I hope the numbers are low enough today, it would stink to have the drain in for that long. If you got your surgery on August 11, that is 11 days already.

One of mine was painful. Well, it isn't the tubing that is painful, but the effect of having the drain flattened against the body (pulling up skin) by the ace bandage. Also, they are just annoying to have hanging around!

update 3
 

Drain free....as free as the wind blows, as free as the grass grows, drain free, to follow my heart. :)

haha Awesome! Congrats!

update 4
 

Everything is healing up nicely, and I can now take a modified shower - yay! My surgeon is being adamant about no heavy lifting for six weeks, which makes me feel anxious, because I need to pay my rent in October. I'm glad that my boss is being understanding and supportive.

No heavy lifting until 6 weeks is standard after top surgery. I am trying to remember how they define "heavy lifting". Is it 50lbs? How much do you need to lift?

I need to be able to lift 50 lbs and push 150 lbs.

Yikes. I really hope you give yourself those full 6 weeks if financially possible. Is your boss open to you doing lighter duty work?

My Boss wants me to follow my surgeon's instructions, and she wants me to come back to work, when I can do so, without any restrictions or limitations. I am no longer freaking out about money, everything else about this part of my adventure has worked out well, why would this be any different?

Great attitude!

update 5
 

I get to return to work in two weeks, without any restrictions! I no longer have to deal with daily dressings, just one dry band aid on that stubborn drain hole. I also am free of the surgical compression vest, and at last, I am binder-free!! I will see my surgeon in October, and she is very pleased with how everything looks. I am too; now I need to work on my posture, and walk as tall, as a short guy can. :)

Excellent! Congrats! My mom kept telling me I was hunched over after my surgery. This isn't something I did pre surgery (I never attempted to be "read" as male), so I think my hunching over post surgery was an unconscious need to protect my "wound". I did something similar after having a colon resection; I was very conscious (but unconscious), of protecting my stomach, and would hunch over a bit.

Anyway, stand tall and walk proud! Yippee! :hangloose:

final update
 

I am so happy that my six weeks are coming to an end, and that I get to return to work on Monday. My homework from my last appointment with my surgeon, was to massage my scars and refrain from lifting anything heavy. I was skeptical about massaging the scars, but they seem to have disappeared for the most part. I've been stretching and doing light isometric exercises to prepare for work; hopefully I will be cleared on the 7th to start working out. I am very pleased with my chest, and I am very grateful that I was finally able to get my top surgery done.

Without or without a therapist letter?

ETA: Meaning, do you have a therapist to write a letter saying you have gender identity disorder? If not, are you on testosterone or are legally male?

No, you don't. I just wanted to point you in the right direction.


Surgeons who don't require letters from mental health professionals is as follows:
1. Dr. Steinwald of Illinois
2. Dr. Lawton of Texas
3. Dr. Mangubat of Washington
4. Dr. Garramone of Florida (will accept letter from your Primary Care Physician)

I got my surgery done from Dr. Garramone, so I am biased in thinking he is the bomb. If you want to see some of his work, on youtube you can type in "FTM top surgery reveal with Garramone" and a crapload of videos will come up. His "letter" is now only a check off list. You only need to get your primary care physician to check off a box that says that your top surgery would be "the next step in the transition process". Meaning, he is open to working on genderqueer individuals.

Check out transbucket.com and sign up to see pictures of other people's work.

You mentioned San Francisco. Brownstein is no longer in business. Curtis Crane took over his practice. I am not in love with Crane's work, but it is ok.

I can't remember ever seeing a picture of Lawton's work, but if you want I can ask around about it. His name is familiar and I have never heard anything bad about him.

If you find a surgeon that you like that needs a "letter", let me know and I can give you the number of a guy who will Skype (or maybe it is just online), with you for 3 sessions and give you a letter at the end. Not really the way things should be done, but if you want a for sure letter in 3 sessions and are clear in wanting this surgery, that is one way to go.

Good luck and let me know if I can be of any help.

Thank you very much Dapper, I appreciate your time, information and knowledge.

Hi, nhplowboi.

I didn't consider Melissa Johnson because I knew that I wanted Garramone.

This youtube video is from a guy who went to Melissa Johnson. He is the only person I know that has had surgery with her. He is a very known youtube FTM and is very friendly. I am confident that he would be open to a dialogue about this experience. Additionally, he knows a lot of people as he does speaking and such. He would certainly know of others who have used her and could give you their thoughts. [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD6wgua2lR8"]FTM Top Surgery - 3.5 Years post-op showing! - YouTube[/nomedia]

I can tell you that I haven't heard anything bad about her, but I don't think that she is used very often. I believe that Skylar (the guy in the video), went to her because she was close to his home. He was in college at the time and parents helped him with his transition (he got it done when he was on a school break).

Wow, y'all just got me started wondering just how long my SRS letter is going to be good for. I got it back in the first part of 2013. Right now, I don't have the funds to be able to pay for any surgeries, but still, this sort of thing is nice to know, ahead of time.

I can't imagine that if you have continued with HRT treatment that a surgeon would have an issue with any length of time, really. If so, perhaps when the time comes you could contact the therapist who wrote the letter and have a quick "re-evaluation", where they would "resign" their first letter?

Just a thought.

Awesome! Please come back and report to the thread how it went!

I could, I guess. The problem lies in that she is in Houston, TX, whereas I am now living in Florida, which is a considerable distance away.


Still, the problem is academic right now, until i actually am able to start saving for my needed surgeries.

And the costs are crazy high, unfortunately.

As the ability to actually have my top surgery is becoming a very real possibility. I was wondering what the recovery was like for everyone when they had theirs. What was mobility like? How dependent were you, if at all on someone else and for how long? What was the pain level like for you? How hard was it to change any dressings, etc. Being diabetic I know my recovery time will likely be longer than the average person.

I felt pretty limited with regard to mobility. I don't know how much of that was "real" and how much was me being extra careful because I didn't want to create a negative situation for myself.

Immediately after the surgery I felt very dependent on the friends who were helping me. After half a day or so, I was able to do pretty much everything for myself. Again, though, I didn't push it.....did little to nothing and let others help when they offered.

I wasn't in a great deal of pain. I was uncomfortable, of course, but the pain wasn't bad at all. And I don't recall having any issues with keeping things sanitary and clean, changing bandages, etc...

I suggest taking off as much time from work as possible, doing as little as possible, and just letting yourself rest, recover, and heal. Sleep is good.

:) My best...

I suggest you go back to the beginning of this thread and do some reading. I started this thread and asked a lot of questions and got a lot of input plus I was pretty good right away at documenting my recovery.

I think I was off for 7 to 8 weeks. I was an independent contractor and was able to take off during a slow part of the year.

I think the hardest part was the surface area of the scar is so big so during the healing process it did bug me some. More then most the surgeries I've had but it was more irritating then anything especially during the itchy stage of healing.

The person who agreed to take care of me after my surgery backed out, so I didn't have anyone to care for me post-surgery. However my GP nurse made a few phone calls and arranged to have a visiting nurse check on me, and two meals delivered daily. He visited me once a week for the first three weeks, and was awesome. My mobility was unhindered, I just didn't want to raise my arms the first few days. It was very easy to change my dressings because I laid down in bed to do it. I was not in a great deal of pain and refused my pain medication, I did take ibuprofen though. I was home for six weeks, because my surgeon was unwilling to have me doing the heavy lifting, pushing and pulling which is part of my job, any sooner than that. As some of you might have noticed, I was not pleased with this, but in the end, I understand that it was in my best interest. When I returned to work, it was without any restrictions, and I had no difficulty doing my job. Thinker is correct, rest is good. I spent a great deal of time reading at first, and then started taking walks to help my "cabin fever." I continued to experience fatigue several months after I returned to work, it took awhile to get that anaesthesia out of my system. I actually listened to my surgeon and resumed working out, only after she cleared me to do so.

No kidding! I remember wishing I had returned to work for half-days for the first two weeks. After about 5 hours, I would hit a wall and was useless. :seeingstars:

Thank you. I intend to take a bit of time off work to recover. I was planning two weeks worth of time off, and then from there, working from home for awhile as well, but after reading what everyone has said, it seems like I might have to find a way to take more than that if possible. I have a desk job though, so fortunately, no lifting or anything of that nature, just typing on a computer.

I feel like there is a good chance that I will limit myself in terms of my own self conscious and worries about not wanting to hurt myself, or cause any issues.

Thanks, I will certainly be reading back through this thread for sure to get any information, and advice from it that I can.

I am not looking forward to the itchy stage, that is for sure.

I am sorry to hear that the person who had agreed to take care of you, bailed on you. I am fortunate that my partner will be around to take care of me when the time comes. That and since I am going to hopefully go with a local doctor, I will be able to stay within the comfort of my own home in the first few days as well.

I don't really get cabin fever, so I am fortunate in that regard. I will be perfectly happy to lay around in bed and watch movies all day, and play video games as I doze in and out of sleep.

Ha, ha. I was going to say the same thing, but didn't want to appear rude (like you ...ha!) Sorry, Logicaly, there is a crap load of information on this thread Iit's like...the point of the whole thread), and honestly, to my knowledge every guy who has had this surgery on this site answered in this thread. I can only think of a couple who haven't who have verbalized other places on BFP or the dash site that they got it done.

Read through the whole thread and you may find you have some follow up questions for specific guys. I wrote non stop after I got it done. Pretty much the whole time I was healing. I was an annoyance all over the site at that time!

I don't believe that anyone on this thread (or site, to my knowledge), used Crane. I know this is who you are considering.

I have a "desk job". I did 2.5 weeks. I wish I would have done 3.

I'm glad things are looking good for you to get this done sooner rather than later.

Blaze, what happened at your appointment? I know it was a while ago.

Originally I was going to repost stuff but then there was way too much.

I know I documented stuff immediately like the day after and two weeks after and i'm not sure after that cause I stopped reading. But I did it as it happened so it would be fresh. Cause honestly 5 years later I really don't remember. I know a lot of the people here even had theirs prior to me.

I personally don't usually like going back and reading things out of laziness but I went back and looked and there was just way too much info and good info to repost.

I was thinking the exact same thing (rewriting). I also thought about not remembering it all. I was just saying that to TF. It feels so long ago even though for me it was only a year and a half ago.

Logically, the only itchiness I had was from the tape Garramone uses on top of the bandages. I didn't have itchy incisions.

You should look on youtube for other guys who went to Crane to find out his post op instructions. You can't go by Brownstein. Brownstein used drains and Crane doesn't so he may have changed other things.

Do you know if Crane requires a surgical vest after bandage removal?

I am not sure if he does require a vest or not. I haven't read anything about that yet. I am just really starting to look into it now that I know my Financials will support it and we have a plan in place for it. I have seen some pictures of his work on trans bucket and it none of the guys said anything about the vests and their results have also looked awesome.

I am hoping to sit down some time this week and go through some videos guys have posted and start coming up with questions that I need to research and for the surgeon for when I schedule a consult.

I also just want to say that I appreciate what everyone has been posted. I do fully intend to go back and read the entire thread as I know a lot of you have documented your experience rather well. I just figured by asking again it would start the thread going again and invite new people that maybe haven't posted their experience yet to jump in and post too.

Voloshin had a binder, just one of those wrap around ones, that they supplied and was on following surgeryl