recon options-radiation

mags20487

I had my bmx on 8/23/11 and did not get te's or anything done then.  I am now on my chemo regime and then on to rads.  What will my recon options be after all this is done?  DO TE's have to be placed before radiation or wait til its all done? If after how long do you wait til skin is usable again? It all happened so fast and now part of me wishes I would have had the te's placed at same time but surgery would have been delayed by several weeks.  I keep thinking that I shut the door on my options and may be boobless forever

Maggie

sweetbean

Hi Mags,

I think there are other ladies who did delayed reconstruction.  I had TE's placed at the time of my BMX and will have to wait a total of 8 months after rads to get my exchange.  You will probably have to wait at least 6 months after rads to place the TE's. (The longer you let your skin heal, the better.) Then they will fill them, slowly, because rads skin is different.  Then you can have the exhange.  But that is for implants.  I don't know about tissue transfers, but I am sure someone will chime in.  

DLL66

Hello, fellow Floridian! (I'm in Tampa.) 

I had a BMX in March of this year with rads after that, concluding in May. My PS did a lat flap on my rads side with placement of TEs on both sides in July. Just had my exchange to final implants 2 1/2 weeks ago. (I had an additional lat flap on my prophy side due to a skin complication on my non-rads side.)

My PS likes to wait about 6 weeks or so after rads to start working, although many PS' will make you wait much longer.

You still have options!

mags20487

thank you ladies.  It was one of those middle of the night panics.  Hello neighbor DLL66.

Maggie

leeinfl

Hi Maggie - another Florida girl here!  You have options and certainly don't have to stay boob-less!  I did have immediate reconstruction but wish I had done more research.  To make a long story short, I had revision surgery and now have small(er) implants plus fat grafting.  There are several threads on here about micro fat grafting for breast reconstruction.  Fat grafting is done all the time to fill in areas but it can also be done to make an entire breast.  No implant and your breast feels warm and soft.  Feel free to come on over to the fat graft threads or visit fatgraftpatients.com for lots of photos and patient stories.  The surgeon who pioneered this procedure is right here in our state!  PM me and I'll be happy to answer any questions!  You can have amazing boobs!  Hugs!

Sassa

Another Florida lady here.  My friend had delayed reconstruction after being diagnosed with stage 3 TN IDC.  She was three years out from mastectomy and chemo, two years out from rads.

She opted for TE and silicone implant and had absolutely no problem with the reconstruction. She gets her fippple soon.

bahpalmcity

I'm in Florida and looking for an experienced breast reconstruction revision PS. Can you share the name of your friends PS? Thank you.

MinusTwo

I think you got some good answers to your question on the other thread you started. And like it was mentioned there - Florida is a BIG state so they may not be relevant. Below is the link to the NCI cancer hospitals. You might want to check out your state.

https://www.cancer.gov/research/infrastructure/can...