Went into hospital yesterday morning for an 11am appointment. The target was to change my dressings and VAC pump.
The right breast is healing nicely so the dressing was reapplied. In fact some of the scab had fallen away exposing new skin which is a great sign.
When the pump was removed it showed a piece of "black" poking through the hole where the vac had been. The nurses checked to make sure that it wasn't a piece of foam, thought it could be a scab ....
Alarm bells started to ring!!
Surgeon called.
It was confirmed..... the piece of black showing through was exposed implant.
Sadly, my radiotherapy damaged tissue and the area compromised by limited lymph nodes meant that infection had got in, necrosis had killed both layers of skin and tissue and the only option was to remove as an emergency because of the risk of sepsis.
I had to wait around for 5 hours because I was at the end of the list.
The operation itself only took an hour and the aim was to remove the implant and any infection. Remove the necrosed skin and scar tissue from this and my 2012 op.
I was discharged the same night with a drain fitted and feeling rather wobbly and still in shock.
I will have to wait 6 months for the tissue to heal before I can think about further reconstruction and it will be 12 months before another implant can be introduced.
The options for the future are liposuction which is a new procedure then possibly an implant on top but only if necessary or having part of my tummy tissue used to make a breast.... OR I don't bother!!!!!
So thats my news for now. Not what I expected but at least I will hopefully start to heal alot quicker now.
Oh Sara. I am just catching up with all this. I had to have both of my implants removed and 7 years later I am still breast free!
ReplyDeleteI may decide not to have further work done but thats something to decide in the future. Not many women discuss the no reconstruction option so its great when ladies like yourself are brave enough to talk about it openly
ReplyDeleteI got sepsis, so keeping them wasn't an option for me and It took time for the skin to heal. I have prosthetics, but as it was both breasts wearing them is horrible, the bar lifts up and they often end up under my chin! If or when reconstruction happens it isnt going to be easy as I can not have chest expanders in case it was the silicon by body had a issue with!
DeleteThats terrible for you. Luckily my surgeon made a move before sepsis to preserve the tissue for future. Just hoping that my other implant will be ok now. I was wondering how bras and prosthetics work.
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