Screwed by plastic surgeon

rgilliam8867

So, my plastic surgeon's office called me last week and left a message on my cell phone, saying that he wasn't aware that I had radiation to the chest wall (untrue) and they cancelled my scheduled consultation and following surgery, without even seeing me or talking to me in person. I was SO upset!

After 5 attempts to speak to the nurse who left the message, I finally got a hold of her and she said the Dr. rec'd my records from the general doctor, and they claimed that they didn't know about the radiation, and that Doc doesn't do surgery w/ irradiated skin. That is a mistake (lie), as I TOLD the nurse on the phone 3 months ago about my treatments-- that it would be over a year after the last one before having the surgery.

The next mistake (lie) was that the doctor DOES do surgery w/ irradiated skin, as I have a friend who saw him 4 months prior to this, and he said that she is a candidate for surgery--she, too, had radiation. The nurse said that Doc must not have known about it when my friend saw him-- I said how could he not as he reviewed all her records and he saw her in person.

It just sounds like a cop-out to me. I told them that I think it's because he is trying to dump any TRICARE insurance patients, as TRICARE doesn't pay as much as other insurances, and that he's going to be discontinuing his relationship w/ them as soon as his current contract is up--she denied it, but I beg to differ. I reamed her and their office on their unprofessionalism, in that she cancelled everything w/out speaking to me, and not returning my calls.

I should know better than to get my hopes up about anything anymore or make any long term plans. Whenever I do, things seem to go wrong.

Sorry for the **** session--I just need to vent!
I live in a small town w/ limited resources/doctors. Now my surgery will be put on hold for years until we move and go somewhere w/ more options. When I'm done being mad, I'm sure I'll realize that everything happens for a reason, and that good things are worth the wait. Maybe he would have butchered me if he had done the surgery, and it's better to wait to have it done by someone w/ more confidence and skill.

God Bless,

Rita

Skybuf

Dear RGilliam, your so right in what you say, God must have other plans for you and a better surgeon! I wouldn't want to go to a surgeon if they didn't want to do it, your better off without him....some day he will want for something and it won't be there for him!
I too have an appointment with the plastic surgeon, wonder now how it will go. I got a referral from the family physician and another one for 2 months after that for another P/S from my surgeon who did the mastectomy. Get another referral for a city near you. I live in the boonies too and have to travel to the next town for my appointments. We are short doctors here but lots of surgeons in the big cities....so bless you and I do hope and pray things work out well for you......remember "in HIS time"

Susan956

Hey Rita...

I am sure that you feel some better... Just being able to vent here always helps me.

Hope things will look brighter for you soon.

Take care... God Bless....

Susan

Future

Rita,
I have TRICARE so please let me share couple things. Part 1 is about my experience. Part 2 is about TRICARE.
1) This isn't justifying your doctor, but seems like those with heavy dose of radiation tend to have more problems with reconstruction. I had radiation on one side and then a simple mastectomy on the other side two years later. I started reconstruction when I had the second mastectomy. I had a latis dorsi flap with expander on the radiated side. I ended up with a major infection on the radiated side requiring hospitalization, removal of the expander, 2 weeks IV antibiotics and then 30 days of oral antibiotics. Simple mastectomy with expander went find and now have implant on that side. So had one side looking decent ant then the other side had the flap which was off-center and smaller than the other side. My military plastic surgeon was honest and said he didn't want to do any additional surgery on the radiated side. Seems he had two additional patients with post-op complications and the only commonality was radiation. After two years he sent me to a civilian surgeon for second opinion and this doctor was willing to do some "tweaking" to create symmetry but he wasn't willing to open the radiated side either. The doctor you were suppose to see may be having similar experiences. Most surgeons don't like to make it known that they have an increase in their infection rate or complications. I respect my military surgeon because he was honest; I did talk to some other surgeons I know and they said, yes, by word of mouth they're hearing about these type of issues, but nothing be published.

2) You say you're from small town but is there another facility within a reasonable distance? If there is, contact TRICARE, tell them what happended and you want authorization to see a different provider. BE PERSISTENT. If you don't get anywhere then ask for the contact information for the "TRICARE REGIONAL OFFICE (TRO) director for your region and contact them. If still no satisfaction contact the TRICARE Managment Activity (TMA) deputy director; if you get to that point I can give you info on how to contact him. By law, you have a right to reconstruction surgery and don't let one insensitive surgeon stop you.

Mary

Unknown

I think the plastic surgeons are just taking a lot of risks.My story is in 2003 My cancer Dr. told me I could have reconstruction at the same time as my mast. My PS said I couldn't have saline implants as they bubble up with rad. so she said a LD flap would work for me and that I would have breast of a 40 yr. old and it was a miracle thing for women and they no longer have to come out of surg. with a flat scar. WOW so I had the flap done, some of it went bad right off because of the blood supply not feeding the tissue properly so I had to go back in and have a lot of black skin looked burned and crispy and some tissue removed and so it was then smaller and finally was ok to start my chemo even though I still had an open wound on my back,about 5 in. that she had to let drain and the fluids ruined many many shirts and things and was like that for a year in which my husband packed it with gauze. after 12 strong chemos and 36 strong[big gun] treatments and still an open wound I kept telling myself it will look like those beautiful boobs in her book.after treatments she did a lift as at 53 you need one and then she said we would finish the radiated one and add the nipple tatoo,can't wait but as the tissue began healing from the rad. the radiated breast began moving toward my shoulder and higher and shrinking into the ugliest thing that looked not like a breast. It was filling up with lumps and scars and fluid and my rad. dr. told me it was now hiding lumps that could be cancer and a pet scan showed a big mess as I became more depressed and not sleeping and getting more scared than ever,My cancer Dr told me we needed to take it off that it was endangering my life so 2 years after the so called miracle I was walked into a phsycologist at the cancer dr. with post traumatic stress syndrome and was counceled for a while and then scheduled to have it all taken out and when they did,they had to take so much that I now have a huge whole in my chest and nothing will fit me right and the scar on my back is so tight that it affects my work here on our farm and I am still mad and sad and when I went to another Ps to see if I could just get the simplest implant, guess what there is now not enough skin so my options are maybe one but it is the most risky and it scares me so I have to now deal with her lack of information forever.It was a 2 year nightmare and it just doesn't go away.I'm still realizing that I had cancer and I hope to survive because that reconstruction took over my life or should I say deconstruction. I'm trying to do some legal stuff but guess what they need a Ps to say she did wrong but all they say is she used very poor judgement in my case, isn't that like mal pract? any way I'm trying to move on. Oh yeah, if you go and find someone to do it watch out for the informed consent,the office girl read it off really fast and I was so trusting in my cancer Dr. that referred me and the Ps. wonderful miracle words that what I signed said everything that happened so you end up feeling like you have been scammed.Through it all I never did get to wear a regular bra.I wore a stretch one to fit across the mess.Look up The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center click on reconstruction, Lots of Info. Good Luck, Brenda

dapiek

My wife tried to have reconstruction about 6 months after her last radiation treatment. The skin isn't really healed yet. We went through two surgeons three sets of implants, and a tram flap on the radiated side, plus she had alot of pain. The radiated said looked awful from day one and remained that way till we gave up after 2 years of trying, and had them pulled. Our insurance wanted the whole cancer treatment and reconstruction over within a year so we rushed the first reconstruction. The first plastic surgeon showed us pictures but not really of heavily radiated skin. He put the implants in and kept trying to pump them up a little at a time till we could see the implant through the skin and it even ripped open. It is scar tissue and does not stretch. When the second surgeon did the tram flap he didn't get all of the radiated skin. And the same thing basically happened again because he didn't wait for the ripped skin to heal properly. That skin takes a lot longer to heal than normal.
Be very careful of the surgeon you choose, don't be afraid to switch surgeons and get a list of all the things that could go wrong to be informed. Get with other BC patients to who has had a lot of radiation and see who they used - get references. When it is all over be sure to share your experience with others so they can learn.