He does it in a “fun nature” but it does bother me a bit, and I want to combat this somehow instead of hiding it. What are some good ways to punch back?
If he is a close friend I would pull him aside and have a serious chat to explain to him/remind him why you did it, that your body image issues were causing you enough stress that you decided to do a risky and extremely painful procedure and recovery to overcome it. Tell him that even if his jokes are well meaning, it damages your self esteem to have it brought up. New friends, peers, romantic partners, and strangers will not notice unless you disclose it, and it is important for you to be able to trust your current friends to keep it that way. If he scoffs at that or otherwise does not take you seriously when you tell him how damaging it is to your self esteem to joke about, I would consider cutting him out of your life. As a friend that you’ve disclosed your procedure to, he should be helping you move on, and not holding you back.
Also, your pre-op height is close to mine, I’m wondering what kind of changes you’ve noticed in the way strangers/women/new friends and coworkers treat you? I’ve heard a lot of general accounts from post-LL guys that their lives are better, but don’t have a ton of specific examples of how they’ve noticed others treat them differently now that they are taller.