Anyone have reconstruction after having severe radiation burns from treatment?

I too had the expanders put in during my mastectomy and I too got an infection, which then lead to having to have them removed.  I waited for 3 months after my radiation was complete before I started reconstruction again.  I too had severe burns on my breast, it was so painful but after about 4 weeks it was healed over.  My PS wanted me to wait because the tissue was so fragile and he wanted to make sure it was completely healed before we began. I did the lat surgery and had inplants put in. When I had the nipple reconstuction it didn't turn out well on the side that had the radiation. My radiation made the chest so tan that when the lat surgery was done I now had an eye.  That can be visable if I wear a thin bra, so now I always wear one that is padded.  My PS went way bigger on the implants then I had expected and the lat surgery has been very had to recover from. I has been a year and a half and I am now back seeing the PS because the breast is encapsulating the implant.  I some exercises to do and if it doesn't improve by the 1st of March I will have to have surgery on that side to take care of it.  I have continuel pain on that side.  I have been very dissapointed in my reconstruction.  If I have to have this surgery that the PS is talking about I will have them removed.  The biggest issue with all of that is now what happens to the lat muscle that is over my breast. I am in my mid 40's and having no breasts was so upsetting, but what I have been dealing with has been worse.  At least I can say I tried!  If I had to do it all over again with my 20/20 vision I would never do it again.  My body hasn't reacted well to any of it.  You may be totally fine and have no problems. I just wish I had more knowledge before I started the whole thing.  I would be happy to answer more questions.  If you are going to do it don't go too big, I would think about keeping mine if I can go much smaller on the implant.  Let us know what you decide to do!

Marianne

I had pretty bad burns from my radiation also.My radiation ended last Jan. I also had to have my expander taken out because of an infection. Because of my burns and the fact that I was still on chemo and had a port my Plastics Dr. wanted me to wait until this last Dec. before we did reconstructive surgery. I had a diep flap . VERY painful but now that i am 8 weeks out I would not do anything different. My burns and skin had time to heal and I had time to heal my brain. I think we want it to be done and back to normal so quickly that we rush it . Thats what us women do .Give yourself time to heal. They make prostetics that look so real.