Bi-lateral Mastectomy w/ Immediate Reconstruction, Vancouver, WA

Good luck and please if you need me I'm here. I thought I was prepared for the road ahead but wow, I learned different. I'll post a new picture of the girls soon, my last surgery was mid Novemeber so they're settling well and looking very good. Take care!

I have just returned from a week in hospital with IV antibiotics for cellulitis of the breast. The positive is that as my boobs are numb, I didn't feel pain but lots of sympathy because it looked so bad. Now for 7weeks of antibiotics and no further expansion or surgery till the infection has been cleared up. Wondering what else can go wrong!!

Oh my heavens! I am so sorry! I had a few small things happen along my journey but nothing like that but I remember thinking the same thing, it can be so depressing and makes you feel like it's never going to end. I still have some bad days from time to time but thankfully more good ones then bad. It does get better and I hope the next couple of months go by quickly for you and are uneventful with "the girls". Take care and feel free to email me anytime. Hang in there!!!

Fortunately, no I didn't have to do radiation

Hi, I believe the only way to correct that is with a tummy tuck or a mini tummy tuck. Did you have fat grafting done? I did and now my lower stomach has floppy skin. I always had a bit of that because of a c-section but removing the fat for the grafting made it way worse. I have a consult with Dr Gabriel to discuss a mini tummy tuck.

Nothing is too personal at all, us girls need to stick together in this

Feel free to private message me

Jumping in here to say I'm sorry you feel you can't let your husband see. ...I'm not happy but he is right with me to get it fixed.
Do the expanders

I agree we have gone through what most people will never understand! I just want to know how to talk to PS without upsetting her. I go on Medicare in April and also don't know if first insurance pays till finished or have to fight Medicare. I also didn't know you really needed to go bigger because set under muscle. Also someone said takes awhile for "fluffing" ...don't understand this term. Still won't take away this extra skin
Sorry keep asking so many Q.

Fluffing is a slang term and somehow has taken on the meaning of the softening of the implants and muscle. When implants are first placed, things are very stiff and tight, so fluffing is as they soften. Not sure how that term came about in conjunction with reconstruction but the term "fluffing" actually is what is done to male [RS bleep] stars to uh, "keep them ready" so you won't catch me talking to my Dr about fluffing :/

Your PS should want to do everything she can to make you feel good about her work. Have you just casually tried saying something like, "is there anything that we can do about this loose skin?" Maybe point to it or something? We're going to see things that others don't and that includes our Drs. I had an area on Righty that bugged the heck out of me, it was right in the cleavage middle area. Righty was just a tad fuller in one spot. No one would have ever noticed but I sure did. I asked my Dr if anything could be done and he of course said yes. Alls he had to do was trim some of the skin to make it a bit tighter. It made a HUGE difference and at one of my follow up visits he commented that just doing that little tuck made a big difference. I don't think he ever really saw it until I pointed it out.

As far as going bigger when under the muscle, I am so amazed that more Drs don't tell you that. My first implants were 650cc's, yes they we big but for me, just looked a bit small for my chest. I had those removed and have 800cc's now and they look so much more proportionate.

My understanding on the insurance is that now per a Federal Law, insurance companies can no longer claim it's a pre-existing condition and not pay. So regardless to what insurance you started with, any new insurance has to pay even 10 yrs from now when the implants need to be replaced, etc.

Feel free to ask any questions, us girls gotta stick together and support each other when going through all this crap.

Take care!

Thank you, it's my pleasure to share, if I can help even one person who's going through all this crap, well then I'm happy.

I have always been a girly girl, hair, makeup, clothes, the whole bit so I'm very thankful that the option for reconstruction is there. My grandmother had a mastectomy when she was 63, back then insurances didn't have to pay for reconstruction so she lived another 34 years with only one breast. Very sad because I know that she was always self-conscience about it.

Yes I did tattooing and it wasn't painful at all since you can't really feel much, mine are kind of numb which of courses makes tattooing way more comfortable. I'm actually getting them touched up next Tuesday :)

Can you get a revision to correct lefty? Not being happy with our results makes it seem like cancer won a bit and I will never allow that to happen. I have had 8 surgeries total, little tweaks here and there, creating nipples (aka fipples, fake nipples Lol) and a lot of fat grafting.

Well she did say she doesn't take lipo on my stomach because some people have come back with complaints. .yes I have complaints. ..I feel like you we should be fixed right after all we have gone through. ..problem is I do like her....just with both out. ..did well with expanders. tried to not complain. ...but she had a blank canvas. .right

Lumpy? Did you have fat grafting done? I didn't experience any lumpiness except for a little where the fat had died, it's like little balls but if you push on the balls they'll pop, sounds kind of gross but my doctor told me to massage the girls and "pop" the fat balls so that they don't harden and feel like hard little pebbles. As far as nipples go, I went back and forth with whether to do them and the areola tattooing. I remember always looking in the mirror and thinking something's just not right. I went ahead and did the nipples and I remember being so happy because they seemed more "normal", then I got the areola tattooing done and I remember thinking, wow, before it was like a face with no eyes looking bad at me in the mirror. For me, I'm so glad I did it.

I think not as lumpy as they are just not quite boob shaped? They look kind of odd yet but now seem to be rounding out as we go. I got an abscess that burst so now just had surgery to clean out and put drain in. I didn't feel it since I'm numb. Only felt tightness til it burst and poured. I went to the head of the line for surgery so it must've been urgent? I was pretty sick by then. Getting discharged in few minutes .

Oh heavens that's terrible but so glad you caught it and will start to feel better soon. As the implants settle and drop, they'll start to look more like boobs, it takes a while for the muscle and implants to soften.

I hope you start feeling better! Take care!!!

I think I didn't realize they settle and drop. I feel way better now. Thank you. I got home few hours ago. Still fuzzy from all the hubbub but thankful .

Take care and get some rest.

Sending happy thoughts your way!

Anyone from Vancouver WA Laury Giffin from Denovo does an awesome job of 3D tattoos!

LOL yes I've got to agree with you hubby, regular tattoos do feel like being skinned alive but after a mastectomy (which technical it's a lot like being skinned alive) you have no feeling or very very limited feeling. I couldn't really feel any pain, I of course felt the vibration but no pain. I do know a few people that could feel a tinge of pain but once the tattoo artist used the numbing gel, they couldn't feel anything.

Thank you swiley916