Ongoing Reconstruction

I was diagnosed 17 years ago with ER+/her2+ breast cancer in my left breast. I had a mastectomy of my left breast – in those days bilateral mastectomies were not recommended. I did not opt for reconstruction and lived with that for five years.

At five years to celebrate my survival against all odds and because I was tired of wearing the heavy silicone insert I decided to have reconstruction using the expander method with a silicone implant. I decided to not have an implant in my real breast so as not to interfere with mammograms.

My goal was to look as normal as possible therefore I did not want to go any bigger than my existing 34B size. Unfortunately I got a plastic surgeon who thought everyone wanted to look like Dolly Parton and he basically did a very poor expansion ( bumps and crevices and a very poor shape) and I looked like I had a massive goiter growing on my chest that was about twice the size of my existing breast.

I changed plastic surgeons and he spent the next 10 years trying to correct the botched job the original surgeon did. This entailed trying to make the expansion sack look normal, trying different types of implants and having lifts done on my real breast. I had ongoing problems with capsular contracture which necessitated having to change the implants more than I wanted.

My last implant in 2011 was a teardrop gummy bear that did not fit well into the expansion but was better than the others. Unfortunately I develop some cc that made it look tighter and higher than my existing breast. My insurance changed and I got a new plastic surgeon who did a lift to the real breast that helped for a year or so but the cc continued to get worse and worse until finally it was at about a 4.

On December 7, 2016 my new plastic surgeon inserted a Mentor memory shape 300cc breast implant medium height, high profile to my left breast (about the same size as the one I already had) and did a mega lift on my right breast. The cc had been so invasive that it actually invaded the implant so it did need to be changed out.

In retrospect I wish that I had gone smaller on the left breast--a low profile, low height would've been better-- I feel that there is too much fullness on the upper pole and projection on the lower pole. I also wish that I had waited on the lift to see how the implant would look. But I am only a month out and my surgeon tells me that there is still quite a bit of swelling in the implant and the lift still needs to drop.

If I had everything to do over again I would've had a bilateral mastectomy and therefore avoided the journey of trying to match apples and oranges--It's just not possible. My goal of looking normal may never be achieved and I am preparing myself for at least one more surgery to perhaps replace the implant with a smaller one.

I have attached two photos--one on the day of my surgery and how I look now one month out. Still hoping that things will look more symmetric.

I am now one month out and was able to take the tape off today. I am posting an after picture that shows the left breast implant and the right breast lift. The right breast (real breast) is supposed to drop and the swelling underneath is from some liposuction he did so hopefully I will have better lower pole fullness in that breast to match the lower projection of the implant.

Saw Dr. Hess for my 6-week check up and he feels that all is doing well. I am still concerned that the left breast implant is too big and that the lower pole projection is too much. Right real breast lift is starting to settle but still lacks any lower pole projection--swelling underneath is from the lipo he did because the previous implant was smaller than my real breast.

However, I am happier than I was before the revision and just need to be patient about the right breast lift relaxing and developing some projection. I have not eliminated the idea of having one more go at it and having a smaller implant with less projection done in 6 months or so--just need to see what happens.