Great surgery experience with Dr.Cobbins
Hi
First of all. I want to thank this community for the helping me through this journey so far. I am 41 years old and finally got my surgery done 3 days ago. This was my first surgery ever, so I was quite nervous and had a lot of questions. I got answers to most of them from this subreddit.
Dr.Lorri Cobbins of the Aesthetic Institute of Chicago (same practice as Dr.Braithwaitr) is really good! She and her team made the whole process so smooth. The RN that took care of me was Sabrina and she was the best. Super kind, helpful and really put my mind at ease. I must have asked her 20 questions on email and in person and she answered everything patiently with a smile. Dr.Cobbins was super empathetic. She understood the psychological toll gynecomastia takes on men and assured me that she was committed to fix it for me and give me the new life I wanted.
Surgery
* General anesthesia with a tube for breathing. The anesthesiologist was really nice and explained everything to me. I have sleep apnea. Otherwise I'd have gone under twilight anesthesia where I breathe on my own.
* I had lipo, gland removal and trimming of the areaola. Dr.Cobbins showed me the pictures of what was removed and it was a lot. Lol. Let me know if you want me to post that. It's gross.
* I had no tape or anything, just surgical glue on top of stitches and I started showering the day after.
Post op
* Need to wear the vest 23 hours a day for 2 weeks and 12 hours a day for another 2 weeks.
* I had pain of around 7/10 for about 5 hours after surgery. But I kept taking 2 extra strength Tylenol every 4 hours for 24 hours and then reduced it to as needed. I haven't had pain more than 1/10 after that. In fact it has been mostly 0/10.
* Some bruising and minor swelling, nothing unexpected. I had the post op appointment the day after and she said everything looks good. Bruising takes a few weeks to go away. It's been almost 3 days and the bruises are a bit itchy. I'm not scratching them though.
* I had bought an extra compression vest that happened to be the same brand and model that Dr.Cobbins provides. Based on their suggestion, I hand wash one everyday and wear the other one. They do provide additional vests upon request. I also have to put lipo foam pads in my compression vest for the first 2 weeks.
* The compression vest is not as uncomfortable as I had thought. 3 days and I barely think about it. They also told me it's ok to wear an underarmour compression shirt under it if I want.
* They work with a company called Beauty Retreat that provides caregiver services. I didn't have help and this was my first surgery so ChatGPT recommended getting a caregiver. I paid $550 for a ride back from the surgery plus 4 hours of care. It was totally worth it because she helped me with food, buying some stuff I needed, took my vitals, helped me settle in etc. That said, I think it's manageable on your own. Just have food prepared in advance because you won't feel like doing much the day of surgery. You can hire Rainbow Transport for around $125 to just transport you back home.
* I am flying back tomorrow (4 days after surgery). I have opted for wheelchair service with American Airlines just so that they can help me lift my bags where necessary (putting it on the security check, overhead bins in the plane etc).
* I have several post op appointments that I'd be doing virtually from San Francisco.
I will share pictures in a couple of months when it is completely healed. Will keep you all posted on my recovery.
Thanks again.