TE TROUBLE
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Galsal, well that sux doesn't it? So sorry. I hope you have no other "surprises". Loved "same make and model."
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Yikes, GalSal! Hope you are feeling okay. Best wishes for your TE swap.
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OK - so I will actually be back in TE mode again - which seems totally surreal at this point. Will be having surgery on 5/9 to remove the implant, or sooner if I show any signs of infection. Hoping this does not happen because DH is leaving town again Mon-Thurs of next week, lol! Implant will be out several months, then another surgery for a new TE, then expand and exchange surgery at some point to a new implant. So this will go on for at least another six months, minimum. I am not amused.
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oh SpecialK, that is disappointing. Lots of detours on your journey! Thinking of you
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Pre - thanks! I seem to be nothing but a detour, lol! Disappointing is an excellent description - I am not mad, sad, or even upset - but I am disappointed.
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Special K, what a wonderful attitude you have! Your doctor is very lucky to have you for a patient. I don't know if I could do it! I'm on my 7th week with expanders and if they took them out I don't think I would let them ever put them back.
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I saw my ps today. My culture from expander coming out grew yeast. So, it would've had to come out anyways. He says it's very odd but it can happen bc I had open wound for so long & went into surgery 3 extra times. It could've been picked up in surgery. He's getting me back into my infectious disease dr to be tested before we try surgery again. Hopefully taking it out healed that problem. I sure don't want to go through that again. I get to go back to ps in 1 MONTH!!! Wow. I've been going 3 X's a week since January.
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Special K, I have been following this thread for a long time to prepare myself in case I had problems, although I haven't, my thoughts and prayers are with you, you always are so upbeat and supportive of all the ladies here even when you have dealt with so many issues yourself. HUGS TO YOU!
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Blessings coming your way SpecialK!!!! Thanks for the well wishes Ladies. Nothing is yet scheduled - there's been a problem getting scheduled quickly for an OR and the PS to work with both schedules.
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SpecialK, have you considered a flap surgery instead? It might be possible to be done in one more surgery rather than at least 3 more. Sorry about your latest detour.
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catey, galsal and dll - thanks! DLL - my concern with the flap would be healing issues at the donor site. I am also not on board with that big of a surgery - I have had four abdominal surgeries previously so that would probably eliminate that as a donor site, don't want the body scarring from any other lower body location, and just finished two wide excisions, and a MOHS surgery with 3-4 inch incisions between my shoulder blades from skin cancer, so I am not sure about a lat flap - don't want to move that skin to the front because of the potential for skin cancer across the breast, and the necessity for another wide excision - they took out a cubic inch of flesh for each one - can't do that over an implant. I am not as concerned with repeated surgery with the IMF incision since it is not the issue.
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Dear GOD Lady...you've had MORE than your fair share of surgeries in life!
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galsal - Lol! You are correct! I didn't include the tonsillectomy, vascular surgery on both legs, the tumor Moffitt removed from my calf, the knee surgery, the 22 (yes, you read that right!) other skin cancer surgeries, an abdominal hyst/ooph, and a D&C for fetal demise. It is rather surprising that there is any of me left! On the plus side, this is why I don't get too bugged about having a few more surgeries, lol!
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Special - with all those surgeries, you have an amazing attitude. Sending hugs & prayers. You were so kind to me when I was headed towards chemo I always have special thoughts of you (no pun intended).
GalSal - sorry about your car accident. Hope the surgery to review/repair/replace goes well.
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minus - that is such a sweet things to say, and I appreciate the hugs and prayers!
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SpecialK, instead of posting all our exchange dates, we should replace them with a picture of you as our poster child. I feel awful for you. And, I am absolutely not doing any tweaking unless the implant would be leaking. Your experience has put a healthy fear in me that I already had an infection that demonstrates I'm not invincible, why tempt fate.
Lissa, you will be bff's with your PS. Mine gave me free Botox and rejuvaderm when the rep gave him some free stuff. I was o. The office staff roster, lol.
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Oh SK so sorry. Well you know lopsided can be handled. You've done it before. Sad you have to once again but oh well. You can either cry all the time and hide in the house or go and live your life with a few helpful devices! Hmmmmm. Wonder what our Special person will do...... hmmmmmm. Yeah. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT - She'll chose to go about her life!! That's our SPECIAL SpecialK!!!!! Guess you'll be making the kitchen scrubbie foob for your swim suit now. It really works. Hugs!
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SpecialK, you do have an amazing attitude. And ditto what GalSal said!
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Specialk,
Hi. I am scheduled for an abdominal hysterectomy with ovary removal. I saw you also had that. I'm scheduled for my exchange June 2 and hysterectomy july1. What was the recovery like for the hysterectomy? I've also had 4 c sections.... Is it similar recovery?
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Mommy at Home I had a prohylactic hysterectomy with ovary removal 15 years ago and I think? the recovery is similar to a C section. I never had a section but, I'm basing that on friends that did.
Special K -you are amazing!!!! You're the little engine that could!!!! Keep moving forward with that great attitude!! Like you I could not use my stomach for a flap (abdominoplasty done at time of hysterectomy) and I didn't want to use the LD method. We chose a road that could, and for us, has had detours-you've had so many!!! You are an inspiration!!!!
Babs
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Catching up.
I will be having another surgery, Robotic hysterectomy and trying to find if can be tandem with reconstruction.
Special K , I admire your tenacity. And I am so sorry that it has not healed.
Has anyone heard from Purple?
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SpecialK, thoughts are with you. I admire you for your perseverance and advise for others on this tortuous journey! Wish there was was more I could do. But do love moon's advise:
"...but oh well. You can either cry all the time and hide in the house or go and live your life with a few helpful devices!"
Is so applicable in so many applications.
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Is it normal that fills get more painful as you go along? I have had 5 so far and am at 420 cc's. My last fill was 60 cc's on Weds and I am still so uncomfortable. Can't even take a deep breath without shooting pain in my ribs. I honestly think I am either done with fills and will go with what ever size implant he can place or at least give myself a break and see if this discomfort goes away before doing anymore. Has anyone else gone through this? I'm pretty discouraged at this point
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Naiviv,
I was going to have a robotic surgery also but they couldn't schedule it until August and I have to be back to work at the end of August. I scheduled an abdominal hysterectomy for July 1. Good luck w yours!
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Hello All
Back after a long time. TE on right taken out Jan 2013 bc of infection. Had implant and tattoo done on left and thought I would just go with the stick on boob. Finally decided to finish this. Poor healing on right was most likely due to radiation from my first cancer so I did hyperbaric treatments for 3 weeks and had a tissue implant put in May 1. My PS went in below the breast since the best oxygenation was there. Went back to hyperbaric yesterday and will continue with 15 treatments. Feel good that a surgeon in that clinic will be taking a look each day.
Feeling pretty awful and sore today and just needed to reach out. Anyone else out there have better luck with hyperbaric?
Beautiful day here in the Shenandoah Valley!
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Wow, hyperbaric! I've never heard of that for breast cancer treatment but it makes sense. Hope you feel better soon, Sharon.
Also robotic surgery...tell me more! The wave of the future I guess.
Re: abdominal hysterectomy. It was a very difficult recovery for me. My neighbor had two c sections and told me it was similar. So I was prepared for some discomfort, but was blindsided afterwards, which scared me. I thought something was really wrong with me because I shouldn't be in so much pain. Later she told me she had lied because she didn't want to scare me! Well, she did me NO favors by lying. In my opinion, if you know what to expect ahead of time you can prepare for it. I should have pushed for a different kind of anesthesia during surgery, among other things. Research for ideas of what you can do to make your recovery easier, just like you do on this thread. If it turns out you have an easy time of it, that's great. But if you don't, you will have some "tools" to get back on your feet.
Naiviv, I doubt that your doctors will do two different procedures in one surgery. I've lost this battle several times with my PS. The more incisions, the more opportunities for infection.
KLJ, yes TE's get more uncomfortable as you get more cc's. I had no pain during weekly fills over six weeks UNTIL the last one, a small 60 cc's. That one caused the pain that others reported. It only lasted two days, but it was enough for me to tell the PS that I didn't want the final 60 cc's and 740 would just have to be good enough.
By the way, it might be helpful for everyone to know that 100 cc's is only 6.6 TABLESPOONS. When spread out over a whole TE, it's not very obvious, but at times during your TE journey, 100 cc's might as well be 1,000 cc's. When those muscles are forced to stretch, they can sure bite back.
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klj, what Sandra said! LOL I had no pain with any fill except for the last two. They just plain HURT! When I went for last one my P'S had a hard time even pushing the fluid in! We decided that was it. It took a week to get better. BTW if you have a lot ore to get then just take a week off in between. It won't hurt and you are not in a race.
Viv they won't do it. Too much stress on your body. And too much time under anesthesia.
Much love.
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fluff - yes, this is a teachable moment. Just say no to unnecessary surgery because it can go wrong in ways you are not expecting. And if you look in the dictionary at "you've had a lot of breast related surgery" you will see my picture, lol! Seriously, if you don't have to do it - DON'T!!! I see comments on BCO from people who say that we deserve perfect breasts after all we have been through - they are correct, we do, but there comes a point of risk versus reward. This was a legit repair and it went to hell in a hand basket.
Moon - I have no plans to cry - my eyes would be all red and puffy and my chest would still be half flat so what would I have gained? I won't hide - didn't last time. Not my style. I never used the scrubbie poof thing last time - mainly because I'm not so much of a bathing suit girl but I have heard they work much better than a prosthetic.
Mommyathome - I had two c-sections and found them comparable to the hyst/ooph. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain though so I'm not sure I am the best to advise. In all of the breast related surgeries the longest I have stayed on narcotics is 3-4 days, including BMX/TE. I believe there is a site called hystersisters.com might be worth checking out. My surgery was 12 years ago, I was 45, spent a couple of days in the hospital (Nat'l Naval Med Center - Bethesda) but then came home and did regular mom stuff. I did not have family come or have any help - my kids were 11 and 12 at the time, DH went back to work, etc. The driving restriction is similar to a c-section.
All - I can't tell you all how much I appreciate all of your positive thoughts and good wishes - it means the world to me!
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Special K good luck with everything. Do you mind sharing what the switch from Arimidex to Femara?
Sandra thanks for explaining how much a fill looks like.
Here's to good days ahead for all
Sharon
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Sharon - I started on Femara as that is the AI my onc prefers. After six months I developed a painful trigger on the thumb of my dominant hand. My onc switched me to Arimidex, and the thumb trigger dissipated. After a year I developed a trigger in my wedding ring finger, one toe and a severe one in my left ankle. Also, beyond the usual knee pain my right knee required a cortisone shot to control pain and swelling. I switched back to Femara, but a different brand, and have had no issues to date.
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