Anyone have reconstruction after having severe radiation burns from treatment?

Undecided  I am having reconstruction done soon. My radiation burns were so bad that I had to postpone a week of the treatments out of my 7 weeks of treatment. I even had the expanders put in during my bilateral mascetomy, yet got infectons so I had to get them taking out.  My radiated skin is so tough and no amount of exercise seems to loosen it up much. So I looking into the lat flap type surgury now. Just curious if anyone who had to go through radiation is happy with their reconstruction, and if not is it because it looks very deformed or not right. I'm not expecting it to be perfect just want to know how those or you who have gone through it feel about the outcome. 

 

Comments

  • McMarty
    McMarty Member Posts: 212 Member
    I'm sure someone here has,

    I'm sure someone here has, just be patient, they are probably watching the Super Bowl. 

  • Mariannemm
    Mariannemm Member Posts: 136
    I did....

    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

  • DianeBC
    DianeBC Member Posts: 3,881 Member
    McMarty said:

    I'm sure someone here has,

    I'm sure someone here has, just be patient, they are probably watching the Super Bowl. 

    I can't help you with your

    I can't help you with your questions Deb, but, I did want to wish you good luck and I hope more can reply to you here.

    Hugs, Diane

  • Penny sue
    Penny sue Member Posts: 1
    I had pretty bad burns from

    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.