Define "failure"

I recently visited my breast surgeon in Brisbane.

He said he was not surprised that the attempt to put in an expander had failed.

He said that once radiation has been done the chances of success are really low.

He went on to say that I've tried it once and go back again it will almost certainly fail.

The recommendation he has (if you have to have reconstruction after radiation) is to have a tran flap (stomach) or whatever it is called from the back. 

Otherwise if you are contemplating reconstruction then it should be done at the immediate time of the mastectomy OR between chemo and radiation BUT definitely BEFORE radiation.

So I am almost assured another failure and if I want to go ahead with reconstruction then I have to look at the other surgery which has been described as a "whopper"..............

AND no one is going to touch me until I get my blood levels back on top of things otherwise if is "an accident waiting to happen".....

Wow, thanks for sharing.  Am at the moment trying to research reconstruction vs. prostheses etc.  So have a better understanding of what can happen. Thanks

It is interesting how you feel about going through reconstruction....and why we do it.

I felt it was me moving forward and leaving the cancer behind.

Unfortunately the first attempt did not work.

However, I am now left with a war wound after the removal of the expander as there was so much infection.  The area has been scraped which now looks like a gouge.  There is a clear dent where the drain was put in after the removal (no drain was used for the installation of the expander).  In addition, the plastic surgeon, left the stretched skin for use in a further reconstruction attempt. 

So now I have this ugly (only my husband and I see it) area which is no longer smooth and therefore prevents the adhesive prothesis doing its job as well as it could....and it is now too small because of the gouging.

We all have our journeys to go through.

This moving forward episode of my life was a backwards one in many ways BUT when you look at the positives that come out of it, I no longer particular care what it looks like....nor does my husband.  I was so sick with the infections that we both came to appreciate (once again) that health is wealth.

It is interesting how you feel about going through reconstruction....and why we do it.

I felt it was me moving forward and leaving the cancer behind.

Unfortunately the first attempt did not work.

However, I am now left with a war wound after the removal of the expander as there was so much infection.  The area has been scraped which now looks like a gouge.  There is a clear dent where the drain was put in after the removal (no drain was used for the installation of the expander).  In addition, the plastic surgeon, left the stretched skin for use in a further reconstruction attempt. 

So now I have this ugly (only my husband and I see it) area which is no longer smooth and therefore prevents the adhesive prothesis doing its job as well as it could....and it is now too small because of the gouging.

We all have our journeys to go through.

This moving forward episode of my life was a backwards one in many ways BUT when you look at the positives that come out of it, I no longer particular care what it looks like....nor does my husband.  I was so sick with the infections that we both came to appreciate (once again) that health is wealth.