Eli's Top Surgery

Hi there!

My name is Eli, I'm a 19 year old student from Welly!

I'm getting top surgery (a double mastectomy) in the end of October and need to save $9000 before then. There is not a lot of funding out there so this GiveALittle page and my own saving is the only way to go. The surgery costs just over $17,000 all up, and I've managed to save $8000 for it so far but am in need of some help.

This surgery will flatten my chest, by having most of the breast tissue removed through two incisions that will leave me with two scars under my pecs. The short version of why I need to do this, is that I am getting more anxious because of the disconnect between my mental and physical self, and my current coping mechanisms aren't super healthy or viable long term.

The longer version is that I have body dysphoria, which is quite hard to describe, but I found this analogy here that fits pretty well for what's going on for me:

"Imagine your friends invited you to a party and you are really excited about it. You get dressed, get to the party and start mingling. You notice though that somehow you are not having as much of a great time. It takes you a while to realize you came dressed in dirty clothes, and probably you stink. You are still the same fun person but this makes you very self-conscious, and you just can’t feel comfortable. You are far from your home so you cannot change your clothes and you stay the night with this feeling. It’s something you can’t shake off."

For me, this discomfort often builds up to a more panicky feeling. In order to combat this I have been flattening my chest with binders, which has helped. However binding is not particularly good for your ribs and breast tissue, and gets painful. You also can't play sport while binding, it gets hot and sweaty, and restricts your breathing. And binding doesn't actually completely flatten my chest; it is more of a patch over the issue, rather than an actual solution. Getting my chest shape surgically changed is something that will certainly help me feel more at ease with myself and after I've recovered from surgery, I'll be a lot more comfortable doing things that I currently feel self-conscious about, and will hopefully get back into things that I love, like playing Ultimate Frisbee.

So that's what I'm fundraising for. Any sized donation is awesome! Or if you want to help me out in another way, sharing this page would be brilliant, especially if you share it at different times throughout the next 6 months!