Latissimus Dorsi Breast Reconstruction
Comments
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Right now I am being treated by a ps to see if things will start healing. I had to be hospitalized due to infection on my chest and in my lungs. In my case the Lat muscle is what had died causing everything to fail from lack of blood supply. I see my wound care ps on Monday to see if there is improvements. He has already mentioned possible wound vac or more surgery. So right now I am on the wait and see cause they have to get the infection under control. Sorry I can not be more help but I had fired the ps that did the surgery after I found out he should not of done the surgery so soon after radiation
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I am home from my Lat Flap, I had to stay an extra day as my white counts were high. So far so good. Hoping everything heals up as it is supposed to.
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meadow, glad to hear your surgery went well. How many nights did you stay at hospital. My surgery is on June 9th I'm getting nervous
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hopfull, Thank you. I am recovering very well. To me, this is easier than my double mastectomy. I am most sore from my back area where the tissue was taken. But pain is easily managed with my prescriptions. I have good support at home, so I am able to rest and recover slowly. I would encourage you to not be afraid, you can do this. It is not as horrible as I had feared...not an easy thing, but definitely do able! Hoping you have good support at home too. Hugs to you!
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Hi Meadow! So glad to read your updates! Keep relaxing and healing!!
Hopful2, I agree with Meadow, - it's not exactly a 'walk in the park', - but it wasnt as bad as I feared! You'll be ok!!
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Thank you Another, your good advice really gave me confidence to do this
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Smpr, I hope things are better. This is the problem with this surgery, it can go well, but when it doesn't everything goes downhill really bad.
Meadow, glad that you're doing good and everything went well.
Group hug
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smpr how do you know your Lat died??
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tangles, I would presume her surgeon told her.
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Meadow, how are you doing? I would love to see your updates and hear how long you stayed in hospital, when your drains came out, etc. I'm sending hugs and hoping you are continuing to recover well.
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Tangles at my one week follow up I didn't know anything was wrong until I saw the nurses face when she started to remove the bandages. She stopped and pulled the doctor in who told me that he had to remove everything cause of necrosis and sent me straight to the hospital for emergency surgery. My bandages and drains looked the same then as they did when I left the hospital. I could not even smell the decay until the bandage was removed. When I got a copy of the pathology report is when I found out how much died and how deep the infection had gone.
I am currently dealing with the whole incision opening up and stitches working lose and having to be removed. Everyday I have to scrub it clean and remove any stitch that I can. I see ps at wound care center every week who wants it to heal on its own but says it could be a couple months.
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Thank you so much Sugar, for the encouragement and well wishes. I ended up staying an extra day in the hospital, I was originally to stay one, but stayed another because my white count became elevated and my Infectious Disease Specialist wanted to give me some IV antibiotics. I have rested well at home, pain is easily managed with the prescribed meds. Not as bad as I feared, glad to say. Thankfully at my one week post op exam, everything is healing nicely. I had 2 of my 3 drains removed at this appointment. My third drain is still producing a lot, so I expect to have it 2 more weeks. Jo and Smpr, so sorry about the necrosis. Just an unbelievably bad turn, I am being very careful for the next several weeks, watching for continued good healing. I am still on oral antibiotics. Thanks again for checking on me Sugar.
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Hi All, - I hope everyone is doing ok!
Meadow, - what's the latest?
Has anyone here tried yoga? I have never tried, but I would like to. Is it necessary to find a class geared to those of us post mastectomy? I have contacted numerous places, but cant find any for breast cancer patients/survivors. Thanks for any advice!
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Hello NYCGirl! You can google Pink Ribbon exercise program (designed for breast cancer patients) and search for instructors in NY state. Many of the names I saw listed were Pilates instructors, but there are hopefully some yoga instructors there too. Best of luck to you.
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Thanks Honeybadger! I will try that! Hope you are doing well!
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I am scheduled for Latissimus Dorsi Flap reconstruction on my left side. I had a double mx with implants.. and then had Radiation in 2011/2012. Radiation has done so much damage. I am a implant failure:( I am completely lopsided.. the left side pulled so high up from radation. The capsular Constructure is terrible. My surgery is set for June 12. I am so scared and more nervous.. I have read many stories on here.. Good outcomes.. and horrible outcomes.. I pray I am a good one.
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I tried yoga but unfortunately due to the many issues I have (of which the most important is no strength in arms) I can't hold most of the basic postures.
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seachain, - was it a regular class or a class for bc ladies?
honeybadger, I did check, but still havent found any classes designed specifically for us, although one place nearby suggested their 'Gentle, Hatha, Yin and Restorative'. I don't know what the differences are, and not sure if I should invest in it, esp after seachain's experience...
motheroftwins, - i do think most patients do fine with the lat. Have to assume you'll be in that group!
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hi everyone, my surgery got moved up a week. So now it's June 9th. I'm nervous . I had a mastectomy on one breast last August so I'm hoping it's not worse than that. I hope my TEs don't feel wierd. I've had breast implants for the past 12years so hoping it's not too different from that feeling. I have 2kids the youngest just turned 3 so I'm praying for a speedy recovery because she is a very active 3year old.
Hugs.
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NYGirl,
Oh, no, sweetheart, go and try. Don't go by the fact that I can't do it, remember I'm just one of the few who got hit real hard with all possible bad effects from LD breast recon. If I can't it doesn't mean that YOU can't. You probably can and it would be a pity to miss on something that might make you feel better just because someone else, much older than you, can't do it.
Hopfull, fingers crossed for you. I know the waiting is horrible. But you know the saying "this too shall pass". *hugs*
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seachain, - Thank you for your encouragement, - perhaps I will give it a try yet. Was the class that you tried for those of us post mastectomy or a general yoga class for all? (PS - although in my head I am young, - I am older than you are
.) I hope that you will find relief and comfort one way or another! 0 -
NYCGirl, sorry but for some reason I thought you were late 30s early 40s lol Anyway no, it wasn't a class, I used to do yoga for years, I'm a former athlete and at one point I started doing yoga too, I found that it helped a lot to keep me in shape. But when I first tried to do it again after I felt good enough once I more or less healed from my 6 surgeries, I found out that I couldn't.
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seachain, - I'd much rather you be right about my age!
I hope the weekend has been good for all here! After a couple of unusually miserable hot days, the weather was gorgeous in NY yesterday and today! Hope your weather was nice , too!
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hi ladies, so I had my post op appt with my PS today. She explained everything again for my upcoming lat surgery June 9. One thing I'm disappointed with is my exchange surgery won't be until 4-6 months after because my muscle has to heal. Did you ladies wait that long?
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Hi Hopfull2,
I had my double lat dorsi flap surgery last October 5, 2016 and I just had my implant exchange last Thursday, May 8, 2017. That was seven months waiting period time including the filling of the tissue expanders. My PS wanted to make sure that everything healed well.
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I was diagnosed in April 2017 with IBC and now taking Ibrance and Femara. It is Stage IV, metastasized to my liver and possibly two small lymph nodes. Any info you can give me will help. My right breast is itching so bad it's unbearable. Also rash underneath. My nipple is gross and has slight leakage. My breast tissue is hard and warm. I have inmplants under the muscle that's been there about 40 years. It's moving to the left being pushed by tumor I guess. I'm hoping the chemo reduces the size of breast and liver tumors so I can have my breasts removed. Have any if you done this type therapy and how did it go
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Elisgranny, welcome! There is a great place here called, "IBC LOUNGE", It is in the IBC Forum. Please pop over, introduce yourself! There is a lot of good information and nice people.
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Some useful info for those that are thinking about doing this procedure.
For those of you that are thinking of doing this procedure. I made it through treatment with minimal problems and then decided on doing this. Currantly I am in constant pain, barley can walk when my back spasms, can barely lift 5 pounds and the lose of arm movement. This just a small portion of what can happen.
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You know, not trying to be a party pooper here, but this is EXACTLY the kind of "happy go lucky" "I'm so happy I did this" kind of thing that made me take the decision to have this type of reconstruction that left me disabled. I think we need a little bit more warnings on what can go wrong. If it were me, I would feel absolutely horrible to know that because of something I said to encourage people to do someone's life was ruined. Sorry, but this is the harsh truth. Having to deal with the life-long consequences of breast reconstruction on top of having to deal with cancer ....
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Seachain-not sure what post you are referring to.
If you click on the link in Smpr's post and read the whole blog post you would notice it's not all happy go lucky and does mention some people have difficulties along with the limits on range of motion. The post is also five years old also on her site are tips on yoga and massage therapies to help with other issues caused by reconstruction.
Your reality is not the reality for the majority of the people that have this reconstruction. It sucks that it happened to you. I am sorry you have had such difficulties, but the "harsh truth" is that YOU control whether your life is ruined or not. I hope that you can come to terms with the problems caused by the surgery and find joy.
OTOH I wonder some times if people post links just to get traffic to sites and generate revenue, but we don't have to click on it.
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