage by an invisible piece of string.

[thetodd]

When you say there inverted i look at your pics and think you mean because youve got

a ) sort of shape and the nipple in the middle

to me it looks like a huge chunk of swelling on top and the bottom and the nipples has a void where all the the glands been taking out of making it look sunk it, mine was the same but the pics just dont show it

you need to see karidis if its really bothering you, maybe go in at the 4 week and go back a month or two later

[kingboob]

And your nips only inverted because of the scar tissue dont worry that will go with time, and if it doesnt you can get injections that arent to expensive (but it should!)

so dont panic

Thanks for the reply

How does the scar tissue make the nips inverted? I'm just curious because TBH the inversion at the point of the incision seems as though it's caused by a lack of material directly behind there to support the skin. It's as though since about day 5, post op, the incisions have been sinking further inwards, as though being pulled towards the ribcage by an invisible piece of string.

*warning, the following is my non-medically trained opinion, based on my personal experience............ for what it is worth*.

I think what can happen after the gland/fat is removed is that the nipples can sometimes get tethered down to the muscle or tissues underneath, causing a slight indentation........   that is then made to look 100 times worse by the post-op swelling in the surrounding tissues.... as you end up with a donut effect of a crater with a large swollen ring around it.

Also, what can happen with the swollen areas IF you get swelling which hangs around for a long time, it can eventually go a bit harder than the surrounding tissue (in my experience)...... that is scar tissue I believe.

I saw your pictures on the other page and you are at very early days.  You had a fairly big case pre-op and a decent amount of swelling was predictable even with the compression vest.  Also, you might have a bit of loose skin going on at the moment (causing any indents to look bigger still) which needs to snap back a bit over time.

Worse case scenario is that too much has come out of some areas and not enough from others, then you are looking at a revision maybe.   Alternative, you might need a few injections to help break up any scar tissue a few months down the line........ or it may well resolve itself once the swelling has gone.......  I mean you immediate post op pics were great, there is no reason to believe anything horrible has gone wrong with the op.  

I would say all you can do at the moment is wait and watch.......... see what happens really.  Other guys with similar post-op issues have had significant improvements over time (6months or more), but if you are looking for total prefection then I suspect you will be disappointed..... although I agree at present the result isn't ideal, but as I said it is very early days.