Implant surgery/liposuction

If you do searches for fat grafting here you will find a lot more about this. It is actually very common these days to soften out areas over implants and lessen rippling or other cosmetic issues that arise from implants after mastectomy. It's often also used for radiated breasts to improve the tissues so they are better able to accept an implant. They basically take some fat (usually not a whole lot) from areas like tummy, thighs, sometimes buttocks, run it through a machine to separate the good fat out and place it in places of breast where there may be benefits.

My own PS prefers to wait a few months after putting implants in (even with an exchange) before doing fat grafting though, to see how things settle out and where the concerning areas are. He also finds better uptake with a gap to let body recover from first trauma

I just had my second fat grafting yesterday (both times fat was taken from my tummy/midsection, which was my preference as my sister had a painful experience with it from her thighs and thighs are a bit harder to keep smooth if you are thinner). Surgery itself was not long and while I had to stay around a little longer on day surgery unit as one of my tummy incisions kept leaking on me a lot I went home of course same day. Taking it easy today but feel pretty good and like last time expect to go back to work next week (I did work from home a bit today).

You certainly don't HAVE to have it, it is your body, and you also don't have to do it at same time. You can wait and see how you like the implants after the initial swap and they have time to settle in. Everybody and every body is different. I have thin skin and my surgeon was aggressive at removing breast tissue so the rippling for me was not satisfactory hence going in for fat grafting. I needed two rounds (hopefully only two, not planning on more) but my sister stopped at one as she did not want to go through more surgery. Too early to tell how things will take as there is still some swelling but my PS appears to have tackled the areas I was concerned about.

kmdlpl:

No problem. Reconstruction is definitely not a race. Some are lucky to be one and done but there is nothing wrong with taking your time especially if mentally you just aren’t ready for it or “more” procedures. My PS was always very clear I could do the fat grafting “any time” even years later which took the pressure of for me. I really did not want to do fat grafting back in 2014/2015, so didn’t, but felt ready to go ahead a few years later

I didn't do fat grafting for my original direct to implant surgery. I am so glad I waited. The initial surgery is more than enough recovery. When we redid my implants in November, I added in fat grafting. My PS did liposuction on my inner thighs - its somewhat painful and takes a while to resolve. So I think a great idea to do as a second step.

Glad to hear it went well JanetM! Where did they take the fat from? Only four days with stitches is nice! I had to keep mine almost two weeks this time. They weren’t bothersome but I did put light gauze on hip incisions to avoid friction from my pants.

My recovery after my first fat grafting surgery felt a lot longer and painful than this last one. I had minimal bruising this time (went yellow/green on tummy almost right away rather than black and blue for weeks!). Don’t even feel like I had surgery a month ago!

I had my follow up with my surgeon a couple weeks ago to remove stitches and check on things. I have been on no restrictions since (were minimal before that though - like don’t go swimming until stitches are out otherwise just don’t do anything that hurts). He mentioned it was a struggle to get fat out this time so I am really hoping this is it - I feel done with all this but I also don’t want to be accessing the thighs. My abdomen is all tapped out it sounds like

Swelling has gone down in breasts so getting a bit better idea of results. I do think so far more fat has stuck at this point than last time so that’s encouraging but I know there is a way to go yet as things smooth out and heal. I don’t expect to have no ripples at all based on my skin and so on but I am definitely hoping that at least results will be reduced rippling. I don’t really want more fat grafting or to go to firmer implants (after having these ones after the 410s I realize how nice for me to have softer ones even with a bit of ripples!). I feel like this is “it”.

I already scheduled my revisit for nipple tattoos in June. I kept my nipples but they lightened even more than they already were after my original surgery and the tatts also help even them out a bit optically. My first round of tattoos faded more than I hoped so going for touch ups.

Going for first fill of expanders on Tuesday. Hoping for the best even though the right side looks a little weird.