March 2017 Surgery

hello. I am new here. I wish I joined presurgery but there was so much to process decide and organize. In any event, I had a bilateral mastectomy with diep flap reconstruction on 3/14/17. I returned to work 9 weeks later and over the past 5 weeks I have become increasingly fatigued. I finished PT last week and have no energy to do anything. Anyone else going through this?

Also, I am scheduled for Stage 2 reconstruction on 8/9. Anyone else scheduled for Stage 2?

Hello, ladies. I haven't checked in here in a while - been focusing on my radiation thread. How is everyone doing? The numbness in my tricep has subsided but not gone away completely. I've had 24 of my 33 radiation treatments. I'm getting red now and have an itchy rash. My two incisions are red and sore. But it's the fatigue that has really gotten to me. I'm hoping it will vanish when I finish my treatments.

I see my surgeon on July 13 for another follow-up. I have no idea if he'll continue to see me or if I'll only see my RO and MO in the future. I had an appointment with the MO in mid-July but got a message from his office that he didn't want to wait that long to see me. What???? I see him on Tuesday and I'll find out then what the hurry was (I tried to find out on the phone but had no success).

My surgery seems so far in the past now. Hope you're all doing well. The camaraderie that has developed among us on the forum is wonderful.

MJ

I had my BMX on 3/31. Surgery was 9 hours, which included reconstruction (direct implants) I didn't qualify for DIEP flap surgery (too thin) but will be having stage 2 surgery in the fall which consists of fat grafting. Any insight to this fat grafting? They will take a little fat from stomach, thighs and butt areas.

Hi ladies, nice to see you all. I am doing really well. Life with implants is much better than TE's. Tappermom, did your RO give you something for the itching?

Nice to here from the March 2017 ladies again. I'm still working on my recovery from the March revision for CC. I have been slowly able to lift some light weights again, but my LE kicked back in from the March surgery and then again somewhat when I got my 3D tats two weeks ago. I've mostly been posting on the exchange board. It's a process for us all and these boards are such great support.

Scottie

Oh, Dafne! I'm so sorry. Hope your PS can find another way, too.

Dafne. Hope your PS comes up with a solution. Can I ask a dumb question? Why do they overfill and not just put in a bigger expander?

I'm slightly red but not too bad. I put hydrocortisone ointment on last night and it helped. Starting to get itchy again so guess it's time for more. I see the RO on Thursday so if it's not better, I'll get something from her.

Thanks for the support.

MJ

2FUN, I can't speak for Dafne, but in my case I have the largest expanders available (650 ccs) so the only option for "evening out" is to overfill, which my PS did on the left by 100 ccs and it looks good.

Guys, i called my ps he said "oh, ok this can happen" and we ll discuss it when i see him next Thuesday. He asked me when was the day of my bmx, so i guesss he ll want to push the exchange surgery. I would prefer he ll keep filling it lets say every week instead of two to three weeks, till September as was the plan but we ll see. I know he overfills cause he always uses implants that are smaller than the expanders and in my case in 600ccs you could barely see some "breasts" forming due to my broad shoulders and rib cage. Volume of my te is 500ccs and he overfilled them to 600. I guess the right one did not like the overfill lol. At least it seems it lost only the extra 100, but kept the rest so i still have some foob showing under clothes.

As a trained psychologist (retired) and a pain patient for other reasons, itsn't it time for objective studies of pain level response to the nuclear injections? What is the variable that makes this a difficult for some and not for others? Why don't we start using the standard pain standard (1-10) in discussing our experiences? Why have do we not ask for studies to determine what is a determine factors?

I had a Level 10 response. Others seem to be at level 1 or 2. It's time to shead some light on this issue since some patients have other considtions such as heart conditions that would be set of by high level pain. It seems irresponsible to not have scientific pain studies. Anyone agree?

Dafne. . .hoping that you can keep your EX set for Sept as planned. Sorry you having to go through this but sending gentle hugs.

Scottie

I can't remember how many injections I received before my sentinel node biopsy, but only one hurt, and it was very brief, but maybe a 7 on a scale of 10. He did give me some lidocaine first

I can't remember when I last posted, but I had to share that I just got a good report from my last surgeries and I think I can say I am cancer free!!!!!

2Fun!!! Wonderful news.