Hi Mg,
Am still undecided but in my post chemo brain state i need to apologise to Deed as we DID have same surgeon but i have now swapped hospital’s so Deed if you are reading SGH does it who work alongside Salisbury so that would make sense.
I too hope someone who has` had procedure a while ago comes along to let us know Cheshire Cheese, how is the swelling/bruising etc is it settling down ?
Sarahbev.xx
My breasts are still yellow with residual bruising but the non-rads one is starting to feel a bit softer and more natural. The BC+rads breast is still rock hard. Both are more comfortable and it doesn’t hurt if I roll onto them a bit at night, although the PS advised not to sleep on my front because that would squash them and damage the fat.
Yesterday evening and last night my abdomen was horribly sore, probably because I did too much yesterday, for instance climbing over an awkward stile and going for a mile walk, litter-picking as I went! So I knocked myself out with painkillers overnight, but was really pleased to see a noticeable improvement today.
Most of the visible bruising has now gone, only a few small patches of redness left, and quite a lot of yellow areas where the bruises have faded quite well but not completely gone. Still a lot of surface soreness around the fat extraction holes (which weren’t stitched, just left open to heal over), and deeper soreness where the fat was removed from underneath. The abdominal swelling has gone down a lot over the last 24 hours and I’ve now lost several inches off my waist, which is fantastic considering I didn’t used to have a visible waist!
I’m getting fed up with wrestling the big knickers on and off, but they seem to be doing the job so I’ll put up with them. I was told to wear a support bra and corset (or support pants) plus compression socks for 6 weeks.
Hi All,
Consultation went well on Monday. BS seems positive and not worried about my having had rads and then conventional lipofill. He said average 30% reabsorption and many delighted women - showed pics of some. Stem cell lipofill not on horizon in our part of the world but certainly giving it a go. He seems confident although he says it is a very individual thing how well it takes. That is why I have to wait for one year after rads though because the blood flow is damaged by rads and they have found that there is a better outcome if you wait for one year after rads rather than six months.
My one year post rads is up in late May so I am being scheduled in for last week in May/first in June. He had a good shake of anything which wobbled (thighs, hips, stomach, I don’t have a massive amount of spare fat (!)) and declared there was plenty to do what needed to be done but other surgeon says that fat from different areas has different re-absorption rates and thighs are best… xx
Hi Mg
That all sounds very positive, and good to have a date to plan around. I’ve heard in several other places that they recommend waiting a year after rads, so that figures. I wonder if doing exercise and massage on the tissue in the meantime would improve the outcome? If you can improve the blood supply then presumably that would improve the fat graft? Does anyone know?
Better get it right first time if you haven’t got much spare fat! In my case I’ve got plenty enough for 2 or 3 insurance goes, but I would hate to have to put myself through it again, it hurt so much.
Absolutely agree, anything which makes it have a decent result first time is a plus. Not sure I would still be there for a third time round but I suppose if it were good but not quite good enough, I might be persuaded to a second (there again I haven’t felt how much it hurts yet so may think completely differently after the first time round!)
Hope it is all settling down for you and that you are pleased at the result xx
woohoo got a cancellation appt to see ps, going on april 18th!
sarah, my appt is in christchurch but its the surgeon from salisbury, he apparently has clinics here but surgery would be in wiltshire. Do you know if he does the stem cell lipofill or the original one? my recon has all settled down now but its much much smaller than my good boob so think im going to need an awful lot of fat transfered!!! lol
Cheshire cheese, it sounds like your doing well. Is it as painful as you expected? how long would you envisage being off work? i do a physical job (police) but not keen on taking too much sickness again this year.
deed
xx
My surgery was done in North Wilts, the surgeon hired the equipment in for a specific day and did a list of lipofill ops, my first was non stem cell, the second one stem cell and the third non stem cell but with a different preparation method. Due to the fact that there was minimal bruising after, and despite me asking for an increase in volume, I dont think as much fat as could have been, was harvested. But after three goes, I am done and accept that this is the way it looks now.
Hi deed, that’s good news, nothing worse than hanging around waiting to hear what can or can’t be done for you.
In reply to your specific questions:
It’s been much more painful and the pain has lasted longer than I expected. I notice one or two others have referred to this being day surgery, but I was on the operating table for 4 ½ hours under general anaesthetic and in hospital for two nights due to the pain. This is probably because of the amount of fat that was removed (see below). 9 days after surgery and I still need dihydrocodeine or tramadol - paracetamol or ibuprofen make no impact on the pain.
Work – I planned on being off sick not working at all for 2 weeks, hoping to start doing some work from home by the 3rd week but my GP has vetoed that. She’s said 3 weeks completely off, then maybe start working from home part time after that. I’m in the fortunate position that I do a desk job mostly sitting in front of a computer but I don’t even feel up to that yet. I need to be able to sleep, go for a walk, massage the sore bits, etc, without having to meet work deadlines. I’d been told no driving at all for 2 weeks but I won’t be able to sit in a car for a few hours to attend meetings for some while either.
And more generally:
I think my surgeon’s approach is to go for it and aim to do it all in one go if possible. She warned me in advance that she probably wouldn’t be able to get enough fat into my BC breast in one go and would probably need a second operation. She explained that because the rads treated tissue is stiffer it’s difficult to get large quantities of fat in. She said if she puts too much in, it puts excess pressure on the injected fat cells and they die off. I think she was setting my hopes a bit lower, particularly since I wanted to increase my overall breast size by one cup on both sides, plus fill in the dent on the BC side.
But after this operation she told me that she’d managed to get enough fat in that it hopefully won’t need another op. She removed 1300ml (and yes I do mean 1.3L – more than a 2 pint bottle of milk!) of fat from my abdomen and after washing, centrifuging and all the other processes, injected 355ml of fat into my BC breast and 300ml into the non-BC breast, so no wonder my breasts are noticeably bigger. (The difference in volume between the two was to make up for the BC breast being smaller before the op). The million dollar question is whether enough of the fat stays where she put it!
thanks girls for all the advice. it sounds like you have had an awful lot done cheshire cheese and i really hope it works and your happy with the result. I will only be needing some in the bc side as its now much smaller than the other one and not even the shape of a breast!!!
It may be something i will have to put off until the end of the year because we are not allowed any leave or non emergency time off whilst the olympics are on, goodness knows what im going to do for childcare but thats a WHOLE other story!!! lol
please keep us updated and will let you know how i get on at the consultation.
big hugs
deed
xxx
Just a progress report.
Breasts and abdomen still settling down, despite me doing too much on occasion. I’ve been taking heavy duty painkillers and now think perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. Although it removed most of the pain it also meant I couldn’t tell when I was over doing things until the cumulative effect hit me hours later. So my new strategy will be to take the minimum pain relief during the day, and only take the more powerful stuff at night, to ensure I get a good night’s sleep.
All the discoloured bruising has gone and the scabs have fallen off the small wounds where the fat was extracted. Breasts looking a nice natural shape, but still got stiff tissue on the BC side where the fat was injected. The non-BC side is becoming much softer and more normal feeling.
My lower abdomen is still swollen and painful, but I’m hoping this should reduce over the next week or so.
Glad to hear things are moving forwards CC and that the shape is looking good. Hope it all continues to improve and take care not to overdo things xx
thanks for the update CC and glad things are heading in the right direction. I have to admit that Im disappointed at the length of time it seems to take to get over lipofill, as i was hoping to fit my convalesing into a week or so’s leave as my job is at risk and really dont need more sickness!
Im disappointed because my ps appt has been cancelled for tuesday until 5th may. Its only 2 weeks but i was ready to go next week.
take things easy CC and get plenty of rest.
deed
x
Hi Mg and thanks for the words of support, although there’s little point advising me not to overdo things - I always do!
And Hi Deed - what a shame that your PS appointment has been postponed when you were so looking forward to finding out what can be done to help you. As you say, at least it’s only a 2 week delay, but it’s still frustrating after you’d got yourself all psyched up for it on the 18th.
I’d love to be able to say that you could be back at work doing a physically demanding job within a matter of days, but that’s not been my experience. Having said that, the length of time required to recover from liposuction is very much greater than the recovery time for lipofill, and it all depends on how much fat is extracted and what area of your body is affected. I had a large amount of fat taken, from all over my upper and lower abdomen, so it’s been very sore over a large area, but the breast soreness abated quite rapidly. My non-BC breast is now soft and comfortable, and the BC breast is improving, but still with extensive hard areas.
At this rate I can see myself spending an absolute fortune on bras and big knickers! Before my op I bought M&S 40C bras as a best guess to wear immediately after surgery and initially there was fresh air in the front of the cups. After a few days I’d filled the gaps and they were quite a snug fit, but now the swelling has reduced (and perhaps a bit of fat has been reabsorbed?) they are starting to get a bit too big again. I tried other sizes on today and reckon that I’ve gone down to a 38C or 40B but I’m going to wait another week or two before splashing out yet more money on bras that only fit for a few weeks. Maybe I should have kept my pre-BC bras! I’ll be delighted if I end up a similar size to before I had BC, but with a smaller stomach!
I did buy two more pairs of the lovely sexy “big knickers” today, one size smaller than the ones I’ve been wearing. Now the abdominal swelling is reducing there is a new slightly smaller me emerging and I need the extra pressure on my abdomen to help it heal as flat as possible.
Looking forward (not) to seeing my GP on Monday for a Zoladex injection into my delicate tummy, and negotiating on going back to work, or working from home.
hi
im new to this site, had breast cancer over two years ago, i havent been offered much in the way of reconstruction and when asked about lipofil was really fobbed off.
Would really be grateful on advice as got GP appiontment and would like to go armed with info i nee, does anyone know which hospital in london or herts area perform this procedure
wendy
Hi Wendy
How frustrating for you to be fobbed off rather than get helpful info. NICE have only recently given approval for lipofill on the NHS for breast cancer patients (see link nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/12575/57942/57942.pdf) so maybe your hospital or consultant are not up to speed on what could be offered to help you. The NICE advice only applies to conventional lipofill, although it acknowledges the work being done on stem cell enriched lipofill.
The Royal Free in London was part of the European trials to assess the use of stem cell lipofill after BC, so it might be worth enquiring further in that direction.
My GP knew nothing about lipofill after BC, whether conventional or stem cell enriched, even though she was very clued up about BC in general, so I don’t think this is unusual.
Please PM me if you think I can offer any more ideas.
Sarah x
hi cc,
it all sounds like your healing and coming along beautifully. how exciting to see a new YOU emerging from under the bandages and big knickers!! lol
I think your right, im trying to get this done and rush back to work all too soon. I think i may have to postpone the lipofill until after the olympics when my employer will release me - bugger!!!
keep up the good work and take time for YOU!!!
deed
xx
Hi wendyryder - any news on how you got on at your GP appointment?
And Hi All - another update, if anyone’s interested.
I seem to have overdone something this week and as a result ended up very sore for several days, feeling as bad as it was 2 weeks ago and having to take major painkillers again. This is SO frustrating! It’s now 3 1/2 weeks since the surgery and I’d really hoped to be just about back to normal by now, but my more recent research tells me that was unrealistic, and six weeks would be more usual.
Travelling anywhere is quite painful, whether driving myself or as a passenger. The lumps and bumps of any road surface cause a lot of discomfort through the area that had liposuction - it is unbelievably tender. On the other hand, my breasts have settled down nicely and are quite comfortable and not bothered by road journeys. Still some hardness on the BC side where the fat was injected, but looking good.
Just wondering if anyone having had lipo has an update?
I’m having it to reduce my dog ears and my overstuffed DIEP boob so I’m following your progress ŵith great interest.
Hi All, me again.
Now 4 1/2 weeks after surgery, still bored, still sore, and still taking serious painkillers!
I decided on Wednesday to test out whether the painkillers were actually necessary so went without the 6 hourly Tramadol I’d been taking, but continued with the Ibuprofen. What a mistake! As the Tramadol wore off the pain gradually increased, until I was really hurting. So now I know - yes it still hurts. And travelling by car is still very uncomfortable; although OK for a short distance it has a cumulative effect and after a while (only half an hour or so) becomes quite unpleasant.
So it looks like at least another week before I can sensibly go back to work. I hope car journeys get easier, I’ve got my post-op check-up in four weeks, and that’s a 400 mile round trip.
Another week gone by and I’m STILL off sick, this is now nearly 6 weeks post-op, and my GP has signed me off next week as well. Hopefully I’ll be back at work on 14th May, although probably doing short hours at first.
The soreness is still gradually reducing, but it’s a very slow improvement, and every time I overdo things out of boredom I go two steps back again. One real improvement over the last week is that my BC breast, which was quite hard in places after the lipofill, has become soft and natural feeling again. So now instead of worrying about the hardness I can start worrying about whether it’s shrinking because the fat is being re-absorbed! I don’t think it is, yet, but I’ve got too much time on my hands and it allows me to become paranoid.
The right (healthy) breast is still larger than the BC one, but that’s to be expected since it was over-filled by 30% to allow for absorption. I just hope the PS got that right and it doesn’t stay significantly larger.
If anyone tells you that lipofill is an easy option, don’t listen to them!