BMX w/ "flat reconstruction" in 1 operation options?

Ariom

Glennie, I thought the butterfly looked great on you! The Koy fish I put on, is not going anywhere! I think I prepared too well, before applying it.LOL I did a really good scrub, with exfoliating scrub, then with a cloth and hot water. I went over the area with an alcohol wipe before applying the Tattoo, then I used the paint on, shine remover that the Tattoo guy I bought mine from invented. It takes the shine off the transfer and makes it look like real ink. It has been over a week and not the slightest fading or cracking. I am over the Koy and would like to try another design! I wash it with soap, in the shower, but it is sticking fast.

Susan303

Yes. I like the scar project too. Thanks for pointing me to it. and thank you Ariom for talking to your group. I'm curious if there are other scar patterns available. I've read about the 2 straight lines that are I believe brought together as one line for large breasts. I've seen a "D" cut that's also brought to one line. I've seen the "wise pattern cut" that is used in large breasts reductions leaving an anchor shaped scar <--but I've not seen this on a flat person. Any information in this information void is appreciated greatly!

As for tattoos, I have to laugh to share. I have one. My 2 grown daughters insisted that we get a tattoo together, so I said OK but I'm setting the parameters. 1. We all have to get the same tattoo. (we chose a heart) 2. It must be placed in the same location. (we chose the top of our left shoulders.) and 3. It can't be larger than an eraser head. So I bought a $60 family birthmark and two weeks later the center of mine fell out. It still looks like a heart, but when I showed it to a friend at church, she said it looked like a melanoma....to which I said "I need younger friends!"

glennie19

M:  what about alcohol?  Will that take it off?  I have to go look at my package to see what it tells me to use to remove it, but I think it is alcohol.   **bring on the bourbon**

Susan:  That is so funny,,,,, "I need younger friends".  LOL!!

M:  my package says to saturate the area with rubbing alcohol or baby oil.  wait 10 seconds then rub away with cottonball.

Ariom

Glennie, I think all that will remove it, I haven't actually tried yet to get it off, but although I am "over" the koy, I thought I would wait till it started to come off by itself. I really expected it to be wearing off by now. These ones from "Amazing Raymond" the tattoo artist, don't you love that name! LOL are quite thick, on thicker paper and are supposed to last well, without fading, they are living up to that!. They are quite a bit more expensive than the others I bought too, but were much nicer designs. I have quite a few left on the sheet I bought, so will try some more soon.

glennie19

i want to see them when you do try more.  

Ariom

Will do Glennie!

Susan303

Just want you ladies to know that I have an appointment scheduled with a terrific Dr. on April 1, thanks to your encouragement and help! I hope to someday pay your kindness forward!

Sincerely,

Susan

Ariom

That's excellent news Susan! I hope all goes well for you, let us know how you get on!

glennie19

 

Excellent, Susan!  I'm glad you found someone good.  Keep us posted.

GeorgiaRai

Hi, Susan!   

I had a similar experience with my plastic surgeon.  He really was stunned/confused that I wanted him be there during my BMX so he could make me flat & smooth as possible.  On my last office visit with him pre-surgery, he got out the dreaded Book of Foobs and started showing me pictures of "great" recon jobs.  He said, do you like any of these?  So I turned through a few pages, and pointed to a NON-recon picture and said "Yes - this!!"  He agreed to do the surgery.   

Best of luck to you,

Rachel

Ariom

Good for you GeorgiaRai, educating them 1 by 1!

Susan303

Thank you Rachel. I'm going to see Dr. Deborah Kamal in NJ that Firekracker suggested I see. She's famous for spending a lot of time her patients on their first visit to educate and address all their issues so they can leave with the comfort of an understood and well planned surgery. I'm going to tell her that I want to be her poster child for the best possible surgery scars of a non-reconstruction patient, NOT a non-reconstruction scar made for reconstruction down the road patient. I'm glad you found a surgeon who listened. And I'm thankful to those here who encouraged me to do the same.

glennie19

Susan, that is excellent that you found someone!! 

Ariom

Susan, that's brilliant. I bet you feel much more comfortable and confident now. This is what everyone should experience, when going to a surgeon, after making this decision. I wish you all the best!

Susan303

Yes Glennie19 and Ariom, I do feel much better now. I was at a dead end and you ladies helped me open a door to new possibilities. I look forward to learning more from Dr. Camal, but in the meantime a lot of women have been generous with their mastectomy stories and as much as I'd like to have everything done in one surgery...at least I know that a scar or dog ear revision down the road would only take a couple weeks to recover from and not be nearly as involved as the mastectomies themselves. So that's a relief too. I don't see the Dr. until April 1 but I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress.

otter

Just a thought here, but the need for a plastic surgeon to participate or the need for a follow-up surgery to tidy things up might depend on how much tissue is involved. As others here have said so well, it's not always possible to get things exactly right on the first try.

My breast surgeon was (is) a surgical oncologist who does nothing but breast cancer surgery. She told me my IDC was small enough that lumpectomy + rads was an option. I told her I wanted a mastectomy with no recon. My breasts were small (34-36 A), and I really did not want the fuss of rads or reconstruction. I wanted to heal and move on (to chemo, as it turned out!).

She asked me to meet with a plastic surgeon, just to see what the options were. Mr. otter and I did, but I (we) declined recon anyway. Actually, Mr. otter didn't handle the booklet of surgery pics all that well. I thought I would need to get him some smelling salts.

I definitely felt pressured by my surgeon to choose either lumpectomy/rads or recon. I think she thought she had failed if I didn't come away with some sort of mound on my chest when it as all over. Surgeons have been blamed for the high number of women who have "unnecessary" mastectomies. That was not the case with me.

On the morning of my surgery, when she came into the prep area to sign off on my surgery (I think she literally signed my left breast), she asked me one more time: "So, we're doing a mastectomy?". I said "Yes -- and I want to be perfectly flat. No extra tissue, 'just in case'." She said, "No 'dog ears', then?" and I said "Nope -- just a straight, flat scar."

And that's what I woke up with, 90 minutes later. Oh, okay, so I do have a bit of poofiness under my arm where the scar ends. She told me that could be "touched up" later by a plastic surgeon, but that it was impossible to make things perfectly smooth and symmetrical, no matter how hard they tried. That's especially difficult with the sutures at the end(s) of the incision.She said she even has the OR staff prop the (still-anesthetized) patient up in a sitting position once the incision is closed, so she can check for symmetry and the effects of gravity. (!)

otter

Ariom

otter, I am feeling for MR otter, at the sight of those pictures!

I had exactly the same result, with poofiness, well mine was more of a "Dog Ear" at the end of the incision line, but I didn't blame my Surgeon, he did what I asked and this was just flesh that would normally have been pulled forward by the weight of the breast. I understood that it would be difficult to get it completely flat and straight I am and was a D, so there was a fair weight to pull that forward. I went back to my Surgeon about 15 months after my Mx and had the revision done with a local anesthetic, in his office. For me, it was the best decision ever. I no longer have a shelf under my arm and best of all the cut nerve sensation of zapping and zinging is gone.

Nomatterwhat

Otter, thanks for the warning about those pictures.  I am not sure left-brain can handle any more pictures of boobs and wounds.  We see the PS later in the month. 

I remember that conversation - "We are doing a bilateral mastectomy today right?" -- "Yes and coming out completely flat".  "Possibly but we shall see what we wind up with".  You surgery only took 90 minutes?  Mine took over 4 hours.  Left-brain was getting really worried something had gone wrong.  I told him it took longer because I had C cups.  I should be flat, but I look like I have lumpy A cups now. 

Susan303

Thank you otter and ladies. I like that hubby warning too. I know mine backs my decision ...but he hasn't seen any photos. Thanks to so many responses here and at the Flat and Fabulous Facebook page, I've come to understand that there are many surgery considerations, depending on how much needs to be removed, and how much there is to remove and if there are future cancer treatment considerations. Since I'm a "G" cup there is a much higher dog ear potential. When first researching my BMX I couldn't understand why, if a PS could do a breast reduction and make it nice looking all in one surgery, or follow a mastectomy immediately with a reconstruction, they couldn't just help make the mastectomy scar flat and even. I didn't realize how much healing needs to take place after a mastectomy and how that healing process can create additional bumps, and dog ears, or that reconstruction wasn't really as easy as they presented it to be. What actually surprised me the most was hearing from so many women that their Dr.s acted like going flat wasn't natural, right or healthy. I thought it was just that I was from a small town. It saddened me greatly to read that less than 10 years ago some women were actually told they had to take a psychological evaluation before being approved by insurance for a mastectomy no reconstruction, or even today Dr.s ignored their flat request because they thought the patient should have extra skin left behind in case they change their mind.

I've also learned that even with the best of Dr.s you can have "little barbie boobs" at the center end of Masectomy scars, "Pit tits" or "dog ears" at the other end, and or bumps and dents anywhere from fluid that can build up after surgery. Having seen photos of just after surgery scars; after healing bumps scar tits and dog ears; and seeing the results of revision surgery; I've learned a great lesson from you ladies. Be up front with your Dr.; don't keep one with no understanding or experience in the kind of surgery you want; and once you have a good one you'll know that they will get you as close to the result you want as possible; and it's OK if that may include a revision down the road. Thank you for sharing your insights!

otter

Beautifully put, Susan303!

otter