Chest Photos

Here are a few photos of my chest, post-surgery. I do have a few that are pre-surgery, but I'm sure most folks would rather not see them ;-P. I'll try not to overwhelm people with too many, but here they are. Enjoy?

The day of my surgery, December 30, 2009. I was pretty well drugged up at this point. It was all I could do not to just get on the bed on go to sleep right then. But I knew I'd want the photos for later.

The tubes come from under the bandages are drain tubes. This is typical of any surgery involving a mastectomy (which is essentially, what mine was, but with visual appearance being the focus, instead of removing cancer). I suspect drain tubes are typical of most surgeries where large amounts of tissue are removed.

Most of the discomfort I felt after surgery (I didn't feel much due to the Percocet) was because of the drains.

January 8, 2010. This is Approximately 1 week (actually 9 days) post-op. There was still quite a bit of swelling, but I was off pain pills (not even extra strength Tylenol by this point). The asymmetry of the you see between left and right is still evident as of this post (7/31/10), but I'm hoping its something that will work itself out over time and through exercise.

The tape you see over the incision lines is to help prevent stretching and reduce scarring. It was NOT holding the incisions closed. This was done with internal sutures, which were eventually absorbed into my body.

The nipples are my real nipples, just resized and grafted into location more appropriate to a male chest. Although, you don't see it in the picture, I had to wear gauze pads over the grafts for about 4 weeks after the surgery. The grafts were attached with external sutures, instead of internal ones.

At this point I started feeling a strong hypersensitivity on certain parts of my chest. Some areas had no feeling, like the outside and the nipples. Other parts felt like they were sunburned whenever I had a shirt on. I had thought this was due to the surgery (and maybe it was in part), but I now think it may have been due to the onslaught of acne I had coming.

Janurary 14, 2010. Swelling is still present. I was able to take the surgical tape off, after a full 2 weeks had passed from the surgery date.

This was my first day, sans-tape.

This was also my first day sans binder. I had to wear what was essentially a strong elastic ace bandage (the same one you see in my first photo) for 2 week following the surgery. This was to make sure the internal tissue healed onto itself. Otherwise, you could end up with air pockets.

January 21, 2010. At this point the scarring is pretty even. As time has worn on, the scarring closer to the center of my chest has lessened, while the scarring toward the side has not healed quite as cleanly. Of course, I don't walk around with my arms up and my shirt off all the time either.

January 24, 2010. I don't feel there's a whole lot of difference between these photos. The swelling has continued to lessen.

You might notice that acne has started to appear on my chest quite a bit. As it turned out, this was only the tip of the ice berg in an extremely bout with acne. As I've said in earlier posts, transitioning is essentially putting my body through puberty all over again. Thus, the acne, and much worse than it ever was for me in high school. Ultimately, I've ended up taking Accutane, which is about the strongest acne medication on the market. Its by prescription only and very closely monitored. Monthly blood tests and everything. As of this post, I'm just starting month 5 of what is typically a 5-7 month stretch.

February 24, 2010. Its hard to see in the photo, but the swelling has lessened significantly in this photo.

At this point I was almost able to do all the proper stretches one should do when working out.

About two weeks after this photo, I was finally able to comfortably sleep on my stomach again. Since the surgery, I haven't totally abandoned sleeping on my back. Prior to surgery, I was almost exclusively a stomach sleeper, but have found that sleeping on my back has stretched out my back wonderfully while sleeping.

July 24, 2010. Healing pretty well now. Obviously no swelling any more. You can't tell from this photo, but I actually have a bit of tan, which is impressive considering this is a stretch of skin that hadn't seen sunlight in at least 25 years. From this angle, you can't see all that well, but there is heavier scarring toward the outside of my chest. From other photos I've seen, this is not uncommon. It will likely fade in time, just not as quickly as the more central scars.

Strangely enough, the hair thats been growing on my chest for the last couple months has been acting similarly to the acne I had earlier. I don't have much feeling on my chest, but the hair seems to act as a sort conduit from the surface of my skin to where I still have feeling. It's similar to the feeling of when your foot has fallen asleep and is waking up. Not quite as strong, but subtly present.