Did I just throw away 3500$ ?

[Jake]

A short while after surgery you can never judge what is going on with your body.  There is simply too much happening at one time.

Gofast, I know you're probably pretty shaken up about this.  If not, then that's good.  But I do think you may have went into this a little hastily.  I say this because once that doctor told you that there may be no difference at all, you should have shook his hand and walked out of his office.  That is simply unacceptable.  Now, I'm not saying he should have lied to you, but I don't think he was really confident in his abilities.

Most of these surgeries are excision + lipo and very rarely do just lipo cases look successful.  Like all things in life, sometimes you just have to move on.  

I think thetodd is right in his post and that sounds like the most realistic and mature way to go.  Good luck!

[thetodd]

im just having a read through his site, for the love of god. Dont let him peform the incision! (i dont think he could anyway). This guy is a liposuctionist .... thats it! and a poor one at that! If you read through his gynecomastia operation page he says

Although there are medical causes of gynecomastia, most commonly there is no known cause nor any associated medical condition associated with male breast enlargement.  Usually, male breast enlargement is due to excess fat in the male breasts, rather than actual breast tissue.  This is what the term pseudogynecomastia means.  Pseudogynecomastia is actually far more common than true gynecomastia.  Although extremely common, gynecomastia is often a very considerable cosmetic and emotional concern for men who have it.

So hes not even acknowledging that gynecomastia is the problem, hes saying its rare and its usually just cases of Psudeogyne ... bzzzz WRONG. Nearly EVERY case will need an excision and i had 18g of gland removed, and i wasnt a serious case . His reference's for "Gynecomastia liposuction" look completley made up!

i find this a very interesting read

http://www.drmelton.com/Chicago/Liposuction/Male_Liposuction_-_Liposuction/malelipogyne/gynecomastia/gynecomastia.html

His front page for his website? i mean really?
http://www.drmelton.com/

this surgeon is WAY in the stone age, ive seriously never read anything like this. 1% are true gyne suffers ... this guys a out and out shark! Saying "Excision leaves nasty scars" is just a sign that he CANT do the operation, yes it leaves scars if you butcher the guy but if youve got a single shred of skill the scars will be tiny!

I know i said go for the excision, but my god please dont this guy is to incompetent. You will NOT get your money back i wouldnt go through trying the fact that hes gone "Well yeah theres a 50% chance" I wouldnt risk £100 at those odds let alone 3k. Unfortuantley in the world of cosmetic surgey you will get

Surgeons who want your money, dont care about the end results
Ok surgeons, not brilliant, want your money!
Excellent surgeons! Want your money, and have the rep to back this up

Hes a complete shark! write a letter to him. Say your not happy and you cango from there, but something definatley needs to be mentioned on this site about him, its not on!

[gofast_er]

crap. I don't know what to do...I wish I would have found this site BEFORE I went ahead and did this. I did do some research. I really went with what I thought I could best afford. I don't know what to do now. If I do manage to get the $ for a proper procedure, how long would I have to wait? I'm scheduled to go back to the guy that did my lipo July 14th. Should I even bother?
Thank you to everyone who posted your thoughts. I guess I did rush into this a little too fast. Though, it didn't seem like it considering this has been bothering me for almost 16 years now. I cannot freakin believe this...I went from the highest high to the lowest low in almost a blink of an eye. Not to mention i'm out almost 4 grand....i just don't know what to do/say/think/feel etc...
Can anyone recomend someone good around the south east wisconsin area?

[mrpower33]

Hey, I disagree with thetodd on just one thing, you should try to get your money back, you have nothing to lose by trying.  I learned something recently and it's that if you are annoying enough, you will usually get what you want.  Go to the follow up and start out calm and reasonable but don't be afraid to bitch him out if he won't play ball.  If you can get even something back from him that would be worth it.  Don't be intimidated.  The guy has insurance and he is most likely loaded, if he wants you to go away, he just needs to make it worth your while.  He SCREWED you, don't be bashful about standing up for what's right.  You should be focused on getting the money together for a revision by a gyne specialist and getting something back from this guy will get you there all the faster. 

[gofast_er]

I think I might try to talk to my mom about it again. I tried once when I was around 15-16 but couldn't work up the courage. I might send her the link to this post. I don't know what else to do. I'm beyond desperate at this point.

This is ridiculous. I'm almost 29 years old. I shouldn't be afraid to talk to my own mother about this...

[i_dont_know]

Man, I feel for you.. that's really unfortunate. He really did a poor job. The good news is that he didn't butcher you..  you can still go to a reputable, well-versed PS and they will be able to do the surgery the RIGHT way. I think you should go back to him and explain that you are VERY unhappy with the results and you should try to get whatever you can back. If you're 100% unsatisfied, it's wrong for the surgeon not to give you some sort of refund (although, it's obvious why they wouldn't want to).

I can imagine how bummed you must be about it, but hang in there and keep your head up. You'll get a successful operation out of it in the end. I know it's not cheap, but you'll find a way to do it. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.. trust me. I dealt with gyne from 14-24 (now) and for a long time I thought it was hopeless and that there's never be a solution. And finally, here I am.. 6 weeks post op, moving freely again and although I'm still healing in ways and still have residual swelling, etc... am finally not ashamed to wear t-shirts in the warm weather anymore. My chest is nice and flat now and very natural looking. You'll get there too, man. Keep your head up.

[gofast_er]

Thanks man. I'm trying. It's hard. It first became an issue for me the summer I turned 13. That was 1993. I'm almost 29 now and it isn't getting any easier to deal with. For a brief few days I thought I was about to get a new lease on life. I couldn't have been more wrong. Its worse than if I would have never even gotten the lipo at all.

[gofast_er]

MOM, THIS POST IS FOR YOU

Ok, I have decided I'm going to finally talk to my mom about this today. Of course that is if I can get a hold of her. I'm going to send her a link to this post. So, mom, this message is for you. Can you please at least for now keep this between us and don't talk to mel or anyone else about it. Remeber when I was about 15-16 and I asked if I could talk to you about something when we were in the backyard. But I chickend out. Well, I still have the same problem and even though I dont know if I'm ready to talk about it I just have to. Because I don't know if it will ever get easy to talk about. I have already wasted enough of my life. Something has to give. So,  I f***ed up big time. I need help bad. My life has been miserable for far too long. Please, I don't know what else to say.

[Merangue]

Gofast, I really feel for you here. Like someone else mentioned though, the bright side of it is that because  Dr. McIdiot really didn't too much other than poke you with a stick a few too many times. You don't have any permanent deformities like craters or a dead nipples.

If you go to a good plastic surgeon, you're almost guaranteed to walk away from this whole ordeal as a bad memory. I would highly recommend saving money for a well known PS and don't limit yourself to just your local area (I'm a college student and flew across the country because I didn't feel comfortable with the surgeons in my area, typing this from a hotel recovering a day after surgery).

Be sure to include links to the youtube videos of gynecomastia or other links in this forum in your email to your mother so she can better understand what it is you're dealing with.

Also make sure you grill the PS. Obviously he's using old outdated methods, see if you can threaten legal action.

Keep us posted with your progress. If anything, I'm sure this will help many future patients in your area from making a terrible mistake (I would edit this threads name to something more like: Warning against choosing Dr. Melton in the wisconsin area or something).

[gofast_er]

I will definitely keep my progress posted on here. I can't continue on hiding the way I have for basically my whole life. My number one priority as of now is to get this taken care of. whatever it takes, I swear I will do something about it.

And mom, (if you ever text me back ) when I say this makes me uncomfortable that doesn't even begin to describe it. I wish I had a way of conveying just how bad life has been for me. It dominates my life from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed. It has been like this for years and years.

I finally figured out a good way to describe the way it felt when I realized the lipo I got wasn't going to do the job. Picture you check the powerball numbers and you realize you matched 6 of 6 on a huge jackpot. You go to claim your prize only to find out the ticket you are holding was from last weeks drawing. That's probably comparable to how I feel.

[George Pope, M.D.]

Dr. Melton is a dermatologist, not a surgeon.  Look at his credentials.

Dr. Pope, M.D.

[gofast_er]

well I'm sending my mom the link to this in just a second. I think it's one of the hardest things I have ever done. Once again, I don't know why 

well, here goes

just sent it

quick update. I finally talked to her about it. She read this post then called me back. After all these years I finally talked to her. It was a little hard but not as hard as I thought it would be.

[Merangue]

So what'd she say? Hopefully she'll support you with your revision.

[gofast_er]

She was totally understanding. She is a RN and has had work done too so I don't know why I was scared to tell her. She said that she wished we could go back in time so she could help me when it first became a problem. I told her how this has basically controlled my life since I was 13.
Anyway, she wants me to wait at least a few months before I decide to do anything else. I really do hope that she helps me with a revision though. I can really tell that the lipo didn't do much at all 

[tenncast]

interesting...I went to a dermatologist the first time as well. Apparantly alot of them sell the client on the fact that they can work on the "skin" better than many plastic surgeons.  My dermatolgist had been doing a lot of lypo for womens stomachs and things like that.

When I visited he told me to that he could get a 50 percent improvment.....$4000 later i knew it was a mistake. When I removed the bandages I was flatter...but those damn nips still stuck out.

When Dr Bermant fixed the first docs work I knew immediatly that i was fixed!  Flat from the very beginning.  Go see a real ps and you will be fine. You are just a few weeks away from a new guy. You can wait that much longer.