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Exchange City

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Comments

  • aviva5675
    aviva5675 Member Posts: 836
    edited March 2014

    Tessa, even tho I had read for months on here about exchange and how long it takes to see how they will really be, I too was not happy right away, had to keep saying, wait, wait- theyll change.  I cant emphasize enough how soon it is right now for you to see anything realistic. When they say ' step away from the mirror' really, its good advice. Hard to follow, but good. Maybe in the end you will need some revision. But for now and the next few months, please, be optimistic and wait to see what happens.

  • sandra4611
    sandra4611 Member Posts: 1,750
    edited March 2014

    Jackie, I've read that there is no drop and fluff with gummy bear anatomicals but I believe all the other kinds of implants do have it.

    My new little left gummy bear (6 days old) is changing its shape every day. Yesterday it looked way too wide...kind of like a rectangle on my chest. (The previous gummy bear - same size - did not go through a rectangle phase.) The space between foobs was about one finger wide yesterday and there was a bulge on the side of the "rectangle foob." Today the space between is two fingers. It still looks wide but the bulge is gone. It's been entertaining to watch my body adapt to these alien invaders. In the last seven months, the left side has had one TE and three implants, the right has had two implants. But each foob each time has had its own way of healing and settling down.

  • lizlori
    lizlori Member Posts: 146
    edited March 2014

    sandra....do you know what your wbc count was prior to infection?  My surgery is tomorrow, wbc slightly lower but the platlets are up, ps and oncologist think I am safe for surgery....just waiting to hear from the nurse for the time....the waiting and wondering is the worse.  Just wished it was overwith and I am back home....

  • MCbeach
    MCbeach Member Posts: 43
    edited March 2014

    Sandra-I like your analogy to the alien invaders, made me laugh.  Hope you are healing well.  Sounds like things are headed in the right direction for you.  

  • mnmbeck
    mnmbeck Member Posts: 156
    edited March 2014

    Hi all!  Well, I'm alive!!!  I had my exchange surgery this morning at 7:30, and I was home by 11:30.  I am still amazed at how fast these things can happen.  The nurses were angels...so kind and comforting.  I am always afraid of surgery, and this was a different place than my last surgery.  As the OR nurse was asking questions before surgery, I just started to cry. ....just so scared of the unknown.  She stopped everything just to hug me awhile.

    I have mostly been sleeping.  Definitely pain....deep aching across my chest, and feels like I have open, raw skin where he did lipo to remove the mudflaps.  BUT...I can move!  I remember having tiny dinosaur arms after BMX.....nothing like that here. I am taking 1 oxycodone every 4 hours, and added some Tylenol to that.  I am able to fall asleep easily in my recliner with this amount of medication. 

    I will have a follow-up with my PS in the morning.  He will take off these bandages then and have me in an undeware bra for 4 weeks (24/7).  I can't imagine there's anything pretty under those bandages!  There's no way I can tell....I look a little like a marshmallow man right now....all cotton and gauze!  I would think that wearing a bra right now would hurt....but, we shall see!

    SOOOOOO happy to have that part behind me!  Now....no infection  and quick healing.

  • hjpz
    hjpz Member Posts: 215
    edited March 2014

    Thanks for the update on the wait time ladies!

    mnmbeck - best of luck in your healing process!

  • moonflwr912
    moonflwr912 Member Posts: 5,938
    edited March 2014

    mnm, glad to hear it went well! Now you just heal fast! 

    Lori well be in your pocket tomorrow. So if you lean a bit to one side it's because too many of us got in on one side! LOL

    Jackie the drop and fluff is for all implants that aren't anatomical. My saline rounds certainly dropped and are fluffing fine. LOL Much love to all. 

  • AZ85048
    AZ85048 Member Posts: 1,467
    edited March 2014

    Lori1020 - Wishing you the very best of outcomes tomorrow!  I'll be in your pocket along with Moon and all the others watching over you!  Please let us know how it goes...ThumbsUp 

  • mnmbeck
    mnmbeck Member Posts: 156
    edited March 2014

    Sending prayers to all of you having surgery today and tomorrow.  I had my exchange surgery yesterday and I am SORE today!  But, so glad to have this behind me.....another step toward complete-ness...and getting my life back.

    I had my follow up visit with my PS today.  He says everything looks good....and that things will 'fill out and even up" over the next days and weeks.  I am sure glad I had you all to give me reassurance before the surgery, since I feel the usual 'flat and uneven' that so many of you have experienced.   That would have been a shock!  I am home in an underwire....the same exact one I was wearing before any of this happened!  So, I'm glad I didn't throw my old bras away!  The cups aren't quite as full (I was BURSTING) out of my bra with the TE's (tried just for fun....never wore a bra with TE's).  Lots of bruising on my sides where he did the lipo.

    I had TE's with a max of 450 (I think)...overfilled to 550.  He placed 650cc mentor high profile rounds.  I will post pictures on the picture board either tonight or tomorrow morning. 

  • MCbeach
    MCbeach Member Posts: 43
    edited March 2014

    congrats mnm!!  So glad you are squishy. Feeling done for at least a while is a great feeling. Take it easy, don't push it even if u feel ok. Heal well. 

  • mnmbeck
    mnmbeck Member Posts: 156
    edited March 2014

    Thanks McBeach.  I posted pictures.  It was the first time I really saw this mess.  PS took off bandages and put on a bra in the office this  morning.  I have 650 in there, and I do look flat.  EVERYTHING looks red, purple, raw to me!  Even my incisions look a little puffy and pink.  Trying to keep everything clean, take antibiotics, etc.  I am much more sore tonight than I was last night!  Ice does seem to give me some relief.  I originally was told I would need a "long weekend" to feel better....so, I'm hoping that something MAJOR happens between now and Sunday to make me feel better!!!  LOL!!!

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,427
    edited March 2014

    mmbeck - sending healing thoughts for a quiet weekend.

  • myers421
    myers421 Member Posts: 145
    edited March 2014

    Good Morning,

    I haven't posted on here much this month, If you remember I was scheduled for my 3rd exchange earlier this month, which was cancelled just before going in to the OR because my ps said it was looking good (my incision that had broken open and he had sutured up) and I didn't have to have surgery. Fast forward to just this last week, the incision opened up again and kept opening... by yesterday afternoon the implant was exposed not just an eraser size head but like the size of an orange,  The entire implant was trying to get out.  Last night I had surgery to remove that left implant completely and the plans are to wait until the skin heals.  I now look like a "boy" on one side and a "woman" on the other (he kept the 600 cc implant on the right in).  Boy... what a challenge this will be, I have 1 drain no big deal compared to the 4 after BMX.  I want to return to work Monday and I am currently wrapped and it will not come off until mid next week.  Any suggestion on how to accomplish looking like a woman on my "boy" side?

     . 

  • Dulcigirl
    Dulcigirl Member Posts: 864
    edited March 2014

    Myers,

    Bless your heart!!! I just answered you on the Tram thread that you replied to. If you can't find it let me know.

    Hugs!!!!

  • andrea623
    andrea623 Member Posts: 572
    edited March 2014

    Myers, I'm so sorry you're going through this. Do you have the option of a diep or other flap surgery? 

  • myers421
    myers421 Member Posts: 145
    edited March 2014

    Yes I think after the skin heals that will be my best bet. 

  • sandra4611
    sandra4611 Member Posts: 1,750
    edited March 2014

    Myers,

    I've been wondering about you since we haven't heard from you. Damn, damn, damn. So sorry. I had a similar situation...an 800 cc implant on one side and flat on the other. My permanent implants were put in at the time of the BMX. The right side has been perfect from day one. The left side was the site of a bad infection that developed within hours of the BMX. After 2 weeks on IV antibiotics, the implant was removed along with the majority of the soft tissue and muscle on the outside third of the implant and most of my underarm tissue and muscle. The PS placed an empty TE there but I was completely flat with some weirdly wrinkled skin. I stayed on the IV antibiotic for several weeks until the infection was gone and healing looked good. Fills started at three weeks post op. Three months after the TE was placed, I returned to surgery to trade the TE for a new implant. 

    During the time I was lopsided, I used a couple of tricks. At first I wore a very soft surgical bra with gauze. Then it occurred to me that my drain bulb would fit in the other side of the surgical bra. It was a really convenient way to deal with my drain too. When the drain was pulled I graduated to very soft washable fabric "foobs" I'd found on etsy.com for $14 per pair. (All the other ones were SO expensive.) When the fills progressed to the point where the situation was reversed, I had the same problem. Now the TE was so much bigger than the implant that I was lopsided again. I just put one of the fabric foobs over the implant and evened myself out again.

    Hope this helps.

  • moonflwr912
    moonflwr912 Member Posts: 5,938
    edited March 2014

    I used my Amoena camisole for the two years I was uneven. It comes with the 2 poly foobs. If you buy one I suggest the beige color . The foobs are beige too and you can use them in other things. They have the most breast shape of poly foobs. I used it in the crater of my left side and some fluff in the half filled right side. Then when I was implanted again I kept taking it out til I was even again. I own 4 of these 2 white and 1 black and one beige. The whites don't stay white. But i bought a mastectomy bra and used the soft fluff foob in the pocket. I use them mow after exchange for exercise. 

    Much love. 

  • myers421
    myers421 Member Posts: 145
    edited March 2014

    Thanks ladies, good advice I will try = )

  • aviva5675
    aviva5675 Member Posts: 836
    edited March 2014

    a rolled up pair of socks??  So sorry you are going thru this. Right when we think its going to be ok, something happens :(

  • AZ85048
    AZ85048 Member Posts: 1,467
    edited March 2014

    myers421 - Aw, Amy, I'm so sorry.  I have no advice, I just wanted you to know that we've missed you around here.  Praying that everything stays closed and heals well and that nothing else tries to burst out of your body...Shocked

  • myers421
    myers421 Member Posts: 145
    edited March 2014

    Thanks for the Prayers Az and Avia that is what I was going to go with Monday Socks in a sports bra LOL.. I'll let ya all know how it works ; )

  • moonflwr912
    moonflwr912 Member Posts: 5,938
    edited March 2014

    Myers. I am sorry that you had to go through this too. You know the triangular shapes look the best. Perhaps you could hand stitch a foob out of the sock without the elastic part and stuff that? It might be easier to slip in your bra. And you might have pin it in. They tend to creep out if the bra does not have pockets. 

    Much live. 

  • myers421
    myers421 Member Posts: 145
    edited March 2014

    good idea moon, I never thought about pinning it.  I am going to go to wallymart tomorrow to see if they have some type of inserts I can purchase, if not I was actually thinking of "stuffing" like they use for crafts. LOL.. IDK alls I know is I want to be brave and show up to work on Monday with a Smile

  • Dulcigirl
    Dulcigirl Member Posts: 864
    edited March 2014

    oh Myers!! I sure wish I was close enough to give you the one I crocheted for my mom. It's triangular and very boob-like! And it will be stuffed with the craft stuffing. I should just start stock piling some for bco sisters!!! 

  • mnmbeck
    mnmbeck Member Posts: 156
    edited March 2014

    Myers....I have been wondering about you, too.  I was hoping that no news was good news.  I don't have a lot of advice...but, it sounds like others have some good stuff.  Just know that I will be praying for you.  I wish I could zoom to Illinois and give you a big hug!  hang in there, and keep us posted about how you are doing!

  • myers421
    myers421 Member Posts: 145
    edited March 2014

    You guys are all awesome too bad we all don't live on the same block.. What a pink block party that would be LOL

  • MCbeach
    MCbeach Member Posts: 43
    edited March 2014

    Mnm- I saw your pics and think you look great so soon! Remember, your type WILL drop, fluff and change. Your symmetry and cleavage rocks too!  My incisions are already so much better 1-1/2 weeks out, so have faith and the much needed patience. 

    Myers- Ugg! So sorry to hear. I have the camisoles that moonflower described. You can have them if u want (camisoles, w foob inserts or just the inserts) mine are size medium. You can pm me your addy and I can send them or I can meet you 1/2 way sometime next week (you are about 45 mins from me). Lmk. 

  • myers421
    myers421 Member Posts: 145
    edited March 2014

    mcbeach If you don't need them anymore I would gladly accept them.  I work in Libertyville, where do you live?

  • lizlori
    lizlori Member Posts: 146
    edited March 2014

    Hi all,

    Thanks for the kind words and support.  Surgery done, i got home at 10:30 last night(They were behind schedule)  Nurses were good, everyone explained all the steps. The worse part about this was the anxiety prior to the surgery.  I would of liked an explanation as to why I have this ace wrap over my bra. I called today and the said it is for swelling, and it can be taken off for good when I shower tomorrow.    Last night was horrible though, pain was bad, couldn't sleep. I started with vicodin, then tramadol and finally ativan (all spread apart)   I did read that the trama of surgery kicks in the stress hormones and can cause insomnia, as well as the pain.  Has anyone else experienced this??   I probably got three hours of sleep, and didn't nap today, so I am still wired. I hate not being able to sleep.....I am swollen in the sternum area, is this normal??  I am better today and I am not weepy....DH has been very sweet through this, a big change from my last surgery....  Have a good night everyone.  sooo glad this is overwith!! 

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