Hi everyone,
I just wanted to share my experience. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2019 and chose to bilateral mastectomy with implants. I had that surgery in July 2019 and was recovering well. Then after 3-4 weeks, I developed a bad infection in my right breast and had to go back to surgery to have the expander removed. Then one week later developed infection in the other breast which was aggressively treated by infectious disease and the expander did not have to be removed. I felt sick for 9 months - ran low grade fevers, body aches, severe fatigue. Then as it was getting close to the time I could have my expander replaced, my plastic surgeon recommend the diep flap because she felt with my previous history with infection this would be the best route for me. Of course she did not provide this option, so she recommended another plastic surgeon who specialized in this. I completed that surgery on July 29. I feel better than I have felt in the last 14 months. The surgery was hard, much harder than the mastectomy but the results have been awesome and I feel like my NORMAL self prior to cancer. There is nothing foreign in my body to get infected or later down the road cause implant sickness. Please for anyone who is faced with this decision - thoroughly research and consider the diep flap. If you have any questions or want to just talk, please reach out.