Charleston Bound, part 2

Beth,

I am so sorry about your flap loss. Dr Craigie is a highly skilled and warm hearted doctor, and will be with you every step of the way. You will have a great outcome in the end. Im sure Catie would be comforting and resourceful to talk to if you wish.



Please know many hearts go out to you. Blessings!

Beth, I am so sorry, I am sure you must have a mix of emotions right now. Take the time that you need to process it all,and please lean on us, anytime. We'll be there for you when you need us.

Beth, 

I am so sorry.  Sending you healing prayers.

Sandi

Hi, Deann, while not near your age, I have had a SGAP with Dr Kline and am very happy with the surgery and the surgeons. I was referred to Dr Kline by someone very near your age who had the surgery SGAP last year.



There are many ladies on this forum who have either had either one of the surgeries and are closer to your age, I wanted to welcome you though and hope you find the answers to your questions.



Dr Kline and staff are very compassionate and caring as well as great surgeons. While I was in the hospital having surgery many of the nurses would come in to my room and comment on what a great doctor I had. I hadn't even asked them when they volunteered this information. But, I already knew that they were pretty fantastic.



Welcome.

Hi everyone,I just wanted to touch base and let everyone know I was discharged from East Cooper earlier this afternoon, and just got back from a bit of beach therapy.  I feel reasonably decent considering the past few days.

Deann, I am 44, and just had bilateral stage 1 s-gap surgery last Friday with Dr. Craige as my main surgeon, Dr. Kline assisting, and Dr. Baron did the right mastectomy.  So I can tell you what I am experiencing as far as healing, and it's pretty fresh in my mind.  I was diagnosed in 2011 with a mixture of ILC and IDC on the left side, and finished all of my treatments in January 2012. 

Unfortunately, I happened to be in the 1% because my left flap failed after 3 days.  The nurses realized there was a problem when tthey were doing their 11pm shift change check.  They called Dr. Craige, and had me in operating room at 2 am, and Dr. Craige spent about 5 hours trying to save it.  I had an area in one of the veins that kept clotting, so it was just not meant to be. I'll be back in a few weeks to give DIEP a try for the left side. 

Deann, even though I had a flap failure, I don't regret the choices I made, so I hope I am not scaring you.  Please feel free to PM me and/or, I'll give you my cell number if you want to talk personally.

Take care,

Beth

bethcw, so great to hear from you, and in my opinion, beach therapy is the best kind of therapy there is. Thinking of you.

Beth,

Thanks for letting us know how you are doing. I got a smile knowing that after all you have been through you still managed to get in some beach therapy on the beautiful day there. Wishing you a good recovery and keep us posted on when you come back for DIEP.

Hi PinkHeart, all good questions....

I woke up with a compression garment on that had hook and eyes and zipper, it covered my thighs to just above the knees and went up to almost under my boobs. I was just given the one garment. You may want to ask Dr Kline about it though because he has different theories about compression, I was actually surprised to wake up with it on as I was told I wouldnt be needing it.( I think however he did more lipo than expected and that was why). At my post op he told me I did not have to wear it if it was uncomfortable, so we did not discuss length of time. I kind of like wearing it and the support it gives, so still wearing it during most days, will probably discontinue wearing it next week. I would however hate to wear it in the summer..too hot!   I did also purchase the Mareena, mostly so I could have an extra to swap out while laundering. The Mareena is nice.

I had fat lipoed from my lower abdomen area, my outer thighs and a little from my inner thighs, and muffin top area.  I have two marks on my backside upper buttock area so guess some was done there also. Honestly, I cannot see or tell a big difference in how I look or how clothes fit. I should probably go back and look at pictures to tell. If I did not need it for FG then I would not have it done. Dr K said he used every bit of fat that he took out he put back in. I haven't asked for my OR notes so not sure how much that was, he told me but I have forgotten. At  5 weeks all of my bruising was gone along with the soreness. The lipo spots are just like small puncture holes and no they are not painful, never really have been. The lipo holes look like they were closed up with just one stitch and they dissolved just recently.  It is my understanding that there are a few different methods of lipo, I imagine it depends on the patient and docs preference. I will be 6 weeks tomorow and finally feeling like I have my energy back, still not 100% but improving .As things look now,(but I know they will continue to change) I will need some more FG to fill in my armpit divot and a small dent in my cleavage area. My recon breast is still flatter and smaller than my natural breast but I am not sure how much can be done about that. Right now, I am happy with my results and will revisit all of this again in a few months. Hope this answered all your questions. Do you have an actual surgery date scheduled yet?

Beth, it was a pleasure spending time with you and Catie!  Please, drive safely or delay a day.  No added stress!

VERY well said *Cascader.  *Gma, I also agree with you about the "second baby."  I also get tired when people want to know why I would go through this again.  *Beth, Happy healing and comfort to you.

I'm trying to catch up on all the posts.  I been out of the loop.  Been on the road traveling for 1 week (four days at DisneyWorld with kids and grand kids.  Tiring, but a lot of fun.  

Beth, wonderful seeing you again today at the Drs. office, would have loved to chat longer but because I had a bit of pain in my donor leg, I needed to go to the hospital to see if it was a blood clot from surgery 2 weeks ago. I went, got an ultrasound and good news, no blood clot.



Beth, hope you didn't run into snow and your trip was easy on your donor site. Did you get a time frame for stage 1b? I got a month for my stage 2. April! Woo hoo!



My daughter is questioning me doing it 'so soon' , but heck, I want to finish this up as soon as possible. It will be a year in April since my first stage 1. And then she questioned why I would need nipples! I'm not sure where I am with that process but have not ruled it out even though it seems my daughter has deemed it unnecessary for me to even consider. I will probably bring someone else when it's that time!



On one hand they think its a drawn out process and then when I want to speed it up, it's too fast. Go figure!



Enjoy the weekend all!

gma10- I'm so glad you're doing well.   I feel the same way about just wanting to be through.   Here I am just 5+ weeks out from my stage 1 sgap, and I'm ready for stage 2.  Probably since I started this process a year ago with one of my diep flaps failing.   I'm looking at summer and can't wait. 

pinkheart- good luck with your job search!   I have faith that things will work out with a job and your surgeries.  

Sandi

Suwannee, I know you can do it! The hospital, East Cooper, is wonderful for us breast patients. The nursing staff is trained especially for what we need in those first few days after surgery. I think it's normal to be a little bit scared, I have been for all of my surgeries, after all it's not an every day occurrence for us and there are risks. However there are risks for everything. Just know you are normal! Like all of us. I would guess there isn't a one of us who hasn't felt exactly like you. And, the 23rd will be here before you know it. But you are also very brave.



I'm not too far from Wild Dunes, so maybe Marty will be available to pick me up and the two of us might be able to visit for a little bit. I leave on the 7th to go back home, so we should have some time after you get out of the hospital.



As for your mom, refer to what my daughter told me, they mean well and probably just don't want any extra angst on our part, but in the end, we have to do what we think is best for us. When I did my first surgery in April of 2012 my husband asked Dr Kline when could I do the next. He was rushing it in my mind. Now I'm rushing it in his! LOL!



I think this journey we are all on needs to be driven by our ability to cope with the next step in our own minds, not someone else's, no matter how close they are to us.



I certainly will keep you in prayer as well. Hope to see you soon.



Big Hugs



Catie

Sewanee, before my surgery I listened to "meditations for a successful surgery" by Belleruth Naperstek. It helped me so much in preparing myself and helped afterwards in the hospital while healing also. I downloaded the Cds onto my Iphone. There is also a good book called "prepare for surgery , heal faster" that I really like too. My library had them but Barnes and noble should too.

I too believe that things happen for a reason and "meant to be" . Back when i first started this process, on my 5 hr drive back home in a horrendous rain storm from the airport after my first consult with Dr Kline ,I was trying to process everything and was a bit overwhelmed with what to do ... Then suddenly a big semi truck came a bit too close and I nervously looked up and in HUGE bold letters on the side of truck said... KLINE... Now that was a sign lol
Good luck , you are going to do great. Thinking of you .

Thanks, Cascader!