I just joined the forum today... and I see I am not alone..

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  • Ltalcott
    Ltalcott Member Posts: 119
    #22
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    kugiek said:

    Hi
    The surgeon said since we
    Hi
    The surgeon said since we caught it so early, that the timing is good to schedule out like this.. My surgery is set up for May 18th, but, I don't think he was thinking about the emotional part of it.
    I am really worried about the 'after' surgery.. I have heard ghost stories about the drain tubes, and the pain that I will be in. The plastic surgeon said I will have a tube for pain but is this going to be enough? and then the scars.. what am I going to look like.?? Is my husband going to be afraid of me?? Is he not going to want to touch me after this? Too many worries, is this normal??? I am going with the skin saving and they told me that I will have a scar from one side to the other around the nipple,
    I would think that it is genetic also, but they told me that since it cam eback negative that my kids ( 3 girls, one boy ) cannot get tested early. They said that its not considered genetic unless its positive??
    The closer it gets to surgery, the more scared I get.. I was told that its a 5-6 hour surgery. and that I will be in the hospital for 1-2 days..
    Is this normal?

    what kind of reconstruction?
    Katie,
    I had DIEP flap reconstruction at the time of the bilateral mastectomies. They built new breasts out of my tummy fat. It is a very complicated operation--I was actually in surgery for over 17 hours. But the recovery is easier than the TRAM flap reconstruction--which involves stomach muscles.

    Either of these kinds are much more complicated than the implants, which lots of women here on the board can tell you about. If your surgery is 5-6 hours, I'd guess that's what they will be doing.

    I was opposite to Ohilly--I was upset in the hospital because I couldn't find a mirror. I wanted to see the day I was out of surgery. When I did see, I wasn't upset. I have diamond-shaped areas on the front of my breasts where the nipple and areola was removed--that's the hole that they went in to remove the breast tissue. I'm 8 weeks out of surgery now--I will go in and have nipple constructed in another month or so. I think they twist up some skin and stitch it up, and then they also tatoo in some color.

    My husband took care of my drains like Aortus did, and he also actually gave me my showers for the first 4-5 days I was home from the hospital. (I was glad to take over the showers--if you scrub something so vigorously that other body parts jiggle, you are washing to hard!) So he's seen the breasts all along. He hasn't touched them yet.

    I tested negative for the BRCA genes too in spite of an impressive family history.

    Best of luck--I had to wait a month between diagnosis and surgery. Most people have 4-6 weeks waiting time. I think Moopy23 was the shortest wait I've heard of--seems like her wait was under a week.

    Glad you found us.

    Lisa

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