Anyone had a successful reconstruction with implant after rads?

Leslie13 - currently there is no imaging techinques available to predict the tissue damage from rads.

I had TE in place during rads and I was overfilled on the rads side. I had some redness after rads and I thought I had minimal damage from rads. But after the implants were palaced the radiated side never dropped and just looked different. I am going tomorrow to discuss revision. I dislike the flaps because of the long recovery time (I have a 4yo and flap would be my last resort). I am going to give the revision a try before I go on to a flap surgery. I have seen some flap surgeries and some of them don't look any better than my radiated implant, so in my opinion it all depends. So you just ave to weigh your options in your particular situation. I don't think smething could go wrong down the line, if anything would go wrong (healing wise) it would happen right away. But a lot of the PS dislike implants after radiation since patients don't like the cosmetic result. And based onthe studies women are happier with flap surgeries, but who knows maybe they just like the tummytucks. Good luck with your descicion!

My timeline was a little weird because I started with a lumpectomy that did not get clear margins. So then I had chemo, then mastectomy, then rads, then expander placement.

I waited 9 months with a concave no expander chest. When I got my expanders placed, the right radiated side had gotten back to pretty good condition. Still very discolored though. My expander on that rads side was very sore. I compared it at the time to feeling like I was being tasered. My expander was actually twisting for some reason. It was pretty painful at the time, but it eventually got better. I just had my exchange in December. It went well, and both side look pretty good. No abnormal pain issues. I am happy to have it done....Finally. now just trying to decide.on nipples. I am happy I didn't have to do the flap. That was freaking me out.

Hello to another mother of four!

I had implants placed after rads. we waited six months after last rad to do the surgery. That was in April so I am eight months from that. Both my plastic surgeon and my radiation oncologist are pleased with the results. I am too

For what it's worth, I live near Memorial Sloan Kettering but chose not to have surgery or chemo there. I did have my rads there though because it was SO close to home it just made sense. Standard of care at MSK is to NOT do surgery on radiated tissue - so if I had had my treatment there I would not have been able to do the exchange after rads. BUT - my MSK radiation doc said, at my one year post rads visit, that my results were some of the best she's ever seen! My PS blushed when I told him that.

My only point being - just because it's a big-bad-awesome-cancer center, doesn't mean it's always right.

I would think, too, that if your exchange is done in March, you should be good to go in July.... though I still don't have my nipples.... but that's just the icing on the cake (so to speak).... depending on what you want to do there (tattoos or surgical nipples).

Good luck!

Please forgive me for jumping in here, because this is all pretty new to me. Has anyone on here first had a double mastectomy with the tight skin, 10 year old boy" look, had treatment and radiation, and later been able to have reconstruction of any sort? I initially didn't want recon, but now I'm thinking I might. Thanks so much!