Hello there CrunchyPoodleMama (I love your name!), Sorry I've only just seen your post. It's quite a while since any of us have posted on this thread of mine, so I'm glad I've checked it and seen your comments. I'm so sorry you're feeling like you are about your crater, and I wish I'd seen your post a couple of days ago, so that I could have answered you sooner than now.
With my mastectomy, they took all the skin. Mine was Paget's so it affected my nipple in particular, so... I've not had your experience of still having a nipple. However, I can certainly understand how you're feeling about having a bizarre crater. Just to reassure you though, I don't think your muscle would have been severed by mistake, cos they'd have had to tell you that'd happened, whilst you were still in hospital.
I wonder if it's swelling from the operation? I had my op on 15th Oct, but even now I still have some swelling and it's really hard - unbelievably so, cos you always think of swelling as being at least a little bit soft to press, don't you. However, it's not painful at all, and I know it'll go down over time.
Also, I think some of my "swelling" is actually my rib! There's another thread somewhere in one of the forums about this sort of thing - as I remember it, apparently one side of your rib cage, and even one part of the rib cage can be much more prominent than the rest, and of course we wouldn't usually realise this, but then when we have our breast(s) removed, suddenly we notice it. Mine is very prominent in one area where I've had the mx! It looks about the size of two ribs together, but I'm sure they'd have told me if two of my ribs were fused really!!
I'm really sorry that like me, you're experiencing the feelings of your operation site being horrible/ugly and finding it upsetting. I had some lovely support from people on here, and I'm now feeling so much better and happier with my body post-op.
Oh, another thing I've remembered - a little while after the op, I realised that my bruising was actually contributing to how awful my crater looked. I had really dark bruising and lots of it, cos I'd had a complication and had to go back down to theatre to remove a large haematoma. They'd put strapping tape round me afterwards to prevent further haematomas developing, but they warned me I'd be very bruised. Anyway, after this first post here, I realised that the bruising was making things look worse, because it gave a "shadowed" effect to the crater. It took me a while to realise this - I dont know if you have bruising around the inside edges of the crater too that could be making it look bigger, like mine did.
I do still have a high crater, and I know you don't want to hear this particularly, cos you have said that you dont want cover-ups, you just want the crater gone, but in a minute I'm going to tell you about some fab camisoles, if you dont mind, 🙂
But first, two of my friends have had mastectomies in the past, and their craters are less obvious than mine - one of my friends still has a cleavage, and she has gone from a 34a to a 34c in her remaining breast ( her mx was 6yrs ago). I'd be really pleased if that was me, as I'm only tiny in my remaining breast. But, my other friend has stayed the same size of 34c, and I think thats more usual to stay the same size. It's really early days yet for you - your crater may well lessen over the next few weeks as any swelling/bruising goes down.
My breast care nurse fit me with an excellent prosthesis, and I've bought some really pretty camisole tops - Marks & Spencer do a really pretty one, which has a lot of really deep lace on it. Be careful in buying one though - they do it in both a body hugging version with lots of lycra whch would hurt you around your operation area, and then they do the same camisole in normal type fabric. They're so pretty, and are good value at £10 each cos they're a really lovely quality lace. They do them in white and black, and in another colour too, but I cant remember the other colour. I really respect that you want the crater gone, rather than cover-ups, but these camisoles might just give you that little bit of confidence and "prettiness" when you look down, just for now. BHS also do some very pretty camisoles too, and they're a little bit cheaper at an average price of £8 for the prettiest, and £6 each or 2 for £10 on their other lace topped camisoles. (All these are everyday camisoles, not post-surgery ones).
In answering your second question, I don't know a lot about the reconstruction side of things, cos I've opted to live "left breast-free", but I would think that in reconstructing your breast, they'd be able to create as near a copy of your original breast as possible. Your surgeon will be able to tell you more about that.
But, in the meantime, I'd get in contact with your bcn when you can, and have a word with her about how you're feeling about your crater. It's so important to be reassured about these things, and there are some lovely ladies on here. We all share so much in common, but we also have had slightly different ops to each other too, so I hope that some of the others on here might be able to answer you too, so that you feel a lot better about your op and its results.
Please keep posting on these forums - all the best to you, and I hope you're able to have an enjoyable Christmas!
Much love, and a gentle hug, to you! xx
