I had an immediate diep recon 4 months ago but have a dent over the new breast in the cleavage area and can see it if I wear some neck lines. I’ve just seen the ps and he says that I have a prominent 2nd rib and this has been made to show more after the mastectomy was done. He said that this doesn’t happen very often. I asked what could be done about it and he doesn’t recommend fat transfer because it is on the edge of the breast and in his experience it doesn’t work well. He says that I could have Bio Alcamid. This is a permanent dermal filler and I would need 3 or possibly 4 lots of this.
Has anyone had experience of this or dents that I describe? Things have really got to me again this is my second lot of dcis, I’ve also recently been referred to an eye specialist because of suspected eye problems but fortunately they were OK. I had hoped that the diep and nipple recon would be the end of this but it is not to be. I never wanted to have implants. I’m concerned about the safety of the Bio Alcamid and also wondering if it’s just me and I should be thankful for what I have.
You sound quite uptight over this which I can really relate to, hope you are feeling better about it soon. I had lat dorsi recon 2 months ago and have dents in the cleavage area and also what looks like bruising still but not fading at all. Also the skin feels very dry despite copious amounts of aqueos cream applied twice daily. I go back in 1 month and will ask the consultant if anything can be done about it. What is this Bio Alcamid? I have read on here that dents can be filled with fat transfer which I assume is doing a bit of lipo and then injecting it to fill the dent, just guessing at that.
I also had DCIS, high grade widespread in the left breast and very close to the nipple with some micro invasion, so sorry to hear that you have had it twice, is that in the same breast or in both? I was told that having the mast meant it would never come back as no breast tissue for it to be a possibility. I unfortuantely had to have a small implant with the recon tho I had not wanted it when the surgery was done there was not enough muscle to do without the implant, I did know there was a small possibility that I might wake with the implant tho and to be honest it does not bother me now, only the thought that maybe one day it might need changing out. Have not yet decided on the nipple recon myself yet, one day I want it the next I don’t, just hoping to accept what is there now as I feel a lot luckier than those of us who have had not had the option of recon.
Don’t think I will be flashing my cleavage in public even if they could make it look more normal, just want it looking better for myself and for my bloke as I have gone from this woman who would walk around in the buff in front of him no worries and now I cover myself up all the time.
Carole
Thank you so much for your reply I really was very uptight when I wrote the post. I had dcis 4 years ago and had wle and 15 sessions of rads but it came back again last year. My consultant says he thinks it was a new lot because the first time it was not hormone sensitive and this time it is. I have to make a decision about whether to take Tamoxifin or not. This would only help prevent me getting it on the other side. I’m told the risk is about 1% per year and this would decrease to 0.6% with the Tamoxifin but then there are side effects of taking it. At the moment I think I will not start it. Are you on any drugs?
Bio Alcamid is a permanent dermal filler, from what I have found on the web it is used for AIDS patients who lose fat on their faces but can be used elsewhere to fill dents. I asked the ps if it was possible to remove it if it was necessary for any reason and he said yes you popped it with a needle but from what I’ve read this may not be the case. I also don’t think it has been used for very long and am not sure about any long term problems. Implants for me could have caused a problem because of the rads and they were more likely to go hard
I had a good long chat with a friend this week and her opinion is yes I do have dent but she thinks I see it as far larger than it really is. She’s challenged me to wear a top to work which shows it a bit and see if there are any comments or looks. My job involves seeing many people every day. As she said I just would rather no one knows that I have had a breast removed. I need to pluck up the courage to try!
Like you I have been offered nipple reconstruction and have a piece of cartilage in my tummy scar which will be used, I think I will have that done because you don’t have to have a general anaesthetic and it will finish off the job.
I’ve been told to use vitamin E oil on the scars and that seems to have worked for me. I bought mine in Superdrug.
All I can say is thank you so very much for your post and I hope all goes well for you. I would be interested to hear what you are told at your next appointment.
Good to hear from you, hope you have had a great weekend.
Just so you know I was told by my BCN that there is a 1 in 8 chance for me of bc in the other breast over the next 2 to 5 years. I am 47, not on any drugs, early menopause started at age 38 and was not hormone receptive and also not having chemo or rads as they reckon they got the blighter in its entirety, had margins of 1mm at front and 2mm at chest wall which sounds awful close to me but I have to trust them dont I.
Thanks for telling me more about this Bio Alchemid, sounds risky to me as not long in use I would be really nervous to use it.
My 3 month appt is on 18 March so will see what my consultant advises then and let you know, I am not anywhere near ready for another hospital experience for a while yet so will wait some time for the nipple recon, that is if I decide to go for it in the end, he told me that they would use skin from my thigh to construct the new nipple from so a different procedure to yours.
Good luck with finding the bravery to go to work with a flash of your dent showing, personally I could not show mine at all, I just showed it to one of my mates last week and she was quite shocked by it, like I said I have what looks like bruising but it cant be can it after 9 weeks from the op!! If yours is not too bad then go for it but if you would worry that your secret is out I would just cover up, you dont need the worry or the stress.
I have heard folk saying use Vitamin E oil, for now I am staying with the aqueous cream but I have some bio oil which I have used previously on an arm operation and you hardly see that 2inch scar now 2 years post op.
Hope you have had a good week. Just to keep you up to date I saw BCN and my dents she says may be due to either adhesions or to the lat dorsi muscle moving. Have to discuss with consultant on 18 March and in the meantime massage the dents to see if that helps.
try this link
i have a flat nipple recon made from toe pulp and am seeing a plastic surgeon this week about bio alcamid
i have also had a tattoo on both homegrown and recon side…it was ***! so am having it faded and re-done as well
I saw Mr F (original plastic surgeon who did boob but NOT nipple)…?? I was asking if he could do anything about the nipple before my micro-pigmentation lady puts colour into the area. (Cos if he wanted to to do surgery on the site it would be cutting up any work she had done). He had mentioned a filler called Bio Alcamid but when he saw me he said the nipple skin area was too tight and a filler would project internally rather than externally. he said i didnt have enough skin for a mushroom and if I had it as a graft I’d have scars elsewhere; and that a skate flap would give me scars where i didnt have them and would be flat in 3 years. So that left a trompe d’loel by my lady, which is OK. I was disappointed but at least i still had that 1 option. Then i mentioned the deficit area above my boob as a candidate for filler but he thought it would be better to use a Coleman’s fat transfer process and lipo some fat cells off somewhere else on my body and then squirt them in using an incision in the fold near my underarm. He aslo said about rmoving a bit more of the tummy skin on my chest - the lower/ vertical lobe - as this would give less skin of the wrong colour, and add a bit of projection whilst lifting that side a bit and also helping to conceal the deficit above the boob. Sounds like a win to me. I have spoken to my lady about delaying finishing the tattoo til he has done this and any swelling has settled.
What is a mushroom and skate flap? My ps says that he has not found the fat transfer very successful when it is done on the edge of the flap. At the moment I’ve decided to wait and see what happens but am very interested to hear anyone’s treatment.
Carol - do let me know how you get on at your next appointment
Hope you are ok. How are your dents now, settled I hope unlike mine which are more like craters now!!
I am now seeing my consultant tonight Feb 18th so will get back to you. The dents are much worse and the top of the recon feels like it has dropped down, I can feel the chest wall indenting in and its quite tender also more pain in my back where the muscle came from and round my ribs too.
I don’t think my dents are any worse. I can feel my rib and the dent is under that. I don’t think the new breast has dropped any more. I’m still going to wait and see how I feel in a month or two. I don’t have any pain just numbness around tummy button and no feeling in the new breast. This is what I was told to expect with the diep.
Glad to hear that your dents not any worse, hope it stays that way for you.
Saw my consultant last night and the back flap muscle has pulled away from the chest hence the ugly dents and the discomfort/pain that I have with it. He will see me again in 3 months time and will then get me booked in for about a 2 hour op where he will go in via the nipple area scar and remove the implant, replace with a slightly larger one and reattach the flap so I will be back in hossie for about 2 or 3 days and overall recovery time will be even longer now.
There was me hoping naively that some physio would sort it out, truth be told I had guessed he would need to do another op but was hoping that would not be the case.