Choosing Reconstructive Surgery

iris48

Dear Bicolana,
There are choices regarding the bilateral mastectomy that you do not mention, such as skin saving. Now with the radiation you have undergone, I do not know if that is possible. What procedure are these phyicians performing for a 17 hr reconstruction???? The Tummy Flap is major undertaking, requires excellent vasculor surgeon as well as plastic surgeon and it would be a good idea to have a general surgeon on hand ...just in case. The other possiblity would be lattisimus dorsi flap or back flap. This leaves two long scars down your back. What kind of activities do you normally do?? Consider this because you may not be able to move or have the strength required to continue those activities. Every person is different.
You speak of simple....That would be a saline implant. My surgery to remove encapsualtion, remove the expander (that helped stretch the skin), and insert /fill the saline implants took all of 1 hr and 34 minutes. DO NOT FEEL RUSHED TO MAKE THIS DECISION.
If you live in the Sarasota FL area, the surgeon I used is Harvard/MIT Trained, Double Board Certified and is a general, aesthetic and reconstructive and micro hand surgeon. Here is her website: www.mandalamedispa.com
READ THE NEW:
BREAST CANCER FOR DUMMIES
by Ronit Elk (I'm quoted on page 282, I KRAFT). HUGS

bicolana

Hello Iris48,

I'm not completely dummy when it comes to breast cancer or procedure I've chosen. I came to this newsgroup to seek friends with the same problems i have, hoping to share the feelings i am having now and be able to understand me especially my emotional distress.

Anyway, I'm having a Bilateral Simple Mastectomy with a Superficial Inferior Epigastric Artery Flap(SIEA), which uses a small vessels for blood supply that course in the fatty layer just below the skin of the abdomen. In this type of procedure, the muscle is completely preserved. The benefits of having this procedure are soft reconstruction, complete preservation of abdominal muscles, minimally invasive, and potential for restoration of normal sensation.

My plastic surgeon who is from Baylor College of Medicine, is one of the best plastic surgeon in our area, according to my own research. She developed this procedures more than two years ago and she is the only one who does this in Houston, Texas. She has done more than hundreds of breast reconstructions in the past two years with this procedure successfully. Yes, it will take up to 17 hours because by just removing my two breasts will take 2 to 3 hours which will be performed by my general surgeon, then my plastic surgeon will take over and her procedure will take 10 to 13 hours because of micro surgical procedure.

Thank you for your immediate respond with some good advised.