TE TROUBLE
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Lefty is giving me trouble again. I'm convinced that it's revenge for removing a perfectly good breast (left side was not cancerous). If I lay down without a bra, he sticks straight up like some sort of crazy Madonna-esque Frankenboob. Almost like the TE is sideways or...something. I know he's a bit loose in the pocket, but this is crazy! Anyone else have this problem?
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My right one was the "good" breast. The Alloderm had to be removed from that side and when I'm lying down it looks like a mountain compared to a small hill on the left. I assume all this will be evened out at exchange.
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Also, when the plastic surgeon put fills in last time the injection sites were uneven (right/left). At this point I'm not to worried about it as this is just the pocket-creating stage (from what little I understand about it all).
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Hi All! I just wanted to check in. I just had my final fill yesterday. I'm only at 270 ml, but I have a small build and it looks crazy as it is. I just had MX and my PS assures me she will do a lift on the good breast to make sure they are in the same vicinity. My hubby has not seen my breasts in over a year due to the TE failures. He thinks the TE is cute. Go figure! It looks ridiculous to me!
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Hi 1curlyfry - I had my exchange last Monday and am doing well. I have not seen a good view of the new boobs but it looks like my bad side was lifted up and even with the other side. That was my main concern as well. The cancer side looked fab. and the other side was droopy and a weird shape. PS said that sometimes they have a mind of their own even though the expanders are the exact same shape and size your body does strange things.
I am hoping that the pouch I had on the left side will look better after the swelling goes down It looked like someone took a staple gun and gathered the extra skin and stapled it. It was irrating every time I put my arm down. I can't really tell what it looks like right now but am hopeful PS was able to fix that as well.
I go on Wed to get the drains taken out and I can not wait for that day.
Michelle
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Hi all. New to this thread. I had BMX with TE Feb. 15/13. Everything was going so well. The first drain came out 3 days post-op and the second came out the next day! less than 48 hours after the second drain was removed I developed an infection to the right TE. The drain bulb on the right was faulty from the start. The nurse in recovery knew it wasn't working yet they sent me home the same day anyway. I had to constantly keep recharging it/ deflating it. I feel it wasn't giving proper drainage and was removed too soon. The drainage opening kept seeping fluid and therefore remained open for bacteria to get in. I have now been on 2 separate IV's for antibiotics since Feb 21st/13. The PS said it would be at least another 6 weeks of IV and still have a 50% chance of losing it. I decided to have it removed and will try again. (PS said I would have to wait a year.) Will hear from her on monday to select a date for surgery. The left is doing quite well so I am going to leave it alone.
Have been on this board since dx last year and find it so helpful to hear the successes and failures of everyone going through similar experiences. I've learned so much on this journey, mostly from this site, and can't wait for it to be over so I can get back to some kinda normal (whatever that may be)
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Michelle, yay!! Congrats. Sounds like all went well and you are doing well.
Mssunshine, so sorry about your infection, and I pray the time you have to wait to get the TE replaced won't seem so long. Hugs and prayers for you, brave one.0 -
Mssunshine71 - best of luck to you. I had a similar experience. Did your PS say why you had to wait a year? Usually it's only a few months. I waited 6 months but mainly because I had 4 months of chemo...
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Cheryl- thanks for the hugs and prayers
Roadwarrior- Thanks. My PS and I spent most of the appt. discussing saving it. Her last words were, "Or we could remove it and wait a year then try again." I decided after the appt. to have it removed. She will call me monday and we will go into further detail about it then. I would love to hear your experience and any advice or questions you can think of for me to ask her if would have time to pm me. I am finished chemo but will continue with Herceptin till October. She also told me before the TE were placed that she waits 6 mos after the final fill to place the permanent implants so she may just be really conservative.
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Mssunshine71 - I sent you a PM.
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I had my bi-lateral mast and reconstruction on Feb. 6th, 2013. It's hard to believe it's almost been 4 weeks because It feels like it was only a week ago! I guess I should give a little background. I had neo-adjuvant chemo and had my last treatment on Jan.8th, 2013. So as you can see, I only had 4 weeks between the last of 6 chemo treatments and the surgery. The dr. assured me that as long as my WBC was high enough the surgery would go fine. We'll the surgery did go fine, and I have even had one Painful fill 60cc since my surgery. However last week when I was supposed to do my 2nd fill I was in so much pain through my ribs and sternum we had to forgo the fill. The PS said it could be some inflamation from the alloderm and put me on a steroid burst pack. The first few days of the high doses of pred. helped, but now as the dose has dropped I feel back to square one and am starting to have the rib/sternum pain again. I am scheduled to go Tues. 5th to try a fill again, but I'm already starting to stress about all this pain again. PS has told me its normal to have pressure with the TE's, and I get that! But is all this pain normal? I know everyone is different, but at 4 weeks, I'm still having trouble getting in and out of bed, lifting, walking around in pain ALL day. Does anyone think this sounds like a problem or do I just have my expectations set to high?? Thanks for any info in advance
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Romey - just wanted to let you know that I'm in pain all the time too. I told my PS that it feels like I have a hatchet buried in my sternum and he just chuckled. He says the flat metal plates on the back of the TEs force the fills to stretch forward, and the metal plates are uncomfortable because your rib cage is curved. I said WTH - I don't know why the TEs weren't designed with a bit of a curve in them. Anyway, the edges of the TEs are on the edges of my sternum. I've had them in since mid-December and I'm at my full volume, 460cc, and will be like this until early May. Actually I get a checkup late March and he might fill a little more. We'll see. The TEs have also shifted a bit. One is a bit under my arm and rotated about 20 degrees. It also looks more like a cube, whereas my other side looks round. They feel like a couple chunks of granite. I'm just so thankful that I haven't had infection or skin splitting that I feel I'm lucky overall. I hope you start getting used to them soon. It's a bit of a long haul.
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Romney, if you just had your bmx in early February, you probably shouldn't be lifting much of anything yet. I couldn't lift anything heavier than a coke can for six weeks. Take it easy. Doing too much can affect healing. Have you tried a muscle relaxer?
Mssunshine....your doc is really conservative. I would argue with her. I only had to wait three months in between and had implants a month after final fill.0 -
Nesw, thanks for your reply. I guess knowlege is power, just couldn't understand where all this discomfort was coming from since everyone (nurses, NP, PS) kept telling me I would be feeling a whole lot of pressure, not to much mention of PAIN! I suppose everyone experiences things differently. I suppose I am lucky in the respect that my PS did half my fill at surgery and told me I would only need maybe 2 more fills to be where I would like to be, (large B/small C). He also said since I was healing so well that he would not hesitate to make me wait long once we do the last fill. He said he would be willing to do the exchange surgery 8 weeks after last fill if I continue to do well. I am praying this will be the outcome. Again, thanks for the insight. I will try to remember to restrict my lifting as suggested fluffqueen! Just so anxious to feel normal again I suppose. Oh, and yes, I am taking valium every 6 hours plus 4 advil every 8 hours, doesn't help a whole lot just makes me sleepy :-(
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Romey, Valium is my friend at the dentist. I have a phobia and the gas doesn't work so my dentist BIL has me take a Valium....two on really big projects. Helps a lot, although I still grip the chair.
Definitely give yourself healing time. You don't want to mess up their work. Did your doc do a culture to know what kind of infection you have. If they really are going to make you wait a year, I might try the antibiotics to see if they would work. We kept filling all through my infection while I was on a zillion antibiotics. I went in to my surgery fully filled with the understanding if it wasnt too bad, he would clean everything out and put the implans in. If it was too infected, the expanders would come out. I was on the bubble, he said. It wasnt too bad, but he ultimately decided to err on safety's side. I had pseudomonas, which are pretty nasty and hard to treat and he did not want to cause bigger problems.
It is a tough decision, I know. You might tell them you want to try a muscle relaxer to see if that helps some. I had a prescription, but only took it once, after the first fill. It might ease up your muscles.0 -
Not sure how you all do it. I had to have my left TE taken out 3 weeks after my BMX due to an infection. My cancer was in the right breast. Three months later after chemo I had a TE put back in. Here I am 3 weeks later and I've developed another infection. Right now I am on an antibiotic to try and treat the infection. I go back to the Dr. on 3/6/13 to see if it has to be removed. I am so bummed out. Any suggestions?
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Kathymc - do they know what type of infection it is? what's the potential source?
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I have an appointment tomorrow with PS tomorrow. I'll find out then.
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So, I have my very last fill tomorrow which will put me at 570. This last fill is an overfill for sure because I want to make sure there will be room for a big enough implant. They still sit very high up though and are also protruding into my arpits. I'm hoping after sitting for 6 weeks they will soften up in time for the exchange. I could use some reassurance.....
Where are you Special K? Need your experience here
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shaneoak - aww - thanks for missing me! Generally speaking, the implants do not sit as high as TE. It is all dependent on implant size and type, pocket shape, and individual body anatomy. Most plastic surgeons do some pocket work at the time of exchange - this cleans out scar tissue and refines the shape of the pocket before placing the implant. My TE felt like they were over in the underarm as well but I do not have that feeling with my implants - because of the rigidity of the back of the TE I think you get mre lateral expansion toward the end of the process. What size implant is your PS planning?
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Kathymc- I had 2 TE infections also, both on my non-cancer side. The first one never cleared and the TE was removed. It was replaced in January and another infection popped up 2 weeks later but, I'm happy to report it did clear up. I was on IV vancomycin both times. Since it cleared one infection and not the other, I have to assume they were 2 different bacteria. As long as the TE itself is not infected, you have a shot at saving it. (The infection spread to my TE the 1st time. But they can't know that for sure until it's removed). Good luck! I hope it works out for you!
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Great news today. No infection. Although my skin is red the culture came back negative. It appears we have removed the drain too soon. I begged her to take it out because it was so incomfortable, my fault. She believes my body is not absorbing the fluid like it should. She tried to get fluid out today but was unable to do so. So we filled both to 270cc and I see her next week.
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Thanks Special K, that info helps. Now I feel better that you have weighed in. The PS And I are looking at 550 or 600 for the final size. got the a okay from Whippetsmom so I feel good about that. Dreading last fill though. They've been pretty easy so far. Sorry about the typing.. on my kindle.
I also must confess that my mom is also a Special K (Kaye) so kind of drawn to that in addition to your experience of course.0 -
Kathymc - don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but my culture never grew anything either. My PS thought it was fluid build up too. But it just kept getting worse and worse. Filling may be a good idea - that's what I started doing the 2nd time around with the left TE while I still had the drain in. It immediately reduced the drainage
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shaneoak - Yay for your mom being a special k too!
I got the name early in my husband's military career - they gave it to me as my call sign - like in Top Gun, lol! I have implants right about that size - 50cc larger) and I am fairly petite - 5'3" and usually about 120 lbs. With this size implant I wear a 34DD in a bra with an underwire, but I look like a full C cup.
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Kathy...on the first culture, mine didn't show either, so he kept me on antibiotics and we kept watching it. He was convinced then it was something called red breast syndrome. He also felt we maybe took the drain out too soon and continued to fill. When it got worse everytime I finished antibiotics, he did a second culture and made them grow it for a longer period of time.
It wasnt until the end of that period that the pseudomonas showed up. Everybody hopped into action. My onc was worried because he felt I should have been feeling much worse than I did. And the fact I was still on chemo, with an antibiotic resistant bug had him worried. The PS was afraid it would get into my system and I would get sepsis.
Hopefully you will continue to improve and keep moving forward!0 -
I had some sort of infection (non-cancer side) that didn't show up in the culture. I was also on intravenous vancomycin (what a pain in the
). I might have a new tissue expander problem One of them might be losing fluid. Oh well. For now, like Scarlett, I'm not going to worry about it.
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I was on 2 IV antibiotics. They never did a culture to see what the infection was. Just had the TE removed yesterday. Only need IV for 48 hours. So excited to get off IV as I've been on for over 2 weeks now. I will ask them to leave the drain in a little longer this time.
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Hi girls! Just checking in. Doing great on my end. I see my PS next Friday, then she will give me my walking papers to go to the tattoo guy. Then off to Vegas with my hubby the following week YAYYY!
I've been feeling a slight pinch on my right side, along the outside corner of my implant closest to my underarm. Could it be some nerves coming back to life? It doesn't hurt when I move, just a pinching sensation on and off throughout the day. No redness or pain, just a pinch. Of course I'm over the top paranoid about the slightest sensation lol.
Oh, also a great Onco appt last week. Life is good!
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momof3 - all sounds good! Are you going to the tattoo guy we talked about?
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