DIEP 2015

Andrea623, if I have a swelly belly, I would not know because I am down one pant size from before my surgery. I do have a small pot belly, which I like, but I had a lot of extra fat above my bellybutton before the surgery to get pulled down.

I bought a bra today for comfort. It was a Warner that was on sale. The PS had said no squishy ones. My flaps are not being squished, but the bra is drawing in my sides against the flap. Very comfortable over no support.

My BFF was in town today and looked at all my incisions and gave them a high mark for healing, except for my dead bellybutton. She is a wound care expert, so I feel happy that I passed.

Let us all continue to heal!!

Andrea623,

My bellybutton didn't make it through the surgery. Turns out that some of the lapascopic surgery I had in the past had cut off the blood supply lower down and when the bellybutton was severed from my skin for the pull down, it lost the superficial blood supply and died. We are creating a new innie for me via secondary intension. So I have a hole where the dead tissue was cut out and it is healing from the bottom up.

Hi ladies.....just popping in to see how you all are doing. Interesting conversations here....and I recognize many of the questions/topics from earlier threads.

As a hoped for Diep that became a muscle sparing Tram, I can tell you that long term effects of losing that little sliver of muscle has been non existent for me. Still able to do all I was doing before, in an active lifestyle....no problemo. My personal opinion...if a doctor says he NEVER thinks tram vs diep is appropriate, then he/she is not willing to consider the "uniqueness" of each patient. Even if you have a "pure diep", your ab muscle is impacted. It should be what is the best surgery for YOU, not the docs reputation. There....venting done, SORRY.

Swelly belly seems to be a natural progression of the healing. Massaging the whole ab and sides of ab do seem to help reestablish the lymph drainage in the tummy area, as does.....T.I.M.E.

If you have an incision all the way around your belly button, you had the normal recon, which is to leave your "button" attached, but poke it through when the tummy skin is pulled down, and re-attach it to the new skin location. Actually, I don't think I've heard of severing it completely before....interesting.

Take care, all.....safe surgeries and gentle healing to you. Hope you don't mind my "two cents".

Andrea....I also went into flap recon surgery as my last chance for successful reconstruction. I talked about it ALOT with my PS, and we both reached agreement that flap "survival/success" was the primary goal. Although any kind of recon and any PS have the potential for both success and complications, statistics have shown that muscle sparing trams have a very slight edge over diep for flap survival, and a slightly less chance of fat necrosis developing. Diep is an absolutely wonderful type of recon, but having something different, even if something completely different, like implants....does not mean you have "settled for something substandard", if it turns out to be what "works for you", and lets you move on with life. (again, just my opinion).

hello everyone,

Has anyone heard of someone getting pregnant after a Diep flap? Does the skin around theabdomen just stretch out again?

thanks so much Morwenna! I will send a msg to pink jewel and perhaps start a new thread. I see my PS this Fri..

Slv - good luck tomorrow. Just show up and let your team take care of everything else!

slv58, all the luck in the world tomorrow. Everything will be great! Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. Keep us posted (:

Best of luck and a speedy recovery, SLV58!

SLV, good luck today!

LAstar, it's good to see you back! I'm glad to hear you're recovering ell and no swelly belly

Good Luck to you SLV.

Speedy recovery slv!!

Slv58, my thoughts are with you.

Wallegator, Friday 13th is only unlucky if you are a Knight Templar, so your doctors will do fine.

LAstar, your post came at just the right time for me. I'm at 26 days since surgery and I still need pain meds which made me feel discouraged. I'm going to go and take a pain med now and not feel like a wimp for needing one.

Let's keep on healing sisters.