my journey continues

sagelady

my story.. DCIS, mastectomy direct to implant 8-27-26. Necrosis treated with Silvadene dressings. wound opened up, you could see implant. 9-26 implant removed. Deflated expander placed, necrosis cleaned up. I'm now 10 days out from that surgery. Hopefully no necrosis. Can't tell under steri strips. Hoping this heals well and can move on to fills and replace to implant down the road.

Grateful is was stage 0 DCIS with clear nodes. But gratitude does not cancel out trauma. Anyone have similar story with happy ending? I really don't have any support person in my life right now. So these blogs end up being my family. I know , sounds pitiful. Not looking for a pity party, just a little background. What ever the outcome, I'll be fine. Just a pick me up occasionally helps a lot. Going tomorrow to have drain removed second time around.

moderators

Hi @sagelady, we wanted to check in with you and let you know we’re here, listening. We're glad to hear that you've found some community support after going through so much in such a short time.

How did your port removal go today? And how are you feeling now? We’d love to hear how you’re doing and how things are healing.

The Mods

sagelady

drain removal went fine. Just hanging low until next Thursday. Hopefully will be able to determine healing ( steri strips should be gone by then ) . And they’re planning a small fill. Just enough to not having ridges from expander poking at skin

corgilover2

Hi sagelady! Your journey sounds very similar to mine, which began around this time, last fall 2025. I had a single mastectomy with expander placement on 10/09/25 after two inconclusive lumpectomies on 8/15/25 and 9/10/25. This became a series of monthly surgeries which resulted in my developing the necrosis. The expander was deflated, prior to my debridement "clean up" surgery on 10/28/25. I waited to heal from that surgery before my plastic surgeon began slowly refilling the saline again on 12/04/25. I had two more filler appointments on 12/17/25 (2 syringes) and 12/24/25 (one syringe). The good news is that I had no trouble after that! I had my final reconstruction surgery on 1/14/2026 with my expander being replaced by my permanent implant. The necrosis issue was by far the most disappointing stage of my reconstruction because my progress then stopped. The view of my poor skin turning black due to the spread of the skin necrosis was also shocking to me, at the time. Amazingly, here I am now, nine months after my final reconstruction surgery with no issues at all. Hang in there! Do what your surgeon tells you, and know that this stage is only temporary. It will be worth all the pain and temporary setbacks that might come your way. I was totally clueless, too, when in the middle of this mess. I trusted my plastic surgeon implicitly, even though I didn't communicate weekly with him. He had my best interest at heart and treated me with higher priority over his regular cosmetic surgery patients. Best wishes for a happy ending!

Denise

moderators

Hi @sagelady, we're glad Denise could share some encouraging news from her experience. We hope healing continues smoothly and Thursday brings good news!

@corgilover2, welcome to BC.org! We're so sorry you've had to go through so much during your reconstruction journey, but we're glad you found us. Thank you for sharing your experience and offering @sagelady some hope and encouragement . It's wonderful to hear that things have gone so well since your final surgery. We hope you'll continue connecting with others here and sharing updates. 💗

Sincerely,

The Mods

sagelady

thanks Denise. Our journeys do seem very similar. Thanks for sharing h your story. So glad you are on the other side of all this and your completed reconstruction went well.
my steri strips are off, the incision looks good. although I did have a reaction to the steri strips.🙄. We’ll see what they say on Thursday.

sagelady

question… I was scheduled for dental cleaning last week. I canceled since I’m only 3 weeks out from expander placement . And just starting fills. When would be an optimal time to get teeth cleaned? I do normally take clindamycin for a hip replacement