Implant reconstruction

Hi Amb and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.

Hello Amb, welcome and thank you for asking this question. I will also be getting a double mastectomy with implant reconstruction in a few months. My advice would be to ask your surgeon and breast care nurse all the questions you need answering. I have a copy of “understanding breast reconstruction” published by Macmillan.

Do you have the support you need? I’ve found searching here in the forums and blogs about mastectomies has given some valuable information.

Hugs,

Marie

Hi there. I have recently gone through a double mastectomy and reconstruction with implants. Happy to answer any questions you may have about it x

Hello Gemma,

thanks for offering to share your experience. How has it been for you? What did you find helpful and not so helpful with your recovery? 

For starters,

Thanks

Marie

Hi Amb, I had a mastectomy without reconstruction last year after having bc and finding out I had a brca1 mutation. My sister discovered she had the same mutation and underwent a mastectomy with implant reconstruction last year too. We are both very happy with our outcomes and I hope that you will be with yours too. In terms of reconstruction with implants, based on my sisters experience, I would recommend the following:

• Make sure you have a good quality, well fitted post surgical bra for afterwards. I would say it's very worthwhile to make an appointment at M&S or at a specialist bra shop to get fitted. You will need to wear it night and day for a while so you want something comfortable that also provides compression to prevent additional swelling after the operation. If you search 'Anita cares' and use the store locator tool on the website, you can look for shops close to you that have a selection of 'breast care' products (not necessarily only that brand, although they were very good). If you ring to make an appointment, they can even order some in for you to try. My sister found this invaluable and it also helped to feel prepared for the op.
• We both had two little heart pillows that helped to provide comfort after the operation. They slot under your armpit and particularly for my sister when she had her drains in, they stop your arms pulling on any tubes or wounds and can help to keep you propped up during sleep. My pillows were offered free by my hospital, but my sisters weren't - maybe you could check if anything like that is offered at your hospital? My sister also found it useful to use a maternity v pillow that she borrowed from a friend for sleeping during the first few weeks. It helped to stop rolling over during sleep!
• My sister had slightly more pain than me (I literally had none), but it was still very minimal and was managed by paracetamol and ibuprofen. 

If you have any other questions that I could help with, don't hesitate to ask!

Otherwise, I wish you the best of luck with your op xxx

Hi, thank you very much 

Hi, Marie thank you very much 

I hope your operation goes well and that you make a speedy recovery, I am currently at the bottom of the waiting list so I think I’ve still got a good year or so yet.

My surgeon team have been lovely and have offered me advice and support, I wanted to speak to those who have gone through implant reconstruction or are going through it.

Hugs, Amb 

Hello, 

Could I please ask how long recovery took and did your body take to the implants well. 

Hello, 

thank you so much for your advice! I have just had a look at the Anita care range, I wasn’t even aware of this before

It gives me hope that you both didn’t experience much pain, I’ve never had an operation before so I’ve been really worried about any aches I’ll get after xx

Hi Amb and NatureLover 

Hoping this info helps you both but can elaborate on any points if needed :-)

To put into perspective, I'm 36 with no high risk factors and had a naturally generous bust size (36E) and so far my recovery is going as planned with no complications.

I had my double mastectomy and reconstruction with implants 15 days ago. The surgery took 5 hours. I was told that the original plan was to be sent home the same day, but as it took a while for me to come round from the GA I stayed in until the following morning.

DRAINS:

I had two surgical drains, one per breast which gently vacuumed excess fluid away from the healing sites. They do not hurt and you cannot feel the vacuum sensation. The advice I would give regarding these is to stock up on plenty of large square adhesive dressings because these are what was put over the drain sites where they go into your body and are held in with stitches. When these dressings lost their adhesion (which happened often with me) it did mean that the drain sites felt uncomfortable because the tube didn't feel well anchored, so I had to frequently change out the dressing every couple of days to help this. 

Although the drains were doing a grand job at preventing fluid build up pain and lowering infection risk, they were annoying to carry around. Some people choose to buy a bag to carry the drains around in but I didn't get on with this method as I preferred to keep each drain in it's allocated side, so I wore a dressing gown most of the time and kept them in my pockets. 

My drains were kept in for 13 days which is quite average but this can vary based on fluid removal quantity.

Keep an eye on the drains and if one seems to be filling up way more than the other, chances are one of them is blocked. Let your surgeon know if you are concerned about this. This happened with me and so when my surgeon removed my drains (strange but non painful feeling) she had to squeeze one of my boobs to get some of the fluid out. It didn't hurt but ideally the drain should have done it's job properly. When the drains were removed my surgeon put lots of thick dressings on the drain sites for leakage which can last up to 48 hours. I read up that going for a good walk after the drains are removed helps to encourage and speed up fluid removal after the drains are removed so I did this and it worked wonders! At the end of the same day, I removed the dressings which had plenty of fluid on them and my drain sites had dried up already. 48 hours after drain removal, I had the best shower of my life (you can't shower when drains are in, or so I was told).

RECOVERY & PERIOD:

I have been given 4 weeks sick leave and I highly recommend you have no less than this.

Week 1: I was in a moderate amount of pain, but managed it with the drugs given (codiene, paracetamol, ibuprofen, antibiotics). I had to sleep on my back which isn't natural and it made my back very sore but there are ways to make yourself more comfy with clever pillow placement! I was very tired and unable to lift well. I struggled to even lift a kettle to make a cup of tea, or put deodorant on myself. Breasts felt hot and swollen and bruised.

Week 2: Slowly started to feel like myself again and slowly regained the ability to carry out most tasks for myself. The pain significantly lessened but itchiness started in some places.. (a good sign of healing though!) I started taking antihistamines to help with the itchiness and also put a bag of ice on the sites when it got really bad.

Week 3: Current week. Considering my surgery was such a short time ago, I feel really good, especially since my drains were removed which did start to feel very restrictive. My lethargy is still there a little bit and I keep being reminded by my SO to not run before I can walk. I can do most things for myself now but still avoid carrying heavier objects, including my 4 month old :-(  but all in good time. I removed all of my dressings today in the shower and gave the wounds a nice clean for the first time. This should help with the itchiness too. My breasts are still very tender and sore in places but I hope by the time I start work again they will feel much more comfortable. They feel nothing like they did in week 1 which shows how quick the recovery has been.

BRAS:

You have to permanently wear a supportive bra after your surgery until your surgeon says so. I asked my surgeon what size bra I should get and she said to get the same back size but a C or a D cup. I got a few different sizes and styles and ended up wearing a 36D in the hospital. However as the swelling increased over the next week or so, my back size increased by 2 sizes so now I'm actually wearing the equivalent of a 40B! It is highly likely that this will settle down to a 38 or 36 when the swelling decreases further. I am actually wearing a 38C with a back extender. I highly recommend you purchase a back extender or two in advance just incase. I went to M&S for my bras and got post surgery grey crop top bras which I have found to be very comfy. I did get a couple of bras to try to do up from the front but didn't get on with them at all and hated the feeling of pulling a bra together across the front of my sore boobs!

CONCLUSION:

Happy to provide a further update next week or in 2 weeks to let you know how weeks 3 and 4 have gone. However overall I will admit it's been tough, but very temporary. People including myself are very pleasantly surprised as to how far I've come in just a couple of weeks and I hope that you guys have the same journey I have had. I am very pleased with the results of the surgery also although I do accept that it will still take a good while for the swelling to subside completely and my breasts/implants to "settle". 

Sorry about the massive essay but I do hope it helps. Please let me know if you have any questions and best of luck to you both! Xx