Just had fat grafting
had my first round of fat grafting 5 days ago
Wowzers! That was painful. My question though is regarding the breast area, I did not have much bruising but noticed today my skin is a yellowish hue, it looks like a healing bruise would after a few days but like I said I didn't have initial bruising! Is this possibily the fat dying or is it in fact a bruise?
Anyone else experience this??
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lbg10, yes! That very same thing happened to me. It was delayed bruising. I know what you mean. OUCH. I hope you heal quickly!
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I have exact same thing. It’s monday and I just had it done Thursday, but I noticed yesterday my skin was yelllo
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I was very yellow afterwards.It took quite a while for the bruising to clear up.
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I had this. We no longer have the blood flow we used to, so this is normal. I did however have necrosis after the nuclear dye was administered during mastectomy. That was light blue then quickly turned black. Had to ultimately have it removed. If you have any concerns, you should always give a call to the doctors right away. Hope this helps. Congratulations on your progress!
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Hi LBG10
I had fat grafting (know as lipofilling or lipotransfer in UK) in 2014.
I bruised very badly and my plastic surgeon recommended I take arnica.
I was amazed how quickly the bruising cleared up with it and would recommend it's use in a heartbeat.
As far as the yellow hue being bruising or fat necrosis, I would consider bruising to be much most likely. My bruising was the full colour spectrum but yellow was obvious and widespread.... over the harvest site as well as my breast, hence my consideration it will be bruising rather than fat necrosis.
Saying that, I was told it was expected that I would lose an estimated 40% of the fat they transferred, fat necrosis being the term used for this loss... the death of the fat tissue.
It was actually a pretty good estimation and I would say I did in fact lose around 40% of the volume gained from the procedure over the following months; so don't be too surprised if you should lose some volume!
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Rayvis, was that topical arnica? I have pocket revision and lipo transfer tomorrow.
Thanks, Yaniza
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did your surgeon tell you to massage your breasts after the fat grafting? Mine didn't say, and I'm wondering if I should bc it feels slightly hard where the transfers were done!
Thank you
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Lgb10
Just back from fat grafting. Absolutely no talk of massaging fat grafted areas. I think that would be counter productive..
Yaniza
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I just had fat grafting done to both breasts. Had heavy fluid leakage from donor sites and a lot of bruising.
Wish I had been better prepared for the leakage. Hope the swelling and bruising will go away soon.
My surgeon did not mention using massage but did say that a good portion of the fat graft may not take.
Hope everyone is doing well and hoping for the best...
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Has anyone had the fat taken from back and sides, instead of tummy for fat grafting
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hi Brunstad
My donor site was my sides and abdomen!
It was brutal! Sorry, don't want to scare you but it was. I need another round but I'm going to talk to my plastic and see if Mayb going w a higher profile implant would get me where I want to be bc I do not want to do fat grafting again!
LBG10
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Brunstad, I had it taken mostly from my sides(waist) and a little from the abdomen. I had minimal pain and mild discomfort. I’ve had it twice now and will have at at least one more round. Never needed any pain meds.
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Do you use fat grafting to make a new breast or a finishing touches to a flap reconstruction? Thanks ladies as I am looking for natural
options to reconstruct after breast mastectomy.
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Just to fill in hallow spots in the upper chest area after DIEP and to smooth down my sides that had pretty good size buldges on both sides of the stomach incision. After seeing how difficult it is for the body to hold on to the grafted fat, I can’t imagine that a whole breast would be much of an option. It would be nice though. I’ll need 3 rounds just to fill in small hallows and I seem to have lost maybe half each time, which seems to be average.
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I am having fat grafting on this Thursday and hope to be able to go back to work next Monday. I do have the option to work from home if needed.
For those of you who have had this done, what was your experience in the days after?
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I had FG on Friday and went to work Monday, I am a stylist which is more physical than most think. I was fine but I think I could have had less swelling if I would have waited another day or two. If it was a sit down job would have been fine. I had no pain, just slight discomfort and some swelling.
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hi SDWoman
I also had my fat grafting done on a Thursday, and I went back to work on Monday! I have a very physical job, but my awesome coworkers helped me out! I probably would of took a few more days if I had known how brutal it was! But some women say it didn't hurt at all! I'm very thin so possibly maybe that is why I had such a hard time with it! The binder will be your best friend for sure afterwards!
Good luck
LBG10
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Racheal: Most women seem to be doing fat grafting only to improve results of implant or flap reconstructions, however it certainly is possible to do a fat graft-only reconstruction. That's what I did, and I'm very happy with the results.
If you're looking to go bigger than a small A cup, it's probably not a good option, as it would require many rounds of grafting and insurance might not pay for it. Some US insurers don't cover fat graft-only reconstruction, though depending on the situation, they might back down if the surgeon was willing to make a case that it's medically indicated. Given all the complications associated with implants and flap surgeries, I don't think it really makes sense for insurers to deny fat graft-only. However, keep in mind that even going for just a small A cup, you should expect 3 rounds of grafting, which should all be outpatient surgeries.
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Surgery is set for 4/11- fat grafting to increase my breast that has a small divot from surgery & has changed in size from radiation of over a year ago. My greatest concerns include restriction afterward (how long and what exactly can't I do), loss of fat grafted and then the same problem all over again, the reverse situation with one breast being larger than the next after surgery....I am tempted to ask if both breasts can be made to be similar in size so that they decrease the same as the fat is lost. I have plenty of stomach fat having had carried 6, including 2 sets of twins. I wish the surgeon would take more fat out than he plans to put in:) The surgeons initial plan was to take from my love handles, but a hip replacement that is only 3 months has prevented this.
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I have my exchange surgery scheduled for April 24th and my breast surgeon is going to be there with my plastic surgeon to “scrape” more of my tissue from one breast to hopefully get a clear margin. I had nipple sparring bilateral in Dec.
I’ll have fat grafting to fill the top of my right breast. I plan to use my stomach/sides as the donor. Can you guys give me some details about how you guys healed? Pain? How long?
Also, what compression or shape wear did you use??
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Hi Nana8990
I had my fat grafting done on a Thursday and went back to work, light duty on Monday! The first couple of days was brutal for me! (Possibly bc Iam very thin). The binder they send you home in will be your best friend! You will wear that for 4 weeks, then after that you can switch to Spanx for 2 wks.
Good luck with your exchange sx on the 24th!
LBG1
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I am 3.5 weeks post fat grafting- filling /reconstruction to one breast. I already see a divot at the scar and believe that the fat will not hold. I also feel little bumps, likely necrosis. What also worries me is the burning and hot feel on areas of my trunk. I know that tools were put in to take the fat, hence immense bruising, but is the burning and heat healing or infection? My doctor wanted to see me in 3 months but I called and made an appointment for 2 .5 weeks. Should I get in sooner? I wish my doctor shared more and appreciate any feedback.
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oh yes it really smarts, I had mega bruising too.
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Kaso- is there increased swelling and pain to the areas?? Are you having any drainage from the incision sites? Do the areas that have the most burning hurt to touch?? If any of those it might be good to see your PS sooner to make sure no infection. If none of those are an issue it most likely is part of the healing process unfortunately. I have my surgery with fat grafting next month so can't speak from experience, but as a nurse i can offer the info above.
Fat can clump, just think of cellulite, that might be the bumps you feel not necessarily necrosis.
Best of luck!! Thoughts and prayers it isn't infection and resolves soon!!
~Katie
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My doctor is putting me under for joint fat grafting and nipple surgery. Hoping to skip most of the pain...getting some pain meds after or so I'm told. I recall hurting a bit after other surgeries but nothing debilitating and pain meds work well on me. Very concerned about these "ouchy" descriptions though....was that during or after!?!?
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I believe that it's a law that insurance must pay to have the non-affected breast made to match the reconstructed breast.
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I had my expander to exchange surgery 5 days ago. The surgeon used smooth round implants. While I'm pretty pleased with my right side (kinda hoped for a little bigger) I'm pretty disappointed with my left (cancer) side. My surgeon did some fat grafting and the contour above my right breast looks amazing and full but the left side don't have near as much contour and even is slightly higher. I'm so confused as to why it looks this way and will probably call the office tomorrow. Maybe because the cancer side has to have fat grafting done in multiple sessions? Is that how they usually do the fat grafting on the cancer side, in multiple sessions? I didn't realize the difference in lookuntil today as the swelling finally has subsided a little. Has anyone else had this issue? I was so hoping that this would be my last time with surgery for a while but I definitely don't want this result.
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I am still in compression garments from my what I believe is my final reconstructive surgery. I had similar asymmetry. Your cancer side likely will drop over time. Over that same time, you will lose some fat on the noncancer side to reabsorption. So your ps probably is anticipating that it will not be as asymmetrical in a few months. Things do get better in time.
As I understand it, adding fat incrementally results in less absorption. So if you told your ps that you wanted to avoid multiple surgeries, then the ps likely gave you a lot more fat, just trying to get things correct after a lot of reabsorption. My ps took the incremental approach and I am finally really happy with the results. This final time, he only needed just a little fat added to make things right in very targeted areas.
Getting a natural breast to match a reconstructed breast is both science and art. Even though I am officially tired of surgery and 24/7 compression undergarments associated with these surgeries, I am happy with how I look. So, if you trust your ps, I encourage you to be patient with the process. I had several months to a year between surgeries...the settling-time helps to predict final results. Also, you might feel up to another surgery later vs. how you feel now. That was my experience.
Look at my profile to see my timeline. One thing that helped me is that I got my nipple tattoo last year and so things have been looking really good since then! We were pretty sure that my additional work would not make the nipple placement odd, even though things would shift just a bit. I trusted my ps. Once I saw the nipple, I was motivated for the final surgery to get things just right!
Hang in there!
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