I was diagnosed with DCIS in June and had a skin sparing mastectomy in July with immediate reconstruction. Back in September I started to notice a red mark on the side of my reconstructed breast which I have been back to see my consultant about numerous times. Surgery was planned for this Wednesday to exchange my tissue expander for my final implant. However Saturday morning the tissue expander broke through the skin and was subsequently surgically removed Monday evening. My surgeon has told me I will not be happy with him when I see what remains as my skin has been stretched for the last 3 months, but w have yo let everything heal and ensure there s no infection which will take 2/3 months, and then we can begin with another tissue expander. I am seeing my breast care team in the morning to have dressings removed and feeling apprehensive. Any one else experienced anything similar?
Hi TLC, yes i have (kind of!) but it was my permanent implant which can through my skin, as opposed to the temporary expander. My surgeon failed to notice the skin was getting thinner and thinner and in the end it was another more senior PS who laid the cards on the table and said skin would break. It did and had to wait 2 months for an LD flap to be performed by a new surgeon as my skin was so badly damaged. I too was warned about a poor cosmetic result if the implant came out, so i just hung on until a decent PS could do the job. I ended up with an infection, but that was the risk i took, to avoid the original surgeon getting his hands on me again!
Hope things don’t look too bad for you… xxxx
Hi.This my first post.5 years ago today I had a double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction with chest expanders. Something wasn’t right from the start as I woke up in intensive care.when I looked at my chest one side had been stapled shut the other closed with a blue nylon type suture. I left the IC unit on the Friday & was sent up to the ward ,2 days latter the bed manager came around looking for patients to be sent home, so even thought I’d spent nearly 5 days in intensive care and clearly wasn’t well I was sent home at 4pm.
By 9pm i had a fever of 40 & was rushed back to hospital.The next day the operation to remove the expanders because I apparently had an infection .i was devastated as you can imagine.At this
Isn’t i should add that i was
Re upheld s very busty woman with a 42e bust, my nick name was “melons”!
Anyway back to the story.3 months later the surgeons attempted to do it again- I asked him to put the ports T the front as the skin on my slides was paper thin & very painful but the surgeon ignored my pleads. To cut down a long story short, another 5 operation jaded to try and keep the expanders, but skin was so thin the blue nylon type sutures cut through my skin like a cheese wire.At one point the wounds totally opened up and I had them perturbing from chest, the stuff of horror movies.
anyway it failed again, & the surgeon told me he wouldn’t operate on me again as I was bringing down his success rate!!
To be continued in my next post
A year went bu and a read an article about a plastic surgeon who was doing fat transfer, it’s where they take fat from your belly and inject it into your breast area.
I went to see him and in brief i had 2 lots of fat transfers to make a foundation for the new expanders.This tine it worked because he positioned the ports at the front. In January 2013 i had implants.Id like to say from there every thing went well, but sadly it didn’t. the new surgeon had a really bad canvass to work with, & you know what they say,you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear!! The result of the right breast was bearable but it was connected to the left one ( I call it my uni breast! So infect I don’t have separate breasts.mi have just been told my two separate plastic surgeons that because of the mess in my chest area, nothing more can be done to improve the look- im devastated knowing I will always look this way,
Last March i started legal action against the hospital trust and its sill going on.We’ve just the final report done by an independent plastic surgeon.
I have2 questions to ask:
Has anyone ever taken legal action and won?
Secondly has anyone endure a similar experience?
TLC,I encountered huge problems with implants.I had an expander in at one point,which after it being reduced,eventually taken out.The wound had opened up that I could actually see the expander underneath.In the end I opted for bilateral DIEP…my boobs were totally flat,scarring like an OS map.Now have a lovely pair,all scarring removed,just got slight scarring from the DIEP.