Revision #5, and a cold? Supplements reduce swelling/scarring?

I have had problems recovering after implant reconstruction /fat grafting ect. I have had nnumerous surgeries in the past 2 plus years. I had rads and had rad fibrosis making healing a big problem. I get Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy to help with healing after surgery. Is there any wound care centers near you,? I also see a Naturopath and get Intravenous Vitamin C during surgery, and two to three times in the week after surgery. Surgery depletes your Vitamin C, and Vitamin C is crucial to strength of wound healing and collagen formation. The amount of Vitamin C you have is extremely, extremely low, barely enough to avoid scurvy. When I get IV Vitamin C, I get 50 grams at one session. Please, please increase your Vitamin C intake. Remember it is a water soluble vitamin and thus can NOT ever be toxic unless you have bowel/kidney disfunction. You should titrate your Vitamin C intake to bowel tolerance. This means to take it till you get loose stools, then the next day back off your dosage by about one gram. Continue at that dosage level daily until you start to get loose stools again. As your health andhealing progress, the amount of Vitamin C you need will decrease, thus the amount you can take before you get loose stools will likewise decrease. When I started to markedly increase my Vitamin C levels after surgery, like my Naturopath recommended, my healing problems went away.

Good luck and may you be blessed with wonderful healing the next time, resulting in beautiful sucess.

happyteacher - sorry for your struggle to reconstruct, I feel your pain - it has been a long road fraught with complications for me as well. There are several things in your post that I wanted to respond to. Not sure why a pre-surgical antibiotic is frowned upon - my new plastic surgeon routinely does this for her complicated patients. I have taken a pre-surgical antibiotic starting a week before (even though I have never had an infection) both times I have been to surgery with her because I have had healing issues, she is being proactive so as not to introduce yet another issue. I also receive pre-op antibiotics day of surgery, and take them post surgically as well. Depending on whether you have a cold or a sinus infection, antibiotics may, or may not, help. A cold is a virus, so there will be no effect, but a sinus infection would require them to treat it. I have had my left implant removed, and it was out for 18 months, but I have recently had a new expander placed after two fat grafts to try to strengthen the frail skin on my left side. So far, so good. Did you have a specific question regarding implant removal? I have taken zinc and bromelaine in an attempt to assist my skin in healing - also consumed 100g of protein a day - but none of this helped. I know a number of PS do use arnica, but for patients after routine procedures - I don't personally know of any success stories with supplementation for those of us with challenges. I am concerned about steroid use after surgery - steroids are a healing inhibitor, I would not use them with compromised skin or a healing problem. I had a serious allergic reaction to antibiotics given during my BMX, my former PS was against giving them, but the BS insisted. I ended up with non-healing skin issues directly afterward - this is what has complicated my reconstruction to present day. I have heard of using Singulair, but not for swelling, for capsular contracture/scarring. Wishing you the best, and hope this time things work out for you.

How are you doing now? Did your sinus thing improve? Sinuses are very poorly perfused, so the antibiotics can not easily can in there to kill the bacteria. The ENT I know always says to steam, steam steam your sinuses to encourage increased circulation to the sinus area. It is old fashioned, but it really does work. Oral dcongestants are also a big help, in combination with steaming, but only if used morning and early afternoon to avoid possible wakefulness.

3 grams a day of C is considered by most reputable scientists to be a megadose. The “anti-scurvy” dose is basically the amount in one orange or the juice of a lemon or lime--about 50-100 mg. Anything higher than 10-12 gm/day is likely to result only in very expensive pee. And the original poster doesn’t have cancer (she says the bmx was prophylactic)--but in the case of cancer patients (especially during rads or chemo), that high a dose of an antioxidant can prevent free radicals produced by these treatments from destroying cancer cells--it may protect them and even promote their mitosis.

Sounds like you are kickn along well now, glad to hear that the infection is in retreat. I used supplements too which helped markedly with decreasing drainage. Some doctors tell you about them, but most don't. I would get infections with the many surgeries I have had, and the antibiotics were not enough, so I got IV Vitamin C. This last time I had an infection and the two antibiotics, Doxycyline and Cipro weren't working that well, my fever wouldn't stay down while on it, so I got IV VitaminC. Yes, I know that some of that Vitamin C was excreted in my urine, but I also know that my fevers stopped that night and never came back. I have a great deal of company worldwide using large doses of oral and IV Vitamin C to kill infections(like mine) and to kill cancer. My story is an example of what happens when antibiotic resistence occurs, without IV Vitamin C I would likely have been hospitalized or dead. Thank goodness there is such a helpful treatment available for people like me, in the future there will be more and more people like me, with seemingly simple infections without any antibiotics available to help them.

happyteacher - sorry to hear about the infection but glad to hear things are progressing.