Exchange City

Thank you, HikingLady! Yes, I'm getting as much rest as I can. Have freezer meals ready for reheating and paper plates. Hope I'll feel better soon. I poked a bit on the implant side and it's just so nice and soft compared to that awful expander.

Hi Blackhawk41, congratulations on your weight loss!! I had a 50lb weight loss too after putting on 50lb while taking Lyrica. I had 470 pre-pec ultra high profile Inspiras at 1st. I felt they were too big and heavy, too much projection as well. But the worst was they kept flipping over in their pockets, flat side facing out!! The PS wanted to put BIGGER implants in to remedy this. And since he doesn't do a lot of fg nor will he do nip recon I realized we needed to part ways as we were not on the same page. I went to a female ps next. She was on board with downsizing, but told me it had to be done in stages. She did the 1st downsize and a lot of pocket work to prevent flipping. She only dropped me by 30cc to 440, but we went from ultra high profile Inspiras to full profine Sientras. I really liked them. Soooo much more comfy! The Inspiras were way too firm for my liking and very ripply when I lean over. Sientras were more squishy and no ripples. Unfortunately though she didn't add alloderm to one side as it appeared there was already enough from the initial exchange. As a result, that implant bottomed out pretty quickly (within a few weeks) and ended up 2" lower than the other. We were going to revise to go smaller again anyway in a 6 months so I didn't worry about it. But I had to have a lumbar fusion suddenly which delayed our revision and her office stopped par with my insurance. I found another ps that was on board with the downsize and fg. It was 13 months after the 2nd set of implants. We settled on 345 cc Allergan Inspira Soft Touch Moderate profile. They are cohesive like the Inspiras, but squishier like the Sientras. I really like them!! I chose that size because it was important to keep the base width of the implant the same size as what I had. There are size charts online that give you all the dimensions. Even though my projection went down I still have a small C. I was a full D with the 470s. But that is all relative to each individual's body frame. I didn't have a good cosmetic result with this surgeon. He tightened the IMF on the side he had added alloderm to so much that the implant is distorted flat on that edge, jacked way up higher and inward medially. He revised it again in his office 2 months later (Feb) but did the same darn thing AGAIN!! Too tight sutures. I endured that revision in his office with just local anesthesia for nothing. Needless to say, I moved on to PS4.

He has lots of reconstruction experience and I felt very comfortable with his plan. He did some fg to my "good side" today. Wants me to wait until late summer for the botched side revision so it has had a good 6 months of healing time. Sounds like a good plan to me!! I know others have had successful downsizing and hopefully some will chime in. I don't mean to scare you. But it is much more complicated if you are considering a major size difference (mine was 125cc downsize all together). I do feel the female surgeon I had or my new ps would have had no problem though. Research ps very carefully and find out if they have done a LOT of downsize reconstructions. I wish you all the best!!

allebasi, Be careful sleeping on your side. I didn't sleep on my side for a year. You need to heal. It looks like you had a Uni so sleep on your right side. Did your PS say you could sleep on your side? Just be careful, you will have lots of time to get into your "new normal". If you had a lot of pocket work, it takes time for that to heal completely.

Blessings, Robin

Blackhawk41 thanks for your kind words. I am super please with my new ps. He called me the day after procedure to check on me. I had minimal bruising and pain and am already seeing nice contour results from my fg donor sites and grafted sites.

It sounds like you have a great ps too. As for recovery with TE to implant exchange make sure you talk with your doctor about restrictions and specific instructions. So many women on this thread report this recovery is so much easier than msx. Of course everyone is different but even with extensive pocket work I was out running errands and off pain meds 3 days post op. Just not lifting, pushing/pulling anything over 5lb. Please don't get the notion I was back to my normal routine though. You do have to take it easy and give yourself plenty of rest and time to heal. For reference I am in pretty good health (not on any rx meds). I eat pineapple like crazy after surgery and supplement my diet with vitamins and take Milk Thistle to detox from anesthesia. I feel I bounce back pretty quickly thank God!!

Best wishes on your upcoming exchange

christiekoe Your PS will have his guidelines. I followed my PS's very specific instructions, and I think it was 6 weeks for me. In fact, I waited longer, since I was so committed to not risking any chance of an infection, and I had an additional challenge. Right side had radiation 15 years before and was slower to heal after BMX and also after exchange.

By the way, with the way they dressed my incisions (steristrips) it was fine after about 24 hours to take a shower, just not immerse in a bath or go in a pool or swim anywhere.

Do you know what Tegaderm Film is? Easy to find online and in large pharmacies on shelves with other wound care stuff. It's a transparent bandage, which seals around the edges, and might possibly be helpful to know about. You might discuss w/ PS whether it would be safe to use this film as a seal over your incisions to get in the water, if you're still not quite to his "safe to go in the water" date by then. If it's applied correctly, it can be a waterproof seal.

christiekoe- I was told 6 weeks, same as the others. At 4 weeks I still had some “internal sutures” that kept poking through the skin. They clipped them, but I wouldn’t feel safe swimming.

Thank you all for your advice!

I didn’t remember much if s cold feeling but one te did leak. They didn’t seem too concerned. Refilled it until I was ready for exchange

Hello all, I'm a first time poster, but I've been reading the boards for several months now.

I have already gone thru my second surgery ,DMX with TE placement , don;t know if I will be needing Chemo or Rads or both yet

I have follow up this friday with my onco surgeon and he will have my Path report hopefully.

I had a follow up with my PS today and apparently the tissue on my R breast is not healing ? its not infected but a slightly larger than a quarter sized area is red and she said it wasn't closing all the way, so now Im scared it will open and I'll have to undergo surgery to cut out more tissue and try to get that to heal.. Any suggestions on how to get this spot to heal and start making it grow together would be appreciated.! I think I was doing to much and pulled it, I could feel a sharp needle like pain yesterday in that area.

*sigh* sorry or being long winded, Im just scared. Thanks for reading!

notarobot if you want to put your DX and TX in your signature under your post, you go to My Profile, set that information in, and then go to Settings to choose which information you want to set as Public or Private.

thank you Hiking lady!! I hadn't changed the settings to public, I was wondering why it wasn't showing up,

noob, lol My PS said give it a week, gave me a bunch of bandages and some ointment, Im just nervous

I really need to get back to work, and definitely can't with an unhealed wound in my work environment.

I appreciate you replying so quickly. my DD said that putting some gently warm compresses on it over the bandaged area,,IE a small microwavable

heating pad, twice a day or 20 minutes would help open up the vessels some to get more blood flow to the area.She was an ICU critical care nurse,now a nursing teacher, so it makes sense to me.I'll give it a shot. I know Ive got to be patient, but Im anxious to start making a living again lol Never thought I'd be itching to go to work! haha.

Chiming in on the "should I fix the mismatched foobs" conversation. My right side is smaller because of previous radiation, so the skin didn't stretch as well. My PS said all along that they just wouldn't be exactly the same. In my case, the right bra makes them look Just Fine in clothes. I wear a swimsuit that doesn't have a low cut in front. I can live with my 'sisters, not twins,' and I won't choose more surgery.

I would ask these same questions discussed above: about healing and complication risks, and how good will the improvement be, etc. Hard choices, for sure...

Unfortunately, yes, as MinusTwo points out, lymphedema is a risk after all breast surgeries. My PS actually mentioned that risk VERY fleetingly before my surgeries. My friend who's retired from being a physical therapist who specialized in the treatment of lymphedema after breast surgery has been my main source of information about that. I don't have lymphedema, thank heavens, but it's something we do all have to be aware of.

In fact, since I'm on this topic, my PT friend recommends that I wear a compression sleeve on the cancer side (I had more surgery on that side because of axillary node excisions) for flying, for 1-2 years after any breast or axillary node surgeries. She says: put it on 1-2 hours before flight, take off 1-2 hours after flying; this is because of air pressure differences, which can affect the lymphatic system. I do this prophylactically. And, I wear heavy gloves if I prune roses, etc.

MinusTwo Aw, I'm so sorry about your LE that you're dealing with. Thanks for the glove idea and the link.

my cancer side was radiated and also doesn’t have a nipple. On that side I have obvious cleavage, partly bc the skin is much tighter and the implant seems to sit higher, and a little closer to the center. The other (prophylactic side) has a slightly smaller implant and does not have that upper fullness; it also looks more natural, I think, but maybe bc it has a nipple. My ps suggested fat grafting to even the fullness but for now I’ve decides it’s not worth the additional surgery. The unevenness is not obvious to anyone except me.

I am planning to do nipple recon (go back and forth bw 3D tattoo and nipple recon, but for now I’m thinking to do the full reconstruction.

well, my follow up with my onco surgeon was today..I might feel like I got hit by a mack truck, physically, but mentally... OMGGGGG I'm a 5 ft 2 105 lb cheerleader doing cartwheels across the parking lot ( my drains are gonna hate me for that)

I have been down sized on my stages, everything was well within the margins, this time,the tumor is GONE and the "little cancer cells" thruout my left breast tissue were merely "calcified sclerosive lesions" non cancerous.

my surgeon said NO RADS, might need a chemo or 4 to make sure if my chemo dr. thinks its necessary due to oncotype ,family history ect.

but im on to healing this chest mess, and trying to get my foobs,whether it be by implant or diep flap , I got time to breathe and think about it.

im not one to share much, but I've read alot of your stories,and I couldnt wait to figure out how to get back to my original post so I could tell you , I guess I just felt safe. thanks for that ladies.