Three days for surgery

[allbah]

17/6/05: Oh man I am getting fedup with this. same again and again. more swelling and more needles, last one yesterday with 8mls serum aspirated. swelling again today.

I took my vest off completely since yesterday. I will try without it but I have to say that it makes difference when it comes to pain.
I need more patience....this happened twice in my previous surgeries...nothing new.
To be honest the only reason why I am in a rush for the swelling to go is to make my mind up whether I will need extra liposuction or not. I cant decide without this massive solid swelling disappearing.

[allbah]

18/6/05: better today. swelling is subsiding spontaneuosly on the left side but the scar looks terrible after this swelling.
I started very low weight lifting, followed by ice packs. it works.

[allbah]

21/6/05:
Although the swelling is far less on the left, the flap feels like a big lump now. Although I was never trained to do ultrasound, I went to the echocardiography room today secretly in work, locked the door and did the ultrasound to my chest. echo images are not so good but i got what I wanted to know. I could figure out from the pictures the following:
1) on the right: the flap is flat, still free, with very little free fuid. This means there is a long way to go untill fibrotic adhesions form and pull things together.

2) on the left the flap is thick (edema=fluid in the flap tissue) and underneath it I could see small spaces filled with fluid, especially if you go straight from the nipple to the chest wall.

went home, cleaned my self well, took 1g cloxacillin and put a needle in, aspirated 5 mls of lightly blood stained fluid. put some iodine/alcohol on, then dressing and went to bed. after I woke up I could feel reasonable difference. I used some ice packs and I feel good.

Seromas although usually benign, could be pain in the ***, they cause tense inflammation and discomfort and really delay healing. I am saying this in case you wonder why the h**l this guy keeps puting needles in his chest.
One other complication that can give similar picture is fat necrosis (death of fat cells due to lack of blood supply) although this usually happens in the first few days post op, it can be delayed. it varies from mild cases to severe gangrenous picture with severe skin damage. You can get similar ultrasound picture to cystic seroma because the dead fat liquifies and forms oil cysts that look similar.I feel that some small degree of this is happening with me (I actually saw some fat debris in one of the aspirates) but the fact that things are improving (slowly) is a bit reassuring.
Using alcohol and iodine also can delay wound healing because these chemical are toxic to fibroblasts (the cells that heal the wound) but I have to use them to avoid infection.

NB: DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME.
I am a consultant in internal medicine, therefore I am responsible for what I do and I know exactly the complications of what i do to myself. in your case please consult your doctor for everything.

[allbah]

25/6/05:
finally healing is almost complete on the left.
I had a repeat ultrasound yesterday. showed the following:
the right side healed fully. no fluis or anything wrong.
the left side, normal skin, flap is 5mm thicker than the right due to islets of ruptured lymphatics leaking some fluid. blood supply is normal.
the radiologist was very impressed with the result of the surgery considering the difficulty. He advised to do pecs exercises to improve the circulation and force the lymph out. I went swimming.
I have used very mild cortisone cream on the left breast skin for 2 days and the result was amazing, all the puffiness and redness gone.
I also started using dermatrix cream to improve scar appearance (expensive cream).
now I am starting to plan for the liposuction!

NB: using steroids on a healing wound can be hazardous, please do not do this without consulting your doctor.

[allbah]

26/6/05:
All good from now. chest shape changing daily, getting more defined, partly because of my weight loss. I went down from 102kg in march to 87kg today. Its amazing how your chest shape affects your weight, when your chest is large you prefer to be overweight and when its flat you tend to lose weight.
scar on the right is invesible, on the left the scar edges disapeared in the last 2 days, middle of the scar changing from black to lighter colour and becoming smooth.
I did couple of hours of aerobics and light weight yesterday, I enjoyed every second of it. doing chest exercises is so important to open up new blood vessels and pump the lymphatic fluid uot of the flap.

[allbah]

2/7/05:
little happening now. I will see how my chest shape will change over the next 2 months . I am exercising daily including swimming (avoiding the sun).
next surgery (liposuction) will be end of august.

[allbah]

8/7/05:
slow progression. puffy nipples are fluctuating throughout the day. I do aerobics, weight lifting and swimming regularly.
I will post pics when my scars have disappeared. Its not a matter of embarrassement but I feel that the surgeon has done a great job (considering how bad I looked and how complex the surgery was) and I dont want this to be taken away from him because of how the scar or the general appearance is at the moment.
The implants I had caused a lot of disfigurement and tissue expansion, this is improving daily and the skin is shrinking but this is a slow process.
I think before I go for liposuction end of august this will be the time. So I am not being mean but patient.

[dallasguy12]

I hope you're satisfied with the outcome! Get well soon!