At my last oncology appointment I had mentioned to Dr. Young that I was interested in talking to someone about the possibility of reconstruction. He said no problem and set me up for a consult.
At the end of last week John and I met with my referred cosmetic surgeon Dr. Guay. He is a very interesting man to say the least. He actually puts on educational seminars for woman about breast reconstruction very 8 weeks or so. He goes through the different options for reconstruction, risks and side effects. I think he goes through some before and after pictures and has former patients come in and talk about their experience. I'll find out on Thursday though.
We talked for a short bit at my appointment but as it turns out my radiation won't prevent me from having reconstruction. He has recommended for me to go with a tissue transplant procedure called a TRAM flap instead of a implant. It's essentially a transplant of tissue from my tummy. The surgery seems to be more intense than my mastectomy. The surgeon cuts the flap of skin, fat blood vessels, and possibly muscle for the implant from my tummy and then attaches it to blood vessels in the chest. He said I'll likely be in the hospital for 5 to 7 days. There is a high risk of blood clots in the first 36 hours apparently and I might have to get back into surgery within 6 hours if one develops. Here is a good link on Breast reconstruction from the cancer.org site if you are interested in reading more about it. The advantage with this procedure is that I get a tummy tuck as part of the deal. He actually told me after he examined me that it wouldn't hurt for me to gain a bit of belly fat before the surgery because I'm marginal for having enough tissue in my belly as it is. I see a few pieces of guilt free cheesecake in my future I think :-)
The other slightly surprising thing we learned at my appointment was that I don't have to wait until next year. I've heard before that I would have to wait to close to a year after radiation before I could do the surgery but apparently that isn't the case. He asked me if I wanted to go ahead and I said yes. So we are tentatively booked in for the surgery on October 25th. I'll see how it goes at the seminar this week but right now I'm feeling like this is something I need to do in order to feel good again.
I've finished just over 3 weeks of radiation now. I'm starting to see the redness and dry skin. It's not unbearable but I'm hoping it doesn't get too much worse. I'm also experiencing some fatigue now but that could just be because I'm getting up earlier to make it out to the hospital for my 8:10 am appointments.
Overall I'm feeling good, my hair is growing and I've got half my eye brows back now. It's a really great feeling knowing by the end of this year I'll be done everything including my reconstruction. Something to look forward to.
At the end of last week John and I met with my referred cosmetic surgeon Dr. Guay. He is a very interesting man to say the least. He actually puts on educational seminars for woman about breast reconstruction very 8 weeks or so. He goes through the different options for reconstruction, risks and side effects. I think he goes through some before and after pictures and has former patients come in and talk about their experience. I'll find out on Thursday though.
We talked for a short bit at my appointment but as it turns out my radiation won't prevent me from having reconstruction. He has recommended for me to go with a tissue transplant procedure called a TRAM flap instead of a implant. It's essentially a transplant of tissue from my tummy. The surgery seems to be more intense than my mastectomy. The surgeon cuts the flap of skin, fat blood vessels, and possibly muscle for the implant from my tummy and then attaches it to blood vessels in the chest. He said I'll likely be in the hospital for 5 to 7 days. There is a high risk of blood clots in the first 36 hours apparently and I might have to get back into surgery within 6 hours if one develops. Here is a good link on Breast reconstruction from the cancer.org site if you are interested in reading more about it. The advantage with this procedure is that I get a tummy tuck as part of the deal. He actually told me after he examined me that it wouldn't hurt for me to gain a bit of belly fat before the surgery because I'm marginal for having enough tissue in my belly as it is. I see a few pieces of guilt free cheesecake in my future I think :-)
The other slightly surprising thing we learned at my appointment was that I don't have to wait until next year. I've heard before that I would have to wait to close to a year after radiation before I could do the surgery but apparently that isn't the case. He asked me if I wanted to go ahead and I said yes. So we are tentatively booked in for the surgery on October 25th. I'll see how it goes at the seminar this week but right now I'm feeling like this is something I need to do in order to feel good again.
I've finished just over 3 weeks of radiation now. I'm starting to see the redness and dry skin. It's not unbearable but I'm hoping it doesn't get too much worse. I'm also experiencing some fatigue now but that could just be because I'm getting up earlier to make it out to the hospital for my 8:10 am appointments.
Overall I'm feeling good, my hair is growing and I've got half my eye brows back now. It's a really great feeling knowing by the end of this year I'll be done everything including my reconstruction. Something to look forward to.
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