I had a bilateral mastectomy in April 2020, and after being flat for the last couple of years I finally decided to go ahead with the diep flap reconstruction that I’d been on the waiting list for.
I’d been so focused on what my new breasts would look like, I didn’t even consider the potential issues I might have with my waist after the surgery.
It’s been just over 2 months since my surgery, and although everything is healing really well I just have this huge muffin top where the scar ends on each side of my abdomen. Like a huge bulge that just makes me feel like a freak.
I feel really shallow for being so focused on it, but it’s really affecting my self esteem. And it was already low after having been through my mastectomy and cancer treatment.
I’m having the second phase of the surgery hopefully in the new year, and the surgeon has said she can tweak the results. But will I be left with this accentuated muffin top permanently? Has anyone else had this issue? I’ve been Googling a lot about it but can’t find anything specific to this particular problem
Hi sorry you’ve not a response yet , hopefully someone who’s experience of this will see your post . Have you asked your surgeon / BC nurse whether this is something they would expect ? 2 months seems like really early days after such a major op hopefully things will settle down more in time
In December 2022 I had a free TRAM flap reconstruction for one of my boobs, which was sold to me as “we try to do DIEP but we call it TRAM”. As in, I went in still hoping for DIEP and got free TRAM.
My scar is way higher than I had hoped, but I gave in to that one because the good vessels were located high.
To make things short, I also have a huge muffin top, dog ears and feel like a freak. While I am very happy with the breast, the muffin top alters my body proportions immensely. I’m having nippe reconstruction in December and the surgeon will try and mend my dog ears and do some liposuction. If it doesn’t go as I want, I’m having another lipo next year since I don’t want to live like that.
It my be shallow to others, but in my world you can’t find peace if you are not comfortable in your skin. I think, liposuction is the way to get rid of it. I lack the discipline to lose 20 pounds so it gets smaller.
I have a couple of areas like this either end of my scar. I used some silicon tape over the whole scar which has reduced the redness and seems to have flattened the ends of the scar too. I think it could be neatened off by a small op if it was a concern. I don’t spend a lot of time looking at my abdomen having said that so I can live with it. The diep reconstruction unfortunately looks nothing like my other breast so maybe having both done at the same time would have been better. But i only had cancer in one of them. Also I have developed areas of hardness in my new breast and it’s red as a beetroot after I had bad allergic reactions to all the glue, dressings and surgical tape used. I am still itching like mad…
I am 3 weeks post DIEP. Having waited 2 1/2 years for surgery due to covid. I did have an implant as a temporary measure but it never felt right and caused me so much discomfort I didn’t want it forever.
As it was covid there was limited information on DIEP it was all what you find on the web. I got a date for my surgery but then got covid and it was cancelled. Cried all night, but what it did do was give me the chance to try and find out more to make sure I was making the right choice. I used the someone like me service from Breast Cancer Now, best thing I did. They put me in touch with a lady who answered every question and was so happy in herself, it gave me confidence. She said to remember that it isn’t a one stage process. There’s levelling up, fat grafting if necessary, liposuction to iron out scar tissue and of course nipple reconstruction if you want it
This has been done by a group of ladies that have had various types of surgery Diep, Tram, Implants. There’s video diaries of the finished results on different shapes and sizes. All of the women are happy they did it and mention the ups and downs. Take a look. It helped me lots.
A “muffin top” refers to the protuberance of the upper abdomen which results in a protrusion (bulging outward) of the upper abdomen and concave (curving inward) lower abdomen.
I suppose I do have this effect but I think it would be disguised if I had a bikini on. I last wore one in the summer when I swam in a Hilton hotel swimming pool at the Birmingham Conference Centre. At the time I knew i had breast cancer and I was running away from a South Coast general hospital which was trying to track me down to get me to have a mastectomy inside the NHS time scale for surgery. I wanted nothing to do with a mastectomy so decided to go to Guy’s hospital as I thought I would have more choices there. It hasn’t always been an easy ride. But ultimately worth it. I am lucky I am relatively slim - you can’t have no tum if you want to have a diep reconstruction so it helps to have a tum but maybe not a huge one. You might be able to reduce the muffin effect by losing weight. I have done this to some extent. I have lost a pound of body weight a week to go down from 10 stone 11 to 10 stone 6 over a period of 5 weeks. I am 5 foot 8 tall so that’s not too bad.
In the past my weight fluctuated and it’s been better since I took up walking forty minutes a day and eating smaller portions, with more salad and fruit. I do enjoy toasted cheese though. Also a nice sardine or salmon fillet, as befits
