Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I knew I wanted top surgery from the minute I slipped on my first binder on almost 2 years ago. I've watched a good friend recover from their surgery recently and have come out to my family as non-binary etc. All the things have kind of lined up. Now that I'm almost 3 months on T I'm getting settled with the actual surgery part of top surgery.

What I am having kind of fear around is the recovery part. I know the first 2 weeks are really important and I have a loving partner who will sit by me through it but its the next year part that really paralyzes me. The thought of being physically limited for a year brings back a lot of trauma from my chronic illness growing up. Being told I can't do things or shouldn't be exerting myself in certain ways freaks me out.
How much of a big deal is the mobility and muscle loss for you folks? Did anyone struggle with maintaining their independence and freedom through their recovery?

You won't be physically limited for a whole year. Some people go back to work within 2-3 weeks and back to working out or other physical stuff within a couple of months. Obviously you shouldn't go nuts with working out or whatever for a while but you're not going to be incapacitated.

Your not going to be physically limited for a year. I think you are getting the year number from when people have revisions and to be sure that all the swelling goes down. It's usually 8 weeks before you start lifting more than 10 lbs and you just ease into it and shouldn't have problems.

Quote from: Alexthecat on March 20, 2017, 07:56:49 AM
Your not going to be physically limited for a year. I think you are getting the year number from when people have revisions and to be sure that all the swelling goes down. It's usually 8 weeks before you start lifting more than 10 lbs and you just ease into it and shouldn't have problems.

That might be possible. My friend who had top surgery ages ago just told me that it took him about a year to feel physically good afterwards. Like going to the gym without concern, muscle was pretty built up again etc. I must have misinterpreted or exaggerated what he said in my head.

Your friend may have just had a way longer than average recovery period for whatever reason. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone else taking that long to get back to normal post-surgery.

I'd say the first two weeks were the worst for me. I kept inadvertently hunching because the stitch lines felt tight and straightening up produced an uncomfortable stretching feeling on my chest. That quickly subsided.
After that, it was just a matter of giving myself two months before resuming weightlifting and another month after that before I got back into the heavy lifting. It's important to remember that they aren't cutting into/taking away/altering your muscle tissue in any way, so your recovery period should be even less than most surgeries. The biggest risks (assuming your surgery went through without a hitch and you have no underlying health concerns) with getting carried away too soon are popping a stitch or pointlessly stretching your scars.

The person who was supposed to take care of me post-top surgery basically dropped me off at home the day after surgery and left. I didn't have any issues because I'm a big planner and there wasn't really anything I would've needed them to do that I hadn't already planned for.

Mobility wasn't really an issue. It was difficult not using my arms as much, but I found that taking a few extra minutes to move things around in my house made it a lot easier. Instead of sleeping in my bed, I slept in a recliner in the living room. This meant I wasn't more than 10 steps from the kitchen/bathroom. I put all the things I might want (video game controllers, TV remotes, etc.) on a nearby table so I didn't have to walk to get those. I also cooked and froze a week's worth of food so all I had to do was walk to the kitchen and microwave them. I don't think I lost much muscle during my recovery period.

I don't know where you got the idea of being physically limited for a year? I was back to work a week after surgery and back in the gym 4 weeks post-op. Obviously not performing at the same level as pre-op, but it did not take me long to get back to that level. Maybe three months total to feel like I wasn't going to hurt myself if I went all out?

Anyone post op a swimmer? I'm wondering how soon it would be advisable to wait after surgery to return to that, if anyone else did so and has advice. It's not what I'd call working out, or putting the muscles under deliberate strain to grow them, but it is especially vigorous for recovering areas.

I don't use a pool either, I use the sea. Which is not a controlled environment and always in my view requires being in fairly good shape to avoid safety issues. I'd like to get back to it as soon as possible after any surgery, but I could see sea swimming and diving as being something I'll need to weigh up carefully in recovery, and how soon to get back to it is a question my doctor hasn't been sure about.

Quote from: Kylo on April 16, 2017, 08:04:42 AM
Anyone post op a swimmer? I'm wondering how soon it would be advisable to wait after surgery to return to that, if anyone else did so and has advice. It's not what I'd call working out, or putting the muscles under deliberate strain to grow them, but it is especially vigorous for recovering areas.

I don't use a pool either, I use the sea. Which is not a controlled environment and always in my view requires being in fairly good shape to avoid safety issues. I'd like to get back to it as soon as possible after any surgery, but I could see sea swimming and diving as being something I'll need to weigh up carefully in recovery, and how soon to get back to it is a question my doctor hasn't been sure about.

I was allowed to go back to swimming at 4 weeks post op. The thing you'd have to understand is that the kind of movement of your arms that swimming requires absolutely will stretch your scars. Scars can stretch basically anytime in the first year of healing as I understand it. So the longer you can hold off, the better, if aesthetics matter to you. I personally didn't care, and you can see in the top surgery recovery thread how mine stretched after resuming all activities at 4 weeks post op.

Yeah, I'm not too concerned about aesthetics but considering the sort of swimming I do it's not exactly "gentle exercise". A month sounds fair but I guess that does depend too on the healing situation as it develops. I'd like to avoid having greatly noticeable scars just for the fact I'd rather they not be recognized for exactly what they are, but I suppose there's no getting away from that with a close enough look anyway.

I waited 2 months to go swimming. If it's the sea I think you would want the wounds closed completely. Salt in the wound does not sound pleasant.

It's actually not that bad having cuts or grazes and sea swimming - but depends if someone's used to it or not. I generally use a wetsuit or drysuit though, there are ways to keep the water out or off certain areas with those.

If I were you I would wear the wetsuit then and keep the sea bacteria out of the surgical cuts.

Yup, most likely will. The sea's always pretty damn cold around here.  ;)