Hi Janette,

I'm so glad John's op went well . Thanks for posting on his behalf and letting us know how he is . Give John all of our best wishes, I hope he has a swift recovery.

_________________
Chrissy
Forums Moderator.

Always have faith and believe in yourself.
Never run from the truth.
Have the will to change your fate and your spirit will never die.
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hiya janette

i just wanted to add my well wishes to you and john
im glad it all went well and that john can now foucus on getting better

i do thing that some times people forget 'our loved ones' around us whom also go through things,i know i was lucky to have my parnter there for me
when i went through the opp, so i just wanted to meantion it as i know it cant be easy for you either

sending all my best and as tfk has said dont try and do to much too soon mate

take care sam

Hi all,

just to let you know I'm back on the forum again. Went to have my dressing changed at Leicester today and the nurse said it was ok to remove the stiches now, so she did and I am chuffed to bits with the result, very small scars, the nipple grafts have worked and not much pain now either so other than the haematoma (which hurt like hell) things are looking great.

Thanks to you all for your support before, during and after my op

Great to hear all went well, lad.

_________________
http://www.spinwatch.org/

I'm glad you're back with us John, great news about how the operation went.

_________________
Chrissy
Forums Moderator.

Always have faith and believe in yourself.
Never run from the truth.
Have the will to change your fate and your spirit will never die.
Check out the tzone team bios here: http://www.transgenderzone.com/bio.htm

Glad it went ok for ya

Congrats!!

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I have to EDIT because I can't SPELL!!

Glad the op went well and you aint in too much pain.

I am right in thinkin your scar placement is the same place mine is goin to be, which is either side of the nipple as opposed to under the pec? If so, I was wonderin how you think it looks and are you pleased with the appearance?
The scar placement was/is a big concern for me. I never expected to have my scars there so I was taken aback.

Now you're a week post op, what sort of pain are you in if any? Movement wise what have you been able to do so far?

Sorry for the questions, but im gunna be havin mine in sept and im just curious as to what its like post op.

Cheers

Sorry Mike, I hadn't seen your post.

It does sound like you are having the same procedure that I had.

Post operative the pain hasn't been too bad to be honest but I did snap both my tendons in my right shoulder a few years back so my shoulderblade is not connected to my collarbone anymore and that hurt 100% more.

I had very little pain after the op (they look after you well with the morphine etc) it was only the fact I got a haematoma that caused a lot of pain although this didn't hurt as much as the tendons snapping as I didn't have any major pain killers available at the time.

As far as your op goes, are you having yours done at Leicester? The operation is much easier than I expected (I was terrified). I asked them not to give me any gas or air before the op but just knock me out with the main anaesthetic and I'm glad I did it. Never knew a thing and it is a bit sore after the op but not unbearable.

The only worry i have now is because of the haematoma I may have to have a revision as the left hand side (the side I had no probs with during the op) is bigger than the right hand side (the side I had the haematoma in). I think they may have had to remove more tissue when I went back in to fix the haematoma but not sure yet.

Once the swelling goes down I am hoping to post some pics (if someone can tell me how to do this discretely).

From what I have seen and the reactions I am getting from other people regarding this procedure it is very tidy and a really good looking job. My stepson, step-daughter, partner, workmates etc all think it looks very good.

I am going for my dressings changed tomorrow so will let you know what the scarring is like.

Cheers for the info mate.

Im having mine done in Manchester. Its pencilled in for sept 4th, just waiting for them to confirm it.

I guess you wont know how your chest is gunna pan out yet with regards to the haematoma until the swelling goes down? Im sure if there is a slight difference then the revision will sort that out for you.

Im glad the pain isnt that bad. I forgot how good the morphine is, even tho I only had it 4 weeks ago when I had my hysto lol

I feel a bit better bout the scar placement now that you said you've had good reactions. I saw a vid on youtube of a bloke who's scars are were im havin mine n were yours are and it doesnt look that bad, esp after its healed properly and he's worked out.

This is the vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHoZ0JaOk9M

Would be great to see some pics once you put them on.

Cheers again mate....wishin you a speedy recovery

Thought I'd update you all with how it's going.

Had my dressing on Wednesday and the nurse made a right mess of them. Used waterproof plaster-like dressings to go across the nipple areas with no stretch in them so everytime I moved it was pulling the skin across my chest area and hurting. It took her ages to get them to stick down because they were square and the chest area is rounded and the dressings had no stretch in them, so she put some extra strips of plaster along the edge of them which still didn't stick down, so she pulled them back off again and stuck some more on. So all the pulling and peeling caused a lot of pain later in the evening, then the next day they started falling off.

Luckily Leicester Royal Infirmary had given my partner some spare breathable, stretchy dressings, anti-septic cream and Jelonet gauze type dressing which goes directly over the nipples to protect them. She applied them the same evening and by God it felt better.

The stitches for the nipple grafts were removed at Leicester and they
said the stitches that went from the right to left of the nipple where they reduced the size of the areola are disolvable so didn't need to bother with them but one the stitches where my left hand side drain was still left in. I asked my boss at work (who used to be a registered nurse) whether it looked like a disolvable stitch, she had a look and said it wasn't and should have been removed when the drain was (the one on the right had been removed). My wonderful girlfriend also removed that stitch that night which was a tad unnerving as it went into the body through a little hole then came out further up through another hole (about 1cm above it). We were a bit worried that if the wound had started to heal sufficiently it could have ripped the middle part of skin/flesh off rather than pulling back through the internal hole, she did it though and put some of the cream on the wound.

The upshot of my story is there is a big bouquet of Jersey flowers winging its way to my girlfriend while she is at work on Monday to say thanks for everything she has done for me.

I will post some pics soon too. Is it better if I wait until I remove the steri-strips before bothering posting or would you all rather see what the result is like 2 weeks post-op?

Also, can someone tell me how to post the pics as a link rather than straight onto my post as some people obviously may not wish to see them?

Id be interested in seein the pics of you at 2 weeks. Im just curious to see how its healed so far. My gf and I are having a bit of a thing cus she has had to cancel her hol to turkey cus I will only be 2 weeks post op and she seems to think ill be fine by then and be able to do cartwheels just cus a friend of hers was. Its fine tho if you'd rather not.

To post pics as links what I use photobucket.com. You need to register and then upload your pics then copy n paste the direct link into your post using the URL tab on top of the reply box.

Glad you're healing well mate.

Yes, I'd be really interested in seeing the pics as well! Thanks for your willingness to share them - it's really appreciated

Dave

Am I better off waiting until the dressings are off before posting the pics. Don't really want to remove them again at the moment as it gets sore after re-dressing?

You may have been ok to go on holiday actually Mike. I'm going back to work tomorrow, so that'll be about 2½ weeks from the op. Although I am going to see how it goes and if it starts to get painful I may not do the full day. The only thing you may have trouble with is seat belts if you were travelling by car (and speed bumps are a pain too).

Hey

Just post the pics when you feel comfortable doin so mate. Whenever is best for you is fine with us. The last thing we want is to cause you pain just to put a few pics on here.

It wasnt me goin on hol, it was just the gf. She was supposed to be goin on hol with her family. But if my op goes ahead as planned (dates not finalized yet) then that meant I wouldve only been 2 weeks post op so id have been home alone and im guessin theres things you still cant do too well at 2 weeks.