Please tell me about life after DIEP...

I have experience with no reconstruction......implant........and finally Tram free (which is basically Diep....and many who say they had a Diep, are in fact, Tram free recons).

The flap recon is far away, in my opinion, the best option for a natural looking and feeling breast replacement.

You will find your best source of information and support on the active Diep thread. Feel free to post your questions there.

I'll be honest, at first it felt like I did indeed have "giant hunk(s) of fat hanging on my chest." It took a while for them to integrate and feel natural. Maybe some of that was psychological? There is numbness in the chest and belly that feels strange. Now they look great, the scarring has faded a lot, and the zings and twinges of nerve regeneration have stopped. It's a long recovery, but you end up with warm, soft, natural-looking breasts. I can rock a backless dress or a low-cut dress, and I wear only the lightest of support bras, if any. Silver linings where we can find them, right?

I had bmx and DIEP over a year ago and I agree with LAstar on numbness, sensitivity and recovery. You loose some sensation, but It's no big deal and it's totally worth it. I also had a great PS and never went back for stage 2 - didn't need to. The most important thing in my opinion is to make sure you trust the PS and they have a proven track record of success.

What is stage 2 of DIEP please?

Hammie...as you can see in my "history", I was a looooooong time out from my initial mx to my final flap recon, which is now 3 years in the past. I spent a lot of time on the 2013 thread and heard lots of feedback from women having recon at different stages of their tx. It seemed to me, that the immediate recon gals often had a more difficult emotional adjustment, since they went into surgery with "natural breasts" and woke up with "flap recon breasts". The fact that you are now "flat" might just make the transition easier for you....it did for me! The moment I woke up from the flap surgery, I knew it was a much better alternative than the implant....it just felt like me...not something artificial. I never once had the mental image of "hunk of tummy hanging off my chest".

You definitely want to go with a PS with lots of experience in doing microsurgery, because the venous/arterial connection is vital for successful outcome. You also need a surgeon you are comfortable with, and one who listens to you and your concerns.

My stage 2 was a lift and reduction. The incision went around the plug of skin in the middle. This plug was greatly reduced in size. Then there was an upside down T shaped incision on the lower side of the breast and along the crease under the breast. I think it's similar procedure to what a normal reduction is.

I think they only use an implant if you don't have enough tissue. If you are happy with the size you've achieved then there should not be a need for an implant.

Hammie, here's my diep experience:

I am five + years out from my diep (bilateral) and I am very happy with the outcome. My mx was skin-sparing, so I don't have the football-stitching scar lines that come when the tummy skin is used to form the breast shape. My nipples were formed surgically, followed by tattoos for color. Overall, the aesthetics are pretty good, with some scarring where my skin was scraped a bit too aggressively during the mx, and the skin died and was replaced by scar tissue.

The breasts move with me and are warm like natural breasts. They are much like a young woman's firm breasts--no sagging at all, like the ones I said goodbye to in the operating room! I'm 62 now, and I rarely wear a bra, because there's no need. I will say that the band of a bra does slightly irritate the underside of my breasts, where I have incision lines from the recon and where the natural ennervation was not disturbed. I find this feeling to be similar to the incision-area tenderness I have experienced long after other surgeries.

Lately, I'm starting to get some feeling in areas that were numb for the first five years or so. The area of tummy numbness is now minimal, and my breasts are starting to feel heavy--I can sense that I actually HAVE them, from feeling their weight on my chest, which I interpret to mean that ever so slowly, some nerve or sensory connections have been re-developing. I still cannot feel any touch on the skin of either breast (which does not bother me).

I have very mild lymphedema in one arm and armpit, stemming from removal of five lymph nodes on that side. I do find that in very hot weather, especially when I'm physically very active, my midriff tends to swell slightly on that same side. I suspect that the liposuction I had to harvest fat for the stage-two fat transfer disturbed my lymphatic capillaries just enough to make the area susceptible to minor swelling. To debiann's point, it's hard for me to imagine that these pretty-invasive flap recons don't increase lymphedema risk, and I know that Dr. Massey and some of her colleagues go to some great lengths during and after surgery to try to minimize that risk. That said, I believe the research suggests that BC patients who have delayed recon (of all types) tend to have reduced LE incidence compared to mx patients who choose no recon, because scar tissue from the mx is cleaned up, presumably opening some lymphatic pathways that encountered scar-tissue roadblocks.

I hope this helps in your deliberations about reconstruction.

Well it won't feel like before but much better than no reconstruction. I like the results the warmth and swishiness is there. Not all feeling is there. I have tighness around scar on abdemon. I can do treadmill and swim no problem

I had to wait about 5months after bmx to get the DIEP because of doctor schule.

I also had the 2nd part of surgery taking fat from my thighs to enhance my diep. I really didn't notice too much of a change. My diep was done in 2012 it probably could stand another fat transfer touch up.

Hammie, if you have enough belly fat and skin, and your radiated area is not up to par, your surgeon might chose to build the entire mound as mine did. I had significant hardened fat on my cancer side that had to be removed during the DIEP surgery. My surgeon used the term "carved away." I think it was cooked by the radiation. Anyway, once that was removed it was clear to him that the skin would have to go, too. So much for the skin-sparing mastectomies I had.

I also had a small scar on my lower belly from an ovary removal 15 years before. Luckily, it was so low that it didn't come near the area removed to make my new breasts. But I know what you mean about seeing the topography of your belly on your chest. Stretch marks from pregnancies and a couple of moles made the move upward, lol

I had my DIEP/TRAM Flap surgery on 9/27/2016 - 7 weeks ago. When I woke up from the BMX, I was surprised to look down and see the same skin around my new breasts that I had seen all of my life. They did a lollipop incision to conduct the BMX and then the flap was placed and the original skin (minus nipple) was wrapped around the flap. The circle of skin in the middle is the only part of the stomach skin that is visible, and it will look much different after the stage 2 and tattoos in January and March. The recovery is longer, and I have never been so tired. However, even at 7 weeks, I can say that the pain was manageable and my breasts look very natural. Last night I realized that my right breast is soft and squishy and looks and feels like a real breast. My left breast is still a bit hard and will be fixed during stage 2. I am very happy with the decision to have this surgery. Choose a plastic surgeon with a lot of experience as this is a surgery that requires skill and experience. Best of luck to you.

I’m 18 months out from mx & DIEP. Your breasts will gain and lose weight the same way your tummy did - the tissue has a memory. So if your tummy was the 1st place to gain/lose your breasts will now be the first place to gain/lose. Likewise if your tummy was the last place to gain/lose your breasts will now be the last place you gain/lose. A lot of issues like the boxy look, bloating in the upper abdomen, etc are resolved in stage 2 if you’ve chosen a PS who fully addresses the changes to your lower 1/2. With that comes pants fitting properly again. Choose your PS wisely based on his/her outcomes and what all he/she offers, not by whoever is closest or in network. I am thrilled with my results, can do everything I did before, look great in a skimpy bikini and would do it again in a heartbeat if I had to do it over. I went to NOLA for mine.