Breast adjustment surgery - even breasts?

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ParisParis
ParisParis Member Posts: 32
edited May 2017 in Breast Reconstruction

Hello everybody,

I had a lumpectomy at the end of October last year. followed by radiotherapy. In fact my lumpectomy was an onco-plastic procedure, they took out a big lump of flesh (instead of 1-2 mm margins, mine were 2 - 6cm!) and lifted the breast and moved the nipple at the same time (an inverted T procedure) - it looks quite good and is certainly much prettier than the untreated one, although the vertical scar is visible and I also have fibrosis under and along this scar. I get massages of the scar and breast tissue, which helps a lot and the fibrosis has shrunk considerably. Still getting an ultrasound to rule out any neoplasms, just to be on the safe side.

I now had an appointment with my PS (he also did the original surgery and is the boss of the leading breast cancer around here) to discuss getting the second breast adjusted, which will be done in August. The original justification for a 2-step procedure was that the radiotherapy would change the breast tissue and one-step surgery (doing both breast at the same time) could lead to quite different looking breasts. Now he has told me that unfortunately it is possible that the breasts may look different because of the 2-step procedure, it could happen that one is higher up etc. I am a bit annoyed - or are they just covering their backs?

Has anyone any experiences with this?

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  • GraceB1
    GraceB1 Member Posts: 213
    edited May 2017

    I had a lift done on my second breast a year after my flap surgery. Even with a good bra the unevenness was noticeable by me. I told the PS that I just wanted both breasts in the same hemisphere. My husband said that nobody else saw it but I was very self conscience. It's not perfect but it is a whole lot closer to my DIEP flap breast now.

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  • runor
    runor Member Posts: 1,798
    edited May 2017

    This thread is interesting to me.

    I have not had any chemo or radiation yet, waiting for those appointments. Just recovered from lumpectomy and sentinel node removal.

    My breasts are large, bra size is G. Large, heavy breasts.

    First time in for the surgical biopsy, the surgeon took out a slice. Second time in for lumpectomy she took out a whole lot more and I have some impressive scars as well as an odd 'bubble' on outer breast. The Battered Boob is considerable smaller than the Gravity Boob. Smaller, wrong term, shorter is more like it, because it's all about the hang. One hangs lower.

    I know that radiation may change the appearance of The Battered Boob even more so I will not contemplate surgery until after radiation effects have settled down.

    TO be honest, recovery from the lumpectomy was so unbelievably painful, I was in NO WAY prepared for how bad I hurt. Mind you, things went wrong and I was only in the recovery room for a short time before surgeon realized I was bleeding into the site, my boob was the size of a beach ball, she put me out again, cut me open, cut all internal stitching, dug around to find the bleeder, re-stitched me and wheeled me out. I can imagine that I had double the amount of tissue trauma. But the pain of that recovery really makes me leery of ever offering my breasts up to anyone with a knife, ever again.

    I worry that the extensive scarring I develop (prone to keloids) would obscure future mammograms, putting me at risk of missed cancers. Because I think I will always have that in my mind.

    Like you ParisParis, I can see the difference in a shirt. I doubt that other people can, unless I yank my shirt tight and say, do my boobs look different to you? Yes. I have done this. My friends roll their eyes and my daughter tells me she has "seen more 50 year old tits that she ever wanted to!" Ha ha! But I also feel my cleavage is different because now my Gravity Boob runneth over (my cup runneth over, biblical boobs!), but the Battered Boob all fits neatly into the bra, I have wonky cleavage. (not that I go around flasing it, just at my daughter, because she finds me horrifying)

    I am debating whether or not to pursue more surgery. It scares me. It hurt so bad first time. And like you, I think it would be hard to get them both even without maybe operating on the BOTH. Ugh.

    I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

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  • ParisParis
    ParisParis Member Posts: 32
    edited May 2017

    Grace, I can imagine that it is difficult to get exactly the same look with a DIEP procedure although there are some pretty amazing photos to be found on the net. I am glad that now feel better with the adjustment.

    runor, the radiotherapy, apart from creating the fibrosis has not changed the shape of my breast at all - it certainly has not shrunk, as I was told before. As far as I know this can happen at a later stage but I am not going to wait forever for the adjustment surgery. I am sorry that you had such a bad experience with your op and that it was so painful - I did not suffer much at all, only took Paracetamol for a few days. I know what you mean with the breast leaning over - the boobs just do not stay put in the bra because of the asymmetry. My breasts are very uneven now, especially in the nude. I am not that bothered because I have always known that I would have a second op to even them out. It is not so noticeable in a bra but without clothes the difference is huge! Strangely enough, the operated breast is much smaller but I tried, it fits into my old bras (size D)... probably because it is much firmer and not as squishy as the old one! I am using unwired bras right now.

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