#lincenberg

[gncbrianzeller]

I had my top surgery today!! 

Info dump under the cut (pun)

So the whole thing started on Wednesday when I went into Dr. Lincenberg’s office for a 3rd time, but just was just for him to draw his procedural process on my chest and make a final decision on how it should go. Despite a lot of waffling on my part, I told him I wanted the lateral double incisions that is most common with trans men. I’d looked at post op results on his website and decided the Comma Incision wasn’t ideal. So he agreed and I handed over paperwork to be filled so I could get some sort of medical leave pay from work. 

Then I went to work, ever conscious of the eyeball-esque markings on my chest (my nipples looked like the eyes it was weird) and generally shaking like a leaf. A lot of my favorite regular customers wished me well and a speedy recovering and I even ended up coming out to a couple of them?? Definitely didn’t plan on that but it was fine! Everyone already knew someone who’d gone through this (transition, top surgery, etc). It was such a relief.

But honestly? Thank god they’d given me anxiety medication because I was Freaking Out. So good that my work friends were so sweet to me.

I went home and packed up my clothes, sleeping stuff, and Christmas presents because my plan is to camp out at my parents’ house while I recover, which should have me going home around Christmas. I hope so anyway. We’ll see~

That night, I had to shower with a surgical grade antibacterial soap called Hibiclens. It’s pink and very liquidy and made my skin feel so drryyyyyyy but I wasn’t allowed to use any lotion after showering. Boo.

Despite everything, I managed to get to sleep for a while before getting up at 5am. Jax was with us at my parents’ house at this point which was good because I love that boy and really count on him to get me through scary shit like this.

As soon as we got to the surgical center, everything seemed to go pretty quickly. We were in the waiting room for about 5 minutes before being called back (mom and Jax came with me, as 2 people were allowed to visit at any one time) and from there I gave another urine sample and stripped down to my hospital gown. Even my panties were forbidden. Rip.

We hung out for about an hour or so, then it was Surgery Time.

First they stuck my right hand with a numbing agent and placed my IV. I was warned it would make my mouth feel dry and by damn it did. Weird. Then Jax and my mom were shooed away and the nurse took me (bed bound) to the main hospital and my own operating room. Good GOD it was cold in there?? but they wrapped me up in blankets from some kind of heated storage so that rocked. I talked a bit with the other nurses there and we went over my basic info for about the nth time that day before i was told to transfer onto the operating table. It had these crucifix-esque arm fixtures for my arms to lie on, which gave me minor Saw V flashbacks. Then they put the anesthesia mask on me and I was out.

I came back to consciousness near a nurses’ station in the surgical wing, hazy and sleepy, and overheard some discrepancy about which recovery room I was supposed to be in. Apparently 20 was supposed to be mine but was in use so they put me in 22 instead? I don’t know. It seemed like a big deal out of nothing. But by the time I got into the room I wasn’t in my anesthesia haze anymore so sadly, no wacky hijinks ensued.

Well, one hijink ensued. The nurses told my family I was ready to receive visitors and since only 2 people can visit at a time, my mom and sister came back first. For some reason I burst into tears and told them I loved them but I really wanted Jax back there with me. My sister completely understood (thank God because I still feel bad about this) and got him in, which launched me into another crying fit. I wanted to hug him so badly but I couldn’t, of course. But I felt better with him there.

Now that I’m home, my life has been short cycles of consciousness and not. I get tired pretty easily and fall asleep for about 20 minutes or more, over and over. I’m also dealing with this rising and ebbing nausea which would’ve been controlled by the anti-nausea patch I was supposed to get with my prescriptions but I don’t recall ever seeing it?? Do really wish I had it though. I tried drinking a smoothie and that didn’t go great.

Aaand, finally, I won’t be able to see my scars until Sunday. The gauze stays on and I get to have sponge baths. But! No blood drains. So that’s good.

[justaguysthoughts]

Dr. Sheldon Lincenberg

Has anyone had top surgery with Dr. Sheldon Lincenberg in Atlanta, Georgia? I was thinking about going to him, but found many negative reviews online. 

https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/28772/Dr-Sheldon%2BM.-Lincenberg-ATLANTA-GA.html?page=1

[monsterquill]

I saw you had surgery with Lincenberg. I was wondering if he required a particular amount of time on hormones or anything like that before you could have the surgery. Sorry if this is too prying.

No, that’s fine!  I’m not entirely sure, but I don’t think so.  When I had surgery, I’d been on T for six months but had stopped it maybe four months before the surgery–not connected, just how things worked out.  As far as I can remember he didn’t care either way, I don’t think he had any requirements about it.  I talked with his staff over email a while before I made a consultation and they’re very nice people–if you wanted you could shoot them an email to make sure.

[monsterquill]

I updated my lincenberg post, right here, with post-revision pictures and information :)

[monsterquill]

Hey, so I get a lot of people asking me about my experience with Lincenberg because I'm one of the only ones in the tag--which is perfectly okay--but I thought it would be helpful to make another post in the tag that answers most of those questions.

I had surgery with him February 2013, if I recall correctly.

He's a really nice guy, very professional and easy to talk to, and very well informed.  He and his office made me feel very welcome.  Also at the hospital the nurses and so forth were incredibly lovely.  Everyone had impeccable bedside manner.  I felt safe and comfortable and respected the whole way through.

I kept producing fluid longer than was expected and so had to get drains put in again, but that wasn't his fault, and relatedly a blood vessel opened up when I was home and caused a hematoma that had to be drained--also not his fault.

the nipple grafts were perfect in terms of placement and they took without problems, the contour is good, and I like the scars.  

 I'm nonbinary, and that was never a problem.  I was upfront about it, and he didn't question my identity or say he wouldn't do the surgery--it was all okay, as far as I remember.

I originally wanted this other kind of surgery he does with a comma shaped scar, but he said my body was shaped wrong for that so he couldn't do it.  Also not his fault, as far as I know.  Because I was impressed with his work and his manner, I decided to go with him anyway.

I first I had to fly in for a consultation, just a couple days, and we scheduled it.  Then I had to fly in again about a month later for the surgery--this time I stayed about a week, had the surgery a couple days in, stayed recovering in a hotel, and had two follow up appointments spaced out over the time after--if I remember correctly I had the surgery on Thursday and went home on Tuesday, or maybe Monday.

The examination was as non-awful as it could have been.

Before surgery, my chest was somewhere between B and C, I believe.

The only major issue is that there's some extra tissue around the scars towards the middle that's mostly gone away but not entirely, and I'm going to get a revision, which is free, to fix that.

I think the whole thing cost about 10k, but I could be remembering wrong.

Here's a picture of how it looked right off the bat.

and here's how it looked when it was all healed.

The branching/crookedness of the scar on (my right, your left) side is my fault, it's better now

Update: I had a revision in July 2014

I waited a long time because I was hoping the extra tissue would disappear entirely--it didn't, but it did continue to get better for a long time after it appeared healed.

Here's how it looked directly before the revision:

He did liposuction on both sides, and then (on my suggestion, because there was still extra flesh on my right side) excised the remaining tissue on the right.  He used absorbable/temporary sutures so I didn't have to come back.  I was under local anesthetic and watched the procedure.  It was in his office, not in the hospital, and everyone was very friendly and remembered me.  There was bruising and swelling afterward, that went down in the next days/weeks.

Here's how it looked directly after the revision. 

And here's how it looks now, about two weeks later, almost healed:

I flipped the mirror pictures so they're all facing the right way, ie, the way it would look if you were standing in front of me looking at me

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

[monsterquill]

So a couple weeks ago someone was asking me about top surgery with Lincenberg, and I couldn't answer all their questions because I hadn't had it yet.  Now I have, but due to tumblr's terrible message system, I've lost their username.  If this is you and you still want information/pics, message me?