Reconstruction during COVID

Anonymous

Reconstruction during COVID

Laurencl

Hi All,

I’m interested in experiences of Reconstruction during the last few months. I had a unilateral mastectomy in 8/19 with TE placement. The plan was to have flap reconstruction in the spring of 20/20, which did not take place. I did meet with my PS in May, who said he would let me know when things open up and I have an appointment this week. Flap surgery sounds awful and I believe it is about 5 days in the hospital, which does not sound ideal. I live in New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia and the COVID numbers are climbing. At the same time, I am over my TE, which has now been in for over a year and is uncomfortable. I also feel like I have been unable to move on from “the cancer year” of 2019 without the surgery.

I’m interested in your thoughts. Thank you.

Lauren

alissat

I had diep & lap flaps in August. I was in the surgical ICU for 5 days & 2 days in a regular unit. No covid patients on either unit. I felt the doctors, nurses & staff took great precautions for me & themselves. I was super nervous going into but those quickly faded. My surgery was in Dallas & they had high covid numbers over the summer. Best wishes & good luck!

abigailj

I had a BMX with immediate DIEP recon in late June in NYC at Weil Cornell. My roommate had same - she was maybe 50, I’m 63. She went home on 3rd day, I stayed 5 days. I never felt at risk for Covid and was pleased with the care.

Laurencl

thank you for responding. May I ask about recovery from surgery?

Thank you, Lauren

abigailj

Hi Lauren

Well keep in mind that I'm also a former smoker so circulation isn't great - I had some wound healing complications so in addition to the planned surgery 2 weeks after I was discharged to remove the extra skin I thankfully didn't need (my skin survived as did my nipples), I had another surgery to revise the scar at my bikini line and an infection happened in one breast so going to have fat grafting in a few months.

The first 2 weeks were really tough, the got gradually better. My PS was very straight with me - it's a long process - but even with my somewhat bumpy road I'd make this same choice again. If you do this it's critical to have a PS highly experienced in this procedure - it's very complicated and specialized make sure she/he does nerve grafting too

My hospital observes strict Covid protocols and I would imagine that's the norm so I never had concerns on any of my several subsequent visits.

There is a ton of helpful info on the 2018 DIEP thread - I really suggest reading through it if you're considering it.

Wishing you the best,

Abigail

Laurencl

Hi again,

I had the surgery on 11/9. I really was not prepared for the pain (felt it was worse then the mastectomy). Out of the hospital and recovering. Did anyone wear something like spanx rather then the hospital garment

FunShine

Hi Lauren,

I just had delayed DIEP reconstruction on 11/13 (replacing tissue expanders form 12/2019 BMX, followed by 3/2020 radiation), at Weil Cornel on NYC, like Abagail. I'm a little over a week out and recovery has been rough so far. I have a short torso and the hospital compression garment bothers me. It keeps riding up to the incisions under my breasts, and I have to roll it up on the bottom to not rub on the lower drain sites. I hope everything heals properly and I can try to put everything behind me. I'd also be interested to hear if anyone has any alternatives to the hospital compression garment that might be more comfortable. It's 3am here and I'm finding sleep difficult!

Laurencl

Hi Funshine,

Can you cut the garment to fit you better? I rolled it up at the end and that helped a little. At week two my DR. Said I could switch to a spanx kind of garment (boy short kind of thing or compression cami) that has helped. I am over the drains! Unfortunately, I don’t think they are coming out tomorrow, and it has me really down.

abigailj

Hi Funshine - yes, I’m short-bodied too - I cut a few inches off the hospital compression wrap so it fit my body better. I also worse a large man’s plain T shirt under it for more comfort.After drains, I used a ‘body shaper’ boy short I ordered from Jockey, legs were about 3 inches down on thighs - my normal size is around 145 pounds, curvy, and I’m 5’ 2” but I was very swollen and close to 160 after the surgery so ordered size XL and that was great for me until I was told I was done with compression (honestly can’t recall if that was at 6 weeks or 8 weeks, guess I’ve started blocking that period of time from my memory 😊).