Truman Customer Story Column
Walking Freely with My Shoulders Back
The worries people voice before surgery generally gather into two strands. One is whether a problem will develop afterward; the other is the burden of anesthesia itself.
Someone who had gynecomastia surgery in June wrote both of those in their review, exactly as they were. And they added that once they went through it, it was not as bad as they had feared.
Anesthesia Is Handled by the Anesthesiology DepartmentWorry about anesthesia is natural. At TRUEMAN, the anesthesiology department confirms the pre-operative condition and administers anesthesia. I enter the operating room and begin the surgery after anesthesia is complete.
As for complications, this person wrote there were fewer than expected. But that is their case. Depending on the amount of glandular tissue removed, skin condition, and original body type, how long swelling and bruising remain differs from person to person. A single review cannot be transcribed onto every case.
In the box asking whether any moment from the surgery stayed with them, there was one line. That nothing had.
Because surgery is performed under anesthesia, patients do not remember the procedure. So it is common for this box to be left blank or filled in briefly. Conversely, if something uncomfortable happened before or after, that stays vividly. Nothing remaining is closer to meaning it passed without incident.
About the first visit, they wrote that the staff were kind and that the consultation covered enough that there was nothing further to ask. When questions are settled in the consultation, tension on the day of surgery drops accordingly.
Walking with Your Shoulders BackThe sentence written in the box about what they most wanted to do after surgery is the title of this piece: walking freely with my shoulders back.
People who have lived with gynecomastia for a long time often find that posture and dress have already become habit. Shoulders rolled forward; the habit of checking thickness before color or design when choosing clothes. Once the body is settled, these habits loosen slowly over time. Surgery is closer to creating the starting point for that.
What They Said About TimingAsked for a word to others with the same concern, they wrote that if you are giving it any thought at all, sooner — even by a year — is better.
That comes out of their experience. In gynecomastia, judgments about surgical method and timing change with the state of the glandular tissue, skin elasticity, and grade, so whether and when to have surgery is something to determine after confirming your own condition through an examination. That said, I also see often in the clinic that nothing changes while you are still deliberating.
In the last box they left the wish that we keep doing things as we do now. Making sure that "as we do now" still holds as the same words years from now is, I think, our job.
