Great service and results - I love my new, flat chest

I identify as gender non-binary and wanted chest masculinization surgery but could not qualify under my insurance to have it covered as gender confirmation surgery, so I decided to try going the route of a therapeutic breast reduction, which I DID qualify for under my insurance. I did some research into providers in my area who took my Florida Blue health insurance and requested a referral from my regular doctor's office to Dr. Erez Sternberg at Ponte Vedra Plastic Surgery in Ponte Vedra, Florida, since he not only did breast reductions and took my insurance but also took Care Credit, which was a huge help in paying for my portion of the surgery.
I wasn't sure going in how flat I would be able to go, since his medical practice website did not mention anything about or have any photos of chest masculinization surgery, but I figured that the worst that could happen was that he'd say no. I booked my initial consultation for April 2019 ($100 cost for that visit), and one of the things they requested that I prepare beforehand was my medication list. Among other things, one of the medications I take is a low dose of testosterone. When he asked me how small I was hoping to go, and I requested to go as small / as flat as possible, he took a look at that medication list and saw the testosterone on it and asked if I was transitioning. This is North Florida. It's a very conservative part of the state, and I didn't know how my answer to the question would be received, but again, the worst he could do to me was say no, so I told him, yes, I am transitioning. At that point, he asked for my pronouns and offered chest masculinization surgery instead of a standard breast reduction while still agreeing to charge the insurance for it as a therapeutic breast reduction. I had come prepared with half a dozen arguments for why I should have a flat chest, and I didn't have to use any of them. At that time, I also knew that I did not want nipple grafts, but I was so shocked at how easily he agreed to do chest masculinization surgery instead of a standard breast reduction that I was afraid to ask for surgery without nipple grafts because I didn't want to test my luck any further that day.
The insurance coverage was approved within just a couple of weeks, and it was only going to cost me an additional $275 for my portion of the surgery (though they initially thought it would be $475 and this is what I paid up front, so they later refunded to me the amount that I had paid above the final cost).
When I had my pre-surgical appointment three weeks before surgery in June 2019, I did speak up and ask if it would be possible to have surgery without nipple grafts, and again, he readily agreed to what I was requesting. After all, I would likely never properly regain erogenous nipple sensation after surgery, it would speed up healing, and having no nipples feels, to me, more genderless than having more masculine-looking nipples, so I was elated when he said he would be happy to do the surgery without nipple grafts. All that was left from there was the surgery itself.
I was a little apprehensive going in because I had no idea what his surgical results for this kind of surgery would look like, but I knew that this was my best chance at getting what I wanted and so I was much more excited than I was apprehensive. It was an outpatient surgery, in and out within 3-4 hours, and I had surgical drains and a large ace bandage with padding over the actual surgical sites. After surgery, I had more pain from the pressure of the bandages than from the surgery itself, and I was able to stop taking the pain medications I was given on the second day. 3-4 days after surgery, I had a drain mishap on my left side, which blew air back into my chest and caused significant swelling that had to be drained manually with a large syringe each week for several weeks thereafter, but which caused no lasting damage. Other than that, I had no other post-surgical complications, and I got my drains out a week after surgery, at which point I really could have gone back to work if I'd wanted to, but I had taken two full weeks off of work for surgery and recovery just in case, so I decided to take the full amount of time I had requested off just for a bit of a vacation. It's worth noting that my job is mostly a desk job, with very little heavy lifting, so people with a more physically demanding job would likely need more time off than I did, and I still needed to take an afternoon off each week to go back in for follow-up appointments for the next several weeks mostly because of the swelling caused by the drain mishap. But I was lucky because they're in my local area and aftercare was easily accessible. Additionally, I was not charged extra for the follow-up appointments.
There is still a bit of tightness along the scar lines, but I have full range of motion and very little numbness along the surgical sites as I write this now nearly 5 months after surgery. There is a small amount of dog-earing along the outer edges of my scars, though they did some liposuction in the underarm area to minimize this as much as possible during the surgery, and it's not too terribly noticeable. My scars are healing nicely, though the right side has a wider scar due to my being right-handed and doing a lot more moving and stretching with the right arm as a result. I have very fair skin, so the scar on the right is still noticeably quite purple-red, but on the left side, it's already fading to white. Since my scars do usually tend to fade to white after they've had sufficient time to heal, I expect the right side to eventually do that as well. And my scars are quite flat, rather than raised, so you can barely feel a difference where the scar tissue is. Different people's results with this will vary because everyone scars differently. There are occasional twinges of discomfort along the scar line from time to time, but not really any actual pain, and overall, I'm really happy with the results.
I love my new, flat chest, and not only do I love the aesthetic results, but the upper back pain that allowed me to get it covered as a therapeutic breast reduction went away almost immediately after surgery, which also improved my posture and reduced the chances that I'll develop a hump/spinal curvature as I get older. It feels amazing, and just having chest masculinization surgery made me look much thinner, and I went down two full shirt sizes as a result.
Dr. Sternberg and his staff were fantastic throughout the entire process, from initial consultation to post-surgical care and follow-up appointments, very trans-inclusive, very friendly, and very professional. I highly recommend them to anyone considering this surgery.