This past Thursday, Jan 3rd, 15 days post-surgery, I had an appointment with Dr. Brown. I was SO excited when he told me that I could have the last 2 drains out! He was very pleased with how my healing is going. Looks like I can let go of the fear of skin necrosis, including the possibility of losing my nipples. Yay! As you may recall, I had breast reduction surgery on Aug 6th to make saving my nipples possible. I am so glad I decided to do that surgery. Many women post-mastectomy have no nipples at all, and later may decide to have them surgically created, or to get nipple tattoos. Since I had the luxury of time, I thought I'd always regret it down the road if I didn't have that extra surgery and at least try to keep my own nips. At the end of all this, I'll have a very realistic result.
Dr. Brown then told me I was ready for my first "fills" - injections of saline into the temporary implants he put in after all my breast tissue was removed (the second half of the mastectomy operation). I think he told me that he had filled them with 360ccs each during the surgery, and now he was going to add 60ccs of saline to each. He got out two gigantic syringes (with very long needles) and two bags of saline, and put the saline into the syringes. Then he took a type of "stud finder" tool (as Larry called it) with a magnet, to find the port on the tissue expander implant. The port has metal in it. He put an X on my skin over each port that he found using the tool. Then with him on one side, and Alex the medical assistant on the other, they injected the saline into each implant. I winced during this process, but since that part of my breast is numb, I really didn't feel anything! I will go back in another 2 weeks to get another fill. I can decide when I'm as big as I want to be -- which is likely to be when I'm the size I was after the reduction.
This is what the temporary implant (called a tissue expander) looks like. That round area in middle is the port - silicone with metal under it. The doctor uses the magnet to find the port. The metal prevents the needle from puncturing any other part of the implant and the saline seeps in from the space between the metal and the silicone.
This is what the gigantic syringe looks like. I'd never seen any so large!!!
After the fills (which serve to stretch the skin), I felt sore for a couple of days, but it was wasn't too bad. I've heard that this process for sub-pectoral (behind the muscle) implants is far more painful. My implants are "pre-pectoral" meaning in front of the muscle.
I just looked at my pathology reports from after the August reduction surgery and the December mastectomy. I totaled up the grams of tissue removed and discovered that I had been carrying around 6 lbs. of breast tissue for all those years. I always wondered how much they weighed!! By the way, no cancer was found after either operation, thank goodness. All of these surgeries I'm having are prophylactic.
One last little tidbit to share with you - an unexpected surprise encounter on the way out of Dr. Brown's office....
Before I left Dr. Brown's office, I made my next appointment, chatted with the staff for a bit, and then Larry and I went out to the elevators. Dr. Brown's on the 12th floor of a medical office building in Chevy Chase, MD. A man and a woman come out from somewhere behind me and are chatting about the guy's plans for the weekend. I see the man first and immediately notice that coiled wire thing you see Secret Service people wear behind their ear. Then I notice the tall blond woman he's with, and it's none other than Ivanka Trump. Larry and I look at each other and try to act nonchalant. She is wearing an expensive black outfit, carrying a black leather bag, has perfect posture, impeccable makeup, has her hair pulled back neatly, and is gorgeous. The elevator arrives and we get in. There are already about 3 people on it. Surprisingly, Ivanka and the SS guy get in, too. I figured they might wait for the next elevator. Everyone seems to know they are sharing an elevator with Ivanka Trump, but no one says anything.
This is a photo I got off the web of Ivanka looking pretty much like she did that day. This is the same Secret Service guy, too, so he must be on permanent detail for her. You never know who you're going to bump into in this town...
I'll keep my political views to myself, but Larry and I had all kinds of things we wished we had the guts to say to her!
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