BREAST RECONSTRUCTION SURGERY #2

In late August, 5 months after my bilateral skin sparing mastectomy, I underwent my 2nd attempt at breast reconstruction.  

 

As usual we were given completely wrong information leading up to the surgery.  We were told it would be performed under a local anesthetic, my husband wouldnt need to take time off work, and I wouldnt need to take time off work.  

Well that couldnt have been further from the truth.

When I arrived, the nurse informed me that I would be heavily sedated and kept for 2 hours min in recovery.  My husband would need to pick me up and they laughed when I told them I had to work the remainder of the day!

My plastic surgeon explained that she would use a syringe type of instrument to extract fat from my abdominal area and graft it into the divots and depressed areas of my breasts.  Next she would remove 50cc of saline from each implant to give my breasts a softer more natural look and feel.   Then she would cut away my excess skin, tighten the skin that is covering my breasts and pull my breasts closer together.  I could finally come back in a month to get my nipples.  

When they wheeled me into the operating room the surgeon joked with the nurses about me saying I was going to work after the surgery hahaha.  I told the doctor to do her best to take a little extra fat! She laughed and said she would "try" but that it wasnt a cosmetic surgery and that she needed to be very gentle when removing the fat so that it could be relocated.  

The surgery went pretty uneventful, the drugs they gave me were wonderful. 

When I looked at my breasts the divots and depressions were drastically improved and my saline ports were gone. 
I was really surprised by they amount of bruising already occuring across my upper abdomen, my hips and my lower back.  I had stitches in my belly button, and in the locations that she deposited fat aroumd my breasts. 

The pain was bad and I could not wear any clothes that rubbed even the slightest against my waist, hips or back.

After the surreal amount of Pain I endured in April, this was nothing!

At my post surgical follow up, I asked the doctor to book a third surgery to perform more fat grafting and more skin tightening.  I could see the improvement and I knew that it would provide even better results if she performed the procedure again.

This is when the bad news came......

My doctor explained that she had a very difficult time locating enough fat on my body to perform any fat grafting.  That was why she went to multiple locations on my body just to get enough to do what little she could.

 
She had to be more invasive, went deeper and needed to use a liposuction process. 
I begged her to try again.  I mean I'm not skin and bones! How can she possibly say I have no fat! 

I pulled up my dress and pulled at my stomach and my hips, I showed her, but she laughed "thats skin honey" I asked her about the back of my thighs.....theres plenty there to go around.  But she said that fat is loose and messy, she needs solid dense fat from my torso so that it will survive in its new home.  I even asked her if I can get a fat doner but she said that adipose tissue from someone else would not live inside of me.

She agreed to try again, reluctanly, and agreed to create and tattoo my nipples at the same time.  

We scheduled reconstructive surgery #3.

So let me get this straight...... I work my ass off to lose 85lbs, build muscle to prepare for the biggest fight of my life, and now it comes back to haunt me.  Not enough fat on my body to complete my breast reconstruction and give me a natural look and feel. 

I am terribly disappointed.   But trying my best to remain optimistic. 

In a few weeks we will go back to the operating room and try again.

In the mean time...I am seriously considering pigging out on everything NON-PALEO!  perhaps I can gain some extra fat over the next 2 weeks!

Previvor