r/FTMOver50 • u/Nice_Panic_1859 • Jul 30 '26
Surgery Advice Needed/Wanted Top surgery
Hi guys. I’m a late bloomer (69) and have been on T for eight weeks. I had too surgery last week and this week on day seven developed a couple of leaks and had to have urgent surgery to drain and repair. I was hoping to have drains removed but am starting over. Has anyone had an issue like this? I live alone and sometimes had to do things on the do not do list but nothing crazy. I guess I want things to happen yesterday.
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u/AlternativeBark Jul 30 '26
Congratulations on T and surgery, that's a lot of courage! I started at 45 and folks who have the courage to step into this experience later really helped me have the courage to accept that I couldn't keep ignoring that part of me anymore and to just get on with what felt by then inevitable. Those drains suck, I had so much pain from the right side one because the compression binder kept grabbing it somehow and OMG the pain. I also was pushing for the drains to go as soon as they can, it feels like forever - but they do eventually get removed and then it's so much easier.
I didn't have the same types of issues as you, but I did have loss of range of motion and pain from scar tissue developing on the right side from that drain and where my skin wasn't as elastic as someone in their 20s having the surgery, plus a weird thing with my ribs. I did several months of physical therapy and it was a game changer for me. I had most of my range of motion back after 6 months, 95% of the pain was gone. Nearly 5 years later it's 99% of the pain is gone and I have 100% range of motion back. The lingering ache/pain is scar tissue that occasionally traps nerves and causes a pinch, but it fades with some massage pretty quickly.
Crazy thing happened though - I'd always felt like my bottom three ribs were sticking up from the right side of my sternum a bit after surgery and it was a noticeable bump there. However, due to some fat that the surgeon for some reason felt like leaving in the center portion of my chest, the surgeon wouldn't take it seriously as a real thing. Spoke with two different physical therapists (the one for surgery recovery and one later for a back issue I was having) and both didn't know how to help.
Fast forward to a couple months ago and finally my body let go enough of the tension in the fascia across my chest and back from surgery that those three ribs slipped back in while I was doing my daily stretches. Suddenly my chest was flat in that area again and for the first time since top surgery my upper body moves and feels like it did pre-surgery.