I had top surgery on January 10th, 2011 with Dr. Marie-Claire Buckley in Minneapolis, MN.
The surgery was double incision (DI) with nipple grafts to resize down to about a quarter. I am very happy with my results and the entire process with Dr. Buckley.
I want to note that I had less-than-pleasant experiences with the office staff in the UMN clinic that were discouraging. The experiences were negative based on their trans-ignorance, not any trans-hatred. The clinic that Dr. Buckley is based in works on plastic surgery as well as a number of other surgeries. Any experiences I had at the Fairview hospital or while in contact with Dr. Buckley were phenomenal.
Prior to surgery I was a moderately athletic 130-135lbs (5 foot 3) and 10 months on testosterone. Prior to testosterone I was 34C/D at the chest.
Cost: My surgery was covered at 100% coverage by my health insurance at the time (Health Partners through UMN graduate school). Dr. Buckley recommends an overnight stay in the hospital after surgery, and I know that it would have been very costly.
Pre-surgery:
- I had a consultation with Dr.Buckley in October 2010, during which time we discussed what surgical results I wanted, what to expect from recovery, and I grilled her with my questions.
- Following that appointment, Dr. Buckley submitted a request for coverage to my insurance explicitly stating that I would have surgery after January 1st to fulfill the 1 year full-time living as male.
- I received a letter from my insurance company about a month after the consult (finally!) approving me for top surgery coverage. I immediately scheduled surgery for the next available date, which was pretty close to my target date (about 2 months away).
- Waited… moderately patiently for January to roll around.
- A week before surgery had another consult with Buckley to ask any last minute questions and to get all pre-surgery instructions clear as well as post-surgery plans in place.
- January 10th: Arrived at hospital early early in morning to check in and get set up for surgery. My friends and fiance waited patiently for at least an hour while I was prepped, then said good luck to me before I was taken in for surgery.
Surgery: Was more lengthy than anyone expected. I went in for surgery in the late morning, and when I woke up it was pretty much dark outside. I was not expecting that, and it enhanced my disorientation in recovery. The staff attending to me while I came to was very helpful and concerned that I be in as little pain as possible and feel relaxed. As soon as I was all the way awake they were ready for me to go to my room and called my friends and fiance from the waiting room. The surgery took 6 hours in total, Buckley took her time in getting nipple placement and incision as close to perfect as possible.
Post-op In the Hospital: I absolutely hate being sick and not feeling well, so I was a pretty grumpy/whiny character for the first 24 hours after surgery. I knew this ahead of time due to a week in the hospital years before for pneumonia during which I would get upset with hospital staff for waking me up to make me do my breathing treatments. Nevertheless, being in the hospital for 24 hours/overnight post-op was WONDERFUL. I was tired, didn’t want to move, and just wanted to focus on breathing. With a catheter in, you literally don’t have to get up for anything, which meant I got to focus on sleeping and cuddling with my tiny care bear.
Buckley came by in the later afternoon of the next day to check in with me, we chatted more about the surgery and my caretakers asked last minute questions about recovery. She sent my prescriptions to the hospital pharmacy which was literally on the way out the door. It was very relaxed, and I was cleared to go home.
Post-op At Home: I was very, very, very tired for about a week post-op. Even when I was restless, I was restless to do something for 15min before I wanted to go back to sleep. It was really helpful to have someone around to make sure I didn’t do pretty much anything, bring me food, etc.
I was able to strip my own drains and keep my own medication schedule. I didn’t take more than 3 percoset after coming home, regular tylenol and tylenol pm worked just fine. Dr.Buckley had my chest locally anesthetized (like novocain), so I didn’t feel any sharp pain except when I accidentally tugged on a drain or something. (I didn’t feel much of anything, there was very very little swelling) Make sure you eat with your antibiotics, helps your stomach.
I started a free trial of Netflix immediately before the surgery, so I had unlimited online tv shows, etc, to watch whenever I managed to stay awake. When I was feeling really ambitious I played PS2 with a wireless controller. I could do all of these things from my spot on the sofa, where I also slept.
About 5-6 days post op I ventured outside of the house to go for a chill mexican meal.
One Week Post-Op: (eight days, actually) I had the drains removed by Dr. Buckley in her clinic office. It was moderately uncomfortable (a really weird feeling). At that time the nipple dressings were removed and she showed me how to redress the nipples so they could stay dry/clean for the next week (and I could SHOWER). O.o
Long Term Recovery:
- I continued to be lethargic for at least another 1-2 weeks. I took quite a few naps and got accustomed to being quite a bit smaller. It felt sooooooo good.
- Four weeks post op I got a bit more active, and slowly started working out again. I wasn’t weight lifting for at least 6 weeks.
- When I started a new softball season 2-3 months post-op I noticed that I was a bit off balance from before and that I moved in new ways (2B/SS). I contributed this to no longer being in back-restricting binders as well as literally having a different center of mass.
- By 6 months post-op I had much more sensation that I expected. I had the (un)pleasant experiences of having nerves reconnecting across my chest for many months.
- Scars have remained flat, the sensitive/tender areas where the drains were took foreverrrr to heal up. At about 4-5 months post-op I had TINY puckers on the sides of my chest, but between working out and my skin elasticity, they’re completely gone.
Mental Health: I would be remiss to not mention the mental health aspect of surgery. Many guys speak of a mourning post-op for their chests, as we do spend a significant portion of time with them- I actually was fairly reflective prior to surgery but never had any mourning post-op. After surgery I was fairly immediately reduced in major anxiety, including the near panic moments. Simply standing and being comfortable in my skin allowed me to enjoy day-to-day more.
