May 2016 Surgeries

grandma - so happy for you! Glad you docs got on this quickly and could get you some answers!

Home from surgery - sore, but glad to have this behind me now. My PS was reasonably happy with the outcome and Iam now de-ported!

grandma - thanks, I hope so too.

Happy healthy recovery SpecialK!

Great news, Special K! Hope it's a speedy and complication-free recovery! It must feel so great to be on the home stretch!

Oh what a relief Grandma!!! I'm so glad.

Special K, enjoy your port-free body. Hopefully you'll never need it again.

SpecialK - So glad to hear your surgery went well & PS is pleased. Happy healing & congrats on being de-ported!!

Midwest, the Escape Room thing was fun - but chaotic! There were 10 of us in our group - 6 kids and 4 adults - and as soon as we got in the room all the kids scattered in different directions and things got really loud and crazy. We weren't able to solve the mystery in an hour but that was mostly because we didn't all work together and some of the clues were REALLY obscure. For example, one of the clues led us to a black light flashlight. OK, obviously that means we need to find a secret message, which we did - found a picture that had the name "Maria" on it twice. Ultimately, we were supposed to then use that name on our phone keypads to get the numbers that correspond to the letters "m-a-r-i-a" to use as a combination on a lock - except that there was no clue hinting that we needed to take that step with the phones! Not exactly sure how we were supposed to make that leap, but if I ever do another one (and my husband and kids would like to, so that we can work together as a team) then I'll be on the lookout for that kind of stuff. Bottom line - it was fun and I'd recommend it, but pick one of the easier rooms!

Recovery is going well - slow, but sure. The pain in my abdomen from the donor site for the grafting is now manageable as long as I keep wearing the spanx/girdles. I went to bed without one the other night because I was just sick of having something tight on me and was very sore again the next morning, so learned that lesson the hard way. I asked the PS how long I had to wear it and he kind of just shrugged his shoulders. Helpful! I guess when I get to the point where I'm not sore anymore when I take it off then I'll be able to stop wearing it; best I can figure! He did remove the drain on Monday and I have one more follow-up appointment scheduled with him again next Monday to make sure there's no further build-up of fluids (and so far, so good) then it's just another waiting game to see if the grafting "takes" and schedule the TE replacement surgery. Thanks for asking!

There is a lot of variety on wearing compression garments - some PS do not use them at all, my first PS was adamant that it be worn for 8 weeks 24/7, except for while in the shower. I just had fat grafting as part of yesterday's surgery and received no instructions on wearing compression. I will do it anyway because I feel it does provide benefit.

Thanks all for the well wishes - I am feeling hungover from the anesthesia, but not too uncomfortable otherwise. I am pretty heavily bandaged so can't tell how things look, but I will be satisfied regardless. the PS indicated that she was happy and that there was improvement, so that is all I can ask for at this point.

moreshoes - I wonder if you had a little seroma that resolved and caused a dent. I would definitely ask about having a small fat graft to fill it in.

GreyKat, that's awesome about both your PT and OT! My best friend is an OT and that sounds exactly like something she would do - it takes a very special person to be in that profession, someone who really puts the patients first, and it sounds like you've really lucked out. And IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!!! You deserve it!

greykat - totally agree about going back to PT after exchange. When I exchanged the first time I had been treated for lymphedema already and was done with the program. My gyn NP (who had also had a BMX) insisted I return to PT after surgery, and wrote that prescription herself before I even went to exchange. It allows some control over backsliding and maintains the progress to date

greykat - I had expanders placed initially in Nov of 2010, but did not exchange until Feb 2012, so it was a long duration for me as well. My right expander had been in place that whole time - 16 months, but the left had been removed a few months after initial placement. It was out for the seven months I had chemo, then it was replaced. My fills were low and slow. The PT for lymphedema started after the left expander was replaced and being filled, so almost a year in, and continued for about six months. I went back to PT (the same one I saw for LE) after exchange, twice a week for about two months. I hope your post-surgical issues can reach enough resolution so that you can move forward, and that you can exchange within the 24 month window. I hope you can have continued PT afterward, I think it would be helpful for you. I can definitely sympathize with how long this process is taking for you, and how frustrating and painful it has been.

GreyKat - Very cool news about your PT. He seemed to gain your trust most easily of those on your medical team, and it sounds as if it was well-deserved! It's great that you're setting goals together....and you seem to be on the same page! I really hope you're in position to exchange to your implants well before you hit that 24-mo mark. Cheering for you!

Grandma - Any updates after your roller coaster week? How's the healing going? Again - so very, very, very glad you got that benign result!

Special K - Happy healing!! Have you been able to take a peek at your results? Are you satisfied with how the port scar turned out? And I can't remember - did you end up with same-sized implants...or was that not one of the goals of this surgery? Hope everything is going swimmingly!

MoreShoes - If the new dent is troublesome, definitely schedule an appt with your PS. I'm sure you could get your questions answered quickly once they get a good look at you.

Raven - We have an Escape Room here, too. It was VERY popular as an adult Halloween activity - I had several friends schedule parties there around the holiday. Sounds like a fun time! So glad you got the troublesome drain out! Do you have a date in mind for your TE replacement yet? Fingers crossed that the FG procedure was a total success!

Hope things are going well, Valstim and Midwest!

No real updates from me. 6-month follow-up appt with my BS on Friday (which I anticipate will be uneventful), then I see my PS the following week. Steri-strips still haven't come off on their own so I haven't seen my exchange scars yet, but I was told I can finally remove them in the middle of next week. Looking forward to seeing the final result! Swelling has pretty much gone down so I have a better sense of what the shape of the implants are going to be. I'm satisfied! Rightie is still trying to ride a little higher, but I'll wait to see what PS says next week before I panic about it. They told me to keep rocking the surgical bra until my next appt. Lucky me!

Have a great night everyone!

Cheers to good results on Monday, Special K! Glad you already had the implants checked off your list!

MyToyStory2 - thanks for checking up on everyone! I'm doing well, slowly recovering from the emotional toll of last week's biopsy and "other" events. I went for a long walk with my sister and father through Longwood Gardens yesterday and it really helped to get out for a while. My incisions are healing well. I have a solid lump of scar tissue at the end of one suture line on the left side. I remember having something similar after my MX, which eventually went away. I hope this will do the same. I'm glad that you are healing well. I also have one side that is lower (my problematic left side) so I'm wearing an ace bandage around the bottom to support it. I never got a surgical bra after any of my surgeries and my PS just says to wear a sports bra. I asked about an underwire to provide more support for the sagging side, but she thinks that it may cut into my skin and I won't feel it because I'm all numb. I don't really buy that (has that ever really happened?) so I may wait a few weeks to be completely healed and go to Nordstroms to be fitted for an underwire.

GreyKat - that's such great news about your PT! It's nice to have a health care provider that is both concerned about his patients and also very good at his job!

Raven and SpecialK - hope you are both healing well.

SpecialK - glad to hear you're moving towards the end goal after everything!

Grandma - I second the sports bras. Once my BS/PS let me out of the binder (2 wks) it was tight sports bras for compression for capsule formation and to reduce swelling, and that's all they wanted. I got front-close ones because there was no way I was pulling one over my head.

Also, what, do we all have left sides that are lower? What is this? They can't fix that? I was told that was fixable with stitching to reinforce things (dermis, our natural tissue, whatever) internally.