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Lorraine_Wilson's avatar
Lorraine_Wilson
Member
12 years ago

Post mastectomy

On the 16th April I had a double Mastectomy for early invasive BC.At the time of surgery I had  tissue expanders inserted with planes for implants .in a few months .When the last of my drains were removed  two weeks post surgery I had a bleed & developed a haematoma in one breast  making my recovery slower & having to miss a infill to expanders .

I am very luckt in the fact I don't need chemo just hormone replacement & will beat this but it is still hard . Has anyone had a similar problem ? And what is the usual recovery time from mastectomy ? 

I have had so much advice mostly from people who haven't had BC .

lorraine 

2 Replies

  • Deid's avatar
    Deid
    Member
    12 years ago

    I had a Mastectomy left breast (No Chemo) in Novemeber.  at the time I only had 7 days to my operation to come to terms with it as I had three lumps.  I am now wishing I had been able to read all your advice (I would have had a double mastectomy) as I keep reading about people having the other breast off which I plan to do too as there are no gaurantees and I am 60 years so if cancer comes back in a few years I will find it harder to cope with.  Has anyone advice for me,  I have to decide whether to have a Mastectomy for my right breast and have an expander which I have in the left and then have them filled and then have another operation to have the implants put in once expanded. 

    Or have a skin saving Mastectomy right breast (dont know its name) and have implant put in then and at the same time have other breast implant put in  too meaning I will only have one more operation.  It did take me at least  2 1/2 months to recover from first Mastectomy. (Never been on line before so hope this works) 

  • Chris's avatar
    Chris
    Member
    12 years ago
    Hi Lorraine, I had a similar problem to you. I had a small haematoma form following my first mastectomy. This had no tissue expander in at this time, but the haematoma formed and was about a golf ball size. My surgeon let it resolve itself, and it took about 8 weeks. when I had my second mastectomy 9 months later, I had tissues expanders inserted in to both breasts in preparation for implants a few months later. Three weeks after this surgery I developed a much larger haematoma on the newest mastectomy site. This blew up fast and required more surgery to drain the blood away and wash out the expander. They removed 800 mls of old blood, and collected another 200 mls in a drain. This major bleed set me back 3 weeks. This happened 2 1/2 years ago, and everything worked out fine. In fact, this breast is the better of the 2. It is softer and more rounded. This breast also did not have cancer, so the surgeon may have left a bit more fat there for softness. Good luck with it all. These things do happen, and if not too big, will often resolve themselves. Even large ones like mine do not cause issues in the long term. Chris xx