Truman Customer Story Column
The patient who wants to go to the pool this summer
As summer approaches, the mood in the exam room shifts a little. With the season of lighter clothing ahead, more men come in because a long-postponed concern can no longer be postponed.
The first thing that caught my eye in this patient's answers was summer, too. Asked what he wanted to do after surgery, he wrote about a swimming pool. Let me start there and work backward.
The wish to take his shirt off at the pool
Here is the sentence he wrote.
"I want to be able to take my shirt off at the pool without any problem."
A pool is a particularly difficult place for men with gynecomastia. To get in the water you have to undress, and the moment you do, you become conscious of being looked at. So you use a rash guard as an excuse, or you stay away from the water altogether. For him, surgery was less a matter of his chest than a matter of getting a full summer day back.
It started with worries about pain and side effects
Asked what worried him most before surgery, he named pain and side effects. Even with the pool as a goal, those two were what stood in the way.
In his case the surgery was completed without particular problems. But since the degree of pain and the course of recovery differ from person to person, I make it a rule to explain the expected process and the precautions exactly as they are before surgery. I believe worry is better handled by knowing precisely than by trying to make it disappear.
A clinic where male staff greet you
Asked about his impression of the clinic, he wrote this.
"The male staff handled my care, so I could come to the clinic without feeling awkward."
Given that this care involves showing your chest, we know some men turn back at the threshold. We built the process from consultation through examination around male staff in order to lower that threshold. Between men, some things carry without needing to be explained, and that ease protects the courage it took to come in the first place.
The last sentence he left
Asked what he would say to men facing the same concern, he wrote this.
"I think it's one of the best things I've done in my life."
I pass it along as the impression of a man who has completed his surgery. Whether surgery is right for you, and whether now is the time, is something to judge after confirming your own condition through an examination.
Still, reading that sentence, I found myself picturing his summer. A day with no hesitation before getting into the water. I hope he gets that day back soon.
