59 yr old Bilateral Mastectomies with Immediate Reconstruction - Atlanta, GA

i had trouble loading my photos with my original review, so I tried again. Success!! I did not mention in my first post that I was 59 when I started the process and was diagnosed with DCIS in my left breast and also diagnosed with it in my right breast when the pathology after my mastectomies came back. I was one lucky girl to have both done since the cancer in my right breast was totally undetectable and larger than the place in my right breast.

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2014 I was stunned. I am from a small town in South Georgia and I knew I didn't have many options. Fortunately my daughter lived in Atlanta and worked in a major hospital. She made a few calls and set me up to see a breast surgeon and a plastic surgeon, both highly recommended. When I met Dr. Ghazi I was impressed by his kindness, compassion, and his work. The photos he showed me of other women he had done reconstructions on were fantastic. The thing he told me that made the most impression was that we would be very good friends before this was over. I really hadn't thought about how long it would take, so it was very important to get a doctor I liked and was comfortable with because we would be seeing a lot of each other. I am so very glad I went with Dr. Ghazi! He is a consummate professional and he loves what he does. Through 4 surgeries and every doctor visit he was always kind, compassionate, caring and happy to see me, all with a smile on his face! I had decided to have a bilateral mastectomy, since I would have had to have a breast reduction and lift on my other breast to make them symmetrical. It was a good thing I decided to have a bilateral since the pathology showed I had breast cancer in both breasts which was totally undetectable on my mammograms. Since I had had four children and had large pendulous breasts I wanted to Dr. Ghazi to make them smaller, from a DD to a C. I had my surgery in October 2014 and only stayed in the hospital overnight. I was surprised when I woke up to find I had fairly large breasts. Since I was having a reduction, there was plenty of skin so he had filled my expanders pretty full. I only had to have have one fill later. It was a very tough surgery and I had a lot of pain. The muscle spasms were the worst! I didn't tolerate any of the pain killers well except IV Tylenol, which my breast surgeon had prescribed. The only problem with it was they could only give it to me 3 times because of potential liver damage and I couldn't have Motrin at all since it causes bleeding. Dr. Ghazi prescribed an antibiotic, a muscle relaxer, nausea medicine and lortab for pain when I got home. I had two drains and was told not to raise my arms above my shoulders. I recovered at my daughter's house and was amazed at how much I slept. I managed my pain fairly well, I didn't tolerate lortab well so I just took the muscle relaxer and Tylenol right on time. At first my husband would get up and give it to me, then later I set my phone to wake me up and that worked fine. Like everyone, I too hated the drains. I got one out at two weeks and the other out at four weeks. The only complication I had was I got a small infection in the end of one of the incisions. I called his office and spoke to his nurse and she asked me to take a photo of it and send it to her, which I did. Dr. Ghazi called me back and said he'd called in an antibiotic and he would see me first thing in the morning. The next morning he took me right in, said it was too bad but he needed to clean it up. He opened a part of the incision, removed some so the old stitches, cleaned it out and disinfected it and stitched it back up. Since all of my stitches were under the skin and absorbed by my body, I found I had trouble after all my surgeries with the knots on the end of the incisions. I think that is what caused the infection. Later I learned to either get Dr. Ghazi to remove them or I would. I had my exchange surgery in January 2015 and was surprised at how easy it was. It was an outpatient surgery and I had drains again. The recovery was much the same and I had the same meds. This one was a walk in the park compared to the mastectomies. I had my next surgery in April 2015. I had my nipples made and Dr. Ghazi decided I needed some fat grafting in some sunken areas of my chest so I had liposuction on my lower abdomen and then had the fat injected into those areas. This surgery was outpatient too and the recovery a little harder. I had the same meds and had to wear a compression garment on my abdomen to keep down any swelling. I also had to wear nipple covers for a month or so, so they would heal projecting out. This time no drains! Yay! Through all of these surgeries and all my doctor visits, Dr. Ghazi was fantastic! He was always patient and kind, always gave me a hug, always answered my questions and was genuinely interested in how I was mentally and physically. After having so many surgeries, we both decided I needed a break and he wanted me to heal some before deciding if I needed anything else done. We scheduled my next surgery for September 2015. Since I had reduced my breast size In front I had been left with too much boobs under my arms. Dr. Ghazi said if I didn't mind my scars being larger he could remove that excess tissue under my arms. We also decided to put more Alloderm under the skin of my right breast. The skin was so thin that I could feel the implant beneath it and I wanted something done to help my nipples project more since they had flattened over time. This surgery was outpatient too and recovery much the same. I did have one drain on the side with the Alloderm and nipple covers again. He put some Alloderm in them too. By this time I had the routine down and everything went very smoothly. Everything looked good now so I got my final tattoos in January 2016. He has a trained nurse do them in his office and like everyone else, she was great too. Luckily I have very little feeling in my breasts so it wasn't painful at all. Dr. Ghazi was truly an angel through the whole process and his staff was so friendly and caring. He took the worst experience of my life and made better than I ever thought possible. The first time I met him he said we would be good friends before I was through and he was right, I feel like we are very good friends! I even felt so comfortable with him I had him work on my face. He injected Botox, fillers, and Voluma in my face and that turned out great too! I tried to load my photos but it kept giving me message errors, so no photos.