I have been informed today of my potential surgery date for 17th Oct. Unfortunately the date my plastic surgeon (he will be doing the diep)is available, my consultant (she was going to do the mastectomy)is on leave. They have offered me surgery with a different consultant on the proposed date. I am upset by this as I have met my consultant, whom I felt I trusted. I have the option to meet the new consultant if I decide to go ahead on this date. I have been informed he is very experienced and has worked at the hospital longer than my original consultant and that she has been trained by him.
I don’t really want to delay surgery as this has been ongoing since end of June. Should I just go for it and hope for the best or wait for my consultant to return.Am I being too over anxious and thinking too deep??
Im feeling positive but at the same time petrified I’m getting jitters as surgery approaches and the mind is working overtime thinking why am I putting myself through this when I could have had the option of mastectomy only? Has anyone else felt the same?
Plastic surgeon has told me to stop running and eat cake as need more fat on the belly!
I’d really appreciate some feedback. 3am and I’m on the forum reading posts, can’t sleep!
i just wanted to reply to you with my experience . I had my mastectomy and bidiep reconstruction 9 days ago on Tues 20th and I have to say so far it’s the best decision I could have made. I knew I wanted to have an immediate reconstruction. It’s early days and yes the first couple of days post surgery is hard but I was home Thursday evening and by the weekend I was so much more mobile than I could have ever imagined.
I too had to stop running and eat more to put on weight and the whole time was told I was borderline for using my own fat unless I put on some fat which I tried really hard to do and managed slightly I think! My surgeon said we should go for it and I have to say I am truly grateful I went for it. My tummy 9 days on is obviously still quite tight and my scar they told before before the op would be higher than normal due to me having less fat but for me that didn’t bother me at all. The waiting before is also the hardest bit. I would try and meet the other surgeon first if it was me as you see all the team involved at various points on the morning of the surgery, so I would have liked to have met this new surgeon before if that’s an option for you or you feel the need to.
Everyone involved in this surgery is so kind , professional and know what they are doing and you will have a great team involved in your care
Good luck and keep eating fatty foods you know it makes sense! They found no difficulty in doing my operation. Three weeks after surgery I was told to massage my new bosom and it’s gone quite hard so worth bearing that in mind. Maybe massage it a bit earlier than I did. i hope you don’t get any allergic reactions to tape that I got.
If you do get any, get them checked out for an allergy. I thought my skin problem was an infection. The more operations you’ve had the more likely it is to develop an allergy. My previous breast surgery was probably responsible…
Mastectomy surgery isn’t that difficult as breasts are on top of the body. I think you would be fine with an experienced cancer surgeon doing this operation. I had a Greek Locum doing my mastectomy. I was far more concerned that the oncoplastic surgeons are experienced in carrying out diep reconstructions. If I were you I’d go ahead when you get a date they can do. You will also need quite a lot of scans and a nuclear medicine visit - CT scans to find out where your veins and arteries are in the chest area for connecting up the new reconstructed breast, and in your abdominal area to know where the veins and arteries are there in the flap they take out to use for the new breast.
Then you need to have a nuclear injection to identify where the sentinel node is.
Good luck, I had quite a few jitters because I had to get my head round the surgery and make sure I had all the tests needed. My cancer surgeon didn’t seem at all interested in what needed to happen on the plastic surgery side and told me I didn’t need CT scans so don’t rely on them for any information on the reconstruction side as they may not have any interest in this.
It is an anxious time. But If you have been given the opportunity to meet the new surgeon then take it, put you mind at ease. You will be in safe hands they all do an amazing job.
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