Visible ripples in implants

Just got back from PS.  Had some reddness along both incision lines. Had been putting Bacitracin on them and not seeing much of a difference.  He said it was the internal stiches that are disolving stiches trying to push their way out of the body.  He pulled three out. I asked because my incision on the other side opened up if he was concerned about that happening on this side. He said no since it had been since Oct. 1st and more concerned about the track that could have bacteria get into. So back on Cipro. He said I hate to keep bringing this up but this is why I am hesitant to do another surgery. (to put in two new implants with 50cc more and more alloderm on the top.)  Because you have a good outcome.........  He said you look great in a bra. I said and without a bra.......First he said, "Do you go to nude beaches" He made me laugh like he usually does and my frame of mind this month I am glad he does.   I said, "Do I look great for a woman who has had her breasts cut off and a mastectomy or great compared to a normal woman"  I said "I don't look great compared to a normal woman."  He replied that I look great for a woman that has had a mastectomy and for a normal woman pretty good. He said I wish you could be with me when I see women everyday and they are not having a mastectomy you would say I look pretty good!.  He said I know I have not had body parts cut off, but I have to be honest with you.  I told him I was glad he was and I needed him to understand where I was coming from. God I hate this!  He is so good and kind and my oncologist told me I have a really good outcome. So do I try for the next surgery to get rid of the ripples at the top or not.  I just can't decide. Damn I wish I had had early stage uterine cancer. Take out the uterus and look and feel the same!

flacracker I have never heard that it does or doesn't.  Is your PS going to use your breast skin or a flap? 

I didn't ask specifically yesterday sweetie,  I think the other and maybe more important thing is he would add alloderm to the top.  He already added it last time to the outer and inner area but we didn't do the top.  I feel exactly like you do.  I had my left incision break open and an infection in both incisions after the mastectomy.  Months of healing and IV antibiotics etc.  Do I risk all that again?  The implant exchange except for this little thing yesterday went fine.  I am glad after all even though it will be more expensive to wait till March so I can feel good about my decision. What size do you have in now?  I have 450cc on the right and 400cc on the left and pretty darn symetrical.  We would go up by 50cc on both sides. So I don't think it would make me really any bigger as I do not want that. I am 5ft 2in and 116 pounds. I am a c cup basically now.

The issue is also I was suppose to be a nipple sparing but due to the complications lost both. Devastated me...........  Have my full areola on the right and most of it on the left but they are not symetrical.  Not real bad but not symetrical. So do I have nipples or not?

It is a tough decision, wished I knew what to do!

yes it does you are fortunate to have been able to keep your nipples. I was just devastated when I lost them.  What was horrible is I sat in my PS chair in the exam room and he started cutting away at them. I got teary because I was so sad about it and felt humiliated.  I didn't sob just had tears on my face.  Well the next day I go to the breast surgeon and she a woman no less says to me "I hear you had a melt down yesterday"  I wish I could slap her.

Kate 33 thank you that made me laugh and I just got done crying because this is the one year anniversary of my diagnosis, so I needed a laugh

Kate 33 you are so funny, I am the one who said that about glad I am not finding out about it now! But I love what you wrote and I found myself yesterday on my anniversary being numb most of the day. I was teaching a class so that kept my mind busy in the morning. So numb then around 4pm boom tears, then anger as I was writing in my journal and then sadness and quiet.  So the whole gamit of emotions. On the 28th be gentle with yourself.

I had my silicone gel implants put in back in April and had pretty bad ripples,the left worse than the right.Then the right breast started sliding over to the side really bad when I was laying on my back. When I just had my nipples made last month(Nov 17th) I showed this to my PS. He said I will fix it at the same time. He did and he also removed extra skin and tightened things up a bit.I am very pleased with the results so far. I have very little ripple when bending over now and barely noticable when upright.I did the skin flap nipples.He did have to extend my scar and move fat into defects in the axilla area.all in all it is healing nicely.my nipples set a bit low but not bad.They are low since he used the mastectomy scars.which I am ok with ,didn't want new scars added.I go in Feb to have the areola tattoo and will be finiched with the reconstruction.Oh, I also have great clevage which before this last revision I did not. I did at first when the implants were placed but after a few months it was really wide between my breasts so I am hoping this time I keep the clevage. so YES  for me this surgery helped with my ripples.

Thanks Dee

Determined- It's official- I'm posting on too many different threads when I quote your quote back to you!  LOL!  Sorry your day was so hard.  I do plan on being gentle with myself- maybe gently drinking an entire bottle of fine Italian wine!  

DFC1994- It's good to know that surgeons are able to fix a lot of these issues if we go through a revision.  Glad that everything turned out so well for you! 

Kate33, I know what you mean, I could easily go in and have some fat regrafted into the little divot and be done with it and have insurance pic it up but I am still so wasted on procedures.  Going to have to wait till Spring and see how I feel.

While at PS office yesterday, I was thumbing though a PS magazine for the profession on procedures and saw an article devoted to the implants.  There is another implant being trialed called the "Ideal implant".  Some PS are trialing it.  It touts the best of both technologies of saline and silicone using little silicon shells in it.  Silicon shells prevent the leaking and the design of the edges prevent the rippling.    It got my attention because on the pro's it said less rippling.  However, when I looked it up online, it said less rippling compared to saline which has more rippling problems with the edges as this implant is designed with different edges.  It also showed the cohesive ones claiming less rippling but more firmness.  So, what I get out of this whole thing is that it is realized that for reconstruction uses they realize that there are problems with design of the current ones and are trying to come up with better ones.   

Also, my PS said it was excess skin that caused rippling. I had some rippling only when leaning over. Switched from 375 to 550 and no rippling at all in any position.  Sweetie, I think from your pics you would benefit from a wider implant with the space you have.  The projection doesn't change much.  The stretching of the skin will come from that skin over the space.  The PS will take in some extra skin to give it a lift look, probably only a cent. of skin removed.  Remember skin can stretch alot, think of how it does with obese individuals.  I also feel that right now I have no ripple problems, but over time with gravity who knows how I will look in 5 years. When I came out of my revision my breast looked worse than the first time post op because of skin he took in , in places, looked distorted and then as it healed it settled beautiful so don't get worried right afterwards.  If you are bringing in more implant in the center to fill the space, ask where your nipples will be.  Sweetie, with your space issue and rippling issue, one of them will be fixed if not both,  and you'll be more content.

In response to your question about fat grafting, I had it done twice on my chest. My PS said only about forty percent of the transferred fat actually sticks and thrives, so that's why they generally have to 'overfill' the fat or do the fat grafting more than once. I did not have the fat transfer for ripple issues. I had the fat transfer to fill out the area right above the implant, so there would be more of a natural curve to the chest, from the collarbone on down.

Hi everyone-

I've been reading this string with interest since I have a lot of the same issues.  LOTS of rippling, some "bumps" at the incision site, and at an area above the alloderm (I think),  the implant is sticking out - a sharp bump that feels just like you are pressing on a plastic bag filled with water - doesn't feel like there's any skin there (though there is) - just a bag......

I assume that I'll need to get this patched with more alloderm, or something along those lines.  I'm also starting to get one on the other side.  I'm bigger than I want (ps thought I'd want to be bigger, I think - either that, or he filled me too much with the expanders), so I wouldn't mind new, smaller implants, but HATE the idea of more surgery....

 Has anyone had this happen, where your implant feels like it's poking out from your skin? I can see it through my clothes!

Thanks-

Theresa

therse-glad you joined our thread. I also can feel my implant edges through my skin. I think it is the result of very thin skin. Have you talked to your PS about the issues your having? How long have your had your implants and are they silicone? I am going to ask my Dr about adding more Alloderm because I heard that can help with severe rippling. The thing that bothers me we have done everything right and still have rippling. For example my Dr used Alloderm, didn't go too big (450CC's) and used smooth silicone. I don't know where to go from here. Oh and speaking of size I'm sure you can go smaller and he could probably pull the excess skin in and that may help with the rippling. Let us know what he says.

Hi Kate33! Hope you had a nice Christmas.

Kate and Sweetie-

Thanks for the response!  I've actually had this for more than a year (went last year and he was going to schedule surgery for it and a few other things he wanted to "tweak"), but just didn't want more surgery.  Now though, I think it's getting worse and the skin around the poking out part is really rough and dry feeling. Not sure what's up with that......

I would love to go a bit smaller. (which I wanted in the first place!)  My implants are only 300 or 325, but I'm only about 5'1" tall and fairly thin. I wanted 275's ....

I'm hoping alloderm will work - at least that's what he was planning last year. Not sure I want to go back to the same ps though, so I may get a couple of opinions. If anyone knows of a good ps in the Northern Virginia/DC/Maryland/Richmond area, let me know!

Thanks again-

Theresa

 therese126-I think if it is still bothering you , you should seriously look into a revision. I heard something that about half of women need some kind of fix after their exchange. Wow you are really petitie! There is a member on here called whippetmom and she helps women with breast sizing issues and finding Dr's. You could PM her and she might have the name of good Dr in your area. 

Determined-I know Alloderm is really expensive and I don't know how much they are "allowed" to use. I will find out more about this and let you know what he says. I have heard of textured implants and I don't know in what cases Dr use them. It would make sense they would help with ripples. The gummy bear implants are textured so they adhere to the skin and they are supposed to have less rippling. I could have had gummy bears but for me personally I like liked the shape of the round on my frame. Nice about the new bra!! I'm holding off until I make a decision. Trust me after that I'm going bra shopping.

Happy New year to all too! I hope it is healthy one for us all! God bless!

Determined-ok makes sense about the alloderm. I am forgetful too. My daughter makes fun of me because I tell her the same things over and over.

I feel so much the same way as you about the size and shape. You are a lot more petite than me and you have 400 and 450, and I'm 5'7" and have 450. I'm tall but have a thin frame. I honestly don't think 50cc's would make that much of a difference. It's about a 1/4 of a cup on each side. Today I sewed the center of bra with a few stitches to bring the bra in tighter and the implants looked so good because they filled out and were lifted. That's the look I want! Now if he can do that with 50cc's and maybe some stitching that would be worth it. I wanting to hear from Vanderlady because she had a revision to larger implants before Christmas. She posted right after that she was happy but I haven't heard from her since. I know she went bigger than just 50cc's too.  I agree with you it's sad we have to talk about this stuff when all this should just be done by now. Oh well, nothing's perfect I guess.

Anyway, Have a Happy healthy New Year and may it be a year of rest, relaxation, and peacefulness for us all!