Hi ladies i had a mastectomy followed by radiotherapy and always assumed i would be able to have an implant to reconstruct. i have just been told however that this is not usually an option and if i want reconstruction i will have to use muscle/tissue/skin from elsewhere in my body which i dont think i could face. Does anyone know if this is definately the case? look forward to any advice.
The advice is usually that skin subjected to radiation doesn’t stretch properly - I think it either wouldn’t stretch or you would get a puckered effect. That is why you need some skin from elsewhere.
when I had my reconstruction i was in hosptial with a lady who had implants in both breast after rads - she had skin from America that was ‘grown’ not sure of details but if you speak to a PS it is a precedure that they can do so its not a complete no no - it does depend on your individual circumstances. x
Hi,
i had a mastectomy followed by rads and had an ld flap recon with an implant 18 months later in 2010.
I needed the implant to make me a bigger size, i also had a large area of skin removed from my back with muscle (ld flap)this is because you will not have enough skin left from the mastectomy to allow a breast to be reconstructed without some coming from elsewhere to fill in the gap so to speak, the muscle is pulled from the back to the front with the over lying skin my implant has gone under this.
since then I have had 2 lipo grafts to fill in dimples and this has also helped the thin skin caused by rads, a lift and reduction on my other side so I am now even and level, I have recently had the nipple recon done and all is looking great.
I am really pleased with my results, it is a big op at first but for me it was the best decision I made.
Ask to see photos of your surgeons work they normally do this, see if you can speak with someone who has had this done, I was asked to show my recon to another lady and was more than happy to do this.
the lady I showed said it put her mind at rest and was glad to see a live end result rather than just a photo.
thank you so much for all the advice x