I’m not in any pain. I miss sleeping on my side. I’m allowed to take a shower on Monday. I have to keep the binder on (at this point it’s become a baroque combination of surgical maxi pads,* ace bandage,** pitifully loose compression vest,*** sports bra,**** and lace-trimmed silk chemise*****) except for short showers for another three weeks.
The ace bandage is probably the worst part–I can’t wrap myself into it, and have been forced to enlist my housemates, my friends, and my mom. Over the course of the day, it slips down a couple of inches. I’ve had to use the sports bra to keep it from acting as a fulcrum on my chest, which is exactly the kind of gravitational pressure I want to avoid. The sports bra seems to be working pretty well, but if the downward slide doesn’t stop as of this evening, I’m gonna take the ace bandage off and just use the other three components. There’s some soreness that’s bothering me, and it doesn’t seem like a terribly good fit for my chest shape. My doctor’s out of town, or I’d be bugging him about it. I was skeptical when he wrapped me into it, since I know that guys tend to use it only as a last resort–it gives your chest a weird shape, tends to roll up or slide down, and often damages your ribs if you wrap it too ferociously. I don’t know how anyone binds with this for months at a time.
I’ve been able to see my results a few times, and my chest looks great. There’s residual swelling, but not very much. My pectoral muscles and I are not on speaking terms, but they haven’t dropped like I’d feared. There’s a tiny bit of lopsidedness (and I’m worried that the ace bandage is aggravating it), but that seems to have more to do with swelling than anything else. All in all, I already have a very good result. Depending on where the skin ends up, and whether or not there’s excess tissue after the swelling dissipates, I might need another tuck. Otherwise, I think I’m done.
*To keep my chest in place.
**To keep the maxi pads in place.
***To keep the ace bandage in place.
****To keep the compression vest in place.
*****Just for fun.
geez, piny, you’re really hurting the trans recruitment drive with your candor!
Three weeks is a long time, but you’re over halfway through, are you not? Hopefully you won’t need anymore cutting. Good luck.
So many layers and it ain’t even fall yet! Piny, you’re on the cutting edge of post-op fashion. :)
Yeah, but I hope you have a cool house. That’s an awful lot of layers for the middle of summer!
Actually, this is one of the warmest times of the year here in the city, and I’ve been through two minor heat waves in this thing. I thought I’d be gnawing off my own arm by now, but it hasn’t been as bad as I was expecting by any means. Plus, there’s some comfort in binding up sore tissue; it feels good.
I was hoping the subtitle would be “Electric Chestaloo.”
But good luck with the rest of recovery. It sounds like it’s been going about as well as could be expected. Kudos for you and your persistence.
Hah! Actually, I was thinking Electric Boobaloo for Chest Update III.
*To keep my chest in place.
**To keep the maxi pads in place.
***To keep the ace bandage in place.
****To keep the compression vest in place.
*****Just for fun.
Ah, I so relate to this logic.
I’m glad things seem to be going well post-op. Thanks for keeping us updated.
That list has a slight “The House that Jack Built” quality to it.
Glad things are working out!
Thanks for listening to me natter on. I’m actually surprised at how much time has already gone by.
Yeah, it is a little, “Take care of your squirrel problem–of course, then you’ll have a wolf problem, so what you do is, you bring in some bears…” isn’t it?
Especially when you take into account the amount of work I have to do to make sure these things don’t slip out of place and start damaging my chest.
Hey, keep up the good spirits. :)
Darling, foundation garments offer us lots of options, re: gravity. I once spent a few weeks in an Ace bandage myself but better than that was a – pardon me – well-boned bustier. A sports bra is good for softness but they’re intended to support against bounce, not gravity when one is holding still.
I’m rooting for you, piny.
It occurs to me that the top of a Spanx, if’n you cut off the legs and used it as a tube top, might give you some good compression without damage, though you might have an issue with rolling. I suppose a good garter system might alleviate that.
Thanks, zuzu. Now I picture him gartered up like a christmas tree.
Piny, I did not seem to have the problems with the ace that you are having. I admit I’m stumped, but glad to hear you are recovering nicely.
You put garters on a Christmas tree?
What diva hasn’t?
Can’t argue with that.
I imagined garters going from the torso to every limb, which is making me laugh this morning, even, as I imagine it again. I don’t know how to describe such decoration except in terms of the most decorative time of the year.
Amber wrote:
:)
And piny, thanks for writing the updates. I’m going to send them to a few friends who think people go through this for frivilous reasons. I’m glad things are going well, of course.
A sports bra is good for softness but they’re intended to support against bounce, not gravity when one is holding still.
It’s working pretty well just to shore up the bandage and compression vest, actually: the elastic band on the lower edge is keeping anything from slipping lower. Plus, it’s from Title 9, and more bindy than your average sports bra.
I imagined garters going from the torso to every limb, which is making me laugh this morning, even, as I imagine it again. I don’t know how to describe such decoration except in terms of the most decorative time of the year.
Folsom?
And piny, thanks for writing the updates. I’m going to send them to a few friends who think people go through this for frivilous reasons. I’m glad things are going well, of course.
It’s true. I just woke up one morning three years ago and thought, “Gee, it’d be nice to have some more stubble. Think I’ll sink several thousand dollars into out-of-pocket medical procedures, start a course of hormones that will make me effectively sterile, and step onto society’s bleeding edge of acknowledgement. Then I’ll be able to grow a goatee. Sweet.”
Sorry…just figured you could use some new material and goodness knows that guy has plenty to work with!
My students keep telling me that goatees are so 2001. And I still have mine. Please, Piny, don’t follow my shoddy example.
Good to hear about the progress, and thanks for sharing at least some of the details — it’s helpful and interesting and, above all, important. All the best.