TE TROUBLE
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Good luck, blessings and prayers to Survivor, Sundermom and Debbiey. Will be thinking hard about you girls.
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Oh, MTnester - I bow to you, O Queen O' the Amazon TEs!!!!! Mine only go up to 700 ccs, although PS says they can be overfilled.
Even though I feel better today after a big slug o' saline yesterday, stay tuned to see if I can tolerate that much every two weeks til I hit 700....
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Blessings...we have a very similar diagnosis. Yae us. HA!
Good luck with your fills...may your expansion progress without any issues whatsoever, including pain! 0 -
Just got back from the PS and they peeled off my bandage. So far, the incision looks healthy and there is no tissue struggling for blood supply. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic on this round. My first fill date is in 3 weeks. One day at a time, right?
Survivor11, Sundermom, and Debbiey - sending good thoughts your way for your upcoming surgeries.
Ren, how are you doing?
Hope everyone is doing well!
Hugs,
T
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Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. I'm starting to get a little nervous. I just remember waking up after my BMX and hardly being able to breathe because my chest muscles were so tight. I later found out at my PS had put in 200cc on each side. He thinks my muscles are going to "remember" and I won't have as much discomfort this time. I pray he is right. I thought expansion was almost worse than chemo because I couldn't find anything to make it feel better. Definitely taking at Ativan before I go
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dll66 - I am glad you told me about Wright's views on the port. I have a sneaking suspicion that he will want me to keep it because of the triple pos deal with quicker recurrence.
MT - I echo the shout to the upcoming surgery girls! Hoping for smooth sailing!
blessings - I am impressed at your fill - good on ya!
All - The TE's are def under the arm for me. Actually they are everywhere. Even the sports bra is barely containing them. Just for fun I should put on a non-underwire bikini top. There is not a bra in the land that I could organize them into - I have given up on that. On the plus side, I have some highlights and a sort-of hairstyle after a trip to the salon. If I wasn't such a techno-peasant I would post a pic - I still have to figure out how to do that!
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SpecialK-mine look really natural. They do not have the hamburger bun look. I almost think they look too natural. I am still in sports bra or surgical bra until the 17th, but he gave me dispensation for my niece's wedding on the 30th and New Year's Eve. I put on that bombshell bra I had when I was flat, and wore a low cut top. Hoooweee! The twins were out to play...and mine are not that big. I felt huge though...until we walked in the door and a woman that was HUUUUGE in a very revealing top stood next to me. I just started laughing.
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Blessings...thanks...you went through a lot. I should feel bad for even complaining. My situation is different than most of you. I've a ps that uses botox on the pec muscles when doing the mx or reconstruction. At the time of mx he put in 30 or 300 ccs. I woke up from the mx with square type breast. Today, his nurse put in another 60 ccs. Next week she will put in another 40. Done...no more. So in a 2 week time from surgery I should be completely filled. In six weeks she said after all his healed I will have the implants. I realized tonight that I forgot to take the muscle relaxants he asked me to take after the fill today. I just took it so I hope I will be more comfortable. I will take a pain pill before going to bed tonight...hopeully sleep well. I do think the te is rubbing up agaiinst a nerve. I don't know if I can do it for six weeks. Hopefully like you ladies said it will get better.
I don't want to be that big. I just want to have something there. And I only did a uni. I am so glad as I don't know if I could have handled both breast reconstruction. I admire you ladies for enduring the pain of expanders. I don't like the feeling of something foreign in me. I can't wait until life gets back to normal. I'm a little loopy on meds. This whole experience seems strange and surreal.
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Fluff, I don't have the hamburger look anymore, that was the expanders. My implants look great outside of a few divits here and there he hopes to fix with fat grafting.
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About to see my PS and start expansion. Lots of nervous energy going on. But I am so ready to get this process started. Please, no complications. Happy Friday!!
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Smooth sailing here. Got a 60cc fill. Had one a couple weeks ago so I'm up to 120. Getting 60 more on Monday because she'll be away for a week, so I'll get a little break after Monday. I think we have to get to 520 or something close to that. Baby steps.
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Yay, momof3infla! Glad it went well.
One of these days my MO wants to have a post-treatment PET scan done, but I need to quit having surgeries first! We'll revisit the idea in April when I see him again.
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momof3 - yay - I did baby steps too, 25cc per week. For us troublemakers low ans slow is the way to go!
dll66 - all of my PETS have shown inflammation from surgery long after it seems they would. It is a good idea to wait for awhile so the picture is clearer. I also had elevated numbers of my tumor markers (CA27/29) because of inflammation from both surgery and chemo. I had a normal marker prior to chemo when known cancer had been removed. Once I had some distance from those events my marker numbers came down.
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Just came back from a fill. Another 60ccs in my right, I'm just about even with the left. I go back in a month for another fill. This time I think he will finally be doing both sides at the same time. Talk about baby steps....mine are more like fetus steps! haha
Michelle
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I'm home from the hospital and have a brand new right tissue expander. I also have a stinking drain when my PS specifically told me I wouldn't. I find that highly irritating. Apparently there was quite a bit of fluid just sitting in the empty tissue pocket. I have a good start on a new right foob as he put in a nice big fill during the surgery. Based on where I have discomfort right now and how the tissue expander is sitting on my chest I can definitely say something was wrong with that failed implant. I have ZERO pain under my arm and down along my ribs and this is the area where experienced chronic pain after my exchange surgery. I'm feeling good about my chances ladies!!!
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mrochon - if it cheers you up just take a look at my diagnosis date and then think about the fact that I am still getting fills, ha! Baby - I know all about the baby steps! It is nice to get even though - the lopsided thing got really old. Then mine seemed to be in a race and even though he was adding the same amount to both sides the left was slightly differently shaped so appeared larger at different points.
This is important for those with newly replaced TE's to realize - you may end up with differing amounts of saline but still look symmetrical, and that is normal. Your replaced side has more scar tissue, which may or may not be able to be removed. Depends on why you lost the TE in the first place - I know my PS didn't want to be super aggressive in removing it because he didn't want to set off a bad chain of events. He may be able to do more during exchange, not sure, but I will definitely end up with two different sized implants. My right TE has 75 cc's more in it and they look the same. Michelle can testify.
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That is good to hear about the differing sizes. I only have 150cc in the right and it's well on it's way to matching the 475cc implant on the left. I woke up from the surgery and thought "Whoa! How do I have a boob again already?".
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Good to hear sundermom! My PS tells me to always expect a drain. He's the kind that will put a drain in just in case. It can always be taken out in a couple days. I'm ok with that, at least I know to expect to have a drain. If I don't great but I've yet to not experience NOT having a drain. I had alot of drainage when he put the TE back. That sucked but they do eventually come out.
lol, specialk! Yes I can testify! But I think I should clarify, I have not gotten to first base with you in case some were wondering. lol
Michelle
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sundermom - I also had considerable swelling on the replacement surgery. After it calmed down it changed shape as well, so don't let that surprise you. My right TE with only its original surgical fill after 7-8 months looked ok but the new left one looked pretty Frankenfoob, kind of square-ish. After a few fills it looked surprisingly like the right one.
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Yes, Michelle and I are friends, just not special friends.
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ahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa!!!
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I'm giggling here .... too funny!
Happy to hear the fills went well today, ladies! And I'm sorry to hear about the drain, Sundermom. Here's hoping troubles are behind you and the drain doesn't have to be in for long.
SpecialK thanks for saying that about differeing sizes with fills. My left is 120 ccs behind the right but I'd swear they are almost the same size. Except the right has way more at the collar bone than the left. Strange and wondrous things, these TE's.
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Yay, sundermom! Glad you are home & feeling good!
SpecialK & mrochon, you two are funny!
I, too thought I would be done by now (diagnosed 8/27/2010). The one implant that I got to keep looks pretty darn good, LOL. I'm gonna be lopsided for months to come!
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You 2 crack me up....
I ended up with the same size implants even though the TE's had about 100cc's difference in them.
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chick - whippetmom wondered if I could end up with that situation so I asked my PS at the appt. last week and he said def not because of chest wall defects - I was like WTH? When was someone going to tell me about that? So it is two different sizes for me!
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Gotta love those PS's. The classis, "oh, didn't I tell you that?" No wonder we go in with all the questions we can think of.
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Sundermom: Sorry you have a drain you did not expact. That is a major drag! My PS likes to put them in. I have had 6 so far I hated every one. I feel your pain. Hope yours does ts job and comes out quickly.
Survivor11: Let us know how surgery went!
Momof3infla: Way to go on getting your 2nd fill already!
SpecialK: Yup, infant steps.
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momof3- if you are still feeling tight from the last fill then you might not want another one on Monday.I was at the end of my fills when I had one on a Thursday and another one on the following Monday and it triggered all my muscle spasms and the TE troubles began. If you feel fine than I think that is a different story. Just wanted to share that info because it never occured to me at the time that 2 fills that close together could cause problems.
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Thanks Ginger. At least I've already been through the whole fill process on the left side so I know what to expect. In the beginning it really doesn't bother me (fills). It's at the end that I have to take it really slow. I felt immediate relief after that fill yesterday since the TE was nearly flat and the fill port was sitting on a nerve. I'm going to go ahead with a 60cc fill on Monday then take almost 2 weeks off. I think it should be OK. She takes it low and slow, as Special K says. I know all too well how small things can trigger big problems.
Sundermom - I had my drain in for 17 days after my TE replacement on Nov 30th. She broke up a lot of scar tissue and there was lots of drainage. That was my 11th drain UGH. I've come to have a love/hate relationship with those blasted drains. They do keep the fluid and infection away. It will be out before you know it. Congrats on a successful replacement!
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chest wall defects??? yeah that would have been nice to have known about.
Fluff...have you started talking nipples yet?
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