Has anyone had micro fat grafting?

Hello Sisters,

Has anybody else had any experience with Dr.s freezing the fat (stem cells) when performing lipo. What a great idea, would save alot on surgery and recovery.  I have not experienced any reconstruction yet, just do alot of reading and researching. Basically i am all talk and no action!!

However i get more impressed with reconstruction as there are Dr.s that have made great strides in helping those of us in need.

Stay well,

Hope

Hi, All: I am new to this forum. Had left mx in July and beginning the recon exploration now. A bit of an ironic twist is that my husband is a plastic surgeon, and I've been a casual observer of the profession for years, hearing about the highs and lows, the controversies, the complications and the good results. I think for this reason I am more skittish than most. My husband has been wonderful (and as shell-shocked as the rest of us with my dx) and is supportive of me in my decisions. He woudn't do the surgery himself and he's recommended a colleague he respects highly. I went to see him, not thrilled about either of the two familiar reconstruction directions I was familiar with, implants (don't like the idea of them inside me) or flaps (such a long operation and recovery and so many scars...). Turns out I am not a candidate for DIEP anyway and the other, older flap operations are even longer and more disfiguring, I think. Then he mentioned the BRAVA method and it intrigued me. I've halfway through your thread (sorry I haven't finished yet!) but I have an important question. I sleep on my stomach, at best can make due on my side. Just can't sleep on my back, ever. I also can't stay inside all day for so many months, wearing it in the daytime. Does anyone know if you can sleep on your side with the BRAVA bra. Might seem trivial, but it could be a dealbreaker for me. Huge apologies if you've already addressed this issue in the last 15 pages. I"ll keep reading. Thank you!

randi- My PS said it wasn't a drug reaction.  She said they just gave me too much Dilaudid in the recovery room which caused me to stop breathing.  (Still never got the whole story there.  Someone's first day on the job or what?)  I will definitely mention it to Dr. K, though, if I go ahead with the surgery.

leeinfl- Sweeeeetttt!  (Re: Cute Anesthesiologist)  Did I read that Dr. K has two different facilities where he operates?  If so, do you recommend one over the other if I have a choice?

I agree, my first surgery was at one of the Miami hospitals, the second, at Dr. Khouri's Key Biscayne Surgery Center....really liked the surgery center!!!   Going there again...fly in today and have my 3rd and hopefully final "fat fill" on April 8.  Excited and nervous!

I am now one week out from the first harvesting and grafting of fat.  Today I got out of bed without the moaning and groaning from the previous week and found I had slept all night.

Yesterday most of the sutures were removed---I had them taken out locally and the dr. was uncertain about the sutures at the scar revision site, so I am sending a photo to my PS and seeking his advice.  Worse case a day trip to New Orleans.  The bruising is minimal....mostly on my lower back and bottom.  I went to yoga on Monday and did well.....did not do all the moves but was able to join in and it felt good.  The worst part is the compression garment....it takes getting use to in terms of breathing, eating and of course going to the bathroom.  I am taking it off to shower now and baby powder is the answer to getting it back up.  

My husband lives in Aberdeen, Scotland and I am living in Texas to finish this leg of my reconstruction journey as well as keep the English bulldog comfy.  My surgery was on Tues. and he flew back on Sun.  I drove to and from the airport.  While this procedure is not comfortable it is not as hard as the mastectomy with tissue expander nor the DIEP. 

Today I will put the BRAVA on for a trial run.   I was asked about the banking of my fat.  This is done just like embryos and sperm.  The problem would be if Fed Ex was slow in delivering  

I had bl mastectomy with diep  reconstruction. I have big divets above my new breasts, how long after original surgery can these be filled? does anyone know.

Jane

I want to take a minute to wish everyone well and hope all your recon dreams come true.Mine unfortunately will not.I had the tissue expanders placed two weeks ago and have been in excruciating pain.I am having them removed in two weeks.The surgeon thinks my fibromyalgia and neuropathy are contributing to the pain.I think that the Brava would have been a better choice,but who knows. We just found out that my husband is taking a large pay cut,so the expenses for the fat grafting would not have been possible anyway.I feel a little bummed,but I am looking on the bright side,I will finally be even again,can wear a bra or go without depending on how I feel,plus my dearest friend is taking me shopping for prosthesis.She is envious that on any given day,I can be any cup size I choose!I still think fat grafting is the way to go with the recon and I am going to keep reading this thread to see how everyone is doing.Take care.

Thanks Sweetie2040,the pain is definitely from the tissue expanders.My first mastectomy was painful,but after the first week,I felt OK,even with the SNB...this pain is so bad I get nauseous.It is like I have a metal band lined with sandpaper around my chest.The pain meds do not even dent it.It is a little better today,I am trying to sit up as long as I can.When I lay down,with lots of pillows propping me up of course,it gets very bad.I have a very low pain tolerance and I do think the fibro is making this worse.It must be,else how do other women get through it?I guess I am not as tough as I thought I was!I keep reminding myself,that when I was diagnosed,I had not even heard of fat grafting.Who knows what they will come up with in the near future?

pandazankar- I, too, have fibromyalgia and can definitely sympathize.  I was having a lot of discomfort with my TE's, too, though nothing as bad as you're going through.  It is possible that your surgeon may have made the pocket too tight?  Or that the TE is resting on a nerve or even rib?  I swear my PS put TE's in that were too big for my body as it seemed they were always putting a lot of pressure on the top of my ribs.   What helped for me was taking a muscle relaxant (Flexeril) and doing a lot of gentle stretching.  I hear that PT helps a lot, too.  I do think, though, when you have fibro your body just doesn't like having foreign objects inside.  I'm having some mild pain issues with my implants and my PS attributed it as possibly being related to my fibro.  So sorry for what you're going through.  (((hugs)))

Thanks for your kind thoughts.I think the main cause of the pain is that the surgeon used Alloderm to pad the muscle and allow for a larger initial fill.I am pretty sure he said I have 260 cc in each side which sounds like a lot more than others have put in at TE placement.I refused to have more put in when I last saw him,he wanted to add 60 cc to each side.I have tried Flexeril,it worked the first night,the second night,it had no effect.I have used it in the past for muscle spasms and it worked like a charm.This is like nothing I have ever experienced before..and never want to again!I am going to call the surgeon who was supposed to do the fat grafting tomorrow and see what her thoughts are.

I had no idea he had put that much in until the other day when I told him I wanted them out.He said each one had as much as a cup of coffee.I did some research and thought thta was a lot,but thought maybe the Alloderm allowed larger fills.Which it might on some,but not me!I have given this so much thought and I finally have to ask myself,why after all I have put my body through am I doing this? Just have to get through the next several days....

It is amazing how good it feels to know that I am not the only one with this pain..sorry others have it though! I asked my doctor if he had ever had anyone have the expanders removed and he said no.So I will be his first..hope I am the last.I just have too many things to do in the next several weeks,baby goats and baby donkeys being born,garden to plant...!!!I do not deal well with pain and I know that the fat grafting will be painful too,not like this,but I am just done with pain and discomfort,been there,done that,time to move on.

Pandazankar I had horrible pain form tissue expanders and three surgeries in three weeks due to complications.  They put me on a med that they give to patients with shingles to help with the nerve pain. I did not have to ramp up to the full dose and it really helped. Maybe you could talk to your surgeon about it.

Pandazankar-I'm so sorry to hear that you are having such a rough time.  I remember the TE pain very well and it was terrible!  Waking up with those awful things it felt like I couldn't breathe they hurt so much.  Mine were initially filled with 240 cc and after 2 weeks, I had weekly fills of 60 cc.  My pain was much better after the first week so I feel horrible for you to still be in such agony after this much time.  Nothing that followed was as bad as the pain from the TEs - nothing even compares.  I can't blame you for taking time off from everything.  Fat grafting can be done whenever, so enjoy your summer!  I hope you feel better soon!

Kate33 - SO excited to meet you next week!  I can't wait!  To answer a question you had posted a while ago - Dr. K injects fat all around the breast mound to give it a natural slope.  My upper pole was very boney and it looked so un-natural where it went from "nothing" to implant.  So YES, he fixes that too!

For those who wonder about feeling coming back, I wanted to share that this past weekend we went out on our boat and as we were speeding along, I felt the wind on my lower breasts.  I know that sounds so random, but I also know you will understand how amazing that is.  I have no idea how much feeling and sensation will come back, but little things like that are so thrilling.