Infection TE after 7 weeks

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monkmarie
monkmarie Member Posts: 1
edited December 2015 in Breast Reconstruction

I had a double mastectomy Oct 5.  The left side had radiation back in 2003. The filling of expanders has been going well.  Yesterday my left breast is pink.  PS put me on 10 days of Bactrim. My question comes from all my reading.  Has anyone with previous radiation been able to keep the expander in place and have the infection cleared up?  Articles say that previously radiated tissue and muscle have compromised blood flow.From what I read they end up removing the expander.  Anyone's response would be so appreciated.  

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited December 2015

    Monkmarie, Sorry you are having trouble. There is no one answer for your question. If you think of the question on a spectrum from no troubles to removal from infection complicated by compromised post radiation tissue. Anything can happen. You made the PS aware. They put you on a broad spectrum antibiotic. The scenario needs to play it self out.

    I'll bring a wound care thread I did a lot of work on. The phase of the process you are in is observation of the site, temperature monitoring, and treatment. The thread has lot's of other info, sift through and use what you can. Good Luck.

    https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/44/topics/754935?page=1


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  • macb04
    macb04 Member Posts: 1,433
    edited December 2015

    Hi, I have had rads and now have implant. I had infection twice in the past, long story, but had tried to create a breast with fat grafting, took out the TE and had first infection after that. Then after my 4th fat grafting procedure I had another infection. I lost a lot of fat with each fat grafting procedure because the PS wasn't that experienced, and it is harder after rads. However I did manage to get to an A plus cup size with just my fat. Sooooo, switched to a new PS and decided to do another TE in April 2015. I had the TE put OVER my pectoral instead of under like I had before after the uni mx. I had terrible skin /muscle tightness, real miserable iron bra feeling so that is why I had My PS put the implant under my grafted fat, but over my pectoral muscle. So much more comfortable than under my pectoral like before. I have good coverage with the fat and no motion artifact when I flex my muscles,no ripples and pretty good cleavage. I also had a large number of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy sessions to help improve blood flow and healing after surgeries. That helped immensely. Before HBOT my skin was like boot leather, now it's nearly normal in appearance and texture. I was diagnosed with radiation fibrosis which qualified me for HBOT that my insurance paid for.

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/17486815

    Last thing to say is I get Intravenous Vitamin C (50 grams) at my Oncology trained Naturopath on the day after surgery, and sometimes even a couple more times in the week after surgery as I get infections that are not helped by whopping doses of antibiotics and I desperately don't want to wind up hospitalized with another severe infection. Been there, done that

    http://m.cmaj.ca/content/174/7/937.full

    http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2006/10/report_vitaminc/page-01


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