skin sparing mastectomy with dermal grafts and implants

Hi, there I have finally managed to post a Blog.

I am nearly 4months post bilateral skin sparing mastectomy with flexHD dermal grafts and implants. 

My surgeon was Dr Ellis Choy who I can thoroughly reccommend.

If you read my profile you can get the nitty gritty on my breast cancer journey as I will try not to make this too long. 

I wanted to share in the Breast Reconstruction site, my experience. 

I was fortunate to have not needed chemo, and due to having lupus there was a lot of questions and concerns for radiation treatment.  Mastectomy was my treatment choice. 

I went for bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction after having 4 breast core biopsies after my tumour and lymph nodes removal and after meeting with Dr Choy.  He was very thorough, reassuring and informative with helping me with my decision.  He has remained very supportive still through my journey and is happy to talk over the phone or email if I have any queries. 

In June I underwent bilateral skin and nipple sparing mastectomy with immediate reconstruction with FlexHD dermal grafts and implants. 

I was one of the few women in Australia to have this type of surgery with it only being approved 2months prior.  I spent about 5 days in hospital and went home with two drains in place. 

The first drain came out about 1week post op and the second one a few days later.  I experienced a fair bit of swelling but overall the pain was not too bad, unless of course I over did things. 

Lifting and a lot of upper body movements were very limited for a while.

I was off work for about 6weeks and then slowly worked my way back on a part time basis.  Each day though I got out of bed and with the help of my hubby in the first few weeks, would get out of the house then be home for lunch, then have a rest so I was good to go when my children got home from school. 

I am very fortunate to have a lot of family and friends support and cannot emphasise enough how important it is to accept the offers of help from others as this not only helps you but also your partner and children, it also makes the person offering feel important.

Any who, sorry I am going on a bit, so my recovery was a little slow and I remained on Panadol and antibiotics for a good couple of months to help with healing. 

I also took Zinc fix, a powder by Ethical Nutrients, to assist in my healing and to boost my immune system. 

I was worried as a lupus patient, that I may experience an inflammatory respose and or rejection. Cross fingers and toes so far so good. By about 2months post op passed I had built up my strength I started to go for small walks and started to go back to work.

My body though would soon tell me when I did too much.  At 3months was getting very frustrated as I did not seem to be going forward and was still getting swelling and hotness and pain each day.

I saw the breast cancer nurse and discovered lymphatic drainage of the front of my body.  I was already doing back lymphatic drainage, but the new found front drainage has worked wonders.

I can even mash potatoes now, vaccuum hard floors and low pile carpet, wash the car, carry the groceries and have started doing upper body excercise. 

It has taken nearly 4months for me to start to feel comfortable and confident with my new breasts and hopefully by joining this network I can connect with other women who have had the same surgery as me and can share their journeys, concerns, achievements and anything else they wish. 

I have felt isolated with this as I am the first amongst friends and family to have been diagnosed with breast cancer and I look forward to meeting and sharing with others.

I apologise again for the length of this blog. 

Have a great weekend, Deb :)