Disappointment with reconstruction

Anonymous

Disappointment with reconstruction

Kat01

I am 1 week post op after tissue expander removal on my mastectomy side with 750 teardrop implant placement and a breast lift on non cancer side. Im not sure if this is common or not but I feel so sad its almost like a mourning. Ive been called a trooper thru all this up til now. I've been tough,positive non complaining, all those adjectives. But looking at my breasts now having said I wanted to go bigger, and they are not, as well as not even looking the same size im so disheartened. The lift looks wide and the implant looks smaller than the lift. This was supposed to be the light at the end of the tunnel, the part that made all this surgery and taking hormone blockers a little easier to tolerate. The nurse said all patients feel this way at first and I will be happier when my breasts settle. I see my plastic surgeon in one more week and I dont even know what to say. Has anyone felt this and it all turned out ok?

VegGal

Where do you live? I thought all shaped implants had been recalled, and were not to be placed in women any more (at least in the US).

Now, as to your concerns, yes, the shaped implants can give an odd shape. I would imagine it would make achieving symmetry difficult. That said, you are still early on in recovery and changes will occur as you heal. Try to be patient and see how that goes, and just know that many of us have been underwhelmed initially. Some end up being satisfied and others (like me) end up having a revision.

Good luck.

Beesie

I too thought that teardrop implants were not currently in use, because they have a textured shell, which is necessary to get adhesion and keep the implant from rotating. Round implants don't need a textured shell because if the implant rotates, the shape of the 'breast' doesn't change.

I'm sorry that you are unhappy with the symmetry. But do give the implant time to settle. And the other side, which still has breast tissue, is probably quite swollen, being only 1 week post op. Usually it takes months for these things to settle out and for swelling to go down fully.

VegGal, the idea behind teardrop implants is that they should actually make it easier to achieve symmetry. This is because the shape is more similar to that of a natural breast, which tends to not be equally round and full all over but instead has a slope and more fullness at the bottom - just like a teardrop shape.

Kat, I know it's disappointing, but be patient. And ultimately, if you aren't happy, you can do an implant exchange - that's usually a quick and easy surgery. Most PSs recommend waiting 6 months before making that decision.

MinusTwo

Kat - Of course you are in mourning. You've lost body parts that were an integral part of how you see yourself. Not to mention, you're dealing with cancer. Some of us never get over that loss, but most of us eventually come to terms with our revised image in time.

That said, the implant (s) will change and settle for up to 6 months - and maybe even longer. It's hard, but step away from the mirror. Don't judge now and try not to look - since that will just be confusing & depressing..

VegGal

Beesie, I had teardrop implants upon initial recon. They looked very weird and decidedly un-breastlike. On me they were fuller up top and flat as a burger bun ingeneral. My rounds with fat grafting look great.

Kat01

Thank you all for your kind comments. I know I need to regroup and wait. I know I can have things redone. I guess my flood of emotion this week has really surprised me because I was so stoic thru everything else. Maybe a little fantasy thru all the surgey and tissue expander time that this surgery would finally make it all better.

Beesie

Kat, with luck it will turn out that your disappointment was caused by your expectations and not by the (eventual) results.

It's really unfortunate that your PS didn't explain what to expect post-exchange so that you would know that what you are seeing now is not the final result. That's certainly true for the implant side, and since you had the lift done on your remaining natural breast, I would expect that the breast is very swollen. It's no surprise that then that the sizes and shapes don't match. Your PS should have prepared you for this. If the nurse said that everyone is disappointed at first, then clearly the PS is doing a crappy job of explaining things to her (or his) patients.

VegGal, back when I was diagnosed, teardrops were relatively new on the market and many PSs and patients really liked the shape. But what I should have added to my comment was the statement that:
"Individual experiences may vary"

MountainMia

I didn't have mastectomy or "reconstruction." I did have a left lumpectomy in April2019, followed by a reduction on my right in Nov2019. The reduction was done so I'd have better symmetry. For quite a while (months) I was glad I'd done it but not completely thrilled with how things looked. Now that I'm 8 months past the second surgery, the shapes have both settled and the scars have substantially faded. I'm an almost-60 year old woman, and I'm very happy with my breast shapes and symmetry. It takes a while. Good luck.

VegGal

Oh for sure the initial peek after reconstruction is rarely a joyous occasion. I remember being so mad in recovery that I considered DEMANDING that I be taken back to OR and fixed! LOL. I could tell they were wrong through the bandages.

After the revision, my expectations weren’t so high, and I ended up being really pleasantly surprised. It’s a process indeed

Kat01

VegGal. Thats exactly how I felt when opened my gown to look. An immediate "are you kidding me?" I'm just going to be honest with my Dr and say I'm dissapointed. He said prior to surgery we may need to do fat grafting at some juncture. Yes. Let's do that. Something.

macb04

I had tons of reconstruction surgeries, I have a Prepectoral Thread on hear explaining the miserable sequence of events, so I get not being happy. In my next to last implant procedure, I woke up and immediately knew the PS had screwed up and put in an implant that was at least 100cc TOO SMALL. He had unfortunately also chopped off too much of the skin I had spent 6 painful months creating with the TE, so when he replaced the implant 3 months later I would say it is still about 50cc TOO Small and doesn't match when nude. In clothes and a little bit of padding it looks ok.

The PS also charged me for the replacement procedure even though he screwed up using a wonky photo program rather than common sense. I had no idea he was going to put in a too small implant. My TE almost matched my R real breast when it was expanded to 600cc, so logically, he should not have put in a 420cc implant unless he had completely lost his marbles, which I guess he had. I should have had at least a 550cc, implant placed, but it's too late unless I go back and have more surgery.

I am so done, although I hate my breast being lopsided.