Is anyone going flat or living flat?

FarmerLucy,

Try looking in reconstruction threads or try typing explant into search button.

I’ve got a visible rib. Took me months to try to figure out what I was seeing. Finally had to ask my MO. Somehow seeing it makes me extra, extra protective of my mastectomy side.

AdAstrea- I too have a protruding rib.  It hurts!  But my BS said there is nothing to be done, except gain a little weight - NOT!  

I wish I had a tummy tuck when I had my BMX.  I'm working hard on keeping my tummy flat. (by not eating - that's so unhealthy) but I look ridiculous with a protruding tummy and no breast.  I'm lucky most of my weight goes to my butt.  

Where /what did you all do with your old bras?  I have some really nice Victory Secret pretty ones...Is there a cancer place that takes these? I would call my navigator but she is useless.  Maybe the social worker...…

Take care 

I might sew a panel in my bra just to see if I can place a foob inside. Hate to see expensive bras go to waste...if it doesn't work out. I will donate.

polly- when I had my BMX, I did use knitted knockers off and on for quite a while. I ended up buying a pocket bra with an artificial foob. It's much lighter than the prosthetic bras but it stays in place better than the knitted knocker My only issue with the knitted knocker is when I wore a fitted dress my boob flattened. I only drag out the artificial foob for special occasions or when I'm around my family.

Had my BMX on the 6th... sometimes I get a sharp pain, jolt wear my nipples were...Weird feeling... the drains are pulling, that hurts, but the actual incisions don't hurt at all, just the tape the PS used, No compression on chest, just thin tape.

I got my drains taken out yesterday. Hurt for a very short time, but washing my body is so much easier.

The phantom pains are so strange, I feel pain in my nipples which of course no longer there. My chest feels very tight, hoping this goes away after scar heals. I’m also staying flat, not too sure about the look. I’m sure of one thing, no more surgery

The tightness is annoying but it will disappear. The Phantom Sensations will dissipate over time.

Mumoftwo416: Be gentle with yourself and your body as everything heals. Careful with the swelling under your armpit. I had a large hematoma in the same spot and it took a long while for it to dissipate. I'm not saying that is what you have, just to give it time.

I also concur on no more surgeries. Flat is a pleasure.

Hi Christene50 - I hate to be the bearer of bad news - and again, EVERYONE is different, but a year and 1/2 later I my armpits are still numb and I have to sleep with a pillow under my armpit. It feels like I have a golf ball in there.  The best advice I can give is go to a BC physical therapy and stretch-stretch-stretch - when its okay from your BS. I admit I'm not stretching enough. Best of luck! 

I would say give it some time. A week is not much time at all and there's a lot of healing going on. The sensations in my chest and under arm changed a lot over the first 3-4 weeks.

I have been carrying a water-balloon on my right chest for half a year. I have seen the plastic surgeon this week, and the recovery time for a reconstruction is six to eight weeks. That includes modifying my left boob, sacred to my kids. I am wondering If I ought to get this expander taken out and a skin reduction, also thinking that there would be less chest numbness with that. With something like that, the recovery time would be much shorter, and take less of a bite out of my exercise program. I like things natural, and I am scared of another operation, or several. Just one minor operation would be much better. I am small, maybe a C cup, so unequal weight on the sides of my chest would not be a significant issue.

Schweety, I am your age. I have decided to have the expander replaced with a permanent implant, but they will not touch lefty. My boobs have always been important to me, not because of sexuality, but because it was important for me to use them for the purpose for which we have them. Reconstruction or no, you are going to lose sensation in both breasts if you have a bmx.

Schweety, what you are feeling is in NO WAY stupid or foolish, nor should you be embarrassed.

Are you certain that you would not want reconstruction? This is very important to you and I am wondering why you would not consider it?

Even though our circumstances have similarities, I did not want reconstruction and knew that going in. I'd lost half a breast to a Phyllodes tumor twenty-two years ago, in my 30's (57 now). Like you, I'd already experienced loss. In all clothes as well as a bathing suit I'd have to wear a prosthetic to make things look right. In 1997, my breast surgeon thought I was nuts not to do reconstruction ("You are so young," he would say--same man did the BMX and didn't fight me this time). Once the IDC came along, I felt as if I were fighting for my life; for me it was a "two strikes you're out" situation and I did not want to spend time on surgery (or surgeries, depending on the reconstruction) and months of recovery--I wanted to LIVE. The dang thing had grown like a monster and my oncologist, who was very positive at our first meeting, suddenly was far less positive at the second meeting, after an MRI showed it was growing like crazy. Honestly, Schweety, for me, through all this my boobs had become far less important to me---and it's the reason I did not answer when you posted on the on the other thread. In a sense, by this point, I felt betrayed by my *&^% boobs--like they were on a mission to kill me.

This is all so personal. I insisted on a BMX because the thought of one breast hanging there literally would make me feel like a freak--like enough of a freak that I would have hidden my body from my husband. I felt as strongly about that as you do about the importance of your breasts, which may sound crazy to you but just thinking of it now makes me very uncomfortable. In contrast, if I am understanding you correctly, you'd rather have one than none. My point is that we are all coming at this from different emotions and ways of thinking---I can't speak to your situation as I wouldn't expect you to understand where I've been and what I've gone through. What we share are great losses. I'm on my second round of eyelash loss from chemotherapy and you'd think the world were coming to an end, again, and this time at least I have a ½" of hair on my head!

I am madly in love with my husband of thirty-five years but I never asked him if it were okay for me not to do reconstruction because I wasn't going to do it. He loves me for me and when he said "for better or for worse," he meant it. I had utter confidence in that. Five months post surgery, I can tell you I made the right choice for ME.

It sounds to me like your husband loves you for YOU but you are the one that matters regarding this decision. Fifty years ago, reconstruction was not an option. It is available to you now, and while not perfect either, you should consider it if it would help restore some of your sense of loss. PM me if I can help with any specifics (even photos of my chest if it would help).

I believe I can safely say that no one on the two threads where you asked this question would have chosen double amputation (that's what it is) just for fun---they just made the best choice for them given their own circumstances and are moving ahead with life. As for me, I'm grateful to be alive.

I'm sorry you're having to be here at all--as I wish none of us were.

Beesy

Dear Beesy & Jo6359, Thank you both for your honest and up front answers! I have a lot of health issues one being I have had a stroke and I am diabetic with high blood pressure....and last year when I was dx with IDC my surgeon talked about mx because of my prior hx and family hx but was reluctant to do it and because of the length of the surgery & prior radiation there could be no reconstruction. This time he said there would be no choice except for So that's where it sits at this juncture. I know my husband will be okay with whatever....it is me I am worried about. He also has cancer...a bone marrow cancer. This just sucks doesn't it? damn it. Beesy, I may pm you...I know I will re-read what you wrote more times than I even know. I somehow have to get past this.....anyway thank you again....I will be re reading them both over and over. Thank you again, Schweety