Topic: Cosmetic Implants Now Breast Cancer Question
- Posted on: Feb 6, 2010 10:31 am
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 1
I had cosmetic implants in 2007 and I recently have been diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer (2010). The treatment choice at this time is bilateral mastectomies. Which I am fine with but I am confused with the status of the current implants. One PS wants to take them out and replace expanders “to make room” and other surgeon not PS said we can leave them in. I thought that the expanders are used to make room for the implants which I already have?!?! Is the PS just wanting to make more money from me or is there a real benefit to the expanders then new implants that I am not seeing. Has any one out there had implants before their cancer diagnose that can tell me what the did for reconstruction?
Diagnosis: 12/15/2009, IDC, <1cm, Stage I, Grade 1, ER+/PR+, HER2-
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rubytuesday… Joined: May 2006 Posts: 2,861 |
Feb 6, 2010 06:45 pm, edited Feb 6, 2010 06:45 PM
by rubytuesday
rubytuesday wrote:
I did not have implants prior to BC but realize that you won't have any breast tissue over the implants so your breasts will be smaller than they are now....could be significantly smaller depending on the amount of breast tissue that you have. I think I would value the opinion of the PS over the BS in the area of reconstruction. Hope all goes well for you no matter which way you decide to go. Best wishes Proud member of the TaTa Sisterhood! :)
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bonnie1jean… Joined: Jan 2010 Posts: 31 |
Feb 6, 2010 06:51 pm
bonnie1jean wrote:
I had implants for cosmetic reasons 21 years ago. The PS I met with told me that the implant would have to come out and a new one put in. He also mentioned that the reconstruction process would probably be shorter than for someone who never had implants because the pocket has already been created and the tissue and muscle has been significantly stretched from the original augmentation. So I guess that's something to be happy about considering that most of this stuff is so anxiety provoking. Good luck to you. Diagnosis: 12/4/2009, DCIS, <1cm, Stage 0, Grade 2, ER+/PR+ |
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jdjr Joined: Jun 2009 Posts: 18 |
Feb 8, 2010 10:07 pm, edited Feb 8, 2010 10:08 PM
by jdjr
jdjr wrote:
Hi - I had cosmetic implants (took me from a B to a C cup, essentially) in 2006. It was recommended I do left side mastectomy . For various reasons, I opted to have a bilateral..They took all my breast tissue, as well as the implants. (the implants were about 200 cc's each).. It wasn't even a discussion as to whether I could keep them. You will notice a difference when you have ONLY implants, without your God-given breast tissue.. Also, the implants you will need to get will be different than the one's you had previously, as was pointed out in the above post.. You have no breast tissue anymore, so the implants will be doing more work for you ! Good luck with everything. Admittedly, I still wonder whether the trauma of the cosmetic suurgery in some way instigated the cancer.. I don't know.. just something that floats around in my head ! Best of luck ! Diagnosis: 5/2009, IDC, <1cm, Stage I, Grade 3, 0/3 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2- |
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cs7777 Joined: Feb 2010 Posts: 33 |
Feb 9, 2010 04:20 pm
cs7777 wrote:
An important distinction to understand is that most cosmetic implants are placed underneath the natural breast tissue (subglandular) but above the muscle (pecs etc.), whereas most reconstruction implants following mastectomy are placed below the muscle (submuscular). The reason for the latter is that you no longer have any breast tissue to "pad" the implant and help hold it in place, only your skin, which is way too thin to hold it stable and give some padding on the ouside so that you don't see the edges etc. If your cosmetic implants were also submuscular (unlikely, but sometimes done) then indeed you already have the muscle pockets that are needed, However, the loss of your natural breast tissue will leave you with just the old implant and therefore you'll be smaller than before (unlees you had quite small breasts to start with). If you want to be bigger again, you'll need a bigger implant, and to get that you might first need the tissue expander to stretch the muscle and skin and get it ready for the bigger implant. If your cosmetic implants are subglandular (under the breast tissue) but not submuscular, then I can't imagine you not having them out because they'd be in a completely bad place just under the skin. In this case you're where everyone else starts from with a mastectomy - after the breast tissue is removed the PS makes the pockets in the muscle and places a tissue expander in that submuscular space, you have it filled over time, and eventually replaced with the new implants. I'd listen to your PS on this...he's the one who has to do the work, but also ask him lots of questions like why he needs to do what he's suggesting, and what all your options are. Then he should explain things like the submuscular vs subglandular placement. Good luck! Diagnosis: 9/2009, IDC, <1cm, Stage I, Grade 1, 0/7 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2- |