Define "failure"
My attempt at breast reconstruction did not work.
I was heavily heavily bruised....right through to my groin area - no explanation.
My expander ruptured....no explanation.
I got very very ill w...
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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.