One step implant procedure with Alloderm - Anyone?
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Shoshi, I am "not" uncomfortable which is a roundabout way of saying I "am" comfortable. I had nipple-sparing MX, which means my nipples were not removed. At first the left nipple had a lot of bruising but that eventually went away and now both nipples look much as they did before I had surgery. I did not go to a PT but am very active in my everyday life. I started back playing golf at 2 1/2 mos.
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ok let me try this again..i am still trying to understand all the nipple stuff so what is: flap nipple with the areolar graft...do u have this done @ the time of reconstruction or after?
thx!!!
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good morning ladies....big apple ...the tightening you are experiencing is exactly what i've been feeling. and you mention you are not a big baby....well i am, and find it unbearable....a little better now since taking soma...i'm 3 wks post op and i hope it loosens up.i see you are from long island....me too. which ps did you use. i'm 3 wks post op and hoping it gets better as okiegal did 8-10 wks. i also had nipple sparing, everything looks pretty symetrical. this morning was the first day i took soma and advil, instead of the percocet, i hope that combo works out. soshi ...i had mid-moderate profile....i think they go by what will fit on your chest and how much skin the bs leaves. carole ....i know how you feel about revisions....we'd like them to look as nice as they can, but we don't know what the outcome will be, and it's like starting over again. i'm glad you are feeling comfortable ...that's so important, and very encouraging to me....we just want to get back to our lives and do what we enjoy, i can't imagine wearing a bra at this point, with all this tightness, it would be too uncomfortable, i have a half moon incisions on the areolas that is a little scaby at this point, what does the physical therapy involve...is it arm exercises....i feel my everyday life involves using my arms......i know we're all grateful that our ca was found early, treated and we have our lives, but i think it's still ok that we want to feel and look nice....wish you could all come over for breakfast.....went out last night with bf for hibachi japanese.....delicious...even had a cocktail called tsunami......also wanted to mention that foobs are numb....almost, painfully numb.....when does that go away....(told you i was a big baby)....have a wonderful sunday.....ally
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Hi Ally:
I'm in Oceanside, where are you?
I used Dr Disa at Memorial Sloan Kettering. There are a lot of great surgeons here on the Island, but because of my BRCA+ ER+ status I have been being followed at memorial since my diagnosis in 2002.
The painful numbness has subsided. I have feeling on the tops of my breasts and in the middle and down the sides. I also had nipple sparring,but my incisions were placed under my breasts, and that may be why there is disparity in where I have feeling and where I don't.
Three weeks out, it sounds like you are doing great. I was pretty unhappy from the get go,and so was my Dr., he said that sometimes with one step, especially with someone who has had unilateral rads, it can be hard to get symmetry,and that if they had realized how much damage I had from the rads they would have done 2 step. (which begs the question, why didn't they put in expanders during the first operation, as I had given consent for that as well if one step was not optimal, but what is done is done.)
I did start wearing a wireless bras as soon as I could to try and relieve some of the pulling and because I kept my nipples which still have a lot of projection, i was embarrassed to go without a bra). I found some very inexpensive warner bras at Kohls, I was not willing to invest in anything I might get attached to, since there was a strong probability that things would be changing. Buying the lightly lined bra also reduced my anxiety about injuring my nipples and my numb breasts.
Memorial gave me a dvd with PT stretching exercises, which I did diligently, and I do have good range of motion, its not always comfy and I do have to stretch all the time but its still there.
I can look for the DVD and see if I can burn a copy that can be emailed.
I would really like to start a long island get together group, I am growing weary of traveling into the city and would really like to meet some women around here who have been down this road.
Wendy
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hi wendy....i'm in deer park. i consulted with dr disa and he told me that he didn't do one step. i felt very uncomfortable at sloan, after dr disa spent about 3 minutes with me...he had a nurse show me some some pictures. i ended up going to dr israeli in great neck. i also consented to expanders if one step was not possible at the time of surgery. the foobs look ok, but i guess i'll know in a couple of months when things settle, i'm hoping i don't end up flat when these things settle. the breast surgeon i used was alison mishkit in huntington, she actually recommended ron israeli. when are you scheduled for your surgery? have you had any other opinions? did you have rads before or after surgery?.....starting a group here would be great...i'd surely sign up....ally
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I just started the group, it's called Long Island Girls, its under the Support Forum and the under groups/ get together.
I had a million opinions, my case was weird. I first had cancer in 11 or 12 2002 (I kind of lost a month and can't recall when the diagnosis came), with what was supposed to be an excisions biopsy that they were sure was going to be a fibroid, and in the margin was an incidental finding, I had the wide re-exc in January 2003 and finished rads in 4/2003.
I had consulted with P/S back in 2003 and the surgery options were very different, there was no nipple sparring, the only incisions were right across the breast, and it just was not right for me at that time.
I have been followed closely since then. In January 2009 I had an MRI with a BiRads 5, an ultra sound confirmed the MRI. I had a core needle which wound up being clean. But the whole thing was way to scary and given my BRCA status and the prior cancer, the risk was just too high to keep gambling with.
I also consulted with John Sherman and Llyod Gail as p/s.
Dr.Montegomery was my B/S at memorial she is now at monte fiore, I had also consulted with Dr Tusimis as a B/s, she was great and honestly I would have loved to have her as my B/S but I really did not love any of the P/S at NY Pres/Cornell.
It may have been my result that has turned Dr.Disa off to doing one steps. When we asked him about doing them back in February, he was very excited about it, I seemed like the right patient for it, but the result was not what either of us had expected.
A P/S who is a friend of my now ex BF has selected Joe Disa as his wife's P/S for her recon.
I just want to feel like myself and look like myself.
The 410(s) come out on either 12/21 or 12/29, someone may need the 21st so I may be bumped to the 29th, which is fine, it gives me a chance to try and take my daughter snow boarding .
Wendy,
Check out the group
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wendy...i will check out the group...i'm very familiar with oceanside...i grew up in lynbrook/woodmere...went to hewlett hs. i'm happy you are having your revision. good luck with it...what we all want is to look and feel nice and get on with our lives ...like snowboarding with kids. (cute)....i also went through lumpectomies, excisional biopsies....and numerous other biopsies....i'm sorry you have to go through this stuff again....but you sound strong and motivated..ally
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2morow is my pre-op w/ my BS..last time it was cancelled...wish me luck!!
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Good morning everyone!
It's 7:15AM and I'm getting ready for work, but couldn't leave without sending birthday wishes to Okiegal. HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY OKIEGAL! I'm ready to party and I have my tassels ready!
I hope you have a great day!
Good Luck Shoshi.
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Oh, Meg9, you remembered! My twin sister and I started celebrating yesterday with family and will finish up today with dinner out, my favorite (Mom made) chocolate cake and champagne.....and yes, my tassels are ready to whirl!
Big Apple, what a long road! No doubt about you needing revisions. I could definitely live with my crooked nipples, especially if they flatten out more. However, I don't want to have crooked tattoos to match. I'll be patient and wait for a while longer.
Ally, it's great that you and Big Apple are close enough to meet and share local info. I think, for now, your tightness is probably a result of the healing that is going on. I hope the Soma is helping more as time goes by.
Carol, it's nice to hear from you . I am 6 months out and don't have discomfort from tighness. I am most comfortable wearing a bra and have the "pins and needles" more as I am reducing my Neurontin. I wonder if all women have these odd sensations? And will they disappear with time?
Shoshi, a "bowtie" flap is a type of skin flap used to recreate the nipple. There are many different types of flaps with different names. Basically, it ends up looking like the top of a stove pipe hat. With an areola graft, the surgeon creates a flap nipple and then transfers skin for a sewn on or grated areola.
Handel's Messiah is an orchestral and choral piece. You can read more about it here.
Have a great day all!
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Hello ladies!
Meg, Liz, Ally, shoshi, okiegal, thank you for sharing my good news, you are right, this was such relief.
Ally, I agree with okiegal, you need 7-8 weeks to be back to normal. I am 8 weeks post -surgery now, I cleaned up my house on Friday and then realized that it was just a normal routine.
I am thinking about nipple reconstruction too. Nipple on my "good" side is big enough , so I need something on the "bad" side to match. I started wearing wireless bra 3 weeks after surgery. I found it pretty comfortable and I feel almost like before the surgery when I am wearing bra. If I am braless, sometimes I feel that I have "something" inside, but it is not uncomfortable, so I am fine with it.
Bigapple09, sorry you need to go through it again, I wish you good luck!
Fortunate, how was a sale? We had very wet weekend, but anyway a lot of people on the parking lots.
shoshi, good luck with you appt!
okiegal, I am thinking of you on you Birthday and wishing you happiness always!
HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY !!!
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Hello everyone. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Okiegal. You have a twin, how marvelous is that?! I brought cake for everyone.
There has been a lot going on in my absence. My little sale was a success. It rained the night and day before, so we moved my furniture around and set up in the house and studio. The weather turned nice and we had a decent amount of happy shoppers. It was quite good for a first time. I'll be doing a ton of cleanup today.
Shoshi, glad Okiegal gave you that link, Handel's Messiah is a grand work, you may recognize the Halleluyah chorus. Don't worry too much about nipple construction at this point. It isn't done at the first surgery. You'll have lots of time to consider options. Best of luck at your pre-op appointment.
Carol, glad to 'see' you again, and hear your calm sane assessment of our changed bodies. I have sent you a PM.
Bigapple, I would be interested in your thoughts on the 410 on your non rads side. Do you think it would be suitlble for a unilateral reconstruction. I think my PS might suggest that to try to get a more natural look to match my 'good' side. I'm nervous about changes that could wreck my pretty good result. I hope you get a comfortable result. You've been through so much.
Have a good day everyone. Hugs.
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Fortunat1, Yum! The perfect, calorie free cake! Glad to hear your sale was a success. Now, let's uncork that champagne....
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Okiegal....Happy 50th so glad you're celebrating with champagne and chocolate.....two of my favorite things.....welcome to the 50's club....everything gets better at 50. soma has helped alot. glad the neurontin is helping you....that medication is really excellent for so many different things....and there are no side effects from it. fortunate1 glad your sale went well.....all these surgeries and revisions are such hard decisions.shoshi... good luck tomorrow with bs......ally
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I don't like the feeling of the 410,while it is looser on the non rads side,it reminds me of those silicone filled things people use near computer keyboards to avoid tunnel carpel syndrome, it feels nothing like a boobie. The shape is natural,but there is no movement to it.In my body they feel much firmer than the samples I played with in the dr office.
Wendy
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Happy Birthday Okiegal & sister!! :-) 0 -
Happy Birthday, Okiegal! Fifty was a very good year for me and I'm confident it will be for you, too.
Fortunate1, thanks for bringing that delicious-looking cake! I'll have a big wedge, thank you! Can everyone hear the champagne corks popping? I have several bottles chilled to the perfect temperature in the new wine cooler Dh and I gave ourselves for a Christmas present. Now let's pass out the tassels and turn up the music for our celebration dance!
Glad to hear the weekend sale went well.
Printed out a Christmas letter with photos. Now for addressing envelopes and writing short notes. Then I'll do my part in over-working the US postal service.
Once a month the chef at our country club holds a cooking class. Dh and I have signed up for the Dec. class which is tomorrow afternoon. One of the dishes is beef Wellington. We get to sample all the foods and drink a variety of wines. This is our first time so we're looking forward to seeing what it's like.
Bigapple, is 410 the size of the implant as in 410 cc? Mine is 457cc and the PS would like to replace them with larger implants, but I'm increasingly doubtful that I'll elect another surgery. I'm thinking that larger implants would start the cycle of tightness all over again until the pecs had stretched out more. And so far I have no "dog ears."
Today was another gloomy day with fog and thunderstorms. The ground has long-since passed the saturated phase.
Good luck with your appointment tomorrow, Shoshi. Greetings to everyone else not mentioned by name. Year, we miss you!
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Carole I am ready for the party!! I have my tassles ready & i hear the champange popping....my BS appt was fine no biggie..its really next week when i c the ps...its my DH that is a bIG PAIN IN MY A** He knows how much i want this surgery & we all know how long its been planned for..today he says he been thinking that since it was rescheduled & is not happening during Winter break like i originally wanted...that maybe i should postpone it b/c jan his work schedule is slow..he does on call work so no work no money & i;ll be out a few weeks & only have less then a week of sick pay...ye si know money will b tight..this is not a party that i have decided to have...& with the way helath insurance is going these days who nows if my insirance comapny would pay for this in a few months & what can happen in a few months..what happens if they find cancer then radaition..chemo...sorry for ranting..he pissed me off BIG TIME!!!
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Hi Carole:
The 410 is (or was) the name for the gummie bear/cohesive gel implant, since all silicone is by nature cohesive, I hear that they are going to be referencing them differently.These are fairly rigid gel implants that don't squish and provide a very firm implant with an anotomically natural shape. Your boobies don't jiggle or move, which is great when jogging,but for me is not something I like other wise.
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Happy Birthday, Okiegal!
Liz
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Everyone....thanks for the birthday wishes! And Shoshi, that is such a cute animated graphic. I didn't know that was possible! Much better than balloons! My sister and I tried out a new restaurant. Won't be going back...very average. Oh well, there was home made chocolate cake and champagne.Yum!
Oh, I almost forgot. Keep your party hats and tassels ready....Meg9's B.D. is tomorrow.
Carole, your cooking class sounds like fun. I think if you don't have dog ears and you aren't having pain....I would leave well enough alone. I read some posts on BCO yesterday about "Is symmetry just an illusion?" From the sounds of it, things could be a lot worse for some of us. It's hard to know when we're "good enough". All that being said, I'll probably have at least one more minor revision in my future.
Shoshi, there are so many emotions and issues surrounding BMX, prophalactic or otherwise. If it was just surgery and healing, it would all be a lot easier!
BigApple, I have cohesive silicone, Natrelle by Allergan, and am very happy with their softness. They are probably as close to real as you can get with an implant, but without the nipple/areola mound, they still don't conform enough to fill out the cup of a bra completely.
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Fifty was a very good year for me too.
Okiegal, tell me more. Are the Natrelle soft enough to be beside a natural breast? I'm expecting more dithering and confusion on my part when I see the PS tomorrow. Maybe I should give up the hope for symmetry and live with my divot and flatness. With the right bra it really is fine, and I love the softness I have now. I also wonder what my super-flexing pec would do to an anatomically shaped implant. What if it turned, yikes!
Shoshi, hang in there. Have a good day everyone.
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Fortunate1, I think compared side to side, my implant would feel good, but certainly more firm than my normal breast was. I am trying to think of a comparison, but really don't have one.
My implants have the slightest giggle and bounce. If I didn't have a bra on and jogged in place, I would have some bounce, but look as if I had a bra on. I found a video about massaging your implants somewhere online, but can't remember what it was called. I was surprised how much the woman's breast implant displaced and by how soft it looked. I subjectively feel that mine are about as soft as hers looked. However, she had larger breasts, so they appeared softer. I would think that the larger the implant, the more there is to move around and thus, the softer one's implant might seem.
My implants are not anatomically correct. I don't know if Allergan makes those. Does your PS have the Natrelle by Allergan on display? Could he get them? I wonder if they are any different than other similar implants.
Hope that helps with a very confusing decision!
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hi ladies.....okiegal...glad you had a nice birthday....i can't do tassels yet...still too tender...lol. i also have the allergan natrelle...they look fairly symetrical, but at this point they don't move at all. at this stage the size looks similar to my old boobs, but rounder and higher, i think i would have been a little happier with a little more projection, but maybe that could only have been obtained with expanders. when you guys refer to anatomically correct implants ...do you mean the tear drop shape?...i had thought about that too, but i think i read that they flip around. carole ...what does going bigger entail? probably no drains, and the pec's are already stretched. was your natural size larger? anyway i had beef wellington once on a cruise...it was delicious...have fun...ally
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OKie Girl: Are your's the 410, that were part of the recent FDA study? The 410 cohesive gel is an anatomical tear drop implant.
Natrelle by Allergan is a collection of implants: This is from the company website:
The Natrelle® Collection offers women the industry's widest range of safe and high-quality breast implant options. From saline and silicone gel filler, to smooth and textured surfaces and varying shapes, to low, moderate and high profile (projection) and a range of volumes, women today have more options than ever before in breast aesthetics. This is critical to a woman's ability to achieve an individualized, aesthetic result based on her unique body type and surgical goals.
So,you can have natrelle implants and not necessarily have the same implant. The gummy implant is very, very firm, my non rads side does not jiggle, maybe if I jump really hard,but there really is no movement, and it does not feel anything like a breast. If it was covered by breast tissue, it might not be bad.
The implant is not round,it is tear drop shaped and the top of it is thinner and it gradually gets thicker as it goes down, like a real breast. There is an implant in trials in Europe that is a tear drop shape with a softer gel, that is supposed to address the issues with the true gummy 410 implant, but I have not heard anything about trials opening here in the states.
Ally: yes there is a risk of rotation with the tear drop. Some Drs have told me that they can manipulate them back into place externally,and that if that fails it can be fixed in the OR.The Three PS I consulted with about the gummies,all said that they see very little rotation problems.
Has anyone heard anything about the tissue regeneration they reported on a few weeks ago about growing a new breast with stem cells?
Wendy (I'm a little cranky today so I hope this email does not sound cranky, if it does,its not meant that way : ) )
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You all have given me a lot to think about and ask tomorrow. I asked for a longer appointment so it isn't one of those rushed conversations with my head spinning away. Don't know if I'll get that. OK. Softness, shape, filling the divot, rotation and possible displacement of an anatomical by my strong jerky pec, and the somewhat creepy thought that the way to get more symmetry might be to put a little implant in the good side. And, could I also have a nipple too? Or.... pass on it all.
I have plenty to dream about tonight.
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Happy Birthday Meg!!!! I hope u had a g8t one!!!
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Happy Birthday Meg!
Well, I met with my oncologist this morning. Now I have a prescription of Tamoxifen on the desk. 5-year of commitment seems a long time to me especially with all the possible side-effects. As a medicinal chemist I somehow don't feel like putting such a scary-looking compound in me for so long. Probably I"ll feel better once I start taking it. (Sorry about whining!)
Fortunate, good luck with your appointment!
Wendy, I read the tissue regeneration story. While reading it I joked I would have a new breast grown instead of an implant. Hopefully they'll be able to start clinical trial in a year or two.
Have a good day everybody!
Liz
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Meg9, Here's wishing you a very happy birthday!
Liz000, 5 years of drugs "doing something to my body" was one of the reasons I opted for a BMX. I was scared, but in retrospect, I may have over reacted. Here's hoping Tamoxifin offers only the good side effects for you.
Wendy, I guess I was always so focused on the type of breast implant I was getting that I didn't notice that Allergan offers anatomicals. They don't show them on the "Natrelle" web page. They have four main types of gel implants:
"Responsive gel" - the softest gel,
"Soft TouchTM gel" - a slightly firmer gel offering shape control with natural movement and feeling,
"Cohesive gel" - the firmest gel for shape control.
To further confuse things, they seem to have given the name Natrelle to a particular line (the Responsive gel, I suspect). I have the Style 20, size 550 from the Natrelle collection. Mine are high profile, silicone implants, but Allergan also offers saline in the Natrelle line. I'm thinking the anatomical implants must go by another name or possibly not be recommended for reconstruction.
The great thing about having a twin is.....you can compare boobs? Yes, my sister was generous enough to allow me a trip back in time to B.R. (Before Reconstruction.) With direct comparison available, I can now report my implant softness as reasonalby soft. They are easily palpable, but not as much like the real thing as I remeber. In the end, I think it comes down to are you happy with the quality of your implants? I have to say that I am satisfied with that aspect of my reconstruction, but if given the chance to grow new breasts....I would definately want to know more!
Fortunate1, here's hoping you get all the information you need.
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Meg, Happy Birthday!!!!!
I wish you a beautiful day with good health and happiness forever!!!!
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