Am having a bad day. I had an SGAP recon a couple of weeks ago, but fell into the 4 per cent of patients for whom the flap fails. I spent a total of almost 19 hours in theatre and getting over that much anaesthetic has been awful. I now have an expander, a dirty great scar and a dent in my butt.
I was so excited about the flap and just couldn’t believe it when it didn’t work. Surgeon couldn’t believe it either - he was gutted, poor man.
I hate the breast - ir is about 5 inches higher than the other one and I can’t bear to look at them in the mirror. I am generally an upbeat person, but I just feel so down about this.
So sorry to hear about your experience, it must have been very upsetting for you.
Is your surgeon going to try again at a later date, or is that it for now?
Do you have the tissue expander fitted now?
My story is that i was fitted with the expander at the time of mastectomy 19mths ago, surgeon over stretched my skin, fitted the permanent implant incorrectly, tried to do a nipple recon and realised he couldn’t, as the skin was too thin, referred me to a plastic surgeon at another hospital, who then told me my skin is about to break, implant must come out and i have to start all over again!
No, he doesn’t really know why it didn’t work. He is one of the top surgeons for this procedure and has done more than anybody else. Everybody seems agreed that he tried his hardest. Its not the sort of thing you can try twice - once the tissue is gone, it’s gone. It’s not incompetence, it’s just unlucky. He warned me each time I saw him.that there was a 4 per cent failure rate, but you just don’t think it will happen to you. He didn’t either.