One step implant procedure with Alloderm - Anyone?
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Mareluna, that's great that it didn't hurt to much. I was worried about that. Think I'll go this route as less invasive.
DiveCat, I agree Dr. Szobota is very personable. Nice bedside manner so to speak. Apparently Dr. Calder is new to Lethbridge. Didn't know he did the one-step either, he seemed to talk about it more so might be his preferred type of surgery. Seems like most surgeons do the TE's so that is what I was expecting to have, when he mentioned the one-step I was like wow this sounds great! Of course he mentioned that one-step doesn't mean there won't need to be additional surgeries for touch-ups ect. but at least no weekly visits for expansion.
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I live on Vancouver Island and was able to do one step here.
Caryn how long did it take for your pain go away? Did you get cording or LE?
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Windwalker,
They did it at PS office. My before and after pics are in the book people can view. LOL
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Windwalker,
My redo took 30 minutes in the PS office about 3 months after my BMX. No pain...I was laughing and chatting with the PS and his nurse.
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Windwalker...a list of questions for your PS is a good idea. Many of us (including me) can get a bit of white coat syndrome and forget what we were going to ask! PM me if you want a copy of my own list of questions I put together for PS.
Yeah, I do not think either of the other PSs in town who do breast recon do one-step. Not from my understanding anyway...which is part of reason I ended up with Calgary surgeons!
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I'm so glad I found this forum. I wanted to know if doing the one-step getting the implants at the same time as the mastectomy is longer recovery & more painful?? Anyone had any complications from this? That would mean you still need another procedure to reconstruct the nipple then tattoo areola. What was your recovery time? Pain level? End result were your implants in place? The ones who chose to save their nipples, any complications?
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Mareluna,
Are they in the picture forum? The one where you have to request permission to join? I asked if I can join that one, but haven't heard back yet.
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Thanks Divecat, pm'd you
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No I don't have them online. It's actually in a book at my PS's office.
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I am nine days post op today and still sleeping a lot off and on during the day. I had my first follow-up visit with the PS office (actually his nurse) and everything looks good. Can't get my drains out until they are less than 20ml per drain for two days in a row. I'm nowhere near that - yesterday the right was 59 and the left was 69. I'm staying on the pain meds and antibiotics until the drains come out, but I'm only taking a half pain pill at a time and 1 Valium at night when I go to bed. The PS nurse said it's a muscle relaxer and will help with the stretching/burning sensation I'm feeling on my sides around my ribcage area. That's really the only real pain I'm feeling. I'm not even that much sore right now, just have the burning sensation at times. I've read that some doctors want you walking around as soon as possible, but my PS doesn't want me doing anything until the drains are out. So the only walking I'm doing is from the recliner to the bathroom. lol
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ucf ,
things get better when the drains come out. My PS told me to use my arms as soon as I could. He said if you don't start using your arms your shoulders lock up. So people end up in PT . So I used them. I was reaching overhead in my kitchen cabinets within several days. I was out to eat 3 or 4 days out. Of course I was on Dilaudid and taking them every few hours. My cousin came in from Pittsburgh for 10 days to help if needed. Well we ate out a lot. I did not get much sleeping in.
Praying you get those drains out soon.
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Thanks for the encouragement! The PS nurse asked if I'd been walking around a lot and I told her no. She said well, you just have a lot of fluid that needs to come out then, so don't worry about it. She said she would just have recommended that I slow down to see if the fluid decreased. The PS himself told me at the pre-op appointment the day before the surgery that he wanted me to keep both arms down at my sides until the drains come out. He said I could do whatever I want from my elbows to my fingertips, just keep my elbows at my sides. That was in response to my husband asking if it was ok for me to be on my iPad, cell phone, etc. So my husband bought me a laptray for for the iPad. lol It's funny how different doctors have different restrictions.
I got my card at the follow-up appointment with my implant info. I have the Allergan 410 Natrelle full height full projection 595cc. They are starting to poof up a little more, but I have a feeling it will be a while before they look like their full potential.
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UCF,
I had read all the posts from this topic and saw that different PS had different views. Anyway I asked my PS about movement. He said to move as much as I could. I remember in the hospital on the first day it hurt like heck to touch my pointer fingers together. LOL I was in so much pain. I wanted my pain meds.
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It would really be interesting to see a consensus on what post OP day # drains are removed for people who are more active with their arms vs. people who are less active with their arms. Because here I am at day #10 doing exactly what my PS said and still have my drains. So my guess is there might not be much difference. lol And if my DH puts any more food in front of me I'm going to explode. He's taking such good care of me, but I can only eat so much.
Today is the first day without any pain meds at all and I'm doing fine. The only pain I feel is the stretching/burning pain that I feel anyway when I do take the meds. I will probably take one when I go to bed tonight but am going to lay off them during the day from now on if I can.0 -
I am 5.5 weeks out from BMX with Alloderm. I had 4 drains and last one came.out at 1 month. I was very active with my arms. I now have cellulitis in one breast and I believe it was from the last drain.
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Linda, wow - a month! I have the two I started with and today is day 11. There is a noticeable decline in fluid so I'm hopeful I can get them out later this week. We'll see what happens.
I only have enough antibiotics to get me through today, so I'll have to call the nurse at PS tomorrow and have her extend that prescription again.0 -
ucfmom I'm glad your following your doctors orders. I know everyone is different but honestly I've never in 25 years as a scrub nurse in surgery ever heard a surgeon tell their patient to raise or use their arms as much as possible immediately specially before 1st apptdrains are out. I'll be having my PBMX (trying for one step w/adjustable implants) on 4/30 I'm excited & ofcourse worried lol. U sound very well.
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Well my PS said use my arms. He said I'd know what I could do based on my pain. He said using my arms would keep my shoulders from locking up and I would not need PT. So I did what I could like reaching in my cabinets for cereal boxes, or bowls. I live alone so I had to do it. I used a back scratcher to reach into my washer when I did laundry. I had my cousin come from Pittsburgh. She would put Neosporin on my drain sites. But she mainly kept me company. We ate out a lot whether I wanted to or not. Anyway I was blessed and I had no issues.
Best wishes on getting drains out. That will be good. They were a pain.
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For anyone trying to decide if one step is right for them, I have mixed feelings. I just completed 5 mo of chemo and if I had to face another surgery of any kind right now, I'd pull out the remaining hair I have left on my head! Also, If you read the discussion boards so many women complain about the expanders. Even though I don't feel like I had sufficient time to weigh my options once I was diagnosed, I think I made the right choice. My sister and I are both BRCA 1 positive (we found out after my diagnosis) and she just had a PBMX with one step in Jan. She was hesitant to go one step because she was happy with her 32DD's beforehand and worried that with one step they wouldn't be able to be as large. So far she has yet to complain about the size, her foobs are in proportion to her body so they look great. About 4 weeks after her surgery she said she was glad she did one step so she could avoid fills and another surgery. We also both opted not to do nipple sparing, our feeling was why keep anything that could become cancerous? As of now we are both not doing the nipple tattooing either because 1, no one is going to see it but ourselves and our men, and 2, we can wear tshirts and other tops now and never need to wear a bra. She was so excited last week to wear a white T-shirt w/o a bra for the first time in years!
My mixed feelings pop up with regard to having reconstruction at all. As soon as I was diagnosed I knew I wanted to have something there, I just didn't realize how implants would feel. I am 6 mo post BMX now and still find the implants uncomfortable. I don't have pain, but I am always aware of the implants. They still feel foreign and I still get the "iron bra" feeling from time to time. Does anyone further along still have this experience?
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Yes I know the implants are there. They move and do not feel natural to me. I am over a year out. And I hate bras. And I have to wear them so My Foobs stay somewhat in place. I love my 3D nipple tattoos. Looks like I am human again. I did not like looking at myself in the mirror.
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Hello ladies. Rose, I'm really glad to see your last post about the 3D nipple tattoos. When I had my BMX (2 weeks ago today!), I had nipple sparing as the BS thought that was a good option for me. Well I had my follow up with her yesterday and got the pathology report, which she called good news and marginal news. The good news is lymph nodes are clear and they didn't find any invasive cancer anywhere. So no chemo - yay! The "marginal" news is the DCIS extended all the way against my right nipple so they didn't get clear margins there. I am scheduled for outpatient surgery on 4/18 to have my right nipple removed.
NOT happy about this but I honestly wouldn't have changed the fact that we tried to keep it, it just didn't work out the way I'd hoped.I remembered this thread had a lot of nipple discussion (maybe many pages back) so thought I would start here and do a little reading about the reconstruction options. I'm wondering how well a 3D tattoo could match my existing "real" one. I haven't been back to the PS since I got the news because yes, I still have the dang drains. I'll talk to him and his nurses about options and see what they have to say and will take my time and do a lot of research before deciding. I'm not jumping into anything fast, but I'm pretty sure I will do something.
Chica, thanks for your thoughts. I am doing well and if I had the drains out, I'd consider going back to work early next week and maybe work half days to ease back in. The left drain took a dramatic turn for the better a couple days ago and it looks like it just might end up tonight being right around or just over the 20 ml standard my PS set for taking it out. It needs to be that low two days in a row before he'll take it out, so best case scenario is I could get the left removed Friday and maybe Monday for the right. My DH is worried if I get one taken out and it really hurts, I'll stress too much about getting the other one out. He is so good to me, I know how lucky I am to have him taking such good care of me. He's been working from home since my surgery.
Beth
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I had 4 drains removed all at different times and none of them hurt.
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I love hearing that!
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I'm happy to report I had one drain taken out this morning. There was a quick pain (like a snap) then I could feel the tube slither out, but that was it. It wasn't bad enough to make me worry about going back (hopefully early next week) to get the other one out, that's for sure!
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I'm pretty sure I read about this somewhere in this thread and will search some more, but I'm wondering how long I should wait to be fitted for a bra. I'm 18 days post-op and think my foobs are starting to look a little different almost every day. My left one is now looking almost like my real one used to look (but quite a bit fuller at the top) but the right one is still trying to "catch up" some. I'm sure my muscles are still stretching because I can feel it, especially on the right side. I want to wait until my incisions are completely healed up - we just pulled the steri-strips off yesterday after getting the OK from the PS nurse. But I don't want to shop too soon if my foobs will continue to change in the coming weeks. I have no idea what size I even am right now or will end up being. I was wearing a 38B pre-surgery but my PS told me at the consultation I was a full C or small D. That made me laugh, I told him my bras thought otherwise. My implants are gummies - Allergan Natrelle 410 full height full projection 595cc. They don't look nearly as flat as they did in the beginning, but I hope they still have a little "projecting" to do yet.
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ufc,
Hmmmmm
I was buying bras like crazy. Sport ones were okay. I tried the stretchy bali bras. But I find that the mastectomy bras are more comfy. And I like bigger. The side where sentinel nodes were removed hurts if bra is too tight. Camisoles are comfortable. I get those at a mastectomy boutique. I don't find the bras in stores as comfortable. The staff at Silhouettes measures me. 0 -
How long did you wait to buy new bras? I was thinking I'd also go the stretchy route for now then get fitted when it looks like I've stabilized.
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right away and it was a waste of money. I wore the open in front post op bras the most like a size or two up for swelling. So buy them at walmart .
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I think I'm going to try the Genie bra. I saw a link posted in another thread and they look nice and comfy. Bed Bath and Beyond has them 2 for $15 and looks like they are in stock at the one near us. Who knew BB&B even had bras?
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My PS told me to wait six months for my breasts to settle. I then went to a specialty bra shop and was fitted for two bras at $70 each. In December, I had reconstruction of my reconstruction (due to scar tissue, pinched nerve, etc.) so I will wait another six months before going bra shopping again.
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