NOLA in September?
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I am working from my itty bitty phone.
I saw rogam!
Does anyone remember if minnesota wanted visitors after her surgery? I can't find her posts easily on this phone. If anyone has been in contact with her can you send me a private message if you talk to her and she wants a visitor. I will stop by if she wants visitors. please pm me her info and I will stop by. I am here now0 -
Sorry minnesota I missed you. If you are staying at homewood I can cach up with you there
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Hey Y'all I made it to NOLA I saw Tigsun. And walked over to the hospital they said that Minnasota
Was still in surgery. I don't know her real name but I wanted to
check her. Boy am I marked up--yay! He was really getting into my new body design. He was again amazed with all the info exchanged on the board. I shared my concern with nipple recon -- I am going for it! We discussed plication but he decided that he will suction more instead.
He has already warned me that I will be reall sore. He also said to drink at least 3 power aids to help alleviate fatigue. He mentioned they can hear it thru the pho e when someone has gotten dehydrated. He said that we don't consume enough fluids. At any rate I reminded him that I will be 40 in 2012 and I wanted the best looking body i could get. He promised to do his. Est.0 -
Sandy... no, I have some of that too.. Mine as is if you took a grapefruit, (my breast) cut it in half and it is the entire left outside portion of my left breast.
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How the _____ can they tell over the phone if we are dehydrated?!! lol
You go Ro! Thanks for the report. I turned 40 this summer, so I'm ready to leave 40 behind and have my best body by 41. Today, I look like Uncle Fester. Without costume enhancement!
This thread has been on fire lately. So I'm getting fired up for my Stage 2! I find it motivating coming off of chemo. I'm still quite fatigued and easily discouraged, but you all help push me to do the most I can.
Keep up the good work and post those clinic/hosp reports!
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heading out day after tomorrow for stage two, Hopefully, I have had some wierd things going on, hives, fevers, sever joint pain, my oncologist thinks that I have serum sickness from a bug bite. I have been in touch with the center and they are saying come, 3 days ago I had a fever of 104.7, that would not go away with alternating 800 Ibuprophen, and tylenol, pain in my back so severe that I could not move and nothing helped, it was unberable thru vicoden, percicet, tramadol, all in double doses. finally as a hail mary he shot me full of steroids and it went away. I really hope they will do the surgery when I am there because I don't think I can affored to come back again. if this is full of typos forgive me, I broke my glasses and have not gotten the new ones yet.
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Kathryn and Toomuch and any other post Stage 2 hip flappers - I am wondering about the butt lift. It sounds painful and I am wondering if you think it made a big difference. Was it worth it? Do you know if the indentations from where the flaps were taken can be smoothed with lipoing around them, or if the lift is needed to fix that?
Djfrro, I really hope you feel better. That sounds really miserable.
Betsy, I found a discussion about fat necrosis that suggests that massage and heat might help break it up, so I have been trying that a little. Did you ever read about that or try it? It may be a complete waste of time, but the heat feels good at least.
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Cider 8...lol they say they can hear the dehydration in the tone and based on the symptoms:)! Djffro I hope you feel better girlfriend!
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Sonya.. I have been massaging all day.
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Wow, lots of news here.
Go Ro!!! Glad you can skip plication. Lipo will hurt like a mother for 3-5 days, then get better. Hang in there! It'll be worth it!
Good luck tomorrow Tig!
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I am packing my suitcase......i will be ready to go early in the morning. guess what my big fear is now? the needle for the IV. ugh i hate needles. Dr. S. tells me I don't need too much done so this is hopefully my last surgery in NOLA. I asked about the DOM and he told me I only need to wear it 2 weeks. Let the countdown begin. and yeah no drains!
We ate dinner at Zea's near the center. So good.
Being back reminded me of all the good memories and all the ones I met back in May. Stage 1 is way behind us now! This got here really fast!
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butt lift: just do it. it's the only way to get rid of the shark bites. It's not that bad, really. You're still fairly numb back there. You have to heal incisions all over again, which is sort of a pain, but it's not that bad.
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Running - be careful with heat if you don't have a lot of feeling in the reconstructed breast. There are women who have ended up with a burn because they can't judge the heat. (I was warned not to use a heating pad when I had my previous DIEP.) You might want to call the nurse at the Center and ask them the best way to deal with this. Massaging won't turn dead fat tissue, fat necrosis, into live soft fat. At best I would imagine it could break down the lump a little which probably could just as easily be done during stage 2 by the doctor. The question for me would be if you don't have fat necrosis and the reconstruction just hasn't softened yet - will massaging help or hurt things or is it just innocous? Just my take on things.....
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Besa... You make a lot of sense... I have been massaging to see if it softens... I am hoping it just hasn't softened yet. Of course my biggest fear is that it is necrosis... time will tell in two weeks.
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Running - I had big seromas in both donor sites so I needed to have the donor site closed up! To be honest with you, I don't see any difference in how I look but I'm only 11 days out. Maybe after a few weeks changes will be obvious!
I have a question for those who have had fat necrosis treated at Stage 2. How long did it take the area to soften after the doc blasts the area? I had 1 small area of necrosis which feels exactly as before Stage 2. I'm just wondering if it is still likely to change?
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Amy... how much necrosis did you have?
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djffro: How terribly unfortunate to get some obscure bug bite reaction. Glad the shots have put the pain to rest and hope you continue on-schedule with surgery.
rogam: Watch out 2012!!! Hot mamma!
tigsun: I hear you in regards to needles. I make it a point to close my eyes before it's even in sight -- if I don't see it, I don't get so anxious. Good luck tomorrow and you, too Rogam!!
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djffro - sorry in my haste i missed your bug bite incident. yikes. i hope the steroids fixed it all and you are good to go.
bdavis - you will have to let me know when you are heading to maryland for tattooing......i may try to go at the same time.
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Surfagirl, sorry I didn't get right back to you. No, I dd not realize that all of my incisions were going to be extended--maybe I should have, perhaps I was in too much of a daze at my preop with all that purple scribble all over me. I did not have much of an agenda -- I just told Dr S to do whatever he thought needed to be done. I took some pix that night and looking back at them now can see that there were big ellipses on my hips that we're markered in, tho at the time I did not know what that indicated. My DIEP was called an"extended DIEP", meaning they took the blobs of fat on my anterior hips along with tummy-- not stacked, all one piece , but my incision went to the very outside edge of my hips. So to get rid of the dog ears and smooth things out, Doc needed to excise the fat. Hated the thought of it going in the garbage-- wish they'd used it from the get go in my breasts! Similarly he needed to extend my breast scars around to my back to smooth things out there. I am now VERY smoothed out, so I am greatful. I had minimal lipo pain and no bruising at all so I'm thinking I had more fat carved off than sucked out! Probably how they get rid of it depends on the location of the excess fat. In any case, even with 4 new incisions, revised breast incisions and new nipples, I went back to work at 10 days post op. Not happily, I should add... but able to make it. I doubt that the surgery on my hips was as extensive (deep) as a hip flap as I did not have any drains. My scars look the same, though. But I also get the sense that hips just don't hurt as much as tummy stuff. Four and a half weeks out my incisions are looking good and most of the glue is finally gone. Im still betadining until all glue is gone and I can see the incisions are completely healed .They are tender and sensitive to pressure when lying in bed or sitting in a hard chair or in the car. I'm still using ABD pads for the cushioning. But , to answer your question... definately not weeks of being home.
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Betsy - The necrosis was on my prophylactic side. It is the size of a nickel, round, mobile and hard. I want it to be gone because it feels like a lump and I don't want to freak out every time I feel it! I want to be done but if it's still there, I will head back to NOLA for another try at getting rid of it. I hope that you don't have a large area of necrosis in your DIEP breast. My radiated side never did get as soft as the other but I'm not sure I would compare it to a grapefruit. Well, you'll know soon enough. Just 2 more weeks!
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Betsy, I'm sorry if I misread what you wrote. I thought you said it was between your DIEP incision and your umbilicus. I had a very large area of necrosis on my left breast after stage one and I was having manual lymphatic drainage massages due to so much abdominal swelling and discomfort. My therapist was able to get the necrosis soft, but it would only last a couple of hours and then would return to being really hard. When Dr. D did my first surgery in NOLA, he said he could poke holes in it with a lipo cannula to help it reabsorb, and it did, but that process took over a year. He couldn't just remove it because too much volume would have been lost. Unless I lay on my back and look for it, I never notice it these days.
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Hi Ladies,
I have been reading all your posts for a month while deciding what to do. Although I've been shy about posting, I want to thank you all for sharing your info and tips concerning surgeries, etc.! I am going to NOLA next week for BMX and hip flap and I am starting to prepare. They said they could get me from A to B or maybe small C cup. How do you decide how much you want? If you go to C cup, do you have trouble finding tops to fit? Or trouble playing sports, running, etc.? And what do I absolutely need to bring or buy before going? I am also getting very nervous about being under for nine hours. Thanks! VickyB
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Too much, I had that same size of necrosis on my prophlactic side, didn't show up until after stage 2, which is odd, maybe it was there adn I didn't notice it? It's on the inside, as the breast thins out to the chest.
So at home they wanted to ultrasound it every 6 months - that lump. It is clearly necrosis they keep saying it's "bright" whatever that is (unlike cancer I suppose). When I went back for 2B, Dr. D. did blast it a little with his water lipo thing, but it just made it smaller - I can still feel the "lump"!! He said he didn't want to remove it. I think fearing a "dent". Next time I had it ultrasounded, they said, Oh it's smaller. (duh!) and "released me" from having to get 6-monthly ultrasounds.
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Just heard from tigsun's friend - she is out of stage 2 surgery and did great! only took an hour for her...
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I am in my room now. All went well.
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Great news tigsun. Healing vibes to you and all that are healing.
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tigsun: great to hear things went so well!
Victoria B: I went from an A cup to a B/small C cup. I was a bit worried about the final size too since I had grown used to a life with small breasts. Turned out just fine -- it really wasn't that much of a jump but gives me a bit of cleavage.
My advice is don't over pack. A pair of 2-piece pj/s w/button up the front top; stretch waist band pants such as yoga or running suit; shirts a bit oversized to allow for drains to be adequately covered; comfortable walking shoes for daily walks around town; I used a fanny pack for my drains when I had them after Stage 1 so I could hide my drain bulbs inside which worked well and left room for my cell and money. The hospital provides you with everything else: your compression garment, bra, as well as pads for drains. Other than my iPad and some make up and camera, I didn't use much more.
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YAY for you, Tigsun. A done deal
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Things are going great. I love it here! someone up thread mentioned the driver glen. i had him this morning. simply wonderful. called me a princess. sigh.....this type of care doesnt exist elsewhere. everyone is so caring and understanding. I love everyone starting with dr s. i went for a walk and now we are watching some dvds i brought. i have my sign on my door. i am feeling awesome. i am drinking lots and lots of water to flush.
coming back for stage 2 is like visiting family.....see all the nurses, docs from stage 1 and i waited a while...this is 6 months later for me.
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dffrol that sounds horrible! I wish you speedy healing and recovery from whatever infection is working on you.
Tigsun way to go! Hope you feel good and get lots of good rest.
I have hard sections in both greats, more hardness and pain on one side than another. Still turning shades of brown, especially in the hard areas.
Rogam I am 40 in 2012 and also hoping to get the best cancer-free bod I can in time for my 40th as well!
Today is 4 weeks post stage 1. I get to sleep on my side tonight! Hopefully I am not overestimating how good that will be. I had to get ambien a week and a half ago and will have to quit soon as I only have a handful left and have been taking 2 so I hope the side sleeping replaces it!
Been doing a lot of catching up on here. I love it when there is a lot to read here!0
