The Moment of Lying Down on the Operating Table

This person numbered the things that worried them while considering surgery. First, daily life. Second, pain.

These two are the items people facing this surgery ask about most. Rather than the surgery itself being frightening, the decision often gets postponed because they cannot picture how the days afterward will go. When can I go back to work, how do I wash, and if it hurts, how much. So in consultation I tend to lay out the schedule for those following days before explaining the surgery. Turning something vague into a schedule changes the size of the worry.

They wrote that the first visit felt good and comfortable. Five words.

For someone of few words, a short answer is not a lack of sincerity but their way of speaking. It was so in the consulting room, and so in the review.

What they wrote as the moment that stayed with them was lying down on the operating table.

I paused when I read that answer. For someone who has performed many operations, lying down on the table is one step in a procedure; for someone experiencing it for the first time, it is the point where resolve turns into action. It is only natural that the moment stays largest. It is also why the guidance and checks exchanged in the operating room must not run purely as routine.

For what they most wanted to do after surgery, they chose wearing a T-shirt. There was no explanation here either.

For someone who has struggled with gynecomastia for a long time, one T-shirt is not just clothing. It means one option they could not choose has come back.

This person left a short note to the effect that they would like to speak well of it to others with the same concern. That is what they felt from their own experience, and whether surgery is needed is something to judge after confirming your condition through an examination. Gynecomastia differs in degree and form, and the same decision does not carry the same meaning for everyone.

Asked what they would like from us, they wrote that there was nothing, that everything had been done well. From someone who writes briefly, I try especially not to take an answer like that lightly. I hope next summer they spend less time choosing a T-shirt.