Nipple Sparing Mastectomy with immediate reconstruction
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Kate woohoo great news
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Kate - SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!
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Kate- congratulations; that is such a relief! The minute I saw the dancing lady I knew it was good news!
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Thanks everyone! Feel like I'm walking on air!
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Kate33: Another woo-hoo here!!! What a relief!!
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Kate33: Another woo-hoo here!!! What a relief!!
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Kate33: Another woo-hoo here!!! What a relief!!
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Thanks Jill!!!!
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Yayyyyy!!!!!!! Love the happy dance lady!!!! Great news!!!
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Thanks Soy!
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hey, all. I'm just now scheduling my ns bmx with implants for immediate reconstruction. I've fought for this and now that i have approval, i'm freaked. tell me it's not that bad.
Susan0 -
hey, all. I'm just now scheduling my ns bmx with implants for immediate reconstruction. I've fought for this and now that i have approval, i'm freaked. tell me it's not that bad.
Susan0 -
hey, all. I'm just now scheduling my ns bmx with implants for immediate reconstruction. I've fought for this and now that i have approval, i'm freaked. tell me it's not that bad.
Susan0 -
Susan - Congrats. Sorry, I honestly can't tell you how easy or hard it's going to be for you. It sure seems different for every patient. I didn't have direct-to-implant reconstruction and I did have a difficult post-surgical healing course. BUT, I credit nipple-sparing surgery in great part for how well I've coped with my diagnosis and with my reconstructed breasts. Despite the problems I had, I wouldn't change a thing - I would make all the same surgical choices.
Keep us posted!!!
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Susan, I was blessed with a very smooth surgery and recovery. The outcome looks terrific, and I had virtually no pain- I think I took 3 pain pills total. I hope your experience is just as great; it is possible. All the best to you!
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I don't remember how I came upon this a few days ago, but spent some time checking out the following website today. It promotes the second annual BRA (Breast Reconstruction Awareness) Day coming up in October. It apparently started in Canada last year, but this year twenty countries are promoting events to bring awareness to women about their breast reconstruction options. There is absolutely no mention of nipple sparing on the site. I did link to a video (on a separate site) that explains breast reconstruction and as a side note mentions that "Skin and nipple sparing is an option, but usually the nipple is removed to prevent recurrence of disease" and the rest of the video shows no nipple. It seems the focus of the campaign is mostly to get the word out to breast cancer patients that they have rights in regards to breast reconstruction, but shouldn't NSM at least get a mention since they are outlining the various choices available?
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thanks, all. it's good hearing that folks just made it through. i've had a couple other surgeries, but they were relatively minor. i'll hopefully get scheduling done today and then it's just waiting for the surgery which will be on november 6, election day. we've been joking that we'll be voting for a boob free day. :-)
Susan
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gritgirl- I was supposed to have immediate implants but due to the skin being stressed after BMX was done, I had to have tissue expanders and fills before getting the implants. Did your Dr mention this as a possibility?
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Ginger: I'll be meeting with the plastic surgeon again and find out. At this point, it's all about scheduling. :-)
Susan
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Grit girl, good luck, I'm sure you will do great! The ladies on my August surgery thread had some discomfort at first but they are back to work, gardening, running, and working out at gym. I had DIEP and I'm still chugging along!
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Dear Gritgril,
I just wanted to let you know in case it could help, that I had immediate reconstruction with Mentor silicon gel implants, totally sub-muscular. My plastic surgeon here in Switzerland, who trained in NY with the late Dr. John Bostwick III, is old-fashioned and does not like using the acellular dermal matrices. He says muscles provide much better and more natural blood flow to keep infection away than foreign or fake structures like alloderm. So he placed my implants (small ones) under the pectoral, serrata anterior, and the fascia of the abdominal rectus. No scars on the stomach from the muscle displacements. I recovered in twice the normal time -- and was back to jogging after 4 weeks. Have one saved original nipple. Lost one reconstructed nipple so it is now just flat and I have to get it redone. My bra size is now 34C. Hope this helps! Ask for what you want!
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fearlessfoot. that is so good to know. my plastic surgeon is very good and i'll ask her about this version. one question: i understand that after nipple and skin sparing mastectomy with reconstruction, most lose sensation in any part of the breast. Is this true? was very curious.
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Hi Grit - Congrats on the upcoming surgery. I had expanders first, so I can't speak to the 1 step surgery; however, I did find surgery so much better than I expected. I even said that I would rather have done 6 surgeries rather than 6 rounds of chemo...if that says anything!
I see that you are in DC. I know Georgetown has pioneered a bunch of research on NS BMX. I did lose sensation to the nipples and a significant portion of the middle of both breasts. My PS and GS both think that I should eventually have some feeling return. I've noticed some of the feeling is coming back closer and closer to the nipples, as it takes nerves a while to regenerate. I agree with Tina in that I think having the NS procedure made a huge impact on me feeling so positive about this portion of the "journey."0 -
Yeah I still did not get back feeelings around my nipples amlost 5 months post surgery. My doctor said I might or might not get back most of the feeling with time maybe in a year or even longer. But he said I won't get back 100% ever!
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I was joking with friends that I should have people touch my boobs as they roll me into surgery just so I can have one last moment of feeling my boobs before it all goes down. :-) Sigh. Better no sensation than to be dead, eh?
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gritgirl- LOL, you have to get used to it after the surgery and it'll get to a new normal from there. It still feels weird for me at times but you're right better than being dead!
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gritgirl- The MX itself wasn't anywhere what I had built it up to be in my mind. The pain was very tolerable and the recovery pretty easy. One thing I would suggest is checking out the threads on how to prepare beforehand (i.e. what to shop for, what to pack, etc.). There's some great advice on there and being prepared and knowing what to expect will go a long way towards easing a lot of anxiety.
One thing I'd ask your PS about is whether there are any statistics on nipple necrosis with immediate implants vs TE's and eventual implants. I know some women who began to develop necrosis and their PS's drained some of the saline from their TE's to relieve pressure on the blood supply to the nipple until they had healed more. With immediate implants this wouldn't be an option, obviously. Not sure if any research has been done on the success rate with immediate vs delayed implants but would be curious about it. The upside to immediate, of course, is waking up and feeling "whole".
As far as sensation, usually you won't have any at all at first across the entire breast. Sometimes the numbness even extends into the armpits and across the shoulder blades even. Most of this comes back fairly quickly. sensation across the breast takes a little longer and I've heard of very few people who even get sensation back in the nipples. If they do, they say it's more of a sensitivity than anything pleasurable. But I think we are all glad we got to save our nipples- sensation or not.
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Quick little update- I decided to keep my appointment at the new Banner/MDA cancer center by me to see if they concurred with my BS's recommendations about my CT/bone scan. Well, they're not in total agreement. Onco at MDA said she can't say with 100% certainty it's not a recurrence and wants to do a PET scan. Not the news I was hoping for but I will follow MDA. The onco told me they follow all the same protocols as UT MDA in Houston which is one of the top cancer hospitals in the country. So now have a PET scan scheduled for 10/5. So here's my E-ticket. Looks like I'm back on the roller coaster! 0
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Hey Kate,
I have followed u had a nipp spar mastectomy with reconstruction 2010 blood clotvfrom tamoxifen 2011 now tgey want ooph done my mastectomy breast has scar tisue built up from previous rads from 2005 should i get ooph0
