March 2014 Surgery
Comments
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Here are 3 pictures. I'm exactly 3 weeks out. The first picture is my front. I was filled with 200 cc during surgery. I haven't had any additional fills yet but might get one on Thursday. I think my incisions look pretty rough and scabby. I have no idea if this is normal. I seem to have a little extra triangle fat at the top of my left armpit, too.
The 2nd picture is my left, the side where they took 3 lymph nodes. There is a bruise at the bottom and a couple of raw spots. The scar is longer than on my right. The dark pink area above the incision was there day 2 and we've been watching it. It "blanches" when it is pressed so they aren't worried. The red blotches near my armpit are where the drains were.
The 3rd picture is a genie bra with the pads they came with. I look pre mastectomy size with it so I'll wear it to work next Monday. I have a feeling everyone will look at my boobs to see if I look different!
Deleted pictures when I saw myself on Google images :-0
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I did my drains except once when the VNA came...but I didn't have them for long.
Post lumpectomy/node & post BMX the surgeon took them out at day 6. I really thought they'd stay another couple days but he said he feels the longer they are in the greater risk of infection. ?
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SpecialK - My goodness, no wonder you know so much, from experience! Thank goodness for your DH, and yes you are so right that we are fortunate to have the support when others must deal with this without. For some reason when saying my vows "in sickness and in health" I had a strange aura come over me, I had no idea.
Makelemonade, sounds like great news for you - hurrah! (not the re-excision of course, but the staging)
Kitty62 - You look fantastic! Mine doesn't look nearly that good. Was surprised at the amount of drains that you have. I was filled with 200cc (UMX) but my scar has got the big old dog ear on the inside that looks terrible, with a big flap from the tube running across the top. Even though the PS says it all looks great, after seeing yours, I beg to differ. I still haven't looked at it straight on in the mirror, only down when taking a shower. I just can't bring myself to do it, maybe because it sure doesn't look good from above.
I've been pretty much doing my own drains too, it's really not that big of a deal. I may have DH help me strip them, only because I can't get that great of a grip.
Julie CC - Congrats for going back to work so soon. The Genie bra looks comfortable. Have you removed all gauze and pads and just using the Genie bra pads? I bought some cheap jogging bras from Walmart with hooks in the front, but those look more comfortable and supportive.
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Julie
thanks for sharing your pics. It helps. I didn't have recon. (still unsure if I will)
My cancer side scar 2.5 weeks post BMX is very light & thin, hardly anything, the 12 steri strips came off the last couple days. Prophy side still has the strips on, that had to be reincised & evacauted (filled with clots) so that looks a bit thicker pink.
After my lumpectomy in Aug I threw away all my bras & bought Genie bras. I am small flat chested before BMX, concave after LOL but bought Large & they fit great before surgery. I haven't attempted trying one on since my BMX, the swelling & discomfort under my arms is still bothersome. But those bras are what I plan to use to hold my FOOBS in!
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This is the surgical bra I woke up in the first time and all subsequent surgeries. It soft and has pockets with Velcro that attach under the band for the drains. I also received two similar ones from the American Cancer Society. That was a surprise. About a week after I filled in the paperwork, one of their volunteer counselors called me and asked for some measurements so she could send the right size. They look the same as the ones in this photo, just have hooks in the front instead of a zipper and no Velcro drain pockets. But they are comfortable and FREE! If you haven't contacted the American Cancer Society, please do. You can do it online if you don't have an office in your area. They mailed the bras to me right away and also included my favorite two heart shaped pillows which fit perfectly under each arm. I use the larger heart, given to me by my hospital in other places. It's just too big and too firm. In the photo I have the little pillows under each arm and the arms resting on my two pillows.
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Ok - I got the courage to post this - my concern are the two spots in the middle of my foobs - those aren't nips lol - they were redish pink and now dark
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frostecat - I also have the advantage of having a doctor and nurse for FIL/MIL, BIL is a doc and married to a nurse, and other SIL is also a nurse. Other BIL is a veterinarian, he came in handy when my son's girlfriend's dog found my old lady pill case (he had to look through my tote bag to find it!) and ate my aromatase inhibitor, the cholesterol med I used to be on, and all the supplements! I also worked in Transfusion Services, in the hospital where I had BMX, when I was diagnosed - so, had lots of exposure to patient care. Something that helps with drain stripping is to get the little alcohol wipes (about 1 1/2" square, in individual packets) from the pharmacy. Take one out and fold it around the drain tubing like a taco shell. When you run pressure from the drain exit to the bulb the alcohol wipe allows you to do it smoothly with no friction.
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Frostecat, I put in gauze off and on. I have had gauze on my left since yesterday when I noticed the tiny blood spots. Sandra, I also used little heartshaped pillows in the beginning. They were great!
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Linda, can you send a picture to your doctor? If you can't, maybe call and ask. My dark pink/red spots were explained to me as areas where there wasn't good blood flow. One resolved on it's own. The one you can see in the pictures above had a very dark spot that went away. Black can mean necrosis. Also any white areas would be concerning.
This is a really gross picture but the day after surgery, my dark pink area looked like this and they were very watchful of it. Do you see there is a white area with a very dark spot in the middle?
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Hi Julie - I didn't have a white area - just two areas that were red/pink - but that was a week after surgery when they removed the drains. Prior to that - my bandages hadn't been removed. The nurse removed the drains at the PS's office and commented on the spots that they would be watching but didn't tell me what to look out for. I don't have anywhere to send the photos but I have an appt with my PS on thursday. Maybe I will call them tomorrow and see if I can get in earlier. Thanks
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SpecialK, my husband was a career AF pilot so I know what you mean about being independent. For the first 17 years of his career, he flew C-130's which are designed for long distances. He would be away for several days or several weeks at a time. Twice a year, his whole squadron would leave for a two and a half month rotation in Central America, South America, or Europe. When you add it up, he was only home for about three and a half months a year. Wives have to grow up quickly and learn to be independent because everything goes wrong when they are away.
We've been married nearly 44 years and still get along great. When I had my brain stem stroke last year, he took over everything with no complaint. He says it's the least he can do because of all those years I had to raise children alone, move alone (5 out of 23 times!), and keep our home intact while he traveled the world and I was stuck in places like Valdosta, Georgia, Fayetteville, N.C. and Del Rio, Texas. (He did redeem himself by getting an accompanied assignment to Germany in the 80's and although I was still alone much of the time, I had the rest of Europe as a consolation prize.)
Mike has been to every single doctor's appointment since Jan. 2013, stroke rehab session, pre-admission appointment and even stays with me at night in the hospital when I need him too. He is in charge of drains, wound care, BP, temp, and meds at home. I haven't heard one complaint or even suspected that he was getting tired of it all. When I've told him how much I appreciate all he does for me, he says that he promised "for better or worse" and doesn't intend to go back on that promise. He's a wonderful man.
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Sandra, I'm happy you have such a wonderful husband!
Linda, it's worth a call. I swear I wish I had a nurse living with me to look at my incisions everyday! Whenever they would look at my dark pink spots (just the one dark pink spot now), they would push on it with their finger, saw that it turned skin colored for a second after releasing, then turn dark pink again. They said that was good. It's strange how it indicates less blood blow rather than more since it's pink/red.
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Sandra - we have much in common - my husband was B-52 aircrew, from the days when they still sat nuclear alert. Every third week they were gone for a week. He missed the entire last trimester of my firstborn's pregnancy at Air Command and Staff - made it home just in time for the birth, but was on alert for it - the whole crew came to the hospital. I had an extended labor - 42 hours and then a C-section, so he had to take them all out to lunch the next day to thank them for their patience! During the year that my dad was terminally ill and passed away, he was gone for the entire year at Air War College - that was a tough time, as I had two middle school age kids, and my dad was 3,000 miles away. I have bought and sold homes by myself, traveled around the world in military aircraft - sometimes without him, lived overseas by myself while he was stateside at a school or training. Add in the extended TDYs, other schools, and 12 years of flying very long missions - I know exactly what your life was like! I would not change a thing about our life together, and I am so proud of him. He continues to work at Special Operations Command here.
Here is a pic of us from last summer with our kids in Austria, and one from the Air War College Grad Ball, Class of '01.
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I know its after the fact for most of us but I'm curious how many had female vs male surgeons and if that has any influence on the recommendations (which seem all over the place from ace wraps, to bras, to drains, to putting something on incisions...) Both my BS and PS are females and I've had a good experience so far. Surgery was 3/26 and I have a follow up with the BS this Wednesday and one with the PS next Tuesday (at which I hope the drains come out!)
I went home in a surgical bra and was given two extra to take home. Im checking out the Genies today! I also had 100ccs in each expander but I've noticed one is filling out sideways like a football shape - so in anxious to show that to them for input!
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Hi Kelly I had a female BS and a male PS. I went home with one surgical bra and PS gave me another one when they took out the tubes. I had 50 cc's in each at surgery and was told to wear these bras everyday and night until he sees me on Thursday. I still have sutures which will be removed thursday and a film coating over them right now so was told do not put anything on them. I was not allowed to shower until the tubes were out.
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Kelly, my surgeon that did the mastectomies was a male. I only saw him a week after surgery and he said I'll see him once at the 6 month mark.
My Plastic surgeon is female and I think she has done a lot of reconstruction in her 19 years of practice. I'm happy she is female. She doesn't have me put anything on my incisions and said I could go braless. I will be seeing her a lot for fills and final reconstruction with implants.
I originally had a male Onc assigned to me but requested a female. I know I will be starting Tamoxifen and I don't really want to discuss things like vaginal dryness with a man! I meet with her for the first time tomorrow. Before surgery, I had met with the male oncologist and he didn't even know if I should get my Mirena IUD out or not. I'm happy I switched.
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Also, Kelly, have you joined the picture forum? Apparently a lot of women's expanders look wonky at various stages. Sometimes one is higher than the other and one is closer to the armpit. Sometimes they start off looking off, but after a couple of fills, they look more symmetrical. I'd still mention it to your PS. I had 200 cc on each side during surgery but no other fills yet. They look more symmetrical 3 weeks out than they did a few days out.
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I have a male BS, PS and MO. The MO has a female PA, who I have also seen on occasion. My BS steered me to the PS, because of the type of surgery I was having - skin and nipple sparing BMX. I wanted the PS that he felt was best for this procedure, gender did not matter. He steered me to the MO based on my diagnosis. I know he refers to female PS and MO because I have friends who have been treated by him and he has referred them to females, but it has been because of their area of expertise.
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Yes the alcohol wipes are what my dr told the nurses to use!
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My breast surgeon is female. I am not doing reconstruction, so I don't have a PS.
I woke up wrapped so tightly in an ace wrap I could hardly breathe! While it's not quite as tight anymore now, that's what I've been wrapped in for the last 2 weeks. 2 days ago I got some narrower ace wrap, and, instead of wrapping the wide hospital ace wrap over my good (right) shoulder to keep it from slipping down, I now have a piece of the narrower ace wrap pinned over each shoulder, and the wide hospital ace wrap is not slipping down nearly as much all day (and night). My BS wants me to still wear it, and told me I will need to continue wearing it for a bit longer (maybe another week) after she takes out the drain, to avoid more bleeding. Yesterday was the lowest amount of (dark red) blood in my drain so far, 52 ml, except for 5 days after my surgery (51 ml), right before the stabbing pain started, followed by fever spiking (101). I was put on antibiotics last week Sunday for that, which brought the fever down, but not the bleeding. Bleeding amount pretty much doubled that day (6 days post surgery), and, while it went down pretty quickly after starting antibiotics, it's been between 60-70 ml a day since then, except yesterday. Let's hope that continues so she agrees to take that stupid drain out tomorrow!
Thanks for the tip about the American Cancer Society. I'm going to check out their website right now and see if I can get a couple of special bras from them too!
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Linda
hey looking pretty good! I will not be sending a pic, no way...I just had the BMX no recon & I look like a starving 10 year old boy from a war camp with incisions. My little breast bone/sterum sticks out like a scrawny chicken & I am concave on the rest.
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SpecialK, small world! You have a beautiful family (and a VERY handsome husband) and yes, we share the bond of military wives. We started and ended in C-130's, but had a stint in Del Rio, TX as a T-37 instructor in the late 70's. They took Mike out of the cockpit after 17 years (all the sorties went to the young guns). He was Chief of Stan Eval and loved flying so he was disappointed. They sent us here to San Antonio and Mike became Deputy Commander for Basic Training for the USAF. (Like all those years as an aircraft commander prepared him for THAT! Not!) At 21 years he put his papers in. If they had let him be a guest IP at Randolph AFB and get a few hours a month, he would have been happy to stay, but they said his next assignment was either Iceland or Korea - unaccompanied. I said HELL no. We had a "surprise" child and I didn't want to go through single parenthood again. He agreed. So the year Mike retired (1991) our oldest went to college and our youngest started kindergarten. He had no interest in the airlines. Said he didn't want to be a "bus driver." Funny how life turns out. After college, we had to come into the military due to Viet Nam, but never intended to make it a career.
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Not only do TE's change their shape, but new implants do too. Just about the time you get worried because you are sure you shouldn't be seeing wide football shapes under the skin, they change. My new foob is going through a phase where I see a corner - two adjacent flat sides on one part of it. If I didn't know better, it would concern me.
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Oncologist is female. All the rest are male.
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Sandra - thanks! You both look great in your formal pic! My DH flew for 12 years, also did a StanEval stint, and then began staff work, we spent a lot of years at the Pentagon. He is currently a budget planning Dep. Director - he loves it though because he works with special forces. That whole "tip of the spear" thing. It was his last active duty job - they civilianized the billet to keep him in it as he was at 28 years. He was already active duty when I met him, but he joined the AF because he loved to fly - he had a pilot's license before a driver's license!
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My BS and PS are male. My post op nurse had me use hand sanitizer gel on my fingers to strip my drains, it worked very well. I'm sure there are other methods but that worked well for my husband when he stripped them. I only have 1 incision from where my nipple was down to the bottom of my breast, they must have really stretched the skin because I also had ALND and they removed 13 lymph nodes. I saw PS today everything looks great now on to radiation then reconstruction after that. Hope all surgeries went well today, can't wait to see how you did. If I get the nerve I will post picture of my mastectomy/implant.
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I had my surgery at the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery in NOLA, which is where I live. I'm very fortunate to live in a city that has a world renown breast center for surgery and reconstruction. I can't say enough about the care I received there!!! They have been great!
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My BS and MO are female. My PS is male. I LOVE him.
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My surgeon is female and PS is male. I love them both!
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Ok, so for some reason I'm getting really nervous about the idea of getting that darn drain removed tomorrow. My appointment is at 9:45 am.
I'm worried it will hurt really bad. I mean, it already hurts really bad while it's in there, so maybe it couldn't be much worse. But then again, it could be, if it gets moved (temporarily, while she's taking it out) in an even worse spot than it already is. Can't really take any pain meds before either, aside from homeopathic arnica (which I'm taking several times a day already).
Also worried about the hole left in my skin (where the tube now comes out) bleeding a lot afterward.
Would you wonderful ladies mind posting posting some of your experiences from when you got it taken out?
Thanks.
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