Exchange City

Dear ladies, I have read all the posts in this page. It's good to know how you are doing. I still have the itching and the burning sensations in both breasts. I stopped using the wipe with alcohol cause it could cause more problems than solutions. He (PS) said he did not use betadine on me (only dyna hex to wash area) but itching may come from bandages. I only know that when the nurse use the PS's office gauze and bandages, I receive the full impact of discomfort. I think those things are not latex proof. Last time I told her I didn't want the paper gown. Anyway, when I came home I got the bandage off and changed it to latex free one that I bought in right breast. She told me not to use bandage on left. It was healing nicely.

PS told me everything was fine. I think left breast is still swollen and hurts inside. The right breast also hurts. Sometimes I feel the intermittent pain of sutures inside. He used glue in most underside areas of breasts except where he cut and put the implant in. That cut is over my seven or eight rib. It hurts a lot. There are still bruises but I don't dare to use turmeric because I don't want to bleed like last time. PS added the nipple too at the right breast with skin grafts from left breast areola and nipple.

Artista928, I am sorry to hear that you had great discomfort after surgery. The truth is that health plans are the agents of such problems. I know physicians were capable of some economical burden on health plans but now control is on plans and deliberately are controlling every doctor's move to increase gains for the insurance company.

I however preferred to come back home. I had bronchitis and a cold temp is the most hurtful thing in my life now. It was raining, I had to be there at 4:15 am because I was posted at 5:00 am but the lovely doc came at 8:00 am. If I weren't already tied to the table I would have jumped to his throat. Everyone started to laugh when I told him, "How great, you come at 8 while I have been freezing since 5:00 am." He changed the conversation and comes to me and says to stand up. I asked why. To measure you. Do it while seating. No, stand up. No, you did it last time when I was seated. Stand up. I stand up and says, against my will. The next bickering, drop your arms to the side. No, the gown will fall down. Drop your arms, No. I was not paid to do a striptease. I move my shoulder to the side without releasing the gown, and say now. He then says something of me been a canvas to him and I start to look down to see that the painting over my breasts just like a sail boat. He says to me that I was too curious. I respond, why not, this is my body. Well. we continued this bickering and everyone was laughing. Before going outside he asks me again, size C? and I answered yes, if you want to go back to OR today with me. When PS saw me at office on Monday he said the girls at the OR were charmed by me.

I am not used to leave that area of my body without cleansing. Not water yet, no alcohol, NOTHING. If you know of some technique for peeling off the skin without pain, please tell me. I will led. I hate that. I feel a belt is tightening over my chest and I can't breathe or sleep right. I tried to sleep on my left side by Monday and I could not. These last two days I could be able to sleep on the left side since the left breast is less swollen than at the beginning of the week.

Thank you, MrsB88 and Mominator, for your caring words. The burning is decreasing its intensity; the itching is full flare. I think the areola and nipple extracted from my left is not going fine on the right side. The skin is too dark to see if it is necrotic. And is covered so I cannot see until next Monday. My left areola was light tan and now is dark. Last Monday the nurse took off the sutures of right areola. Since the skin is loose, I don't dare to take off the bandages. I have a cat and I can't sweep and mop the floors so house is dirty and will be compromising the area of surgery. For pain, I am using Neurontin (gabapentin) for both right foot and boobs pains. Only once a day, the orthopedist didn't check for refills. PS recommended benadryl instead of cortizone since the latter was not being effective. And my skin is reacting to benadryl and within five minutes, the cream gets scaled and start to peel off. I JUST NEED WATER. I am allergic to my own sweat. Yes, I am crazy in a good way.

Novmoon, can implants be filled after being inserted? Are you talking about other kind of filling? If they do, I will ask my PS to add 50 more cc to level both breasts. Size B, ladies, no more.

TrmTab, I am so sorry about your change of plans. However, you will be satisfied and feel peace of mind if you do the right thing. The PS can wait; he will not die from hunger. Credits to whom said first; if she has SS benefits, maybe the SSA office can send you an aide to help you take care of her when she is back at your home. But they will send her first to a rehab center where they can provide physical therapy until she is capable of moving again. Sorry, dear, can I pray for her?

Congrats to all who recently did the exchange and have had a wonderful experience. My first two surgeries were almost painless. The last two were troublesome. This last one was less painful than the TE but it hurts, itches and burns. One cannot win them all. I am fine, it could've been worse. I need to add the dates of surgeries and the system does not let me.

See you tomorrow or on Monday.

Hi All:

I've been reading a bit and am thankful for all of you here..

I have a question about capsular contracture.

I had a UMX in July. It's an over the muscle saline implant. Everything started out fabulously well and then I had chemo and 6 months have passed, and now I have a grade 4 contracture. It's painful and I have limited range of motion, plus there are few clothes I can wear without feeling self-conscious because the implant is high and barbie-like. I'm pretty depressed after all this other BC loveliness. In any case, I have an appt for exchange and removal of the scar tissue at end of January.

Has anyone had experience with contracture and surgical correction? I'm just worried that it's going to be a never ending cycle. The surgeon says most people do fine after the correction but I keep reading otherwise.

Have a good night, everyone.

Willa, I just had my right implant replaced because of capsular contracture. In my view, it's absolutely worth the risk. Although I know I may go on to get it again, I couldn't live with things the way they were. I'd suggest you give it a shot and if for some reason it recurs, cross that bridge if you come to it. Did you PS mention not using saline or going under the muscle? I wonder if there are increased risks if you stay with saline. If memory serves, I think saline is not ideal if dealing with CC.

Stacey, I just had fat transfer (with my CC surgery). I had significant rippling in the normal breast. I'm only about 1 week or so out from surgery so not sure how much will stay with me but I'm hopeful. I didn't attempt to go bigger though--just to cover ripples, fill in a divot and cover sternum. I am 5'2", 140 pounds so I hear you regarding not being skinny. I often think the same when I read these boards as it does sound like many are quite slender. There are threads on here that discuss fat grafting so if you don't hear from many ladies, suggest searching for them. Tons of input on it. Oh, regarding your implants being too small. Why not replace with bigger ones? Perhaps that might solve the problem versus doing fat grafting. For sure I wouldn't count on fat grafting to get significantly bigger.

I just had my follow up with the PS. She was thrilled that my left implant had not migrated up my chest the way the TE had done. We talked about nipple placement (my right nipple is pointing down and toward my arm) but she was reluctant to do anything about it. I asked about grafting a piece onto my left side, where I had to have it removed because of close margins, but again she was not sure that would be best. We are going to table it for now and see how things look after the fat grafting. I asked about taking fat from my thighs but she said the flanks (love handles)have better fat - less "wobbly" than the thighs

Anyway, I feel much better now that this appointment is over with. Fat grafting will probably happen in Feb. since I have some traveling to do in January. Thanks for the suggestion to look at the fat grafting thread!

Thanks for the info, Jessie. If I remember right, you didn't have a whole lot of rippling did you?

Artista - here's the definition from the web. I expect there is a thread on BCO that addresses just this issue.

Capsular contracture is the term used to describe scar tissue that can form around breast implants which may cause the breasts to harden, may cause the breasts to look or feel different, and may cause some discomfort from the tightening of the capsule.

Thank you ladies!

Artista, I would call. After my LD flap I suddenly ran a fever and PS had me come in to get looked at. Since things looked fine, I was given a scrip for an antibiotic and told to fill it if things changed and I was told what to watch out for. The fever turned out to be unrelated, but was good to have going into a weekend. With this being the holiday, it would be good for you to touch base with Dr beforehand.

THanks ladies. I was all over last night from 99.8-100.9. Popped 2 Advils and this am 98.4. Going in in my robe to hopefully get final drain pulled since average is 20 a day now. Doc is out so it's his PA in.

I've been down this road before. I didn't have a fever at 99.4 but because of redness I was on abx for a week which did nothing then hospital IV then home IV. This caused big delay in getting chemo. So seems the chance of infection is higher after the drains come out as it was a couple weeks after for me at least.

Some redness but PA thought it's ok overall after I told her everything. Took pic of the breast that was radiated not sure if it's the rad redness I still have or new. Sent to ps since he's out.

Came home and 1/2 hour later call from office to start bactrim and keflex. Not sure if infected but wants to nip it in the bud, esp my history nightmare of last year tough infection.

Merry Christmas to all the wonderful ladies here on this thread. Have a happy, healthy New Year! Loving my new tattoos! God bless,

Robin

Quick question! I will be getting my exchange hopefully sometime in February, gummies. Might need some pocket work for "side boob". How long is the recovery after an exchange? Surely nothing like the recovery time after a BMX! Just curious. I had to take a break from my fills as I ran out of sick leave at work, so resuming fills in January and haven't been able to talk to my PS for awhile to ask him this question. Thanks!

Thanks, Robinblessed54! I am trying to get mentally prepared for it all. Will be so glad when I am done with this! I read in your bio that you got nippletattoos. That is my plan as well. Are you happy with them? Did you get them done by someone who specializes in nipple tattoos? Just curious! Thanks again for your response and input.

Hi ladies, it looks like my exchange will be March 20th. I spoke to the PS scheduler and she said it should not be a problem that far out to schedule. I will hear back from her in January. I am getting anxious because suddenly my radiated TE is getting very tight.

Artista, yes he overfilled both sides but honestly my radiated side is smaller because it shrunk with radiation. It is not painful but definitely can tell the tightness has increased recently. Maybe from the extra fill. My non cancer side annoys me because it is lower since it was not radiated. Is it realistic to hope to return to work with restrictions at two weeks PO?