DIEP 2014

Hi Sisters!

I feel like I have gone a couple rounds with a prize fighter, just sore all over. Pain and nausea has been well controlled. The nurses are in every hour to check my flap.

Yes, Dr. Saint-Cyr did build a nipple during this first surgery. I posted a picture on the picture forum. I look swollen and a little lumpy, and the new nipple with my areola seems depressed. They used skin sparing. He says that I will get projection from fat injections/lipo and everything tweaked at next surgery 3 months from now.

Thank you for being there through this process. I truly feel like you have been my life line during this long process. Your the best!

BellaMomma

Jeannie, you are blocking it out because you were miserable.  Ugh. Why does this all have to be so dreadful? I keep trying to have the attitude that there are women who actually choose to have plastic surgery, and lipo just for vanity, and I try to put myself in that place, but it never works. BTW...are the broken blood vessels gone on your foob after your last stage?

Bellamomma, when I woke up I had 6 drains...the ones to the breasts stopped putting out much very quickly. By the time I left the hospital, I only had 4, and within a few days, I only had 2...both to the abdomen. Now, at 2 plus weeks out, I only have 1 drain, but it is still putting out, so I guess I am stuck with it for a little while.

Ladies, when you have lipo, do you get drains?...and, really, this is the first I am hearing about the pain...sigh...  : )

Sunone, you are making the right decision, in my opinion.  Look how many times you have dealt with DCIS already.  With the DIEP you will be done, no more worried, or very little.

Welcome, and I hope you stick around through your surgery, and keep us posted on your progress.

I am having a DMX and hopefully DIEP on March 18 at Mayo. My PS is Dr. Boughey and my PS is Dr Saint-Cyr. I was diagnosed two weeks ago with bi-lateral BC with 3 different types. Right breast DCIS and ILC on left breast IDC (musinous) all less than 1 CM. I am 54 with no family history of BC.  I was at Mayo last week for tests, one lymph node on the left was suspicious from ultrasound so I has a needle biopsy and it was negative. They told me it could be false negative. The plan is to have the DMX and remove the sentinel nodes, biopsy them during surgery and if negative to go ahead with DIEP. There were differing opinions about having immediate reconstruction so I hope I am making a good decision. I live in Montana so travel is an issue for me. I have read all of your wonderful posts and it has been so helpful!

bella- It was hard to walk at first but I got moving the next day, from the bed to the bathroom.  I worked my way up to walking from the back of the house to the front.  At about two weeks I was able to walk down the block and back. Some people are able to walk more sooner, it justdepends on the person.

I had lipo of flanks, inner thigh, outer thigh, inner knees (all in one surgery). I have also had under arms, lat area and back of flanks in subsequent surgeries. It definitely has made a difference in clothes. And I was given compression garments (as Marty described) for 2 weeks 24/7 and then another 4 weeks during the day. I did not wear Spanx, but wore Marena after my drains came out and could switch to zipperless compression.

Cuz of the end result!  Really.  Between DIEP and flank lipo things fit differently and better.  Though I must say that I have not gone down by sizes like Betsy.  At best I am down 1 size, but bounce a bit.  My weight is still the same as before all surgeries (and she took 2.5 liters of fat from the flanks and 4 lbs of implants).  Still trying to figure that out, but I am hoping it is muscle as I work out much more now than I ever did before.  The lipo will be just a passing pain - maybe a week - and then you are simply looking back.  After my last procedure, I got so tired of meeting my wonderful doc in the OR that I cancelled my March nips.  May try to get back on schedule, but I kept hearing about having the headlights on all the time and that scared me.  I didn't wear a bra for 28 years and this bra stuff is really new to me.  Now I wear some days and not on others.  Worried about nips interfering with life.  Ah, decisions.

Bellamomma

I have been following your posts and I am so glad you are doing well and liked Dr Saint-Cyr! I can't wait to have the surgery over with, kind of nervous about all of it! I have been saying the mantra of "you just have to show up!" Have you heard anything about Dr. Boughey? I actually had another surgeon scheduled but I didn't get a good feeling after my first consult so I asked to change. I met with Dr. Saint-Cyr and loved him! I hope you feel stronger every day and that you get to go home soon! 

Thanks jmb.  Good to know.

Bell. Good to hear you are coming along so well.

The wonderful people on this site have been so helpful to me during this difficult time, I wanted to share some of my story, hoping I can help someone else. I had a very difficult time choosing between diep or implants. I think the fact that I had cancer was so overwhelming that I really didn't want to make a decision on reconstruction. Finally, I decided on diep. I was really nervous about the recovery involved in diep, after 2 c-sections, I knew the stomach incision would make overall recovery even more difficult. I really think the confidence my PS Dr. Deutsch in Atlanta had, played a part in my final decision. My recovery is going well. The worst was when I started vomiting the third night in the hospital, that hurt a lot. My body does not like a lot of medication. Make sure you tell the nurses or doctor if you start to feel nausea, make them try to find something to help you. I stopped the pain meds as soon as I left the next morning. This is not something I recommend, for me the pain was easier to take than nausea. I continued all other necessary meds. I am 2 months out of surgery and feel great. It took about 6-7 weeks before my stomach incision felt okay with normal pants. I tend to wear camisoles tucked in so pants won't rub all day. One arm, the same side I had lymph nodes removed from is still not as flexible as the other. It seems to be about 2-3 weeks behind the other in recovery.

As for my new breasts, they are still a work in progress. However, I am amazed at how natural they look. I still have some areas off the breast that feel hard, my PS has told me to continue to massage. He has been right about everything else so far, so I will continue to massage. After surgery, I was very concerned about one side, it was very bruised looking and the incision didn't look good. Dr. Deutsch reassured me (again) that it would be okay, we just needed to give it time to heal. Again, he was right, it looks so much better now. A small amount of dead tissue had to be removed in the office and I had to pack the wound for a couple weeks. This was a bit yucky, but not a big deal. It have since healed and it looks so much better. My stomach looks amazing. Yes, there is a big scar that will never go away, but I haven't worn a bikini in 20 years and have no intention on starting now. 

I am looking forward to phase II, we are going to schedule that on my next visit. Looking back, I don't think I asked as many questions about DIEP as I should have. It seems, I was more obsessed about the cancer (of course). But I am happy with everything. Everyone at Perimeter Plastic Surgery has been amazing. I receive a response to every question or concern I have and I am thankful for them. 

I apologize for the length of my post, but as I stated in the beginning, these posts have been so helpful, I hopes this helps someone else.

Thank you to everyone that has helped me through this!!

Hello, I'm back...after finally accepting I had to postpone my DIEP and have a hysterectomy I'm back on track.  Hysterectomy was a week ago and I'm feeling ok but siatic nerves are killing me. Just found out through some message boards with women who've had hysterectomies that this is a common side effect of laproscopic hysterectomies. Just my luck. Now I get to endure back and leg pain. Good news is ovarian mass was benign. I've tentatively rescheduled my DIEP for beginning of April.  I still need to lose about 15 lbs.  Wish me luck. Now I can't even exercise. Enough complaining, as you all know, you just want to get back to a normal life without continued hurdles in your way. After reading back through some postings I hope everyone is doing well and recovering well from your surgeries. Hope to be more of a regular over the next several months. JMB, hoping things went well at Cleveland Clinic for you.

Good to hear from you Rachel.....I was an "April flapper" too....it's a good time to have the surgery. Winter is over, spring is coming....it is the season of "renewal and rebirth"!!! If you can't exercise much, you can always focus on your nutrition.....it'll help with weight loss and help get your body ready for surgery. Hopefully the sciatica passes quickly. Is your dr aware of it? Maybe they can recommend meds or therapy to help ease your discomfort.

I want to thank you all for sharing your experiences going through this process.

Can someone tell me what, typically, stage 2 consists of? I have heard that "shaping" can happen then, how do they do shaping?