DIEP 2013

Blessings tomorrow, Cherrie on your stage 2.... Will be thinking of you all day.....and anxious to hear how you are doing afterwards.......(((Hugs)))



Namaste and God bless - Jackie

Thank you all for the comments on the softness if the new girls. I have a hard spot on my left side and I'm hoping it will get softer.

My PS told me I could start sleeping on my side a week after surgery. It does happen much because it kind of hurts, so I stay on my back and tilt a little towards the side. After I came home I never had to use anything under my legs. My stomach incision doesn't really bother me laying down.

I've been applying Aquaphore to the tummy incision since the nurse told me it would help with the itchiness and softening the scar and I have to say she was so right! So just throwing it out there!

Good morning - 

MartyJ - I think I read on one of your older posts, that you don't miss your old boobs once they're gone. Is that true? I'm five weeks away from DIEP and woke up this morning with serious anxiety. I have one lovely breast, and one picasso breast, but I was looking at them this morning and I just started sobbing. I don't want them to change, and I don't want to be niple-less. I'm a total baby today. Feeling terrified. But I couldn't find your old post - and today I'm just looking for reassurance.

HHCats - I hope you're feeling better. I don't think you're a 'fraud' at all. It seems like treamtent/surgery/meltdowns are all inevitable, it just the order that changes. I had my emotional rollercoaster last summer, following radiation. Took me a while to put the new me into my life and I had to completely fally apart before I could piece myself back together. 

I'm in awe of you - as well as the other women with young kids. Think of the road you've already traveled. The fact that you've come this far, so quickly, is fantastic. Sometimes you just need to arm yourself with different tools to travel the next leg of the road.

Here's a general quesitons about compression garments. In what section of a department store would I find them? Nihahi - I laughed out loud when you said that our $24 stuff would be $5 in the US. So true. Maybe I need a little cross border shopping.

I hope that everyone is resting, and healing. Thinking if Cherrie today.

Janet

In most stores I would think you would find compression garments in the lingerie department.

Morning everyone..

Kuka...defo the incisions, once healed, need moisturizing of some kind. Helps with itching, good time to do massaging, and helps keep scars soft, so they can stretch out and flatten. I use Glaxal base, easily found, reasonably priced, keeps skin moisturized for hours. Used it with my burn patients for years. When I got the OK from my surgeon to start "lubing the body", I thought I'd splurge and try some Bio-Oil....ended up reacting to it. NOT fun to add an itchy rash to a tender tummy! 

Fredntan.....you get the first chuckle of the day nod from me!!!! "Loud vibrator hidden in your bedsheets"....so funny. Boy, for someone who has suffered so much with sinus pain...you are a trooper! I've never heard of pitalyo....sounds like an interesting concept! Hope you realize that honouring your individual body "needs" is actually a very wise and recommended way of approaching any exercise. I've done yoga for years....the teachers I most respect are the ones who remind you to "accept and respect" what you can do. Doesn't mean you don't strive to improve, means each day, we're at a "different place". 

Man....I'd be terrified to eat wild mushrooms! We find them all the time while hiking in the fall, even photograph some of them, they are so fascinating when you really look at them, but eat them....nooooooo thanks! So smart to go with a pro....around here though, we won't see them for a few months!!!!

JanetM....hugs going out to you. You are allowed your meltdowns and feelings of loss. You are not a baby, you are a woman in a tough fight!!!!! After my mx and chemo (with young kids) all those years ago....I competely fell apart and into a significant depression. I think I spent so much energy getting through everything and "not letting it affect the kids/hubby" too much, that I had nothing left to help myself get "sorted out". I can so identify with the "had to hit bottom before I could start to find new normal". At about your Diep timeline, I had my pre-surgery meltdown. Started with anxiety issues, seemingly "out of nowhere". Just woke up completely terrified one day. My family doc wrote me a rx for Ativan.....did the trick for me. Didn't need to take it often, major help when I needed it. Get some med help if you don't have it already. My heart goes out to you. Stick with us, you're gonna get through this, and then get on with a great life. ooooh, shapers, compression garments, etc.....look in the lingerie section of any store. They're part of the bra, panty, etc. family.

Lunch today with my condo golf ladies....I'm not there, but hoping to golf again in a few weeks. I see my surgeon next week, and am hoping he says....go do what you want to do. At least this year, I'll have a good excuse for watching those little white balls sail into the trees/water/sand/farmer's field....you get the picture. I'm not good, but I sure have fun....another way to play outdoors for me! Any other golfers amongst the veterans....advice?????

Janet - after 28 years, I have no memory of my original girls except that they were big for a little girl (32DD on a 5'3" woman) and not easily hidden.  They did draw a lot of attention.  It has been 14 years since I had the first implants changed out.  I have only vague memories of what they were like, but I do remember they were better than the 2nd set. Because my PS was out of town, I had to take photos for her pre-DIEP and then weekly after for 6 weeks.  I took another set pre-Stage 2 and have sent photos weekly.  When I looked at the pre-DIEP photos of the implants with capsular constricture, I was shocked at how misshappen they were.  And how odd looking.  So, as humans, we have a remarkable ability to block/forget what we need to forget.  You won't miss your boobs.  In another year when you are done with all this "work" you will really not remember the old girls as anything but something that tried to kill you.  

Thanks for your replies. I really need to hear that stuff today. I woke up this moring seized with panic. I'm trying so hard to embrace the idea, and even though I chose this route, and it's inevitable, today I feel like a lamb being led to slaughter. Hopefully it's just a bad headspace day, and these feelings will pass. Damn.

MartyJ - On a lighter note, I'm suprised to hear that you're 5'3". You have a big presence so I just assumed that you would tower over me (I'm 5'6"). I'll have to readjust my visual. 

Janet

Hello All

I'm still hanging in there.  Just trying to take it one day at a time.  Focusing on all the positives in my situation as much as I can.  I heard back from the Peer Support people at the Canadian Cancer society - so that is a step in the right direction.  I have my surgical follow-up next Tuesday and I'm hoping it all goes OK.

More soon.

Robin

JanetM--  I pretty much am going through some of the sense of loss and alternate between mixed feelings about the boobs, but I think I'm in a good happy mental place now.  Before BC, I had no issues with my boobs, I thought that they were perfect for me (and I really liked my cleavage). When I first was diagnosed, I was like "get rid of them, I won't miss them because they are trying to kill me quietly!".  I knew I would have anxiety attacks in the future about what-ifs if I kept either one of them.  I just knew that the BMX and DIEP were the choices for me.  Has it been easy to adjust?  Honestly, it's taken a while. I have the odd pieces of skin put there (mini-paddles) for the dopplar readings that were needed after the surgery.  I think I'll feel much better after Stage 2 when the PS gets rid of them (so I no longer have "windows" --as my hubby calls them).   I wear my old bras (yup, I fit into them!) and things still look the same when I wear clothes.  In a long winded-way, I think over time we will soon forget about the original boobs and slowly adjust to it like everything else that has come into life after BC.  Though I have to admit, I'm wavering between trying to see if I can get some of that awesome clevage back with the PS. 

Cherrie-- thinking of you today and check in with us when you feel up for it!

As for belly buttons -- I honestly don't know if mine's is the original one or a new one, never thought to ask the PS.  I woke up with sutures/stitches all around it, and it's definitely a different shape than before.  However, I think it's probably the "cosmetically enhanced" version of my original one.

I have to say I love all you ladies. I am visiting my daughter in Knoxville, TN this week and I've read her some of your posts. I told her this is the strongest, most caring and considerate group of ladies I know. I would love to meet each one of you in person sometime. Wouldn't that be a fun thing to do? It would be like one giant slumber party. What a crazy time we'd have!



Thanks for the laughs, each of you are an inspiration to me.



Ann

Jackie - those hot pink shoes are going out to dinner tonight!!! With a narrow black sheath dress (of course I will have a wonderful support garment underneath).  Such fun!!!  Nihahi - got my 5K in today.  Nice walk, but with the compression acting like a sauna suit - lots of sweat!

I forgot to say that I'm in for the party!! Just tell me when and where😄

they have the las vegas thing in sept. I'm thinking of going to it. there is thread here somewhere about it. I want to party and dance and not care about anything.

HHcats-I tried spanx and it put horrible rash on my back. just isn't meant for constant wear.

My PS gave me the one I am in. other wise I would get mirena. I get to take it off for good may 3. appts all next week about my damn sinus pain

YAY Cherrie... and now the healing begins!!

sbelizabeth I was slide sleeping by six weeks, and I had a slow recovery. If the flaps have taken there is no harm in sleeping on your side. I wear a bra 24/7 and it helps for support, even sleeping.



I went to see PS for pre-op today and I really like this guy. He said that my rib pain was unusual, it has only happened a couple of other times in his experience. He said that the bone might take a couple of more months to heal and to do some upper body exercises as scar tissue may have attached where it shouldn't and I should try to get it to a *happier place." by exercise, Wasn't there some sort of mantra about going to your happy place? LOL. He listens to me and has answers, thank God. I told him to lipo me from my toes on up and he thought that was funny. I will only get lipo on stomach and flanks, though.



The count down begins again!