March 2015 Surgery Sisters

hummingbird,

Glad to hear from you! I didn't have TEs, was direct to implant, but yeah, having your muscles cut and stretched certainly adds some discomfort...lol. May you have a smooth recovery and get those drains out soon enough (even if they are there for a good reason right now!)

I am not dealing with nearly as much of the stuff as you ladies, in terms of worrying about pathologies and other treatments, are since my first surgery was all prophylactic, and this was all more cosmetic, and honestly first time around I had no problem adjusting to the new me....I think my relief at reducing my risk overtook all and I felt pretty good and positive...released from the cloud of anxiety I had. But after this surgery, I did have a couple down days about how things were looking despite logically knowing that it takes time, and I know the revision surgery might not resolve all issues 100%. It was peculiar as I certainly look 100x better this soon out of surgery than I did last time! Last time I looked like someone had beaten me in the chest with a bat, and my implants at first were up near my neck. Not pretty! But I was more curious than anything, and found the whole healimg process rather fascinating. No problem looking. I think this timemaybe it was a coming down from the GA combined with some life stresses and so on...because honestly I feel so great physically this time around, not at all like before, and also know I will get back to it as I did last time...so it really felt like a bit of a GA downer. I don't know.

Now for my own negative news, not directly related to surgery but it is related to why I did do this surgery...and this thread is my "main thread" at the moment...

For those who do not know, just days after my surgery in April of 2014, I found out my mother, who was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2005, had had a Metastastic recurrence. She went on a new AI (she was taking another AI at time) and they radiated her hip for pain relief. At that time, it only appeared to be in her hip. She had some pain relief, and her hip tumour appeared to shrink up a bit. Her next scans in October were positive. We were hopeful that things would stay somewhat quiet for a bit, though of course we were quite aware how fast things could turn (my grandmother, great grandmother, etc had all died of metastatic breast cancer so yeah, my mum is definitely keenly aware).

Anyway, oddly enough, I just found out today, days after my second surgery, my mother had has quite a bit of progression in last handful of months....in her hip but also a couple of spots have now shown up in her spine, ribs, and on her lungs (the latter which may or may not be mets, but they were not there in October). She starts oral chemo on Monday. She is pretty anxious about it...she had chemo (the infusion kind) at her original dx and it was difficult. She had to go to a standing workshop held every Friday last week (sad that they need a standing workshop for oral chemo, isn't it?) where they talked about oral chemo, and what precautions to take, etc. She said it felt like a Haz Mat class.

It's all so unfair. My mother is still active, busy, and pretty young IMO...57...and it is so déjà vu...both my mother and grandmother had their original diagnosis at 48, and a recurrence a few years later...my grandmother died at 59...and while we are still hopeful mum will see past that, this progression so soon and having to go on oral chemo so soon...already turning to the bigger guns that generally you want to wait to have to bring out...is very, very discouraging. I know women can have year with just bone mets, but it seems hers is not going to respond to the first response team of AIs (her hip tumour was still ER+, but obviously the Tamox and 2 AIs were not enough)

My husband and I are going to try and figure out a way to go out and see her soon, we live a couple provinces away now, so it's a decent 13-14 hour drive, but I'll try and get something figured out with my work schedule. My mum would have paid to fly me out, but my husband would really like to see her too - he was pretty shook up when she had her mets dx, he really likes my mum a lot - and flights are pricey...so we will drive. It's hard being far away, we moved here in 2009, but as I told my sister who still lives in our hometown today, it can be hard being close to for its own reasons.

Cancer f'ng sucks.

Thanks trail rose...I hope you are doing well

Mysunshine...

Yes, I went direct to implant in April 2014. I had an elective revision on March 12 2015 to switch to a different implant style.

To be clear, any time I have ever said my implants were high, this was in the context of explaining the drop and fluff process to people - my implants were ONLY high to start right out of surgery - this is due to the pectorals squeezing them, and it happens with TE/exchange as well...just like with augmentation, implants in reconstruction need time to drop and fluff. They settled into proper place within a few weeks to months, and were perfectly placed. I often report this experience to women who are worried about their implants looking high and square right out of surgery, be it direct to implant or exchange, to show that you need to give your implants time to settle into their pockets and proper homes. Their placement was not why I changed them. Indeed, they were perfectly placed once I healed up. I changed them as due to my thin skin, I had a bit more rippling than I liked on one side. That was not due to going direct to implant, but due to my already thin tissues, combined with the mastectomy itself leaving even thinner tissues, and the implants style. I did not "have" to have a second surgery, I chose to, but yes, just as with TEs and expanders, sometimes if you go direct you do go back for revisions. I likely would have had rippling even going TEs, as I likely would have tried the same implants.

My very much elective revision surgery was very easy and my recovery also very easy. I don't feel any worse off for going in for a revision, than if I had done TEs and still needed at least 2 and maybe more surgeries (I likely would have had still had rippling issues to try and address). And many are really one and done after direct to implant, I could have been but I was a bit picky . My recovery from the direct to implant went very well, the implants turned out pretty darn good, and I did not have to go through TEs and expanders. Even if I think of the first implants as "expanders" in the sense they were placeholders until I got my new implants, well, they were a heck of a lot more comfortable than it seems TEs are reported to be! So even with going in for a revision, I am still very happy I never did expanders...but I also never wanted to go bigger, if I did I would have needed expanders. I was a 30E before surgery, and remained a 30E after my first surgery. TEs did not make sense to me to use as I definitely did not want to go bigger

I've added you to the list canadiancampmama

The anxiety is understandable, though it will be over and you will be on the other side before you know it - don't hesitate to ask your doctor for some anti-anxiety meds or sleeping aids to get you through the next few days.

justamy....

Please take it easy! I hope the next few days pass quickly and uneventfully, and you can get those blasted TEs out on Thursday!