Hi everyone! So I'm currently sitting in my hotel room a few days after my surgery with Garramone and I wanted
to tell everyone how it went. I am fairly new to the site as a poster but been around a long time as a lurker (I'm one of
those shy guys)
So, I actually moved from Los Angeles, Ca to Orlando in early October when my partner got a job at a University so I was
fairly sure it was going to be at least a year before I could have my surgery. And let me tell you I was dreading it. You all
now how much binding sucks especially in
humidity.It was early November and we went for it. We decided to check and see
how good our credit was and try and get a care credit card and see what it would cost us. Turns out it was pretty decent (his side)
and we were able to get a very very low interest rate and $4000 in credit and since I already had $2000 saved up...BOOM I
suddenly had the money to go ahead and do it. I had already had my phone interview with Garramone a solid year ago so I called
them, said I was ready and paid the deposit to get the date. It actually took me three days to transfer them the full amount.
You know how banks are..just cause its your money doesn't mean they want you to spend it all at once.
After all that I had the date and I was shocked at how soon they could do it. December 9th... which meant I had 4 weeks
to try and arrange everything. I was happier than a pig in a bathtub but also pretty stressed. It took me weeks to arrange for a LOA
from work and file for the short term disability pay I could get for having surgery (I pay extra every week for 75% of my check). Work
was actually a pain since they know I'm trans and tend to treat me badly for it but at least they cant fire me, I'm good at my job and
actually plan on finding something a little more accepting.
Anyway, so I arranged it all and found a hotel near his office. We decided with La Quinta. Our rate was 45 a night and we stayed at a lot
of them along the week long trip it took for us to get from California to Florida. Ohhh and we had to bring our kitty. We had a friend that
was willing to feed her but she's a needy cat and I think it would have been cruel to leave her there with no company. She's sweet though,
and hasn't once tried to jump or sleep on me.
So, let's get back on
track.My surgery is Dec 9th and my pre op is going to be Dec 7th. A week before they called me and wanted to move
my surgery to Dec 8th so its the day after my pre op. I agree whole heartedly. We leave for Sunrise Wednesday Dec 7th and make it to my
pre op right one time (it was at 11, we stopped at the hotel to drop off our kitty and stuff then off to pre op we went)
There were a couple of trans guys there already. One had his post off and another I believe was getting his chest revealed. Pre op went great,
got my prescriptions for clindamyacin and percocet. Went to the local CVS. The pharmacist was actually really rude and insisted she could not have
the prescriptions ready until the next day so I argued a bit, got another pharmacist who said it would be a few hours, said thank you and went to
the store. Usually, I would not argue but there was no reason for her to be cranky with us. Maybe I was being more gay than usual, I dunno. Finally,
got the meds and some basic supplies and went back to the hotel to wait. i made sure to eat a last time at 11pm ish since i know i was going to be starving
the next day..and i was. My surgery wasnt until 2pm lol OMG that was the worst part.They had me come in at 11am so the Dr could mark me up at the same
time as the guy before me. My boyfriend had to leave about that time anyway to do some work. (He was working from home so he could take the time
off to be with me, amazing isnt he?)
So, I was stuck in the pre op place in my cute open gown...alone with fashion magazines. Omg it was boring but I was dying with anticipation. I had to pee
way too many times. Finally, a nurse comes over, they ask me what op I am getting and with whom, I tell them, they stick a paper cap on my head. (Very
fashion forward, Im sure) Next the anethesiologist comes in (I hope that is spelled ok) Weirdly enough, this is the only guy that kept calling me she even though
my paperwork, my bracelet and my ID all says MALE. (California lets you do that when you are in transition so even my DL says male, not sure yet how many other states do that). Nurse finally gives me something to relax and they wheel me in and thats the last I remember.
Woke up in the recovery room. Some great nurses were there, apparantly I am very amusing and the favorite patient of the day. I did not get sick at all, craved ice chips and insisted on sitting up. I was there until about5Pm. My surgery took just under 2 hours. Boyfriend took me home, fed me pills and a light soup and I was out like a light.
I woke up friday morning @ 7 am in a lot of pain but only on the left side. We checked the bandages, I had almost no drainage and the left side was painfully swollen, it was actually messing up my breathing at that point (I have asthma) We called the Dr and he was on his way into his office so he said come right away. We were there by 8 and he looked at it and it was definately a hematoma. He mentioned that it happens although he only has it happen maybe once or twice a year and he thinks I wanted to be special. It made me smile. He also mentioned I barely bled during surgery and it went amazingly well.
So he looks at it and says he thinks its all old blood, and explains it. He decides to drain it using a huge ass needle through the side of my chest and by pushing down and getting the excess blood to flow into the drains. It took about 30 mins and wasnt painful, just weird. I actually looked at the blood he was emptying out and almost passed out. He had bridgett turn the air down in the room, get water and a clothe for my head. I have never almost passed out from that so I was annoyed at myself. I think we were in there for about an hour and a half total and by the time he was done there was no swelling at all on that side and the drains were filling fast. He sent us home and had us watch the drains carefully, and tells us to call him if anything changes. He sent me with a lot of bandaging materail so I could change it as I go. He did also say he could take me back into surgery to try and fix this but it usually fixes itself if you catch it fast like we did.
So back to the hotel we went. We were draining the drains every hour sometimes sooner and the swelling was almost all gone. It slowed down after several hours to what I felt was more normal. Bridgett called us later friday to check on us and we assured her it looked good. Dr. Garramone then called us about 9 am on saturday to see if we needed to come back in and how we were doing and feeling. We assured him it looked great, much better now I just have some crazy bruising over my left side and he said good but come in any time I want on Monday so he can rebandage and check it all.
Much boredom passed (we ended up watching netflix, talking alot and my boyfriend forced me to watch the L word.) Monday morning, the dr rebandaged me, fixed the drains and said it looks perfect, no problems. He also went ahead and gave me my surgery letters...OMG it feels amazing to have those. My chest btw looks totally fab, even though he had to meet the scars in the middle. I get my finaly reveal on wednesday and then I get to go home so I will add more then. Thank you for reading this. I was just so overwhelmed by how amazing Dr Garramone and all his ppl are that I wanted to tell about my experience.
Update!!
I got all the bandages off yesterday and got to really see what they did. The right side looks amazing and I can tell what the whole thing will look like now, the only place I have swelling is on the sides where he did a little lipo. I only needed a touch. Now the left side is still swollen and he chose to remove the drain. I have bruising from my shoulder to below my ribs from the hematoma but a lot of the swelling is gone. So he has me continuing to use the ace bandage for the next few weeks on my chest and to put a thick pad over the drain hole. He says usually when you bind the chest when this has happened the excess blood is going to look for a place to go and the drain hole is the place. Hes hoping that buy binding my chest while I continue to heal will help prevent a seroma (not sure if i spelled that right) and help heal up the hematoma. He also put new stestrips on everything since mine were pretty gory. And the nipples...OMG so perfect. He said the nipple grafts look great. I swear the man is a genius. Even with the hematoma problem (not his fault, I apparantly just wanted more drs appts or more attention lol). So I am sending pictures at the end of every week per his request so he can monitor it and he has an open door policy for patients so if it has to be drained again or I want him to look at it, I can just drive down there (Im in Orlando so its only a three hour drive), or he can coordinate with my primary dr.
Thats my update!
