Truman Customer Story Column
It Was Safer Than I Expected
Patients often say the tensest moment of surgery is not the incision but the instant just before anesthesia. That was exactly the moment this patient chose when asked what he remembered from the day. "I thought they would tell me right before the anesthesia, but I lost consciousness suddenly and the surgery was already over." He had been waiting for a cue — you're going to sleep now — and he was asleep before it came, then opened his eyes to find everything finished.
In his own words after surgery
In fact, what he had worried about most from the start was a reaction to the anesthesia. Anesthesia is hard to picture until you have been through it. Will I wake up? What if it hurts partway through? So we explain in advance that the procedure is carried out with an anesthesiologist's involvement and continuous monitoring. But the most convincing answer always comes from someone who has been through it. He wrote: "It was safer than I expected. There is some hollowing, but it seems to be gradually improving."
In fact, what he had worried about most from the start was a reaction to the anesthesia. Anesthesia is hard to picture until you have been through it. Will I wake up? What if it hurts partway through? So we explain in advance that the procedure is carried out with an anesthesiologist's involvement and continuous monitoring. But the most convincing answer always comes from someone who has been through it. He wrote: "It was safer than I expected. There is some hollowing, but it seems to be gradually improving."
I don't want to skip past the second half of that sentence — the hollowing. Gynecomastia surgery removes enlarged glandular tissue and fat, so while the skin over the treated area settles, sections of it can look slightly depressed. That happened to him. It would be a lie to write that it didn't. In most cases, though, it evens out over several months as the tissue adheres and the swelling resolves, and we follow that course together with the patient. In the direction he described himself — gradually improving — I'll be watching it with him to the end.
To anyone with the same concern
About the clinic, he wrote that the staff, nurses and doctors were all kind, and that the thing he most wanted to do after surgery was chest workouts. Until now he may have avoided them, precisely because they drew attention to his chest. From here on, once recovery is complete, it becomes an area he is free to build up.
About the clinic, he wrote that the staff, nurses and doctors were all kind, and that the thing he most wanted to do after surgery was chest workouts. Until now he may have avoided them, precisely because they drew attention to his chest. From here on, once recovery is complete, it becomes an area he is free to build up.
He also left a note about timing for men in the same situation: better to do it while the weather is still cool, before the heat arrives. There is sense in that. There is a period of wearing a compression garment, and it is certainly easier than in midsummer. And for anyone putting it off out of fear of anesthesia, I hope his experience — asleep in an instant, awake to find it done — is a useful reference. I'll be looking after his recovery until the day he starts training again.
To anyone with the same concern
This was this patient's outcome; results and recovery vary from person to person.
This was this patient's outcome; results and recovery vary from person to person.
- Dr. Jeon Jin-woo, TRUEMAN Gangnam -
