Delayed reconstruction

mnsotamom74

hey everyone! I’m writing this from the hospital, I had my delayed reconstruction yesterday! I had my mastectomy Nov 2018 and went one year flat to see how I felt about it. I really was struggling and decided to go ahead with reconstruction. I’m in quite a bit of pain. The thing that really has gotten me upset is that my breast surgeon that placed the expanders yesterday told me his partner ( who did my mastectomy) left a little bit of breast tissue!!! He removed it and has sent it to pathology. I’m so nervous and scared that there could be cancer cells that wee missed. I had a pet scan on the 12th and a full body cat scan on the 13th ( my oncologist is very cautious and watches you incredibly close the first several years. Both scans looked excellent and showed Ned. But I’m sitting here making myself sick because of this bit of breast tissue that was left behind for a year. If pathology is anything like it was a year ago, I’ll be waiting at least a week for results.

I’m just so freaked out. I have always had bad anxiety, and since having cancer it’s over the top bad.

If anyone has any insightful it would be greatly appreciated. Th

MinusTwo

mn - I understand that you're concerned but the chance that this could show a new cancer or a recurrence when all the other tests over a year didn't pick a problem up is minimal. It's a good thing the surgeon got rid of what was remaining so you won't have to worry about that going forward.

This is part of the balance. Do you (or any patient) want to know all the details and what's going on, or just say "yes sir - I'll do what you say - don't tell me anything."

Sorry about your pain. I found the TE's perhaps the worst part of the entire experience. I expect they just put in a minimum fill at surgery and you'll have gradual expansion? If so, be sure to plan for at least Tylenol with every fill.

mnsotamom74

thank you minustwo. My surgeon said if he thought I would go into panic he wouldn’t have mentioned anything to me, he said it’s impossible to get all the breast tissue, there is always a very small percentage left behind, but he felt he could safely remove this little bit that his partner just couldn’t get, called the tail I think. He placed the te over the muscle and filled them with a little air so they are not completely flat. In one month he will remove the air and replace it with saline every other week. I don’t know why I thought this wouldn’t be painful, lol. Probably wishful thinking. It’s just as painful as the mastectomy, trying to get comfortable at night is the worst part, I’m a side sleeper and that is not happening. I have peeked at his work and so far I’m very pleased, just really hoping the recovery isn’t as bad as my mastectomy was.

Thank you so much for your reply!!

MinusTwo

mn - I like that your doc is very thorough. Yup - I was always a side sleeper too. I had to prop pillows along my side to keep me from turning over in my sleep by mistake.