I had my appointment with Mr Alan Breidahl (surgeons use Mr instead of Dr. I think it goes back to when surgeons were barbers rather than doctors.) I was quite impressed.
I've had proposals from the Facial Team in Spain and Dr Chetawut in Thailand.
The Facial Team wanted to do my forehead, including brow lift, upper blepharoplasty and lip lift but recommended I get a lower face and neck lift locally, although they were willing to bring in a local (to them) plastic surgeon to do this in the same surgical session. They didn't think my nose, jaw or chin needed any bone work.
Dr Chetawut proposed doing the full list of FFS procedures (other than a tracheal shave, which I don't need), including forehead, brow, upper & lower blepharoplasty, rhinoplasty, chin, jaw, lip, face and neck lift, in a single surgery. He uses a titanium plate and bone paste over the reduced frontal sinus as opposed to the reshaped bone held in place with screws that the Facial Team utilise.
Mr Breidahl is a plastic and craniofacial surgeon who proposed very similar work on my forehead to the Facial Team but uses thin titanium mesh to secure the reshaped bone plate on the reduced frontal sinus. He proposed including the brow lift, upper and lower blepharoplasty, and lip lift in addition to full face and neck lift, demonstrating much of it by manipulating the soft tissue of my face, which also made clear that my chin will need a little bone work as well. While my nose is not hideous, its not particularly feminine either, and he proposed to reshape this as well. More significantly I have a significantly deviated septum, to the extent that I'm not sure I could survive if I could only breath through my left nostril. Fixing this, as well as the upper blepharoplasty might even attract insurance subsidies. But he was very firm about not doing my nose and forehead in the one surgery, saying that each is structurally dependent on the other and the risk of things falling apart if they are both structurally modified at the same time was too high for him be comfortable. He proposed a 6 week gap between surgeries, but in the second surgery (on my nose) there would also be scope to get a breast augmentation as well, probably by a colleague of his who does more transgender BA's than him.
Overall I felt very comfortable with him. The big question is what it will cost! He said that he will get his quote to me in a couple of weeks. He did mention that the first surgery would take about 7 hours, so I'm sure it won't be cheap.
Hugs,
-Kenna
