Warning - the first pic is a little graphic; not too bad, but it's still healing.
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I'm on the mend from top surgery, so I thought I'd post. Gives me something to do
. Surgery was this past Thursday with Dr. Medalie in Cleveland. I have to stay in town 'til Tuesday (when the drains come out), so I'm staying at an extended stay hotel with my mom, who is graciously taking care of my useless self, lol. I've regained some of the range of motion in my arms in the past couple days, but definitely not 100%. It's amazing how hard some things become (putting on a button-up shirt, shoes, a seatbelt, getting dishes out of a too-high cupboard) when you don't have full use of your arms.
I had the periareolar technique done, but I haven't seen my chest yet. I'm getting anxious/excited to see it. My chest feels alright. The vicodin works wonders for pain. The worst day for pain was the day after surgery when all the local anesthetic had worn off. The worst day
period was the day of surgery--general anesthesia makes me nauseous like none other.
Dunno what else to say, other than the nurses that took care of me after surgery were awesome. They were very attentive and not at all 'weirded out' by me--which makes sense, given how many guys have already had top surgery with Dr. Medalie, but it was still nice that things never felt awkward. The Dr. himself is very professional and down-to-business. I was a little worried about having surgery on a Thursday--if something goes wrong during the weekend, what do I do? Go to the ER (not exactly comfortable with that)? Fortunately, Dr. Medalie provides his number and requests that patients call him if anything seems wrong, so that put my mind at ease. Everything seems to be going good so far, save for some swelling that I did go see him about to check that a hematoma wasn't forming (it wasn't).
Finally, I've got a question for those who have had top surgery: how long after surgery were you able to stop taking painkillers?
------------UPDATE--------------
5 days post-op & freshly showered (the day I got my drains out)
The lines along my pectoral line aren't incisions, they're just the remnants of the purple marker the surgeon used on me. The 'pleating' is due to excess skin, courtesy of my unusually large pre-op areolae size. It's apparently supposed to even out as I heal (hope so). The contouring is great; no extra pouches of skin/tissue. It's all very flat, but not concave. I can see my (admittedly small) pectoral muscles twitch. I'm not even gonna try flexing yet.
------------UPDATE 5-27-10--------------
About 4 months post-op
The healing is coming along, slowly. Most of the pleats have smoothed out when I'm standing straight, but become more visible if I lean over or slouch. My skin tends to ripple along the stretch marks (they're definitely present, but are light and difficult to see in photos) that I had prior to surgery. There's some scarring around the areolae (see the darker pink at the border). No sensation in the nipples/areolae, though I didn't have sensation before surgery, so no big. There's tactile sensation in the left side of my chest, but the right side still has a large numb area above the areola that's roughly 4" in diameter--my right side was larger and more tissue was removed in that area via liposuction. I still occasionally get sharp pains, usually after carrying something heavy and usually on my right side.
Not complainin' here, just wanted to be factual for anybody considering a peri. The healing takes time and liposuction is a *insert expletive here*. But all-in-all I think the outcome has been pretty good.
