Diep 2012
Comments
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Another surgery is another surgery though. I've had 5 so far with another coming up in July and I STILL get nervous about it.
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Cookie, did you have general anesthesia with Stage 2? Some ladies told me they had a local for what I'm having done, but I'm having general. And yes, I think I was blowing this off as nothing because it is compared to Stage 1, but now I'm freaking because I'm having surgery tomorrow!! lol
I really need to go to bed. Only 35 more minutes of liquids and food. Sucking down water like crazy. I hate the NPO part. And I dread the wait because my surgery is at 11 which probably means I'll have a wait unlike Stage 1. I was the first up for that long surgery as I'm sure all of us were. No waiting for that one.
I'm off to bed and hopefully sweet dreams. At least we can sleep in a little since we don't have to be there at the crack of dawn. I'm going to be cranky enough with no coffee!
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I am having my DIEP in the morning at 730am . Im a little nervous about the pain when I wake up. Anyone available to console me?
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I can chat with you about this. I am 2 years out from Stage 1.
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When you wake up, everything is numb. I think they numb the areas when they are finished. I woke up in no pain. When that wears off, they can give you either IV pain meds, or oral pain meds if you are eating/drinking. Remember, the pain meds cause constipation. It's a guarantee, so be prepared to start something (like Milk of Magnesia, Ducolax, etc) around the 2nd or 3rd day. Pain is manageable. If for some reason it is not, the nurses have lots of ideas. Speak up before it gets strong. Honestly, there is no reason for your pain to become excessive. Where is your surgery?
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Once you are on oral pain meds, stick to a routine for the first week. You'll find out if the med wears off at 4, or 5 hours for you. Whatever that is, stick to it and let yourself rest for at least several days before trying to reduce the meds. I stuck to it for a full week, then noticed I could take a smaller amount, but held to a 4 hour routine for myself. Over a few days the amount I took was smaller, but I still held to the routine and did not let the meds fully wear off.....and I also teamed it with Milk of magnesia. I'll be here for several more minutes if you want to post anything else.
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Mary - Stage II was general anesthesia. PS says he can do my nipple recon under general, sedation or local, my choice. I'll likely go for either local or sedation - I think 6 rounds of general in a year is enough, I'll give my body a break on that one - of course it won't be for multiple months, I'm sure. Waiting is rough. Most of mine have been first thing which is good and bad - good for not waiting, liquids etc, but bad for early rising.
Karen - you should have minimal pain, if it starts to ramp up, let the nurses know. When I came out of anesthesia, I had no pain - I was too busy trying to figure out why it looked like the clock said 10:35 (it's because it said 10:35 - my 8 to 10 hour surgery took 14 hours). I was not in pain, but I did not sleep much the first night, between the hourly check and residual whatever from surgery it was a pretty miserable night for me, but not due to the pain. I had an IV pain pump, but didn't use it that much, they really do leave a bunch of numbing meds inside of you when they finish up the surgery. At my revision, I got to hear my PS tell the OR nurse what stuff he wanted, there were a number of canes in there (Lidocane, etc...). Soon you'll be on the other side and things will hopefully go up from there. Best to you!
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Hello all. Just an update. I had BMX W immed DIEP on 4/23. I am two week post op today! Still have all 4 drains in but they will probobly come out within the next few days. I'm right at 30cc a day output. Hospital stay was awful, but not because of the surgery. Had horrid diareha and then a UTI, then thrush because of the massive antibiotics for the UTI. I have never been so glad to get home in my life!! Everything is all cleared up and I'm doing well here at home.The pain is manageable with Tylenol and Advil. Right now the worst part is mental. I am very aware of the border of numb and not numb across my chest. IIt feels like I have a rough rope tied around me. And although the Doc's say "Wow. Those look great. We're very happy!" It's hard not to burst into tears when I look in the mirror. If mine look good, I would hate to see bad ones! I am badly bruised on the R side. I keep telling myself that we aren't even close to done, but it's mentally harder than I thought it would be. I don't regret it for a second though. Nodes, 2 of 2, were clear, so I'm cancer free and don't need any addtl. treatment. And I know that eventually my body will feel like me again.
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Oh Doula, Hang in there, it is so hard to be patient but our bodies really are amazing and with time I hope you will see the changes you hope for. Great news about the nodes and no addtl treatment!! I do not have any advice about post-op, as my sgap is scheduled for one month from today. But I think you bring up an interesting point, as this is one of my biggest fears, waking up and thinking "after all this.. this is what i look like?" So many women here talk about their wonderful results, but I wonder if maybe there are some out there that would talk about how they looked and more importantly felt immediately after. I think hearing stories like that might help the rest of us. Anyone?
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Cookie Monster,
Do you mind if I ask, or maybe you could PM me if you don't mind sharing, why you had to have six surgeries? That makes me nervous. If you had complications, I'm so sorry to hear that.
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When I finally woke up and was able to actually see myself in the mirror I was not disappointed at all. I expected that there would be bruising, swelling and that my breast would resemble a patchwork quilt if you will. I got to say, they looked way better than my 2 lumpx looked post surgery. Once the swelling and bruising went down they looked even better. I still had residual fat under my arms and those dratted dog ears at the ends of my ab scar but all in all I thought things looked pretty good. After Stage 2, 10 months later, I had the excess underarm fat lipo'd, dog ears fixed and nipples built I, was a little concerned because one nipple was higher than the other but after 2-3 months they are now the same. I did have to have a reduction on one side to even things out but I am very happy with the results so far. I hope to Vinny do my nipples and then I'll be finished. I hated what I looked like prior to the DIEP so that probably helped that I came out looking whole again. My scars are fading fast and I really barely notice them anymore. My PS showed me several photos prior to my surgery of what to expect so I was prepared.
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Hi ladies, wondering what happens if you loose weight between Stage I & Stage II. Or after Stage II. Will your new breasts sag?
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If you lose weight between stage I and II that is great.. they will never sag as they are fat, not hormone driven breast tissue... they would just get smaller. My goal is to lose weight before my next stage II so they know exactly what needs revising. Imagine the fat in your belly... if you lose weight is shrinks and tightens... that s how the new boob would behave.
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Doula, it really does get better. Honestly, when I woke up from Stage 1, I was thrilled! But I'd had my MX three years earlier, so I had been flat on one side. To finally have something there...I was beyond thrilled! I had looked at so many photos so I was prepared for the scars, etc. Mine look so much like my old breasts (I'd had my healthy removed with the bilateral flap) that I really forget sometimes that they aren't- especially the right one where I never lived without one.
I'm home from Stage 2 and it went well. They called this morning and asked if we could come early as the PS was ahead of schedule. Thrilled about that! We headed up there, went in immediately and got all hooked up with the IV, etc. and off to the OR. I did have a general but it was such a short surgery- ended up being about an hour. They do day surgery here in another place and it was really nice. You have your own room and DH could wait there privately for me. Private bathroom and all. There is no "recovery room" there. They take you back to your room to wake up. Let me go home after about an hour. They had given me something for nausea in the IV so I felt fine. Even stopped and got some lunch to take home. Do have an Rx for pain meds. They gave me some before I left. Pain isn't bad at all but I will stay ahead of it for a few days if needed especially at night. Fell asleep when I got home for several hours. The bruising is already starting. PS said my tummy was flat before but now it's "like a teenager's". Not a bad day at all. I did get another Heparin shot and had the blood clot thingies on my legs for the surgery. -
Forgot to add- I leaked pretty bad. PS told me it was possible. By the I got home, panties, sweats and bottom of shirt were fairly wet.
Compression for two weeks. Shower tomorrow. Bath and pool in two weeks. Light activity for a few days but no restrictions.
And they let me wear panties during the surgery. if I'd known that, I wouldn't have gone with the granny panties I've been rocking since Stage 1. lol -
jenlee - I had a lumpectomy (LX), but didn't get clear margins and they found IDC in the middle of my DCIS, so then I had another LX and sentinel node biopsy (SNB), but still not clear margins, so we went for a third LX. Apparently DCIS can do this where it spreads throughout the breast here and there, not a continuous section of it, but one bit here then another there etc... When the third LX didn't get clear margins, BS and I decided that MX was the next step. So surgery #4 was UMX with immediate DIEP, 14 hours, but successful and all the nurses oohed and aahed about how great my breast looked - no bruising, great shape. Surgery #5 was reduction to the DIEP breast (I figured that as long as I was going through this I might as well get a better size - I was a G cup) plus revision to abdominal scar to remove dog ears on both sides. Surgery #6 is scheduled for July this year and it'll be a reduction and lift to the unaffected side so that they match once again. After that I'll eventually get a nipple on the DIEP breast and tatoo - I'd skip these two probably if I didn't have one that had them, but it makes sense to try to match them. So that's my saga. When all is said and done I'm sure it'll be at least a year from diagnosis. And still, I consider mysefl so very lucky as I did not need rads or chemo - perspective is everything.
Mary - I like the sound of the recovery/private room, that seems awesome, wish we had that where I'll be. OK, I have to ask, what did you leak? For me after stage II, when I got dressed I noticed some blood so the nurse put some gauze on it, then on the way to the car, my shirt felt wet and when I looked, it was covered in blood. So we went back to recovery and they paged the PS, he said it was normal, but he hadn't told any of US that. It was fine in the end, but disconcerting. I ended up going home in a hospital gown as my shirt was yucky and we had to pick up DS on the way home.
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It was mostly clear but then sometimes was pink so had some blood in it but not much. It came from the lipo. PS said it was normal and I've read about it on a thread here. Maybe the Stage 2 thread? Or NOLA thread? I don't post there because I didn't travel there, but I do lurk because there's a ton of info there too. I know I read about it somewhere so I was prepared for it.
The private room was really nice. As soon as you check in for surgery, they take you there and that is your room for as long as you are there. There was a recliner and two other chairs, so DH and my mom had somewhere comfy and private to wait. That is where they do all the prepping for surgery beforehand too. And there's a snack bar in the lobby, so they were able to have lunch while they waited. I'd never had day surgery there, so it was my first time with that area. Very impressed!
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I had the first stage of my DIEP in September 2011, and I will be having Stage 2 sometime this summer. One thing I'm wondering about.... I have an area that I believe contains fat necrosis. Can this be fixed surgically? I'm wondering if the 'fix' would make it worse? Visually things look good, you can't tell until you feel around the area.
Does this ever go away on its own? It's at the upper most part of the breast, at my chest. Can the Dr. do anything about this?
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LeesaAnn, that is one of the things I just had fixed on Monday. I had an area of fat necrosis too. I'm not sure exactly what he did there, but it's gone. I think he re-opened the incision in that spot. There are steri-strips on it again. I know he filled it in with fat grafting. I'm thinking he must have cut the necrosis out and filled it in with more fat. Anyway, it's gone and it's soft like the rest of the breast now. Sorry I can't tell you exactly what he did. I haven't had my followup yet. But it's definitely gone.
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I have some firm areas in the upper part but I haven't thought they were necrosis. I think they may be the sites of the positioning sutures to hold the flaps to the position and shape they need to be. They are firm but not like marble-hard, so that's mine. I don't have any incentive to mess with them. I would like to fill some divots and nip and tuck the larger flap but the firm bits I don't mind.
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I have a fairly large area of necrosis, an dhe worked on it at stage II but it needs more. What I was told, is that he was going to jet it, like reverse lipo, to try to break it up.
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I have some great news!!!! My DIEP is officially scheduled for July 5th in NOLA with DR's Massey and Sullivan!!!! I will be staying at Homewood Suites pre and post-op-all arrangements are made! Wow, now I'm feeling a bit nervous but excited!!!
katiejane
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Congrats Katiejane!!!! You are in the best hands.
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Thanks Downey!!! It almost doesn't seem possible!!!
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Congrats!!
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Thanks Betsy!!! Did you fly to NOLA? If so, did you book a one way or roundtrip ticket? I hate to book on a guess as to when I'll be released to fly home!
Thanks Katiejane
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I booked round trip and added a couple extra days just in case, but I also bought insurance for $15... the extra days were more for spending time in NOLA with my husband and less about just adding days...
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It's been pretty quiet around here lately. How are those of you with recent surgeries feeling? I hope you are recovering well. Those of you, like me, with upcoming surgeries, how are you faring? My boss said to me the other day how calm I am facing this huge surgery. I guess I am for the most part right now but I told him I may have to resort to valium or xanex right before because I know I'll be a nut case then. Otherwise, I am somewhat impatiently waiting to hear about any of my pre-opt tests/appointments. Probably everything will start happening very quickly then I'll be saying whoaaaaa, so fast! Hehehehe.
I've probably asked this before (but I guess I already am getting spacey)....how much help and for how long will I need it - after I come home? Still trying to get this all in place. I am not a person that likes to be hovered over so I am trying to balance everything.
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Dltnhm, Thank you for your response! I am planning to have Bilateral DIEP this August with Dr. Schechter so your information and advices are very helpful and I really appreciate it!
I hope you are doing better and good luck going forward! -
Hey there, friends. I'm in the two-week countdown for my bilat DIEP at Virginia Mason in Seattle. I had my pre-op visit yesterday and the surgeon seems confident that my abdominal surgery won't interfere with the flap harvest. I do have some discomfort behind the incision. I hope it's not a surgical hernia... not sure what would happen if that's the case. Fingers crossed it's just adhesions.
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