RADS after Reconstruction ?

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melania
melania Member Posts: 117
edited June 2014 in Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After

Hi everybody ,

I've been diagnosed Sept 2010 and i did cheo before surgery, i will have my BMX with reconstruction in April , Radiation onc said that if i choose to pt tissue expanders i will only have 6- 8 weeks to get expnaded , because we cant start rads later than that , it's different when  have surgery firt cuz u have chemo next and u have enough time to get expanded before rads. There is also anothe roption which is one step preocess with Aloderm at the time of BMX , no tissue expanders, so i posted a new thread to see others opinions. .

I am orginally very small chested and i wanted to go for a C cup at least now that i have to go through all these !

Any suggestions??

thanks

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  • Pegs
    Pegs Member Posts: 198
    edited February 2011

    I have expanders in , and the radiation doctor wanted me to be completly expanded before radiation, she also said some start the expansion process and finish it when radiation is all over.  i finished getting expanded before radiation and i will say the radiation has made my skin very tight.  i just called today to see if this was normal.  the expanders are very uncomfortable.  and this is all part of radiation.  you could ask about being expanded after radiation is complete i don't know if thats a good option or not.  can i ask, why did you do chemo before bmx? 

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  • melania
    melania Member Posts: 117
    edited February 2011

    Thanks for your reply ,

    The reason that they do the chemo before surgery is to see if the tumor is responding and shrinking , which luckily my tumor and 3 lymph nodes which showed in pet scan before chemo were all disappeared after 4 rounds of chemo and confirmed by another scan . this is what they do here in big cancer centers to stop the spreading even before surgery.

    And regarding the tightness i think thats normal and thats why they want u to get expanded before rads cuz the rads change the skin tissue and can not get trewtched after that. So i dunno what's the bet thing but did u get as much expanded as u wanted ???

    good luck to you my sister

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  • Pegs
    Pegs Member Posts: 198
    edited February 2011

    i did, i don't think i could have been expanded anymore.  i am so uncomfortable at this point i can't wait to get these things out!!!  i dont see ps until the end of march, and see what his thoughts are.  thats what i was thinking i couldnt imagine getting expanded now after radiation, i think i would explode.  i am hoping he is willing to put the implants in april, it may be wishful thinking i don't know.  the radiation doctor  suggested today that i get some of the silicone taken out if i feel too tight, i don't want to mess with anything if i can help it, i will try to deal with this as much as i can.  my bs gave me 2 options, chemo first to try to shrink my  tumor or get mastecomy.  she wouldnt do lumpectomy the mri said it was at least 3 cm , i went for the bi lateral mastecomy and i was glad i did the tumor was 5.8 cm which is big for me, i was not a big breasted girl.  i think i will be a small c if everything goes as planned, having radiation can change everything.  i just have to wait and see. 

    good luck to you too

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