NOLA in September?
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Ok had a biiig day today. I saw the hospital, met the Dr, met the nurse and WOW. This place is amazing. the people are awesome and I can't even say enough good things about them.
I met Anniese and she is great! Plus she did what we both hoped she would- talked to my mom and got her a little more on board. Her and her husband were great and answered tons of questions. My mom got to see heer scars and was so impressed. I think she is at the best she will ever get with this.
but either way I am ECSTATIC and cannot wait until wed when the surgery is all over
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Check out the outrageous cookies my dear friend brought me today. She is a hoot, only she would be able to find cookies that look like BOOBS!
We went to Michaels today to see about the supplies needed. So here's the deal, I don't want everyone to go buy a whole package of pages, so I think the best way to make your page is to create your page on an "acid free" 12 X 12 paper (found at Michaels in individual sheets in an array of colors)! Send those to me, and I'll provide the actual; pages and album to put them in. this will insure a uniform look to the book And all the pages will fit into the album. If you want to add your page to our new NOLA scrapbook PM me, and I'll send you my address. We want toget thios together by May. My phase 2 is the last week of May so I'll hand carry the book with me.
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kcshreve~ Hmmm..that is weird. I had my abdominal seromas drained at my local hospital here via ultrasound guide. They did NOT have to put me under. I wasn't NPO. They just used some lidocaine. It was cool. I got to watch the needle go into the seroma and then watch it disappear! I would think that you would be fine for a month, but I would email the Center and ask. Sandy developed something that had to be surgically removed from hers. I can't for the life of me remember what it is called.
Melinda~I am so happy that you are ecstatic! And that your mom is a little better. Just accept where she is at, and you be okay with where you are at...cuz that's what is most important anyway!
CC~walk, drink, rest, repeat.
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Melinda - Happy to hear your mom is more on board!! Best wishes with your surgery on Wednesday!
Nordy-Great News about your dad!! May he continue to gain strength and heal!
OK - Seroma's......ugh. Last week it looked like I had a wave in my abdomen - went to my local PS - he aspirated 110 cc's - mosst of it from my right hip area. The interesting thing was that although the majority of my fluid was in my abdomen, he had more success taking it from my hip area. My incision runs 360 degrees around me due to the stacked procedure. More fluid today - 30 from the abdomen, 35 from the right hip, and 5 from the left hip - so I am down to 70cc's - hopefully the amount will continue to decrease!!
Best of luck to everyone up this week!!!
LouAnn
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Melinda, I am glad you are totally feeling okay, regardless of your Mom's feelings .She will either come around, or not. I hope she does, because it will be nicer for YOU. But regardless, YOU KNOW you are in THE place girl! You will soon be on "the other side" of this, and dealing with the healing!
LouAnn, I am wondering if this bulge in my lower tummy is fluid needing to be aspirated. It is hard as a rock and like a bulge. But you mentioned a "wave". Given my description, what do you think? I need to call NOLA. I am thinking I should have an ultrasound locally and maybe an aspiration if needed. It is slowly getting smaller, but I am just wondering if it could just be aspirated the heck out!!!
Spring.
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Melinda~ I knew that once you got there and meet everyone that you would feel better. It is the same thing that happened to me
. I will be thinking of you tomorrow and hoping that everything goes wonderful and that you will be thrilled with your new girls. LouAnn sorry that you had to be aspirated again. I know that I have fluid but my PS was only able to get 10cc's out but I can fill the fluid jiggle....It's a pain and I hope it goes away soon. My PS was only able to get 10cc's out but I think I have a butt load (literally). The center doesn't seem to concerned so I am trying to stay calm.
KC~ I would tell them that they will not be placing a drain but they will be doing the aspiration with the ultrasound. I wouldn't want to be sedated just for a needle aspiration.
Okay all of my whooping it up early about running with my girls I can now barely walk..SAD I tell you, SAD.
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Spring, when you lay on your back, can you still feel the "bulge" and is it still hard?
My original surgeon made one stab (literally) to aspirate my lower abdomen and all he got was a bit of blood and he quit there. My seroma sat for so long without draining that scar tissue built up around it---that's called a pseudobursa. I think that if you continue to have a seroma aspirated, eventually the walls will stick together and it will heal up on its own. My options were either injections of tetracycline into the pocket (which supposedly cause extreme burning pain for a few days) or surgical removal, which is how Dr. D approached it. I developed another smaller pocket under my right ribs after the muscle plication, and worried that I'd need my ab incision opened yet another time, but Dr. D said to give it 9-10 months and we'd see. Nine months later, I was in Vegas attending a trade show. The first day was miles and miles of walking the convention center, and when we got back to the hotel, I flung myself on the bed. I had long prior made somewhat of a habit of massaging the "egg" and I spent about 20 minutes that day just rubbing it and pulling it outward from the center with firm pressure. About a week later, I noticed it was gone, finally. I had some lipo to the upper abdominal area last June, and it has been bugging me again so I'm back to the firm massaging whenever I lay on my back, hoping it will eventually break up the scar tissue again. I don't notice it much unless I'm sitting in tight jeans and they put upward pressure on it, which causes a slight burning sensation.
I don't know if there is an average time frame in which a pseudobursa develops,and back in 2007 when I was dealing with the first one, there was almost no information online about them, which was extremely frustrating to me because I had no answers about the increasing swelling and pressure in my abdomen, which eventually caused me to give up any sort of exercise and prevented me from being able to sit up straight to eat meals or work at a desk.
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Spring - I think Sandy explained it much better than I ever could!! I know my seroma's were not hard - just very squishy....and when I push on them they jiggle like jello!
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Hi all. I am gearing up to go to NOLA next week! Can't wait to meet all you ladies there!
Spring - I hope your bulge improves! I don't have any hard spots, but definitely have some fluid in my abdomen and pelvic region, and of course in my right arm. I went to my breast surgeon and she did an ultrasound to see what was going on, but said that there wasn't enough to worry about. After my BMx last May, I had a lot of problems with fluid. My breast surgeon removed my last drain at 6 weeks post surgery, then did ultrasound guided aspirations every two weeks (and for the last 4-5 weeks every week!) of my chest. I'm still wearing the high waisted Assets, along with my glove and sleeve. Maybe lipo will get rid of some of it!
Minnesota - I would love to meet you all for dinner on the 28th! Is this a "girls-only" dinner, or are our travel companions invited?
Is anyone else at the Homewood?
Robyn
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BC Diva - Well I think this isn't just a girl's-only dinner, tho guys may want to cluster at the other end of the table, or at another table entirely, once we get talking about breasts and nipples and stuff!
OMG! So let me get this right - Springtime, LouAnn, KCshreve, Jaimee, Sandy, and BCDiva - you are ALL having trouble with seromas?! Maybe this is actually more the norm than not! I suppose that anytime they take a big mass of fat out of one part of the body and move it somewhere else, the place where it's come from has to fill the void, huh? So if the binder or domanatrix doesn't squeeze the space totally together, it fills up. Again, I was disgustingly lucky last time around. Boy, I bet I'm in for it this time!
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What I read online said that 20-25% of people with flap reconstruction get seromas at the donor site, so it really is pretty common.
I developed a redness on one breast on Wednesday. It was initially below the flap and now covers half the flap. I went to my local PS in Philadelphia ----he had no idea what it is, but he was pretty certain it is not an infection or a rash. I went to the Hopkins docs --plastic surgeons and a dermatologist -- they also have no idea what it is, and they agree that it is not an infection or a rash, and that the flap is not in jeopardy. They asked a million questions -- any creams, any hot water bottle, any bra ----and the answer is NO. They took photos of it, which I am sending to the NOLA docs. I am not their patient, but they do so many of these. I am wondering if they have ever seen anything like this. Well, one good thing about this..it took my mind off the seroma.
Margit
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Nordy--Great News! Sending more prayers for continued recovery--laughter is wonderful medicine and I'm glad the "twins" could provide some comic relief!
Christy--I was wondering how 11 hours in a car post lipo would go--no wonder you are sore and tired! Ditto on the water, walks and rest.
Melinda--I'm glad about the movement with your mom...I think she will be blown away by your results.
Anniese, good luck tomorrow--sounds like you did a great job supporting Melinda! Good Karma!
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Minnesota - When I talked with Celeste last week, she told me that seroma's are very common, especially with the hip flap.......I am hopeful that I will only have to get it drained one or two more times!
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Minnesota, I guess as long as we remember that the guys are there! Don't forget that our guys disembarked and left us on the Natchez steam boat (now christened the "show boat") because we were so busy doing show and tell in the restroom.
I was not given a binder or compression garment after stage I. My first surgeon pulled my drain too soon, and then after 3 1/2 months and 17 office visits, told me that I couldn't have stage II until my "suture reactions" went away. Things were getting worse, not better and I asked him if he could open up my abdominal incision and fix whatever was wrong, and he told me that reopening the incision would be invasive "and we don't like doing invasive things to the human body." This was on post-op day 92. There is a 90 day global period after surgery during which the surgeon is responsible for all care made necessary by the surgery. It wasn't a coincidence that a couple of days after I was legally no longer his fiscal responsibility, my surgeon abandoned me. I'll never know the result of the peer review the hospital conducted, but I hope some good came out of it.
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OMG... Sandy - did he not think a DIEP was invasive??? LOL... dumb *ss... sorry - but some medical "professionals" truly amaze me!
All you seroma girls - I dealt w/seromas too and had to be aspirated multiple times as well as have new drains placed for two weeks. I was told not only by Dr. S, but by another doc that the hip flaps tend to be more fluid producing. I also asked Dr. D on his ask the Dr. page and he said that the larger the flap the more fluid; the higher the flap on your buttocks, the more fluid; and basically, that some of us are just juicier than others.
Spring - I wonder if you don't have some scar tissue formation where they did the plication??? If that were the cause, then some massage would definitely help...
I cannot believe that it is only a week from departure for me. I am kind of getting that butterfly feeling and starting to want to pack already. I am also starting to feel some anxiety about leaving my babies... but I did last time as well. Just hope all goes well.... both here at home and at surgery.
Margit - I hope that you find some answers... Is your breast warm to the touch also???
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Margit- Sorry to read about the reddness. Do let us know if NOLA has any advice for you- I hope they do.
I still have a Seroma- Going to have it drained again this week or Ass*pirated as I call it.
Thanks Tammy for organizing the Scrap book pages!
I dont know if I will have mine done in time before you leave for NOLA. But I will try.
I will have to have my dd help put mine together- since I dont scrapebook & I am not creative in that area.
Pam
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Thanks for the welcome and input!
I met with Dr. S (okay, no one mentioned those amazing shoulders!) and we agreed with a HIP. I would like to upgrade to D's initially since I know they will go down as I lose the extra 40 lbs I am carrying. There is plenty on my stomach to replace the B's I have now, but not D's. No need for stacked with using my hips
. The bonus will be the lift and shrinkage of the saddlebags I have carried even when I was 112 lbs. Dr. S says we should be able to fix up the abdomin in Stage 2. The downside will be the hip drains for 5 weeks.I have decided it will be easier to match two new nips since I am losing the left anyway and my right is nothing to brag about. I will decide between tats and nips later. It is wonderful knowing that there will be a lot of feeling left in the breasts themselves afterwards.
I still do not have a definitive surgery date until Dr. Largarde can confirm, but it is looking like Mar. 29th with my preop the Friday before. I hope I can get into Hope Lodge on such short notice, otherwise that is either a lot for a hotel or a lot of driving back and forth to Pensacola. Since I haven't seen anyone else ever scheduled for a Monday surgery, I can only figure it has something to do with my being an "active cancer" case and they are squeezing me in. In any case, I am going to have to scramble to figure out transportation and care. Is there always a two day wait between checking out of the hospital and the post-op appointment?
Holtbolt, I haven't be able to figure out where we might have ran into each other. Our types and dates put us on different threads. At least we get to meet here!
Best wishes Melinda, 2Tzus, Stephanie, and Bobbie for fantastic results this week.
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2T - YAY! You made it, and you survived your flight!!! Enjoy your day in NOLA - don't forget to tell "Dr. Delicious" hello for me
, and best of luck with your surgery!!Nordy - thanks for sharing re: the hip flaps and seroma's......mine were very high, so that explains it!!
What an exciting week for everyone in NOLA!!!
LouAnn
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Sue - sounds like they are working you in because I was told they don't do surgery on Monday's. Glad they could get you in that quickly! Katie is awesome and can help you make your travel arrangements.
If your pre-op is in the morning of 29th, stop by, I'll still be in the hospital along with Sally, Nordy & Diva. We should all get out that day but it probably won't be until that afternoon especialy for me as I can't check into my hotel until around 3:00. We are all going to put our screen names on our doors!
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2T Yay!! Enjoy girl! The Monteleone is nice...
Sue, hang in there, won't be long now!
OK my bulge is not squishy at all, hard as a rock, do you remember initial pregnancy? A hard bulge? Like that. I would say when I lie back, it bulges less, but then, all of my stomach is flattened out more, so not sure if that is indicative of anything.
I think I am going to call NOLA. I have been doing ab exercises (I hit the 3 month mark this month) so I am getting much stronger there (no longer as sore), and the bulge seems smaller than 3 months ago, but I wonder if this is normal? This is the one downside of not being able to just make an appointment and go in and say, "is this okay? does this look normal to you?" I guess I could send pictures...
Spring.
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Just wanted to mention the MIchaels in my neighbothood had all their 12 x12 scrapbooking paper (individual sheets) on sale for 30% off. There were even some 8 X 11 pages for 9 cents! Good time to get it even if you can't make your page for a while yet. Look on line for page ideas too. I'm happy to do this for us and our wonderful heros at NOLA!!
Also, still trying to post the picture of the "Boobalicious" cookies my dear friend brought to me. Amazing, straight from a bakery!
Springtime : Please add me to our list May 25, Phase 2 and May 26 Tattoos with Donn!
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Sueinfl - I think the timing of the post-op has more to do with your surgery date - 6-7 days afterward for permission to travel. Also, they tend to take out drains then and to give you a travel letter, if you need it for flying. Some doctors/locations make this appt even further out, but since they know we want to get on our way, they do it a bit sooner.
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Hi Sue - actually BCDiva and I should both be out of the hospital by the 26th, as we are both stage 2's... maybe the 27th at the latest. BUT we will definitely want to meet up with you! We are trying to get together for dinner the 28th - it should be a hoot!
Okay, I just found out my sis-in-law wants me to come up THIS Saturday and watch her kids before I leave my kids with her! This is really totally fine, but I am scrambling to find someone to teach my Sunday school class of nine 3 and 4 year olds!!! (Crazy to say the least). AND that means I need to start packing... NOW... because I am wired that way and can't wait until the day before to do it...
Spring - I would definitely send a pic... Although it is good to hear that the area has gotten smaller.
Margit - I hope your breast makes a rapid return to normal color!
Tammy - when do you leave for Nola in May??? (Trying to figure a timeline to do my page or two...) I will PM you to get your address.
Everyone on this week - hope you are doing well! Anniese - my thoughts are with you and hoping for a swift recovery. Melinda - hoping all is going well! 2T - you are up next! Are you wearing green toenail polish tomorrow??? Stephanie and Bobbie - coming up soon!
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Sue - sorry but I used the wrong date. I meant if your pre-op is on the Friday, 26th, we'd should still be there and to stop by.
Thanks Nordy - you post made be relook at what I typed! It's getting hard to keep up with whose going to be where on what date!
Tammy - sounds good and thanks for putting this together for us. I'll work on my page and then get your address.
Melinda - hope everything went well yesterday!
2Tzus & Stephanie - your up next!
Woo Hoo getting on the other side!
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I have a consult with a PS this Thursday. Since you ladies are so knowledgeable about DIEP I want to know what quesions you suggest I ask. I already have a lot of questions, gleaned from these pages, but if you think of something I'd appreciate it.
Thanks!
Leah
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I just want to pop in to say Hi....I have so many pages to read and I am so behind!! lol It sounds like everyone is progressing along..glad to see many of you are on the other side of the Mountain! I still need to schedule Stage 3 (nipples) but haven't decided when yet cause I want to enjoy summer with swimming.etc.
I may not be posting as much but know I think about you girls often and always in my prayers for fast healing and happiness! xox
Kathy
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Posted on Melinda's facebook acct-
Mindy is out of surgery and the doctor told her mom that everything went great. Mindy is in recovery and as soon as her mom sees her, I will update everyone. Keep her in your thoughts :-)
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good news... ty Mileha...
For you Gappers, I have a question about leg pain and cramping. I am 3 weeks out and my right butt cheek is so much more sore than the left.. and now my entire right leg is sore and feels very weak and subequently has has calf cramps that I have had to walk off....when I attempt to drive I feel like I almost have to manually lift my leg off the gas and put it on the brake... that's how weak and sore it is.. like dead weight and I'm still limping and dragging it along... is this normal at 3 weeks outl? it's troubling to me because I feel like I'm going backwards because of it....and wondered if anyone else had leg weakness, pain or leg cramping after an SGAP. ? Anyone?
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HOLTBolt, call NOLA, That does not sound right to me. Sounds like something is up. I know BCDiva had nerve issues in one leg, but I am not sure it was weak like that.
Tammy, I will add your stuff above right now!!!
Warrior, I need half a tattoo. Let's go together again!!!
Not now! I agree! Spring.
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Holtbolt: Spring is right, I did (well, DO) have some nerve pain since my DIEP in Dec, but that doesn't sound like what I've got.
We might be able to have a really big group for tatts, though I think I want to skip hurricane season.
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