NOLA in September?
Comments
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Betsy, Congrats on DRAIN FREE!!
Amy, Hmmm. You deserve your flat tummy and any other positive thing you managed to eek out of the horrible BC diagnosis and every thing that followed, as do we all!!! Your friend should be cheering for you!!! Sorry, just don't like the attitude, I mean really. She has no friggin' clue. How dare she!!! Walk in your Amy's shoes, woman!! <<off protect Amy soapbox>>
Josta, thanks for your kind words. We never know in life (and online) how what we say or do impacts someone else, and it's good to see you got so much out of being here. Soon you'll be on the other side of your Stage 2!! I think one of my surgeries was on Dec 2nd one of these past years. Its a good date!!
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Spring, that is so true. Back when I was having all of my troubles with Stage I and was desperate to find another, better surgeon to help me, all I had were the posts other women had made about their complications and where they found help. I had no option but to rely on what other women had written. When I found Dr. DellaCroce, there was no information about him or Dr. Sullivan on this site. I found out about them on FORCE's forums, and once I could see from all of the posts that they were obviously the best in the world, I was then able to PM some women and speak with them by phone. I was really in a desperate situation because my complication was worsening with each passing day and my surgeon had abandoned me. After Dr. D had agreed to take me as a patient, I had about 8 weeks to wait for my stage II surgery and repairs. I read those posts on FORCE over and over to reassure myself that I'd made the right choice. If not for what those ladies had shared, I don't know where I would have turned. Whether it's a new cancer diagnosis or someone who's suffering from reconstruction complications, you can bet that there are women who haven't posted yet who are hanging on our every word and making decisions on what to do and where to go based upon what we are sharing here.
As with my last few Thanksgivings, part of what I will give thanks for is that I heard about NOLA, that my family and friends were supportive and helped me get there, and that these doctors care so much about pleasing us in everything we ask them for (and much we don't even ask for). I'm thankful for the journey and the amazing women I've met and befriended along the way. We really do become sisters in this journey and it's pretty awesome.
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I remember the first time someone mentioned my travelling to NOLA and I thought they must have three heads... Why would I travel when I live outside NYC and Philly? And then I started the reseasrch and meeting local PSs, and then a consult with Dr D... I knew right then... And thanks to all the many women here for encourgaing me last spring to just look into the Center... I even encouraged women BEFORE my surgery to check out the NOLA doctors, and some had surgery before I did... as I was still in chemo til May.. Funny how it all works out sometimes!!
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Thanks Springtime! I am so grateful to share an anniversary with you! Kind of felt like a hug! (Tears rolling!) Truly am so feeling so not alone in this journey! Thanks for sharing that piece of info.
Betsy - that is great that you are already drain free!
Kaitsmom - your friend cannot truly comprehend what you have gone through because she has not been there (and hopefully never will). But Springtime is right - she should be cheering you on! But guess what - that's why we come back here. To cheer each other on! You go Kaitsmom!!!
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Amy.. I am surprised that your friend would be envious of you... yes, you have benefitted from one silver lining of having cancer, new boobs and flat tummy... Would she have wanted to trade places? I'm sure you would much prefer to have been cancer free and exercising at the gym... I know I would. We survivors all know that, and will never take anything for granted again... enjoy your boobs and tummy!!
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Amy, that is one of my biggest pet peeves. Ugh. I'm pretty blunt, so I usually tell them that I would rather NOT have lost both my breasts and all the feeling that goes with them when I was 22. That I would trade them their tummies for good genetics and nerve endings. It usually shuts them right up.
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Thanks all . . . I am blessed to have all of you in my cheering section. I surely will be giving thanks for everyone here as I am counting my blessings this holiday season. And a special thanks to Spring for leading me to these doctors, and to this site. And for beginning this thread more than two years ago!! Much love and gentle hugs to all . . .
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Hello Ladies. I am headed back to work tomorrow! 3 weeks post stage 2 and feeling pretty darn good. I am still wearing the dom. I think i am addicted. I ordered the merana garment but have only worn it just a few times. The dom make me feel like I am hugged up with my husband
. The nips are coming along i guess there is still some healing that needs to take place under both boobs.
Betsy I am glad the drains are gone. Amy you are a jewel tell your friend to talk to the hand!.. Sometimes folks just don't get all the stuff we have been thru. Make no bones about it I love my new shape cant even imagine what things will look like in a few months... I am stepping high now...
I really appreciate all of you ladies that come here daily and post. This has been a journey made easier by the grace of God and a support group like no other. I am thankful for you guys.
Fight like a girl and Adey I will be @ Nola on the 5th hope to see you then. Have a great night ladies.
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Hi Ladies,
Betsy CONGRATS on getting the drains out! I am so happy for you! It is funny but everyone here in the NE is asking where I went and I tell them NOLA and they all want to know more. People are asking me for the name and address and I just point them to the website. I agree, all the women on these boards helped me make my decision, after I had 3 ps consults with supposedly the best docs in the NE. It is totally worth it to go to NOLA for Dr D and the fabulous, caring, kind and competent staff.
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VictoriaB... Glad to hear from you... and so nice to have met you... I feel like you (as we aren't that far away from each other) that people up here think because we live near NYC that we have the best in our backyard... usually true, but not in this case. I hope you are getting more used to the your size.... You are rather petite in general, and I know that you feel like they LOOK huge, but they don't... You look great.
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Betsy - I'm so gla to hear you are drain free and doing well. I loved your pics on Facebook especially the one with Dr D (and if I have to go back down to NOLA for any reason - I'm heading to Two Sisters)! Take care!0
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Betsy - Glad you are drain free.
Ro - I got bored at home so I came to work today also! Have a great first day back!
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Wow, back at work ladies! Feeling good, looking good. Thanks for that good news. Because I just realized I am headed back to NOLA in three weeks! In a way, I think that is crazy. I am still bruised and swollen, still in recovery. In a way, I am glad so then I can be done with it and move on. Mostly, i am in denial, since I have done no shopping, no wrapping, no decorating, no baking. It isnt thanksgiving yet so I haven't worried about it like most years but I will be MIA from the middle of december and for weeks after so this three week realization has sent me in a bit of mental disarray.
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Joasta, glad to see how jubilant u are .. Just wait until Stage 2. !!! Woohooo!!!
I'll give u a shout this week)
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my NOLA pals!
Marcia0 -
Rogam: THREE weeks already!! Glad you're doing so well and ready to tackle work. You have such a great spirit, I can always feel it through your posts!
KBodie: I hear you -- like you, I'm 3 weeks away from Stage 2b and I don't think it's really hit. Thank God we've decided to go "present-free" for Christmas this year. (We'll see how THAT goes!) Even without shopping, there's plenty of decorating and baking that will need to be done between Thanksgiving and my departure. But one thing age (and Costa Rica) has taught me and that is -- relax and enjoy life. So what gets done, will get done -- I'm not going to sweat it. Most of all, I'm looking forward to a week in NOLA with my husband during the Christmas season. I'm going to soak it all in. Hope to meet you in person in a few weeks.
Heading into town for my pre-op tests this morning. Hugs to you all.
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hey ladies, dropping in to say hi and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! I'm diligently doing my lymphatic drainage massage and trying not to get to fixation on the little imperfections that I have around my ab and breast scars - I bet a bunch will be fixed with some more time and by losing this 15 pounds I gained with all these surgeries - my goal is to do that before my vacation in Cancun in 2 months. It's funny how we can get so nit-picky and not see the forest for the trees - case in point I was at my primary today who has guided me through all these surgeries and has not seen me since before stage 2. She noticed that I wasn't wearing a bra (which is unheard of for me pre-surgery as a D/DD) so she asked if I felt comfortable showing her my breasts. I did and as she felt them and looked at them I swear she got all teary eyed and gasped, saying "wow they are perfect, are you not totally in love with them?!?" so lessen learned, take a step back, trust in the healing process and realized that we all had amazing surgeons who have not and will not let us down in our journeys to be whole again. Here's hoping everyone is healing well! Best wishes to the next wave of people going in over the next couple of (busy) weeks - can't wait to hear how your journeys progress!
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I am only a week out and I have to say, I can tell my breasts are great already. Back in August when Dr D had to patch my skin together using ab skin, I just thought, "oh well I guess I will have two tone skin and extra scars" BUT after stage II, I can't even see the extra scar line or the two tone skin. I spent a few days thinking he had cut out all of the ab skin. Then I brought a mirror in super close and I and kind of tell?? Tonight I get to take my nipple protector off to shower... kind of excited to see full frontal with no bandages.
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ok... here's a question for the nipple veterans. Today is my one week post stage II, so I removed the nipple guards to shower and
a) the nipples are big.. I know they shrink, but how much
b) the nipple kind of faces outward, comments?
c) the nipple protector kind of caused an indentation around the nipple... kind of loses its projection. Will it bounce back?
My right side was nipple sparing and is in a perpetually flat position... I asked Dr D to replicate the right side so they match... but I find it hard to believe that the reconstructed nipple will end up like the right one... Please chime in.
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Happy Thanksgiving to all you bc warriors! I was so busy trying to get ready to go to NOLA Dec 1 and surgery Dec 5th - am exhausted and didn't have time to post. After several hours on hold and staging a sit-in I was denied by my insurance due to Medicare becoming primary on Dec 1. I was so very disappointed! Am re-scheduled for March 23 at Fairway. I pray for healing and happy holidays to all. Thank you for all the great information. I admire you!
Katny0 -
Do you still have your tumor Kathy??
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Oh Kathy, how frustrating for you! At least you're still going to get your surgery - sorry you have to wait so long!
Betsy - don't know about nipple reconstruction but I'm guessing that Dr. D knew what he was doing. And if you're not happy, there's always 2B!
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Betsy, I am not a nola girl, but I am a recent nipple girl Mine started out huge , 1 cm long and wide too. Now there have shrunk to nealy perfect. 3-4mm, I love them, just a hint of them in a shirt without a bra. Next week I get the tats.
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Ok... thats pretty significant shrinkage.. How long did that take?
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Betsy, mine shrank a lot. I have one of each. My "spared" one has a lot of pop, the other is sort of like a little nub - it matchs pretty well. It is certainly better looking to me than when nothing was there. But don't forget those pics Vinnie shared. So whatever it comes out to be, it will be a lot better after Tats.
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betsy, that was just 8 weeks shrinkage. I even protected them longer than what was suggested. I keeping looking down my shirts to see if they are still there, lol. PS assured me they are about how they will be, and should now stay fairly stable, If they shrink much more I will want a revision, now going to be happy with just 3D, I wan real nips.
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I got my preop testing done today. I went in the late afternoon; that's when my appt was made for the blood draw in the infusion room, as I still have my port. It took forever to get registered! There were 3 ladies trying to figure out getting the labs entered without an in-house order. Then at each location (in the same small building, but still) they had trouble with the computer system. They never have orders from out of state! I think after just walking in for chemo every other week for 4 months I forgot about all the registration business. Being pretty much at the end of the day, each person was wondering where I was as I made my way down the hall (infusion, lab, imaging). I think I was the last appt for each dept. Everyone was so sweet! My 7yo daughter was with me and she was soooo patient. She said she likes seeing what goes on, though much of her time was in the waiting rooms. It helps that I was so patient and smiling; happy to see some familiar faces. Two hours total. Getting the pre op tests done brings the reality closer. I'm teetering (or stuck) between feeling exhilarated and freaked out, so I'm just sort of floating. Weird.
Oh, I can hardly wait to have breasts that look like breasts!
I'm off to TX tomorrow to see my husband's family for Thanksgiving. I haven't seen them in a year; a good 3 months before my diagnosis. I'm trying not to anticipate how they will act around me. I don't want the pity or avoidance or treating me like a fragile flower. I still look like a cancer patient, with my 1/4-1/2 inch hair. I'm trying to stay in the moment and not project on what may or may not happen. My SIL's husband was diagnosed w/kidney cancer right around my diagnosis. We bonded over marrying into the family and I very much look forward to talking with him and comparing abdominal scars.
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Betsy, is Dr D still using the silicone nipple thingys or did he switch over to the brown papery ones that Dr S uses? The brown ones put pressure around the nipple, a ring about 1/2 inch wide on what would be areola, and make the nipple itself quite protuberant. I wore mine longer than the 3 weeks I was told because I found the sensation of my (sensationless) nipples squishing to be very unpleasant. Sounds weird-- but I don't know how to describe it...At the beginning I could feel all the little pokey sutures thru the hole in the nipple guard,. Just measured -- the opening of the guard is 1/2 inch deep, so thats how big they were. I had the sense that they were not going to squish until I stopped wearing the guards. In the 3+weeks they had only shrunk a bit. As soon as I stopped wearing the guards, they immediately flattened. Even though I wanted them to flatten, at first I tried wearing things that didn't compress. It was impossible to find bras that didn't press on the nipple that were not uncomfortable. I tried ordering DD's and the wires just poked up into my armpits! So I gave up and just started wearing my old bras. I was told underwires were fine after 4 weeks. I had asked for nipples that would be flat enuf to go bra-less without making a scene! Haha. I got exactly what I asked for. To tell you the truth, after all that, I'm not convinced that how you treat them actually makes any difference. As scar tissue forms they contract and maybe they are going to do whatever they are going to do -- no matter what YOU do! They've got a life of their own!!
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Jerusha, I think you are right on with your thoughts. After Dr. D did dermal fat grafts to my nipples a year ago, (it was the second time, I think, and we'd already tried Radiesse but it didn't last long), I faithfully wore those papery brown nipple guards for SIX months. I only took them off to shower, and then I put them right back on. I didn't allow my husband to touch. At the six month mark, I took them off one day with the nips having the perfect projection (as far as I was concerned) and by the next morning they were very flat, as though I hadn't gone to any lengths at all to protect them! They have some visual projection, but there's not much there to feel. I'm going to ask about having Radiesse again when I have my tattoos fixed up in January, but I'm not sure if it can be done at the same time. Radiesse injected in a cross-hatch pattern can help with collagen formation, so maybe if I have it done a few times, it will help. I don't think about it much anymore though---what was once really important just isn't any longer. It's bugging me more that my tattoos are different colors. Vinnie asked me for a photo so he knows before I get there what he'll be dealing with!
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Dr D still uses the silicone shields... And to give perspective, mine come no where near the depth of the shield... I probably cut off half? or almost... What I found a little odd was the depression around the nipple... maybe the shield was too tight?? Now I am in the daily changing and taping it on myself.. Perhaps it was swelling indentation... you know how it is if you wear something too tight and you're swollen? and it leaves an indentation... Dr D is certainly aware at how flat my spared one is, so I am sure this one will end up just as flat... and then I will have Vinnie give the illusion of depth.
Paula... sounds like you are on your way... It is nice to have it behind me, and here I am a week out and feel pretty good... My incisions are itchy and last night I was having a moment of feeling constricted in my Veronique, although it is hugely more comfortable than the DOM... Is the Marena even better? I would need to justify the $95.
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I think the "Dom" is Veronique. At least, it was.
Yes, the Marena is more comfortable. The fabric is smoother and softer.
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