Tissue expander needed to be replaced with another to achieve good result
I had a double mastectomy in April with reconstruction (expanders) put in at the same time. I was filled every week for 6 weeks, then went through chemo. I was supposed to have my implants put in yesterday, but my surgeon decided to put a different expander in for another 6 weeks to achieve better results before putting the implants in. Is this common?
Hi Donna! I'm not really sure why your doctor would be switching out the expanders if you were ready to have your final surgery done. Were the expanders not big enough, or did you request a larger size?
I originally had smaller ones in and once I had all my injections I told my doctor they still weren't large enough since I had a modified radical mastectomy and no fondation for my breasts to be built upon. When he took me into surgery to replace them with larger expanders, he found suspicious scare tissue in my chest wall and it tested positive for cancer. I have my larger ones in now, but have had no fills since they were placed in Febuary as I had to go through radiation and my skin needs to heal. Tomorrow I see my chemo doc and find out if I get to skip chemo and just move on to a new AI. All I know is that when I had about 700 cc's in, I hardly was even a C cup. Because I wanted larger breast, that is why my doctor swapped them.
Did you ask for larger breasts or why he put in new expanders instead of implants? Honestly I think it's a question that only he could answer, cause I don't think it's stard practice to do such and I'm unaware if chemo would damage them in any way in which they would need to be replaced. i'm sorry I couldn't be of better help, but U hope the next 6 weeks goes by fast and smoothly for you!
Angi
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