Excessive skin underarms after BMX

Kim137

I had a BMX with implant reconstruction 5 years ago. I've been having some issues with lymphedema on my cancer side due to the node dissection. Ever since the BMX I've had some bulging flaps of excess skin and fat under my armpit and towards my back. It's literally a handful! My PS thinks removing this may be helpful in my lymphedema flare ups, plus it will make the area look "prettier". Of course I will be left with two more scar, but a at this point what's a few more, right? LOL just curious if anyone else in the forum has had this done and what your experience was like? I've read online some women had lips of the area, but I'm scheduled to have surgery 11/18/16 and will have incision made on both sides. Kind of like a tummy tuck on my underarm fat. ;-)

ravzari

It sounds like you have some dog ears; it's a pretty common complication (I have a small one on my right side that I'll have removed after about 6 months of healing) and, in most cases, is an aesthetic fix as the dog ears don't actually cause any problems. For women who have larger ones, they can get in the way or be painful/sore, however.

They're just pockets of fatty tissue; it's more common for women who are a little overweight to get them, but they can happen to anyone.
They're pretty easy to take care of and it's usually done in the doctor's office with just local anesthetic and any new scarring likely won't even be an inch long; my PS told me, for smaller dog ears, it's usually less than 30 minutes to get them taken care of and restitched up. The stitches used are generally the kind that dissolve and will fall out after about a week to 10 days.

I'm not sure if it'd help with the lymphedema or not, as I haven't got that, but it's possible that it's impeding flow a little bit if they're large and in an area where lymph drainage would normally happen unobstructed.

There are a lot of good threads on dog ear revisions on this site; rather than pick and choose, here's a big list if you want to look through them and see if there's any helpful additional information: https://www.google.com/#q=dog+ear+treatment+mastec...:community.breastcancer.org

Jiffrig

Sounds like more than dog ears, if it's a handful. I have fleshy underarms after reduction 15 years ago and I am considering having it all cleaned up before bmx. It won't be covered by insurance but will definitely reduce le complications. It is a big incision, but at this point...🙄