TE/Implant OVER pectoral Can exercise, comfortable &NO RIPPLES!
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I got the pre pec - yay! I was discharged on Thursday and I've still got enough pain that I'm taking the pain medication. I'm fine when sitting, but when I stand up or walk around, it's quite painful. Everything went well according to the BS and PS and I'll see both of those drs next week. The PS put foam padding around both breasts and then used a tape that is like Saran Wrap. My skin had an allergic reaction to either the wrap or the foam which resulted in large, itchy blisters in various spots. Not sure why that happened, but it was driving me CRAZY because it was so itchy. My husband and I finally peeled off much of wrap and replaced it with micropore tape and it's somewhat better. I was also able to handle all the drains by myself last night, which was encouraging.
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hi all,
so i had my follow up with my PS yesterday. i am almost 8 months post exchange and they are very heavy so we are going for a revision/downsizing. i have 415 cc's now and we can go 200-250 cc's.not more than 250 cc ( i was really small!).. maybe on oct as i want to recover from frozen shoulders first... anybody here have downsized? can you share your experience please???thanks in advance
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Hi Kae- I can’t give you any advise on downsizing as my initial surgery is this Monday. Hopefully I will wake up with my implants in already (hoping for good enough blood flow!!). But I am on the smaller side right now, I usually wear a 36b, but I’m a smaller b cup. I am hoping for implants in the 250cc area. I don’t care if I end up a little smaller and I’m definitely not looking to go bigger, I just don’t want to be flat. My dr is ordering 3 different sizes to bring in the OR and she’ll see what looks best and weigh the tissue the take out to compare to the implant sizes as well. Wish I had experience to share but I hope you connect with someone
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ReadyAbout -- I'm glad you were able to have the pre-pec surgery and came through it ok. I found the "saran wrap" incredibly itchy as well! Good luck with your recovery. Everything gets easier once drains come out.
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SLL,thats a good idea,weighing the removed breasts!!!good luck
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ReadtAbout - try to find out what you were allergic to - latex could be the culprit. I have the same reaction to latex bandages (or it could be the adhesive). The Dr/Nurses can flag your chart so it won’t be used again.
Congrats on passing your surgery milestone! Hope all goes well.
Lanne
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Hi ReadyAbout, great to hear you are done. That sucks you had that allergic reaction to the Saran Wrap stuff, but that will resolve soon , I hope.
Good Luck SLL101984, with your surgery this Monday. Keep us appraised how you are doing.
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Congrats on the pre-pecs ReadyAbout!! It's a good feeling waking up from surgery to discover you got what you hoped for!! Hopefully your itchy reaction resolves quicly and your drains come out at your 1 week post op!
Best wishes for smooth sailing SLL, praying you wake up with what you hope for as well!! How nice to get a Monday surgery date!! I don't know what it is with some of these PS. They just want to make us bigger!! It is probably a little easier for them to make us bigger than to reduce even a small amount. Have a great, peaceful Sunday
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HI ladies,
I don't know if anyone is interested or not, but I just need a forum to share my disappointment. I was so happy with my 290cc implants despite knowing the right side was slightly lower than the left. However......Over the last year I lost a little more weight (do not tell my husband) and the fat grafting pretty much amounted to nothing. I can handle that, but I swear my right side settled more and is also more towards the outside. I'm seriously bummed.
I go to see my ps on 6/15. She mentioned last time that possibly she'd use more alloderm to create softening between the implant and my skin. I'm under no illusion that implants can be padded well on me, but if they could at least be symmetrical and even I'd be happier! I can see the difference in height sometimes in my clothes and I wear an underwire or other bra 24 hours a day! I realize that others probably can't notice anything and my hubby is fine with how I am, but now I'm not.
I'm sure my ps will agree to a revision (she said she'd try at my 1 year follow up from implant exchange and I declined), but it is a burden on the family - financially and emotionally. Yet, crap, I'm crooked!!! I hate it. I think part of it is that the fat was lost and the problem is more prominent.
In hindsight, I was excited at the idea of fat grafting -- get the pesky extra fat out of my butt and thighs. But even that left me with an old lady flat butt and saggy skin. I had NO IDEA that my middle age years would be like this so please forgive me. I have a very low BMI, I've got nothing in the way of fat to fix my over the pec implants. I actually love having the implants, oddly, I just hate that are not symmetrical (height and horizontal placement).
Would I do this again? Hell, yes, but I think I would have gone for revision earlier???? Not sure, I didn't know I would lose this weight and be kind of stuck. Yet, over the muscle is EASY. I actually feel they are a part of me and I don't think of them much.
Just venting...If interested I'll update after my appointment on 6/15
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Hi JJ,
Sorry you are having issues. You deserve to feel even!
Have you considered getting an opinion from other surgeons? Sometimes fresh eyes and opinions can help you make a decision.
Hugs!
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JessieJake, it seems like revisions are pretty normal for implant reconstruction. Sorry to hear of your troubles. I too have one boob lower than the other and yes it is visible in clothing. I have to jack that bra strap up higher and it helps, but no I am not settling for it!! I agree the pre-pec implant surgery was an easy recovery. That being said, a revision should not keep you out of work long. After my revision I was out Christmas shopping for hours on end 3 days later! Venting is good I have found, no worries! Of course we want to hear what your PS has to say, keep us posted!!
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Just saw the PS for a F/U today. The right side looks great, the left side not so good. The left nipple and/or surrounding skin may not make it. I'll see PS in 2 weeks and he said there's not much I can do to help it along other than pray. FWIW, I'll bump up the Vitamin C. I got one drain out today but the other three have to stay in for two more weeks. The best part was getting the foam padding/tape off. I had a horrible reaction to it and had blisters/itching under the padding. I feel like a million bucks without it now!
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Bump up Vit C, protein, fluids. Keep the area warm to encourage blood flow. Good luck!
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Ready, I put aquaphor on my nipples everyday and covered with a gauze pad. Just to keep the area soft and to help the area from cracking and possibly getting infected. I had 2 of my drains for 3 weeks. Named them after Harry Potter characters. Voldemort and Belletrix they were such a pain. Hang in there. You are doing all the right things!!
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JessieJake, I'm so sorry that you're so unhappy with your uneven results but, lordy, you know that Macb and I can totally relate. I went shopping for a bathing suit for the first time after my mutiliation............er, I mean reconstruction, and it wasn't even the soul-crushing, humiliating, frustrating experience I expected it to be, so that's a plus. I'm at the point where I can at least make myself look good in clothes and now that I've found a couple of bathing suit tops that don't make it extremely obvious that I'm two completely different sizes with one drastically higher than the other I think I can maybe live with it.
I do completely understand your frustration and just wanted to send hugs because it really does suck to be so unhappy with the results after everything we've been through. You're certainly entitled to those feelings.
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ReadyAbout, go to a Wound Care Clinic that has Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. I had Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) on a number of occasions after surgery. I really think it made a huge degree of difference, as I had horrible circulation due to radiation fibrosis. I am not sure I would have suceeded in keeping my implant, slightly lopsided as it is, without HBOT. HBOT is completely painless, just kind of boring, so I watched movies in the HBOT chamber.
While I was there the other chambers were filled with people with poorly healing wounds. We would chat a bit while waiting for our turn. A few of them had Diabetes, and they all said nothing else worked before the HBOT.
I live in Seattle and went to the Wound Care Center at Northwest Hospital. They were really nice too.
Remember you can not overdose with Vitamin C if you have normal Kidney and Bowel function. So follow my info on "Titrating Vitamin C to Bowel Tolerance " Extremely safe and enormously beneficial to healing wounds.
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I went to see my BS today and although she remained very diplomatic, I could tell she was visibly upset with my PS. He saw me on Monday (5/21) and scheduled my next appointment with him for 6/4. She said that was too long, that someone should be seeing me each week right now. Did your PS see you weekly after the mx/recon? He also left my drains hanging freely out of my sides which was uncomfortable so my BS nurse put on dressings/taped them to my sides which felt so much better. Also, on Monday, the PS spent about 10 minutes with me and didn't really check my drains carefully, while the BS checked them and saw that one is close to coming out and needs to be monitored carefully. So far I'm not happy with the bedside manner of my PS. Supposedly he's a hotshot PS in town but he seems rushed and cavalier. Finally, I have an appt at the wound care clinic tomorrow for a consult on hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Apparently this is required before an actual session. I talked to my insurance navigator and she said to make sure they describe it as medically necessary, not investigative so BCBS will cover it. I also have a hematoma under my armpit that the BS said will take a few weeks to dissolve. Anyone out there have similar issues post-surgery? I knew this was going to be tough, but I also have a high pain threshold so I thought I would weather it better than I have - this has been tough sledding so far!
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Ready - I saw my PS weekly at first. I was lucky that I only had two drains and they were removed after six days. I think it's typical to be seen for drain removal when the output is decreased and not on a specific schedule. I would think that he would be monitoring that nipple as well.
The nipple on my cancer side was pretty messed up. It was bruised and bloody and had a weird dent that was blanched pale. Thankfully it slowly improved.
I didn't have any hematoma but did have some areas of fluid. My PS tried to aspirate the fluid on a couple of visits but couldn't get it and didn't want to risk rupture of the implant. They eventually resolved. It's possible that they could remove the old blood.
Hang in there. I know that lots of people sound really positive on this thread. I can't compare to any other placement since this was my only surgery, but I thought it was pretty hard. Doing BMX and recon together is a lot. I took muscle relaxants and the lower dose of narcotics on a schedule for the first two weeks. It gets better.
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Ready, I'm so sorry this has been a bumpier road than expected. I agree with Not very, BMX and recon is pretty hard. I was seen at 10 days post op ( to be honest i have only seen a PA since i was in recovery..through my fills and everything..still not see PS but still feel well managed) and I also agree it's not so much about being seen on a specific schedule but more about the drains. Have your drains been hanging since surgery, is that why the one is almost out? I had areas of fluid also. My left side felt like I had a beach ball under my armpit. It resolved on its own but took awhile. It still feels like that now sometimes. I remember thinking there was something wrong with me because i did have issues with pain control. I think i was 3 weeks out before being totally switched over to OTC pain meds. I was fortunate my nipples looked great from the beginning. My PS put an in inch of nitropaste cream on the nipple and covered with tegaderm. It stayed in place 3 days. (Its an older med we used to use back in the day for chest pain but it increases blood flow to the nipple area; headache and low b/p post op but worth it) Ready, it will get better so don't second guess yourself, it's a tough recovery and you do have an extra hurdle or 2 to get past. I hope the HBOT works for you. Hang in there.
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That's great you will get the HBOT scheduled. I try and be upbeat, but I know this is a very hard road with many sometimes terrible bumps.. I had 2 severe infections, with about a cup of pus each time taken off my chest. That's why I learned about IV Vitamin C/pushing oral Vitamin C/ Essential Oils like Oregano, Pau D'Arco, / HBOT/Pentoxifylline and Vitamin C. I had to think outside the box and advocate ferociously for my myself or I wouldn't ever have suceeded. I also wanted to share this wisdom so other women can avoid some of the worst pifalls. Don't expect your PS or other providers you see to always be onboard or advocate for these things that may be outside their comfort zone. You are your best advocate, always.
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Just wanted to pop in quickly....had my BMX with tissue expanders placed on Monday. Things are going well so far, pain is manageable, not to incomfortabke. My tissue expanders are above the muscle and as if right now I can’t tell there’s anything there. I do have some sensation in my breasts and when my shirt touches my skin it feels a little odd but I guess that’s good to have some sensation.
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Went to the wound care clinic today to talk about hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The doc said that on average, patients do hyperbaric oxygen therapy in 2 hour sessions every day for 30 days. I was like, "Come again?" I asked if the 30 days is a mandated protocol or if there is leeway and she said that yes, if I rebound quickly I can stop coming any time I want. (I can't imagine doing anything every day for 30 days, even if it's a glass of sauvignon blanc.) I asked her if she thought I should try HBOT to heal the tissue on my left breast and she said she thinks it would help. So now it's just waiting on insurance to ok it, and watching over my drains and babysitting my hematoma which I have named "Limey". I have a hunch that by the time BCBS okays the HBOT, my tissue will have healed enough that I won't need it, but at least I will have advocated for myself! The folks at the wound therapy place were delighted that I did the research on my own and set up the appointment. And I have macb04 and the rest of you wonderful people to thank - I can't imagine navigating BC without these forums!
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I have a mastectomy with a DTI pre pectoral reconstruction scheduled for July. I work from home on contract and don't have any sick leave. Can anyone offer insight on how long it will be until I'm recovered enough to concentrate and work from a computer?
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Brcatutu- I have a BMX with TE placed on may 21. I would have been fine sitting on a lap top in the hospital. I was tired and took a nap every day for the first week, but overall felt pretty good. Didn’t feel like doing much physical activity, still done, but to sit at a computer you will probably feel prett good sooner than you think.
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brcatutu- I'm 2 weeks post bmx today. I think I could have worked in short bursts the first week, but I napped a lot and didn't feel very well. Everything got much better exactly one week after surgery - I was able to start exercising a bit and I felt like myself. I still fell asleep many afternoons this past week, which is unusual - I probably nap twice a year when I'm healthy. I would think you would be able to work the second week, but perhaps not as productively as before surgery. Keep in mind that every person is different and every surgery provides its own victories and defeats. Good luck!
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JessieJake Im sorry youre having issues...I too was lopsided. My original PS had my implants sub pec, whenever I got dressed I could notice I was uneven I was completely self conscious about it. I wore as many things as I could to camouflage it. My original PS dismissed me and told me to get a good bra...I went out and found a new PS. But I did see a few and asked for their opinion. My new PS immediately noticed a bunch of areas that needed attention. In April ( 13 1/2 months after original exchange) my new PS made me even and fixed all of my imperfections. I am now pre-pec and am going back through the routine of softening up my implants but it's totally worth it because I'm even. If you were only 290ccs its possible your surgeon could use a 300 to make up the volume from your weight loss. Good luck!
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SLL - Thank you! That gives me so much hope.
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ReadyAbout - Good to know! I will try to keep the 1 week mark in mind and plan from there. Thank you!
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macb04: you are my favorite person whom I've never met! I did 5 treatments of hyperbaric oxygen last week and my left side looks SO GOOD! I do have one area on the nipple where dead skin came off, leaving an open wound, but that will heal and overall I'm just amazed at how quickly the tissue has responded. Since I am getting this done at a wound care clinic, I have to be "discharged" from treatment by the attending doctor but I hope that will happen on Thursday. Also, my 19 year old volunteered to drive me to the clinic every morning at 7:30 a.m. and I think it makes her feel good to play a role in my recovery. I've had one setback: overwhelming nerve pain in chest/armpit/sides - it's so bad that I have to take Percocet twice a day or I'm in tears. The PS surgeon thinks that will resolve in a week. I have to wait on my first fill since my tissue wasn't ready when I saw the PS, but in the meantime, I'm doing leprechaun kicks about how my tissue is doing. I've also done the liposomal Vitamin C every day, per your advice. Thank you, macb04!
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ReadyAbout that is really just MARVELOUS! I am so glad you hustled and got the HBOT and didn't just hope for the best as your PS suggested. I suggested HBOT because it has a research proven track record, and my own fantastically helpful healing response. I think HBOT should be offered routinely for anyone with wound healing difficulties. Insurances won't like to pay, but the cheap SOBs would save tons of money preventing repeat surgeries.
What I would also like to see done is High Dose IV Vitamin C with surgeries, or if there is any infection issues. I had 50 grams IV Vitamin C given during one of my surgeries. I recovered really quickly that time, healed faster that time, although I had to bug the PS to order it, and the Surgery Department to agree to give it. An unnecessary bit of nonsense that shows a lack of education of those doctors to fight such a purely safe and helpful intervention. Heck, they even give https://pulmccm.org/critical-care-review/vitamin-c-save-lives-sepsis/IV Vitamin C for Sepsis, ( along with steroids and Thiamine) in the ICU with astounding sucess. Even more research trials are now ongoing with Vitamin C. Come on BC industry, Wake Up and Get with the Program!
Doctor Turns Up Possible Treatment For Deadly Sepsis
March 23, 201712:01 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Twitter
Enlarge this imageOf the million or so Americans a year who get sepsis, roughly 300,000 die. Unfortunately, many treatments for the condition have looked promising in small, preliminary studies, only to fail in follow-up research.
It's hard not to get excited about news of a potentially effective treatment for sepsis, a condition that leads to multiple organ failure and kills more people in the hospital than any other disease.
But there have been so many false promises about this condition over the years, it's also wise to treat announcements — like one published onlineby the journal, Chest — with caution.
The study, from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., reported some remarkable success in treating patients who were at high risk of sudden death.
The story began in January, 2016, when Dr. Paul Marik was running the intensive care unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. A 48-year-old woman came in with a severe case of sepsis — inflammation frequently triggered by an overwhelming infection.
"Her kidneys weren't working. Her lungs weren't working. She was going to die," Marik said. "In a situation like this, you start thinking out of the box."
Marik had recently read a study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Dr. Berry Fowler and his colleagues had shown some moderate success in treating people who had sepsis with intravenous vitamin C.
Marik decided to give it a try. He added in a low dose of corticosteroids, which are sometimes used to treat sepsis, along with a bit of another vitamin, thiamine. His desperately ill patient got an infusion of this mixture.
"I was expecting the next morning when I came to work she would be dead," Marik said."But when I walked in the next morning, I got the shock of my life."
The patient was well on the road to recovery.
Marik tried this treatment with the next two sepsis patients he encountered, and was similarly surprised. So he started treating his sepsis patients regularly with the vitamin and steroid infusion.
After he'd treated 50 patients, he decided to write up his results. As he described it in Chest, only four of those 47 patients died in the hospital — and all the deaths were from their underlying diseases, not from sepsis. For comparison, he looked back at 47 patients the hospital had treated before he tried the vitamin C infusion and found that 19 had died in the hospital.
This is not the standard way to evaluate a potential new treatment. Ordinarily, the potential treatment would be tested head to head with a placebo or standard treatment, and neither the doctors nor the patients would know who in the study was getting the new therapy.
But the results were so stunning, Marik decided that from that point on he would treat all his sepsis patients with the vitamin C infusion. So far, he's treated about 150 patients, and only one has died of sepsis, he said.
That's a phenomenal claim, considering that of the million Americans a year who get sepsis, about 300,000 die.
"So that's the equivalent of three jumbo jets crashing every single day," Marik said.
An effective treatment for sepsis would be a really big deal.
"If it turns out in further studies that this is true, and we can validate it, then this will be an unbelievably huge deal," said Dr. Craig Coopersmith, a surgery professor at Emory University School of Medicine. "But right now we should treat it as a preliminary deal that needs to be validated."
Coopersmith, a top sepsis researcher, is cautious for a reason. There have been hundreds of exciting results from sepsis studies that failed in follow-up research.
A result "can look really exciting when you do it on a group in one hospital with one set of clinicians, and then when you try to validate with a larger group in multiple centers — thus far we've been unsuccessful with anything," Coopersmith said.
Marik may face extra skepticism because the main ingredient is vitamin C, which has attracted a great deal of skepticism over the years. Fowler at VCU was concerned about that when he wanted to launch a study about the role of vitamin C in sepsis.
"Honestly, when we submitted the grant to the NIH, I was fully expecting them to say 'vitamin C? Really?' " Fowler tells Shots.
But he'd made the case that vitamin C wasn't simply a once-trendy antioxidant. When the vitamin is injected, as opposed to taken orally, it can influence the immune system's response to inflammation, he told Shots.
The NIH gave him a $3.2 million grant to run a carefully controlled studyof vitamin C to treat sepsis, with all the usual conditions: It includes placebos; the scientists don't know who's getting the active drug; and it's being conducted at several universities.
That study could wrap up later this year. Fowler says some patients in the trial will probably have been given corticosteroids, as Marik's patients were, but that's not a formal part of the study.
Coopersmith said the extraordinary results reported from Norfolk clearly need that kind of careful scrutiny. Marik said he agrees, though he's obviously not waiting for those results to emerge.
Taxpayers and drug companies have spent billions of dollars searching for an effective treatment for sepsis. Drug companies could reap billions in profits if they can develop a successful treatment for this common and often fatal disease.
But profit is not the motive here, Marik says. The ingredients cost about as much as a single dose of antibiotics.
"I obviously have no vested interest," he says. "Nobody's going to make money from this — so this is a very anti-capitalistic thing!"
https://pulmccm.org/critical-care-review/vitamin-c-save-lives-sepsis/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/could-deadly-infections-be-cured-vitamin-c-180963843/
THERE IS MORE RESEARCH, TONS ACTUALLY, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA. ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF.
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