September 2014 Surgery Sisters

Hi,

I am on the same track as you are. I have 2 more weeks of taxol and then AC. I will be done in August. May I ask what type of reconstruction you have chosen? 

Hi everyone. You may have seen me around on other threads. I'm joining the September sisters because I finally got my surgery date, Sept. 19th. It was supposed to be in June (so I started the June sisters thread) but my PS cancelled all his elective surgeries for the summer. He is a specialist in reconstruction and works at Brooke Army Medical Center in the world famous Burn Unit there. Unfortunately there was an influx of soldiers burned in the war so he had to put off all of his patients who could wait. The new burn patients get priority, as it should be. He does breast cancer reconstruction as well for a select number of patients. My breast surgeon used to be assigned to the Burn Unit so he and Dr. Chan friends and were co-workers for a number of years. They like to do these "tag team" surgeries together whenever they have a patient like me. (I had a BMX with Direct to Permanent Implants.) It was a happy coincidence. My husband works in the Burn Unit, so it's really nice that my case was referred to Dr. Chan.

This will be surgery #5 for me and hopefully my last one. It's been a long year. My first surgery was August 23rd. It was a "one and done" surgery...no TE's...and took 8 1/2 hours. It went fine. I woke up after the bilateral mastectomy with a new set of "foobs" and in a quite tolerable amount of pain due to IV Tylenol. I had no narcotics or opiates. (I'm seriously allergic & have flat lined four times.) Unfortunately, some *&$@#* person in the OR was responsible for me "acquiring" a bad gram-positive bacterial infection. Within hours of surgery, and in spite of being on a prophylactic antibiotic, I was running a fever and one "foob" didn't look good. The antibiotic was changed three times over the next three days until they pulled out the "big guns", Vancomycin. It worked, the fever was gone in hours but the infection had done a lot of damage. I was in the hospital 7 days on IV Vancomycin and sent home with the IV and a home care nurse for another 7 days before returning to the hospital Sept. 6th for another surgery. I lost parts of three muscles on my side and under my arm, as well as all the skin and other soft tissue. There was no longer enough good skin to cover the implant on that side, so it was taken out and an empty TE put in. Several more weeks of IV Vanc and all signs of infection were gone. I was healing nicely. Fills on one side went fine and I had the exchange surgery (#3) December 6th. Damage on that side had it's second repair surgery as well. Pocket work was needed on both sides because the PS changed the kind of implants.

Three months ago in March I had surgery #4 to address the muscles which were quite short under my arm, on my side, and pulled across my pecs on the "bad" side, causing ripples. I had a lot of trouble with my shoulder because the remaining shortened muscles pulled, caused cramping, and limited my range of motion. Now I have a large "Z: incision from the front of my shoulder down to the side of the "foob".The new implant on the "bad" side had migrated down, so once again I needed more pocket work to try to make it fit better. The PS also did lipo on the "good" side mud flap.

Now in surgery #5, the PS will do some fat grafting to fix the skin and bones area under my arm and on my chest to fix the "divots." The implant on the "bad" side has migrated up this time, so again more pocket work and we may need to try another kind of implant, in which case the "good" side will be changed as well to match. The remaining mudflap will be removed too. That should be it. No nipples, no more surgery than is absolutely necessary. I'm ready for this to be over.

Glad to be here with you. We September Surgery Sisters have to stick together!

Hello ladies. It's nice to see a couple familiar names here. I'm due to finish chemo August 6 and expect to schedule a mastectomy about a month or so after that, so expecting a September surgery date. I have consultations with new BS and PS July 28. I'm hoping for straight to implant (I'm on the small side) rather than having tissue expanders, but they won't know for sure until they do the pathology during the surgery. 

My original breast surgeon said that if I did the mastectomy (I had three lumpectomies and still couldn't get clear margins, hence the upcoming mastectomy), I wouldn't need radiation. But I've seen quite a few women on this board who have done mastectomies AND radiation. Can I ask what your BS's explanation for that was? Thanks.

I'm in the September group too - TE swap and reduction on the other side.  There will be an end to all this i think - finally!

Date is September 17th.  PS is very nice young woman and great bedside manner. I look forward to getting past this milestone and swapping out this darn tissue expander!

Any others having surgery in Sept?

Yay! You have a date! Now you can breathe.

Welcome. You are brave doing a DIEP. I just watched a video of the surgery and I am amazed at how complicated it is. Yes, you will need help when you get home. Your husband just has to understand that you will be helpless for the first days or even the first week at home and his choices are to stay home and take care of you or hire someone to help. There are lots of home healthcare companies you can pay. Free? Nope. You're on your own there. Do you have children? Neighbors? What about friends? How are you going to get back and forth for check ups? You can't drive until you are off pain meds and the anesthetic has cleared your system. That can easily be two or three weeks.

You may not be in the hospital that long. Seems these days doctors and hospitals are doing "drive by" surgery, although with DIEP it will surely be two days. I've read reports from others who had DIEP that say they are allowed to go home the next day. There are lots of women who do less complicated breast surgery and are home within hours, even if they live hours away from the hospital. Pretty shocking to me. Apparently it has to do with insurance refusing to pay for another night in the hospital.

Hello everyone,

May I join your September surgery club? I am 47 and recently diagnosed with a large blob of high-grade DCIS in one breast and am scheduled for a unilateral mastectomy in early September. The diagnostic stage was a whirlwind so I am struggling a bit with this month-long wait until surgery can be performed - the idea of invasive cancer lurking in the DCIS, lymph nodes, and perhaps elsewhere is a constant torment. Of course I am very grateful that I still have the possibility of a DCIS-only final diagnosis, and have tremendous sympathy and compassion for those that know from the very first biopsy that the situation is more serious. The silver lining to this experience has been the remarkable open-hearted kindness and generosity I have encountered on this board, and in real life, from women that have walked in these shoes before me. The BC learning curve is hell on us poor innocent newbies! :~)

The other weird thing about my month-long wait is that I won't even meet my BS and PS until the day before surgery. I have consulted with another BS/PS in my city so already have a good idea of what is involved, but chose to have my surgery at Mayo because of their ability to do intraoperative pathology. Sadly they have a shortage of surgeons at the moment so there is no possibility of the BS/PS consult sooner. I guess the up-side of the month-long wait is that I have adequate time to research my surgery and reconstruction more thoroughly. I am planning immediate 2-step reconstruction with a TE/implant, but have a lot to learn about this process and how to stack the odds in my favor for a successful outcome. Also trying to prepare myself mentally/emotionally for how that path would change if invasive cancer is found along with the DCIS. I would love to gain access to the photo section at some point, hopefully in time to help me with planning for my surgery. I have seen a lot of photos online, but the majority of them are posted by plastic surgeons so it seems likely that they select photos of their most favorable outcomes versus an "average" outcome. I want to make sure that I go into this with optimism but also a realistic idea of what my likely outcome will be!

Add me to the list. 9/9 Exchange with Lift/Reduction. 

sandra4611:

Thanks so much for kind welcome and the extra links - I have read a few BC books cover-to-cover but not yet plumbed the full depth of what the boards have to offer. So will go through those threads ASAP. And I certainly didn't realize that I could get my own personal implant consult from whippetmom! That would be great as a starting point, and to have some kind of reference point against which to compare what the PS tells me. I definitely recognize the symmetry challenges posed by UMX, and am hoping to be a good candidate for an anatomical TE/implant because that would make the two a bit easier to match. I read your bio and my heart goes out to you with all of the medical issues you have endured, well apart from the BC and implant complications - you are one tough lady!

Mischief46:

Thanks for that reassurance! I assumed at first that this was an excessive and unusual wait time, so one of the first great things this board did for me was to help calm me down about that. Now I am glad about the extra time, as I have calmed down a good bit since initial diagnosis and am able to think more rationally about my various options.

Hi Everyone!   I saw BS/Surgeon yesterday and she confirmed that I have IDC but says they caught it early.  I'm very lucky since I hadn't had a mammogram since 2008.  My husband has had a lot of illness etc and I forgot the golden rule of taking care of myself too.  I've chosen lumpectomy/rads and my surgery date is September 25.  Of course by this morning I was second guessing myself and going back and forth but will stick with it.    I've been trying to keep it together but today I finally had a cry and feel better.  It's been a strange experience for me the past few weeks.... feeling angry at little things and then verge of tears but never crying.   I'm sure I will get nervous about surgery as date approaches and yet glad to have the bc removed and yet still worry and hope they don't find anything else!   Take care!

Ok, I'm scheduled for Sept 12th. Go in for marking with my PS on the 11th. 

Hi MarieJune!  Don't worry about being nervous, it's one thing to know it's coming and another thing to actually see a date on paper.  That's when you know it's Really happening!!😊. I wish I could say I never think about it coming back because I do, the possibility is always there in the back of my mind. I had a NSBMX in May and did not find the recovery to difficult.  Now the TEs are another story but they get better with time too.  They are just so hard and uncomfortable but hang in there and eventually everything loosens up and relaxes. Sounds as if you have a lot on your plate. But if appears you have a set plan. I wish you the best in these coming months and post away all of your questions and anxieties.  The women here know the road well and will gladly help you navigate your way.