Radiated skin/ reconstruction

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butterflylvr
butterflylvr Member Posts: 944
in Breast Cancer #1
Hello beautiful sisters,

A friend of mine is going through tissue expander reconstruction and is having trouble with her radiated side not stretching. I was curious to hear your stories, does the elasticity in the skin eventually stretch through a gradual process, or will there come a point when it will only go so far and that is it?

I am of no help since my tissue expanders were put in place before my radiation treatments even started. I guess that's the advantage of a skin sparing mastectomy. Thanks for any input..

Lorrie

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  • lynn1950
    lynn1950 Member Posts: 2,570
    #2
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    Good question. It will be
    Good question. It will be interesting to hear what people have experienced. I still think about reconstruction, having had a bilateral mastectomy, and had radiation on my cancer side. xoxoxo Lynn
  • jamjar62
    jamjar62 Member Posts: 135
    #3
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    radiated skin
    Hi Lorrie,

    I had reconstruction done about 3 years after I finished chemo and radiation. I waited because I was tired of being messed with.

    I had the DIEP flap reconstruction. The skin on the radiated breast did not expand like my surgeon wanted it to. After my surgery, they had to do liposuction on the tissue flap because it wasn't stretching and the stitches were pulling out. I was awake but on a morphine pump. My Mom was in the room and I think she was ready to punch out a doctor or two.

    It's now 5 years after my reconstruction and the skin is still weird. After the reconstruction, your breasts are supposed to "drop" down into a more normal position. My radiated breast never did so it's pretty dang perky. The other one did and it's....well not so perky. I just ratchet up my bra on the droopy side.

    I don't know if this helped at all but it's what I experienced.

    Karen
  • tko683
    tko683 Member Posts: 264 Member
    #4
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    radiated skin
    I was told that radiated skin does not stretch well and that this method of reconstruction would not be an option for me. I ended up having the DIEP flap reconstruction which is much more involved and turned out to be a nightmare because I developed a bloot clot in the new breast so the surgery was a failure. This was 7 years ago. Hugs, Teri
  • Gabe N Abby Mom
    Gabe N Abby Mom Member Posts: 2,413
    #5
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    I don't know about the
    I don't know about the elasticity of radiated skin, but I do know the skin and tissue take longer to heal. My re-excision surgery was about six weeks ago, and I still have that open wound. Based on the rate it's healing, it looks like my hubby and I will be doing wound care for several months. But I also had some heavy duty rads (44 treatments in 22days), the wound is in the booster area so it was hit hardest, and of course we're all different.

    I know this doesn't answer your question, but something for your friend to keep in mind.

    Is her doc recommending anything to help the elasticity of her skin?...lotion, vitamin E oil, the famous aquaphor? Something like that might help a little.

    Give your friend my best.

    Hugs,

    Linda
  • Kylez
    Kylez Member Posts: 3,761 Member
    #6
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    tko683 said:

    radiated skin
    I was told that radiated skin does not stretch well and that this method of reconstruction would not be an option for me. I ended up having the DIEP flap reconstruction which is much more involved and turned out to be a nightmare because I developed a bloot clot in the new breast so the surgery was a failure. This was 7 years ago. Hugs, Teri

    I had a lumpectomy with
    I had a lumpectomy with rads, so, I don't know a lot about this, but, radiated skin doesn't stretch like skin that hasn't had rads. That's why some women opt out of rads.

    I wish I had some better answers for you.
  • RE
    RE Member Posts: 4,591 Member
    #7
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    :-(
    Lorrie my sister had radiation on both sides and when it came time to have recon. she did not stretch well at all. She was informed that that was normal for radiated skin and she would have to prob. end up with much smaller breasts then she started with which is what happened.

    Also radiated skin does not ever totally return to it's pre-rad condition. I am 13 years out and I still have occassional flare ups and rashes that show up on that side. My onco explained to me that it will do this pretty much forever.

    Hope this has been helpful, wishing your friend well!

    RE
  • butterflylvr
    butterflylvr Member Posts: 944
    #8
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    RE said:

    :-(
    Lorrie my sister had radiation on both sides and when it came time to have recon. she did not stretch well at all. She was informed that that was normal for radiated skin and she would have to prob. end up with much smaller breasts then she started with which is what happened.

    Also radiated skin does not ever totally return to it's pre-rad condition. I am 13 years out and I still have occassional flare ups and rashes that show up on that side. My onco explained to me that it will do this pretty much forever.

    Hope this has been helpful, wishing your friend well!

    RE

    Thank you sweet sisters,
    Thank you sweet sisters,

    You pretty much confirmed what I kinda already suspected. My friend is about an "A" cup now so she's getting some boobie cleavage. I must say Linda's response has me a little worried now. My implant exchange surgery is this Thursday and we will be keeping a close eye on my radiated left side hoping my incisions heal post op. Ugh.... At least with my skin there is some elasticity returning in the radiated side and doc is going to go about a half size smaller with the implants. I'll keep you posted and thanks again for your responses.

    Hugs,
    Lorrie
  • missingtexas
    missingtexas Member Posts: 146
    #9
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    <3 you Lorrie!!</b>
    Thanks Lorrie for posting this...and everybody's comments. The stretching on my radiated side has been extremely painful and it's definitely not stretching like the other side. We had discussed this possibility early on and he said if it won't stretch or if it stops stretching we may have to do a lattisimus flap at some point on that side. I was not a candidate for a DIEP or TRAM flap because I just don't have any spare tissue there. We'll see what happens. Hugs to you all. Thanks for the concern. xox
  • survivorbc09
    survivorbc09 Member Posts: 4,374 Member
    #10
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    Gabe N Abby Mom said:

    I don't know about the
    I don't know about the elasticity of radiated skin, but I do know the skin and tissue take longer to heal. My re-excision surgery was about six weeks ago, and I still have that open wound. Based on the rate it's healing, it looks like my hubby and I will be doing wound care for several months. But I also had some heavy duty rads (44 treatments in 22days), the wound is in the booster area so it was hit hardest, and of course we're all different.

    I know this doesn't answer your question, but something for your friend to keep in mind.

    Is her doc recommending anything to help the elasticity of her skin?...lotion, vitamin E oil, the famous aquaphor? Something like that might help a little.

    Give your friend my best.

    Hugs,

    Linda

    Wishing your friend good
    Wishing your friend good luck with her reconstruction.


    Hugs, Jan

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