I went back to the Royal Marsden yesterday to see Miss MacNeill and after numerous problems since my bilateral mastectomy and immediate reconstruction with tissue expanders we’ve reached the decision to remove the expanders. My original surgery took place on 23rd July (13 weeks ago) and I still have as much chest tightness and discomfort as I has immediately post-op. I’ve had 2 infections, one on each side, and the left hand implant moves constantly catching on my ribs and making them feel bruised.
4 weeks ago Miss MacNeill said that she didn’t feel the left hand implant would settle without further surgery and to wear a sports bra 24/7. This hasn’t made any difference.
Last week I felt as though I had another infection brewing but my G.P could find no signs of infection in the wound, the implants or anywhere else in my body and said that he felt my body is seeing the implants as a foreign body and reacting as such, i.e. causing me to spike temperatures and feel unwell.
Miss MacNeill agrees with him and said that she has seen this happen 3 or 4 times in her career where a patient develops and inflammatory response to the expanders or a chronic sub-clinical infection that can’t be detected by normal means such as blood tests. In thses cases she said that it’s remarkable how quickly the patient feels better after surgery to remove them.
My surgery is booked for November 28th and I’m relieved that I won’t be in pain any more but disappointed too. I thought long and hard before opting for this surgery as I felt that it would give me the quickest recovery time of all the reconstruction options but at least I tried.
Trudie.