All About Gummies

elizzim, I had a bilat proph nipple sparing in nov 08 and an exchange on march 09. I didnt think there was any swelling at all but here and now, 4 months later, there def was. My upper pole was very full and has settled allot. You will be surprised how much they will change.

Liz,

I had a bilateral mastectomy as well and had the Allergan 410's (Gummies) put in on 4/2/09.  I too am struggling a bit.  My surgeon is a wonderful one and all in all I look natural.  Everyone at his office can't believe how great it looks.  I keep wondering if perhaps I had built this up in my head to think I would look wonderful in the end.  :-)  I kept thinking... well, at least I will have fabulous perky foobs at the end of this.  Now, I am stuggling with the firmness of them.  I miss having the softer "real" boobs that you can move around to look good in shirts.  Does that sound strange.  Anyway, I had nipples done yesterday so I still have them bandaged up.  I am praying that looks good.  I keep reminding myself that I am happy those boobs are gone and I am cancer free.  I am thankful for this but I understand where you are coming from.  I think it might be a matter of getting use to a new "normal".  Good luck to you!

wow, am I happy to see this thread. Liz, I have the same feeling about what I´ve taken to referring as the "tennis ball" I had put in after nipple-sparing R-mx in March of this year.  It is a Becker implant --silicone shell with a cavity inside for saline expansion. One step, no exchange surgery. That "one step" was what sold me on it, that and the fact that all the breast surgeons I saw here in Brazil seem to prefer them. When my PS pumped it up to be the same size as my other breast it was hard as a rock and just as immobile. So I asked her to let some saline out...it did get softer but now it feels sort of like a water balloon (a bit more resistant actually, maybe more like a water bed) and it is still immobile. I also can feel bumps on the implant surface through my skin and when I look in the mirror I can see them too. They look just like whitehead pimples... how attractive, LOL!

So last week I decided to have another implant put in when I have surgery for a lift on the other side. I want to make this step very carefully so I am also looking for input on the different materials, their texture and their "jigglability"! Ruby I think I want what you have. I LOVE the idea of lying on my side and having the upper one lean down a bit. Right now what happens is that the foob stays in exactly the same place, height-wise but the inner side (which become the bottom when I´m on my side) fills out, leaving the outer side (the top when I´m on my side) looking like a ball without air.

I am a little concerned that having another surgery will leave me with a more noticeable scar but I´m going to risk it. My first incision healed very well so hopefully this one will too.

Lisa

Forgot to say-- I am single too. I´d like to think I wont stay that way forever, but the "female genital mutilation" school of cancer treatment is making the future seem pretty bleak. I´ve just started lupron injections, so I´ve been plunged into menopause, and Arimidex is making mincemeat of whatever itsy bitsy estrogen supply was left. My libido has taken a predictable nosedive...and the prozac I take to help deal with all that is the icing on the cake. I believe it may have been Mena, who started the now-famous Mojo thread a few yerars back, who once joked that her cervix being the only reproductive organ she had left, she was going to have it gilded.

Liz,

Your statement of not feeling like you exist in the "middle" portion of your body totally describes where I am now as well.  I never really thought of it that way, but I definitely have that disconnect with my chest as well.  When I look in the mirror, I don't recognize the middle part of me, it's like a different person is occupying me.

I wonder if that "disconnect" ever goes away as one gets used to these foreign bodies, i.e. implants?  I imagine some of it does have to do with that numb feeling.  At least once a day, I bump into something with this gummy, either the kitchen table while I'm sitting there, the refrigerator door, etc.  I'm just not used to something sticking out like that (I also went from a small A to a full C, so that takes a lot of getting used to as well). 

I had the Mentor anatomical gummies put in almost 2 weeks ago (part of a clinical trial). I agree that they are more firm than I expected, so not sure I'm happy with that. My question though for those of you who've had either anatomical or gummy implants, is did they change at all over the next 4 months, and did you get any smaller from the swelling going down? I feel like mine look just a bit too large ( they are 585ccs), although they look fine on my current body (I'm trying to lose some weight--about 15-20 pounds as I'm currently 5'5" and ~155lbs and want them to still look proportional if I manage to do that).  I did have some lipo on each side, so I'm hoping that there is swelling there that will go down and make them a bit smaller after that subsides--since much of the 'largeness' seems to be in the width (and a bit too large in front as well).

Thanks

Hi Aoandrews,

Mine are Allergan 410 gummies. I had the exchange in March. There was no swelling after the surgery (might be a tiny bit) and the implants haven't changed shape at all. The good thing is: I don't need to wait for fluffing. They are in anatomical shape and stay that shape once it is in my chest. They are not supposed to move or rotate at all if the surgeon does it right. I am pretty all set after the procedure. They are firm though but I am quite used to it.

I have chose gels too! Those Gummies just wouldn't give...in hand held testing.  My exchange will be Aug 20th

Be well ladies!

Liz I have the cohesive gel allergan style 20 600cc implants and I love them. They look and feel like my breasts did before all of this but bigger and better. I don't think I could be happier but I think we always think we could no matter what we have we can find something wrong with the way we look. Over all I think the cohesive gel is the best for reconstruction from what everyone on here says.

Dear elizzim,

 I have a great deal of sympathy for you being in a situation you hope to improve.  I had bilateral skin and areola sparing mastectomies in Dec and then had TE's exchanged for Natrelle gel hi profile implants 450cc.  I had been a 32D and asked to be a 32C but ended up a very wide, under the armpits 32E!  Yes in time they dropped , but they were still huge for my 5' frame, 103 lbs.  My husband's tactful response was- "how could he have done that to you?" I too felt that expressing my dissatisfaction with my PS was very stressfull.  After all he was always telling me how good he was at this.  The thing is, he never spent enough time with me truly ascertaining how I wanted to look.  He seemed to want me to leave the decision making in his experienced hands.  I also felt a vibe coming from him that I was lucky to have prophylactic mastectomies and how could I complain with a waiting room filled with patient going through more grueling treatments than me.  It really upset me to feel this way since I myself am a doctor, a psychiatrist no less.  I suppose I almost felt I had to manage the ps personality.  With the encouragement of some of my most assertive friends, I persisted in the nicest way possible to explain to my doctor that although these breasts would be magnificent on a much larger woman, I feel very out of proportion.  After several rounds of these discussions, where each time he would wonder if I had grown comfortable with huge breast and I would persist with"no" he finally agreed and said he wanted me to be happy. 

I had my implants exchanged last week from 450cc hi profile silicone to 340cc mid profile silicone and I am so much happier even though I had to have the pockets sewn down, over 100 stitches to make a smaller pocket.  This has been a physically very painful week, but rewarding.

Elizzim- if you are unhappy and a change would not put your health at risk- go for it!  We've been through too much not to be reasonably happy at the end.  I think it is easy to slip into a state of acceptance despite being unhappy towards the end of this journey.  It is long, exhausting and depleting. Muster up your courage and strength to ask for what you need.  Our breasts will never be perfect to the touch or completely scarless, but we deserve the absolute best that science can offer us. I am married but like you am hoping to one day have a normal sex life where fake breasts are just not really noticed.  What I will say, as a shrink,is the fact that we want to look our best and feel our best and look forward to romance in the future, means we are not falling into depression but rather hopeful and optimistic and just wanting to optimize our possibilities.

You have my support,

Emma8

Emma8

Did your insurance company cover the cost of having the smaller implants replace the larger ones? I'm also concerned that my implants are too big since I wanted to be no larger than a C (I got 585 cc anatomical gummies - I'm bigger, so I think my frame looks okay with them, but still larger than a C for sure and really larger than I wanted). I'm still giving mine time since its only been 2 weeks and they may turn out just fine (I had some lipo on the sides and there still is swelling). But I was wondering how insurance handles these types of surgeries.
Thanks,