Reconstruction After Mastectomy - Virginia Beach, VA

Every day I look better and almost forget what I went through. Yes, the implant on my mastectomy side is a lot harder than the right due to the fact that there is only skin covering it. The silicone implants are a lot colder feeling than saline were but I am thrilled with where I am today.

So this is the whole story in detail. At 62, I decided to do a 3D mammogram instead of the regular one I had been doing for the previous 25 or more years. They discovered a clumping of calcifications and upon doing the biopsy, it was discovered that I had stage 1 Invasive Lobular Carcinoma. You get choices - lumpectomy with radiation or mastectomy with reconstruction. I basically had no breast tissue because I had old implants that eventually compressed what tissue I had and made my breasts so dense there wasn't much left. So I chose the mastectomy (left side only) and reconstruction (with a new silicone implant on the right and a temporary expander on the left). The permanent implant on the left would come about 3 months later. My surgeon was great but my reconstructive surgeon was awesome! He made sure I had a skin and nipple sparing mastectomy if no lymph nodes were involved. None were. So I had the surgery May 14, 2015 and had to spend the one night in the hospital. I could easily have gone home that night but my insurance made me stay. I know that having implants previously made this whole situation so much easier and I had very little pain or discomfort. The expander in the left side was really weird - more flat than the implant but not too bad looking. I wasn't sure my nipple would ever look or feel the same again but I didn't care. They had gotten all the cancer and I was glad. Everything went so well that I had no complications or issues of any kind. Then I had the permanent implant on the left side on Aug, 20. This was done as an outpatient this time and again, all went well. But about a week later I developed contact dermatitis from either the drain tube or the surgical glue. No way to be sure which did it. That was of course over a weekend and I had to go to an emergency clinic to get that treated. Unreal!!! But every day that passed, my mastectomy breast looked better and better. The nipple came back to life and really looks normal again. Very thankful and so pleased with my PS! I stayed the same size that I was originally - 34B. I had no desire to go any bigger as I am small framed and this was perfect. They are beautiful!

At 62, it was discovered that I had breast cancer. I had a mastectomy with expander and reconstruction on May 14, 2015. Then had my final implant placed on Aug. 20, 2015. Dr. John Alspaugh was awesome! He was kind, compassionate and went above and beyond helping me get this all covered by insurance. His work was amazing and he put me back together better than I was before.